Brahea super silver 13 years of growth

[Stevetoad]

This has been a fun palm to watch grow. I planted it in 2012 as a solid dark green 1 gallon. Slowly it became more and more silver on the bottom of the leaves and then started to turn silver on the tops. Now I have to climb on the roof to shoot a pic of the tops of the leaves and they are solid silver only loosing some their color as the leaf ages. Sorry for the Bigfoot quality photo on the first shot. 

[Fusca]

Steve, that silver is super!  😄

[Tracy]

2 hours ago, Stevetoad said:

This has been a fun palm to watch grow. I planted it in 2012 as a solid dark green 1 gallon. Slowly it became more and more silver on the bottom of the leaves and then started to turn silver on the tops. Now I have to climb on the roof to shoot a pic of the tops of the leaves and they are solid silver only loosing some their color as the leaf ages. Sorry for the Bigfoot quality photo on the first shot. 

That is quite the transformation Steve.  Is this the normal progression for this species?

[Harry’s Palms]

My regular Brahea Armata is very slow growing but getting a very large trunk . It has been silver since it was a small 10” pot size about 25 years ago. The “super silver” that you have has a smaller trunk ( judging by the photo )with more rapid growth. Harry

this was last year , I think. Unfortunately not much of the trunk is visible in this pic , but clearly a different palm than you have. Very slow growing like the L. Chinensis behind it. All the palms down here are about the same age. In the upper left hand corner you can see the Brahea Edulis which grows a lot faster , already about 8’ of smooth trunk. Harry

[rizla023]

Amazing! Mine is growing like a weed and the progression is exactly the same. Green, silver bottom, now silver fronds. I love the heel and interest mine provides. If I remember tomorrow, I’ll add a picture.

[Josue Diaz]

6 hours ago, Stevetoad said:

This has been a fun palm to watch grow. I planted it in 2012 as a solid dark green 1 gallon. Slowly it became more and more silver on the bottom of the leaves and then started to turn silver on the tops. Now I have to climb on the roof to shoot a pic of the tops of the leaves and they are solid silver only loosing some their color as the leaf ages. Sorry for the Bigfoot quality photo on the first shot. 

Incredible color on this palm! I love mine, but it's nowhere near the size of yours

[rizla023]

Added photos to my original post. Couldn’t wait! 

[tim_brissy_13]

Mine is about 8-10 years behind I guess but I already love it. It’s nearly finished its green-silver transformation. All the different hues it goes through during transformation are nice but it’s good to see it approaching nearly full silver now. 

[akaranus]

Both planted 2015 as small palms..not even close to Stevetoad brahea..probably climate, shade and to much competition...

[Kim]

That's a beauty! Well done! I was not aware they would change from deep green to silver blue.

[Harry’s Palms]

From what I’ve seen , it is a different species than the Armata. I knew nothing of the “super silver” until I saw it posted on this forum right after I joined . I just thought it was a variant of the Brahea Armata . Harry

[Josue Diaz]

This is mine. Super nice palm 🌴 breahea pimo to its left in the second photo

[Stevetoad]

47 minutes ago, Harry’s Palms said:

From what I’ve seen , it is a different species than the Armata. I knew nothing of the “super silver” until I saw it posted on this forum right after I joined . I just thought it was a variant of the Brahea Armata . Harry

Yes it is a different species. It didn’t have an official name for a while but now it’s lumped in with brahea calcarea I believe. It is a smaller palm than armata, has no thorns and in my opinion not as white as armata. brahea calcarea Is considered a slow growing palm but from what I’ve experienced super silver is not. 

[Stevetoad]

8 hours ago, rizla023 said:

Added photos to my original post. Couldn’t wait! 

This was one of my favorite stages. Every leaf comes out with more and more silver on it. They photograph so well at night too!

[Stevetoad]

13 hours ago, Tracy said:

That is quite the transformation Steve.  Is this the normal progression for this species?

Yup. I remember some guys that grew them from seed thinking that they got scammed when they came up green. Mine has no green whatsoever on it until it got up to about 3 or so feet tall. Even then it was just a white line on the bottom in between the pleats. Slowly it became solid white on the bottom but still dark green on top and then the same thing started to happen on the tops. 

[Stevetoad]

1 hour ago, akaranus said:

Both planted 2015 as small palms..not even close to Stevetoad brahea..probably climate, shade and to much competition...

Could be. Mine was in a lot of shade from the patio cover almost its whole life and has a L. Decora, king and parajubea sunkha next to it. It does get a lot of water from the lawn though which I think makes a difference. My climate also gets hotter than a lot of San Diego with a lot of summer days in the 90s and even over 100f.  Winter nights get into the 40s often and 30s are not uncommon with a few nights getting below freezing.  This palm seems to not mine the cold or heat and grows all year. Now that it’s in full sun though it has picked up more speed as I find myself trimming leaves more often. 

[Harry’s Palms]

@Stevetoad Thank you for the clarification . To me yours is much more manageable for a garden than the other Brahea that I have down on the hill. The lack of those deadly “teeth” is a huge plus! Harry

[Peter]

I've had this Super Silver growing for well over 10 years.  Super slow growing for me in sandy soil on a steep slope in a hot environment.  Always looks good, loves as much summer water as you want to give it, just has been incredibly slow

[tinman10101]

steve .. thanks for posting yours with the top of the fronds. I imagine you had to really get on top of that palm.  I took a pic of mine today below.  I think it is finally starting to turn silver on top.  hope it looks like yours in another 5 years or so.  it is starting to rocket for sure

tin

[Stevetoad]

11 hours ago, tinman10101 said:

steve .. thanks for posting yours with the top of the fronds. I imagine you had to really get on top of that palm.  I took a pic of mine today below.  I think it is finally starting to turn silver on top.  hope it looks like yours in another 5 years or so.  it is starting to rocket for sure

tin

Very nice. Yours looks like it’s in a similar situation as mine. I think the extra water from the lawn really helps with the speed on these guys. Yours looks like it’s on the same path of color change too. Here’s mine from 2017 at around the same size as yours. Top leaf shot too from back then.