Hi
One of the worlds most beautiful plants !!! Wish I could
give you some good advice but so far ,all I've done is kill them.lol The last one took almost 6 years though lol
Good luck!!! gary

I have four! Hopefully I will die first....if not I have to will them to someone

What is this thing, a word without pictures is like a blind man without a cane. Please show and tell so us visual folks will understand. LOL

For the blind man up in Alabama...lol

Good luck!

Wow! doesn't get much classier than that. Can I plant it in the ground in zone 6? LOL!

I like those, can I have one too? Yall just come up with so many nice looking palms. I need to do a little research on this one. I like that red color. I could see a pot of this on my patio.

Thanks palmshaun, your the best.

I guess I pass, after reading a little and realized that thing needs 60°F min temps, I guess I can grow something else. 60°F is just a little high for me. It is a beautiful palm, I must say. Maybe one day we can hope for a mutation of this thing at a lower temp.

orchiddude, if bihai is growing four of them in 8b, they must take lower than 60.f, unless he has them in greenhouse, or a protected site.

I think its a she, but whateverrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.(I alway wanted to say that word. LOL) I think she keeps them in the greenhouse. Maybe she/he can pop in and tell us what they do. I would like to know myself, but I figure, if CA cant grow them, and FL cant grow them except for Key West, then I know I cant.

I dont want a palm that just barely makes it, I want one that is lush and beautiful so if it needs 60s at night, that is going to hurt it about 9 months out of the year in my area even in my greenhouse. I try to control my temps to about 50-55 degrees F during the winter months at night, and into the 80s during the day, this tends to keep all my plants happy.

Being close to the bay, we have decent amounts of humidity here, especially at night. I think it'll do OK indoors except in the winter when we have the forced air heating on. I haven't thought of a solution for that yet. I think I'm going to have to either do a timed misting system, or put some kind of plastic tent around it to hold in moisture..

Is the temp more of a problem or the humidity for these plants. If the temp was not a problem and it could live in 50°F nights, I can make the humidity around 75 to 90 percent the rest of the time. If its going to croke over and die at 50°F then I have a problem.

Awesome looking palm, I might need to order some seeds and try to germinate them over the winter. I'd have to order soon so the seeds aren't exposed to any freezing temps.

It is a very tropical palm that needs high heat and humidity. It reportedly dies below 60F but if you research this palm you will find that people are growing it in places where the temps dip below 60 for a significant part of the year. In an indoor situation this isn't an issue, but the low humidity is.

This Cyrtostachys renda and Licuala 'mapu' are the two most tropical palms I'm trying. I have a Licuala ramsayi in my kitchen window and it's doing great, but that palm is supposedly hardy to 9b.

From personal experience, C. renda is a great palm, but it needs tropical conditions to both thrive and survive. I will tell you it can see temps in the mid 40s without a problem. I have left seedlings outside when I registered a low of 42F and they did not spot up at all. If you have a greenhouse, a C. renda is an excellent palm to bring out on your patio for 6-9 months of the year. It will not do well with extended periods of cool temps.

L. mapu is pretty tender as well, but it will grow in the subtropics in the right spot. They are notoriously picky about soil, however and have been known to die on the spot for no apparent reason.

Well, yes I AM a girl! But, "whateva".
I have both C. renda and L. mapu. I love them both. My C. rendas are not that big yet. They have no red color. They are all about 2 ft tall but there is more than one in each container so I really probably have about 8-10.
I keep them in the greenhouse. They like a lot of light, and they like a lot of water. They can even grow in a pond as a marginal. But I don;t have mine like tham. I have 2 in the ground and 2 in containers. My greenhouse is kept at a min of 55.

L. mapu is finicky. I have had it over 3 years now, and it is so slow growing I'll be dust in the wind before I get a small stand. I started with 1 plant, now I have 3. I have moved it 3 times in the GH to get the light right. I think I have it in a good spot now. I have it in just plain old sand, but I water it daily.

Palmshaun
Where was that glorious pic taken?? i think I see forested mountains in the background??
There used to be a lady with a garden in Malaysia who considered them a pest lol
I had the best luck as an emergent from my shadehouse pond. Just croaked about a week ago after 6 years.
Have no idea why!! New frond started to brown after a rainstorm and within a week it was toast!! And i thought I had nothing to worry about during summer lol
gary

There is a breathtaking picture of L. 'mapu' in the latest issue of Palms... Simply amazing. Here's a pic of C. renda I took in Maui. This is outside a nursery. There were some even better ones in the lobby of the Waikiki Marriott, they had red/orange/yellow crownshafts, but I didn't get a picture of those.

Gary, I found that picture on Google images. So, not sure where its at. Sure looks nice though!

palmshaun
I would have guessed your backyard lol
Wherever it is they are certainly well taken care of.
Must be a tropical botanic garden .Must be trimming the grass one blade at a time lol
gary

Hey garyfla you said that like you don't trim your grass one blade at a time. What do you do with all your free time then? lol

Here's a areca macrocalyx. The red crown shaft is not nearly as spectacular as the Red Sealing Wax Palm (Cyrtostachys renda), but its not nearly as cold sensitive. I just bought a small one from a place in Hawaii.

I also bought a Red Sealing Wax palm for my greenhouse. Its about five feet tall and has one beautiful red crown shaft. As was pointed out earlier, it likes plenty of water. During the summer it gets a gallon of warm rain water every day.

cagary how long has that palm been in the ground & whereabouts do you live?

flound,

Unfortunately, that is not a photo of my palm. I don't have any idea where the photo was taken, but it is a beauty!

I ordered a couple of small ones from Floribunda Palms in Hawaii. According to rarepalmseeds.com it will survive in "sub tropical" areas. I interpret this to mean it will probably survive in southern CA will some protection. The fact that its common name is Highland Betel Nut Palm makes me think that it is somewhat cold tolerant. I'm going to keep mine inside my heated greenhouse for the winter because they are so small, but hopefully in the not too distant future, I'm be planting it in my front yard here in south Orange County in CA.

Here is a link that might be useful: floribuda Palms

Yes, actually I just put in an order with Floribunda.. I'm e-mailing them now to see if they can add one of those.

What nursery in Puerto Rico? Tell me how they look when they arrive. I had 2 3.5' that died on me. Might try again. Watch out for an insidious fungus during cool weather - use a systemic as a preemptive strike. 40-45 is bottom of temp toleration and they hate cold wind.Plenty of light and water.

Rusty

I don't know what nursery.. The seller was tropical_heliconias on ebay. They ship in soil (not bareroot).

It's going to be indoors for most of the year, so hopefully I won't have to worry about cold damage.