an excellent palm for zone 6 - Trachycarpus Wagnerianus

Hello palm fans. I have been growing the Trachycarpus Wagnerianus for three years now and I am absolutely impressed with this palm. This palm is a true zone 6 star. Below I have summarized some points about the Wagnerianus' performance in Connectciut (zone 6A).

-zero leaf damage thru two winters, planted on the southside & eastside of house
-the leaves & stems are so strong they don't bend under the weight of snow or ice
-unlike the fortunei, wagnerianus don't develop crown rot from poorly drained soils
-the wagneranius is so rugged that it completely recovered after having all its l
leaves eaten by wild rabbits in the middle of winter
-tolerates clay soil but does best in a well drained soil
-does best with 4 - 8 inches of pine bark mulch which is best at prevent ground
freezing
-not fast growing, but moderate growing
-everyone who owns a fortunei and a wagnerianus all say the wagnerianus is a
more beautiful palm
-get a pure bred wagnerianus because there are cross bed varieties that don't
perform as well
-bought my waggi at 10" high, now it is approx 2 to 3 feet tall
-according to Betrock's Cold Hardy Palms (A. Meerow) the waggi grows to 15 ft
-there is not much published information out there about the wagnerianus. I like to
think that we have much more to learn about waggis.

Please let me know what you think. I just picked up some Takil's and will be observing them to see if they perform as good as the waggis. I also grow bamboos, green & yellow P. Vivax.

Markywonder
Hartford, Connecticut zone 6a

Sounds great, Marky. Do you have any pictures?
I have just the right spot for what you describe.
Andy P

Thanks for the response. Pictures. I'll try to get some pictures online over the weekend. If you continue to research the Wagnerianus, you'll hear that it is much more cold hardy than the fortunei, and overall a disease-free and trouble-free palm to grow.

Markywonder
zone 6a

Marky:
Can you suggest a source for this palm? The Plantfinder says it is called either Windmill Palm or Miniature Chusan Palm, but T. Fortunei is also called a Windmill Palm and looks like a much bigger plant. I made a quick search of several sources, but could only find the Fortunei variety, not the Wagnerianus.
Don S.

Don S thanks for your response. The wagnerianus is not as widely cultivated & available as the fortunei. For a source, you can try neotropic.com; they may have some 12 inch tall waggis. Large sizes are hard to find, as most palm growers only recently started to cultivate the wagnerianus. Please keep in touch, I know someone who may sell quite a few 2 -3 feet waggis in the near future.
As for identification, the wagnerianus is a very distinct palm. It has short stiff dark leaves as opposed to the longer flexible lighter green leaves of the fortunei (windmill). The wagnerianus' common name is the miniature chusan palm. For great pictures of the wagnerianus go to hardiestpalms.com

Best regards,
Markywonder

Waggies grow all over the place in Japan... Even at about 4000 ft elevation in the Japan Alps...quite a few people in Gohra, Japan, a village at that altitude in the Hakone region had Waggies in their yard... I didn't know what they were at the time (I thought they were Palmettos, LOL), but they fit the description that Marky gives.

In addition, when my ship was doing Joint operations with the Republic of Korea Navy, we spent 4 days in Chinhae, where it got down to about -10 over night, and maybe up to 10 during the day... At the time, I had some doubts about wether the callibration of the ship's meteorological equipment, since they had Waggies growing all over the Korean naval base and planted around a statue of Yi Sun Shih in Downtown Chinhae, and I "knew" that palms weren't hardy past zone 8a (I'd read about and seen palms in Virginia Beach... Mostly Palmettos and T. Fortuneis), but now that I know what I know about palms and the Korean climate, I'd say that the ships weather station was right....

I'm planning on trying a few of these next year, if my needle palms and Himalayan Windmill palms (T. takil) pull through.... I also have S. minor "Mc Curtain," but that palm has proven hardy without protection in Zone 5b (Colorado Springs), so I have no doubts whatsoever that they will make it.

Marky, I'd also like to know some good sources. If they have 3-5 gallon Waggies at Neotropic, I'll get them from there, since I've got palms from Gerry before, and they have excellent plants and the prices are reasonable.