Hi Had an opportunity to watch these plants installed by professional landscapers at a one story office building. They surprised me by planting in a row "Hedge like" About 10 feet over centers. Total of 15 plants. They underplanted with Ixora and for a short time had a spectacular effect. As would be expected the winds shred the leaves and older leaves were removed giving a ragged appearence as they began to trunk the Ixora was removed so they could get underneath to remove the larger leaves. Then the hurricanes hit knocking all but 3 down. Then of course they began to "pup" spreading horizontally pushing the sidewalk up. About two months ago they were removed ,replaced with palms. Was hoping to see a good "plan " for growing them lol I have noted a couple planted in the center of a yard where the fan was displayed well but they are still immature trunk is just pushing up so will see how that goes. They did not make the usual mistakes of planting near a structure nor under wires like I did lol gary

Geo About the best management I've seen is to allow only one trunk to grow ,religiously remove all pups, This will allow the fantastic Fan shape to develop to greatest advantage. Of course this requires lots of space not only to contain the plant but for optimum viewing . Even here in florida they easily get 40/50 feet with equal spead and that's being severly managed lol. A wind sheltered location would be best as the leaves are constantly shredded. Underplanting is very difficult as old leaves must constantly be removed so you need to get underneath it. Don't plant it anywhere near a structure, mine actually lifted the shadehouse lol. Not anywhere near a pool(roots) lol. Do you have any examples of them in Guatemala?? Find out how they are maintaining them?? Another problem worth mentioning is ANTS they love this plant. When it flowers they will come for miles around lol Would think this would be even more of a problem in your area?? The best example I've seen is in the Singapore Bo gardens Single trunk, growing in a mulched circle.WOW gary

i think there are things at disney everyone can find to like. in the fall epcot has the food & wine festival which they actually do a very nice job on. after that there's the christmas decor. myself i hate rollarcoasters but i am a horticulturalist who loves landscaping and disney is a main innovator in the landscape world. do remember they charge you for everything. a co-worker took her grandkids last weekend for 3 days and they went to a campfire roast, marshmellows were $1 each lol she knew this ahead of time & brought her own. there are alot of things to do around orlando too. depending on when you are here there can be art shows, festivals and concerts going on. there's seaworld, discovery cove and aquatica. universal studios. busch gardens in tampa. leu gardens a local botanical garden. a history center in orlando, art museum, science museum... city of winter park has a nice upscale shopping district in an antique type town. if you are visiting from june thru nov, hurricane season/off season, do carefully watch the weather. we just had tropical storm Fay w/ 4 days and 35" of rain. we're keeping our eyes on hannah right now, will either come thru south fl or possibly central fl. and there are 2 systems behind her... some yrs we see no hurricanes (very unlikely this yr) some we have back to back to back hurricanes. in 2004 we had 3 back to back and disney did lose power in some places and people got flooded inside the parks for days and not for free either lol. here are some links... ~ liz http://www.visitflorida.com/ http://www.leugardens.org/ http://www.cityofwinterpark.org/2005/arts_culture/index.shtml local news: http://www.cfnews13.com/ http://www.wesh.com/index.html (great weather radar) nasa: http://kennedyspacecenter.stores.yahoo.net/ http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/view/index.html orlando/orange county tourist places: http://www.omart.org/ http://www.osc.org/ http://www.orangecountyfl.net/cms/DEPT/countyadmin/arts/default.htm concerts http://www.mix1051.com/pages/2045550.php seaworld orlando http://www.seaworld.com/orlando/?ReturnUrl=%2fSWF%2fdefault.aspx disney epcot http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/parks/parkLanding?id=EPLandingPage

"I water it probably once a week" Try not to water on a set schedule-water when the plant needs it. There are many ways to tell when a plant needs watering-one commonly used is the wooden dowel method. Take a wooden dowel or chopstick, stick it all the way into the soil, wait ten minutes, then pull it out. If the dowel is dirty/dark/obviously wet, withhold watering. If the dowel is clean/normal colored/obviously dry, water. "but I don't water it a lot each time" Is the soil pulling away from the edges of the pot? Peat-based soils like MG have a bad tendency to become water repelling if left to dry for too long. They can harden to the consistency of a brick. Any water the grower gives will simply run over the top, down the sides of the dry root ball, and out the drainage hole. If this is happening, then I would take a bucket or a large sink big enough to fit the pot, fill the bucket or sink to the top, then slowly submerge the pot. Bubbles will begin flowing from the soil-this is just stale air in the root system being forced out of the dry soil by the fresh water pouring in. Hold it there for a few minutes, maybe five minutes after bubbling stops to ensure the entire root ball is saturated. I would then lift the pot, let it drain well, then set it back in its usual place. "I purchased some palm tree spikes, broke one up, and put it in the pot." I've read on Gardenweb that many people don't recommend the spikes because they may cause a large concentration of fertilizer salts in one area without properly spreading throughout the root system. I would take out the spikes and switch to a 3:1:2 ratio fertilizer, like Foliage Pro 9-3-6 or MG 12-4-8/ 24-8-16. Be sure to flush the pot before fertilizing-first saturate the entire root ball, wait for maybe ten minutes, then slowly pour water so that an amount of water equal to 10 times the volume of the container exits the drainage hole. Good luck! Also, word of advice-the next time you prune something or otherwise use tools to create a wound in the plant (like a cut, etc.) sterilize the tools beforehand. You can use rubbing alcohol-wipe the blades thoroughly or soak the blades for a few minutes, then let dry. This can lower the risk of introducing infectious agents into the plant because of your cut. It may seem unnecessary, but it certainly doesn't hurt.