Price for a good European Fan Palm

[buffy]

I have a local guy offering 6' trunk European Fan Palms with multiple trunks ranging from $1,000 to $1,700. Fair or not fair?

[Dave-Vero]

I don't know the South Texas market, but my reaction would be to think that, unless there's a need for a really nice specimen, why not use a budget like that to buy a whole lot of less costly stuff?  Maybe a couple of nice Butia capitata, possibly a couple of cycads, yuccas, young European fan palms, whatever?

[PalmGuyWC]

Buffy,

By California standards that's cheap. I have a nine trunked Chamaerops, and perfectly shaped, trunks about 7', and I was told it's worth 15 to 18K. Chamaerops is a very under rated palm. They are tough, wind tollerant, and cold hardy, and they can make quite a show, particularly as a stand alone palm.

Dick

[iwan]

It is all relative to your location and primarily your "need to have it now".  Matt in SD had two nice boxed Chamaerops last year that nobody here wanted for around $200 each and they didn't even move after he listed them for free here.  He ended up finding someone on Craigslist to buy them.

From a commercial sales standpoint, around here 36" box trees (not palms) are $750, so that price doesn't seem obscene.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

I have one in the ground that is around 1 m that i am transplanting when i move into the new house .  As for the multitrunked one if its within your budget do it - if its the one that smiles at you .

[LJG]

SoCal rates are about $175 - $225/trunk ft.

[sonoranfans]

(buffy @ Jan. 08 2008,12:13)

QUOTE

I have a local guy offering 6' trunk European Fan Palms with multiple trunks ranging from $1,000 to $1,700. Fair or not fair?

These palms are pretty slow growers, thats why the price.  Also the more trunks, the slower a given specimen will gain vertical height.  If you have to have it now, there are not alot of alternatives.  But those are pretty mature palms and will not be as nice as ones that you grow yourself as the roots wont take the same way.    As a general rule, older palms dont grow roots the same way as young ones.  The best looking palms here are invariably planted as juveniles.  I have a 6 trunk chamaerops(1-3' trunks) that is much nicer than the ones offered at the nurseries for >$1000, and its only 3 years from a bushy 15 gallon($59).

[PalmGuyWC]

Len, do you mean for each trunk, or the tree as a whole?

Dick

[Tad]

For a thousand bucks I can get you a much better deal!!

but can we see some pics of what he is offering for a thousand dollars so we compare med fans to med fans?!?!?

I have a pretty good idea where they are coming from.

Tad

[PalmGuyWC]

While on the subject of Chamaerops......When I moved to Walnut Creek CA in 1973 there were several nurserys going out of business and they had some nice specimen Chamaerops that were dirt cheap, so I loaded up on them. I used some as filler plants, since my garden looked kind of bare in the beginning.

I soon learned there were many different forms of Chamaerops, some that are compact with smaller fronds, some silver underneeth the fronds, some light green and some almost blue green. Some have stiff fronds, some with thin weepy fronds. Then there are those rare mutations, a one in a ten thousand kind of plant that look entirely different from the norm. Most are multitrunked, but there are single trunked kinds too.

The relatively new C. humilis var. Cerifera with it's silver fronds is a stunning plant and should be a prize in any palm garden.  There are even veariations in C. Cerifera, as I have two that are "typical" with stiff fronds, and another that has thin relaxed, droopy fronds. A new Chamaerops variety that is the rage in Europe is C. humilis var Vulcano. It's a dwarf plant with silver undersides and fronds that hardly divide. I expect it will show up in nurserys around the globe in a few years, as it's a very attractive palm.

I've never counted, but I must have 6 or 7 different forms of Chamaerops, and I enjoy them all. One is a mutation and you would think it was a different species. Once established, Chamaerops is one of the most durable palms I know. They will take drought, flood, heat and cold and they grow from San Francisco to Miami. I love 'em.

Dick

[LJG]

Dick, this is per trunk. This is for quality plants too. The large tree nurseries decline ones they can not sell. I have three very nice ones I bought 4 years ago before I got into the rare palm thing.

The silver underside ones are what they are calling Silver Backs here. The short petiole form is the one that gets a better price. The ones RLR called pendent segment form are not so desirable - those are the long petiole form. Even males get more money like CIPDs as a lot of people plant these next to their pool. I was not so smart and put a female with two large trunks jetting out over my pool. Thing drops hundreds of seeds each year into the pool. Like CIDP, you really get an eye for quality Chamaerops. I too have noticed the many varieties within the genus.

---

Tom, I doubt any plant with 6 foot of clear trunk was nursery grown in box. I have seen them, and you are right, they do not compare to field grown. Almost all large Chamaerops found at large tree nurseries are field grown or taken from estates/houses.

[GREENHAND]

I picked this one up at homey depot in the winter for 50% off it war tagged 400.00 got it for 200.00. this pict spring 2006.

[GREENHAND]

here it is summer 2007

[GREENHAND]

this was tiny in 2005 it is growing pretty good now.

[M@ximus]

Great  palm!!

Here  a  pic  from  Orto  botanico  di  Padova  (  first  in  the  world) north  Italy

This  Chamaerops  ( now  with  protection )  was  planted  in   1585

M@x

[M@ximus]

Here  a  Chamaerops  Macrocarpa

M@x

[GREENHAND]

(M@ximus @ Jan. 10 2008,14:59)

QUOTE

Great  palm!!

Here  a  pic  from  Orto  botanico  di  Padova  (  first  in  the  world) north  Italy

This  Chamaerops  ( now  with  protection )  was  planted  in   1585

M@x

Holy freeholy!!!awsome.

[M@ximus]

Chamaerops    microcarpa??

M@x

[GREENHAND]

(M@ximus @ Jan. 10 2008,15:01)

QUOTE

Here  a  Chamaerops  Macrocarpa

M@x

I bet you could trim the bottom a little and show a little trunk it would really look great!

[M@ximus]

another  shot

M@x