Trachycarpus Species, Kumaon Fan Palm, Kumaon Palm

This will be the third year for mine. It looks great - survived about 6° this past winter. I got mine from Plant Delights in 2005. ...Read MoreIt is small and I cover it with a large flower pot during the coldest part of winter.
I expect it to grow quite a bit this year as it is now well established.

Hardy to -5F in my yard with no protection. The lowest it has gotten in my yard since it has been in the ground is -7F. I didnt protect ...Read Moreit then and only the tips burned. it has survived succesfully for 2 years in my garden and i think it is worth a try for zones 6a-8b. My yard is 6a but with protection i can safely say it would be 6b.

I can't say this plant will survive unprotected in my 5b Wisconsin climate. However, It survived the November 15th-17th shocker, when th...Read Moree thermometer dipped to 12F on two successive nights. This is a 2-3 year-old plant that I got into the ground in the Spring of this year.

The T. takil survived unscathed, in mid-summer form. My similiar sized T. Fortunei survived with slight burning to the peripheral leaves--the interior and spear leaves are fine.

I also have three T. Fortuneis that I kept (they're inside now) on my deck in clay pots. Two of the three survived with minor damage to the peripheral leaves, the other had a little more extensive burning, but I expect will recover.

For long-term chances, I will winter protect with artificial heat.

For many years in the nursery trade what was called 'Trachycarpus takil' was actually Trachycarpus wagnerianus, and that error still cont...Read Moreinues to this day, though, thankfully, many are starting to figure out the mistake. They are very different looking palms. This is the biggest of all the Trachycarpus. I have yet to see a mature one in person, but photos of plants taken in Asia show it to be a large tree, somewhat similar in appearance to the common windmill palm, Trachycarpus fortunei, only somewhat larger. It has a supposedly uniquely asymetric leaf where it attaches to the petiole (an area called the hosta) so maturing plants should be easy to identify. However, there has been some thoughtful deliberation and research that has gone into the history of T takil... And there is some doubts as to whether this species is really that different from fortunei to warrant a different species recognition (other than the geographic source- this being from India and T fortunei China). Many T takils grown today are from seed off European palms that are probably hybrids. And the 'uniquely' twisted hastula will sometimes show up in a batch of T fortunei seed.. .and the size of T fortunei varies tremendously depending on cultivational practices and parentage.

Trachycarpus wagnerianus is a much smaller palm with stiff leaves, that do not droop at all. Though not always a good indicator, T wagnerianus tends to have a 'bend' in the trunk right at ground level, as though the palm were growing at the wrong angle at first. This is supposedly not the case with T takil.

Somedays soon Gibbons and Spanner, the prime collectors and distributors of this genus throughout the world are supposed to be putting out a comprehensive book on the genus that will, I hope, finally clear all the mess up. IN the mean time, anyone who has a tree any larger than a seedling that could be grown from seed earlier than 1994, when the species was rediscovered, is probably the owner of T fortunei or some hybrid. By the way, so far this palm seems pretty slow, so about 1-2' of trunk is all we would expect by this point in time (2005)... any thing larger is truly suspect at really being a T takil (if indeed there really is such a beast).
I have what is supposed to be a T takil seedling grown form Indian seed, and will upload some photos of it as soon as it starts to make some fan leaves.

2010- now it appears even THOSE seed redistrubuted in the last 10 years are also incorrectly identified as T takil. In fact, there is still some doubt whether the species even exists at all... but there is some hope that it does, and seed, once again being supplied by Gibbons and Spanner, is supposedly the real thing... No longer going to hold my breath, though.

I got this Takil from Gerry's Jungle. Yellowish Green leaves. It's authentic, because it's from the Gibon's. It's not a cheap plant compa...Read Morere with Fortunei (Windmill Palm). $70 for 2 Gallons with UPS shipings.

The strong wind in Oklahoma BROKE all the leaves. It's still survived and growing a new leaf now. That makes it not ornemental any more. The strong wind does broke the Windmill Palm which plant beside it as well. Since the Windwill grow leaves fast, with a hairy trunk, it won't look that bad.

04/15/06 the grow point pulled spear regrown now!!! I am glad that I pull it out before it got molded inside. It was a good ideal to plant it in the ground in early spring right after the last frost.
The broken leaves things made me switch my palm plantations to Wagner Palm which supposingly stiffer leaves against the strong wind. Hopefully it does not grow slow as the profile said.

After the Oklahoma Freeze which can kill Deodora Cedars, My Takil had spear pulled, I pull up the spear before it molded. It still alive thank god that I planted in the ground instead of in the pot (every palm that I planted in pot are gone). My 5 gallon Fortuneii planted in the ground beside it has survied and regrow new leaves, the Sabal Birmingham is unhurt at all. I haven't seen any thing come up form this Takil yet. Looks like the root system is established, good luck to the grow point.

It did not make it!!!. The new green spear trying to come out. I waited 2 months. It got mold again. All the surrounding palms like Sabal Bermingham or Fortuneii have no problems at all. This is a sad palm. I got it because the photo on IPS website looks unique and pretty. Totally three 3 gallons size, one planted in the ground die the next year, two stay in the pots got frozen at the end of the sixth months. 100% dead even thought they came from diffent sellers and different method of planting. Not much to say.

I have successfully overwintered the plant for 2years now in my Zone 6b-5a southern exposure. This(2004-5) will be its third winter.
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After spraying the plant with antidessicant and copper based fungicide (neem oil burned it),iconstruct a hardware cloth cage around the palm leaving a foot of air space around and on top of it; I then build a second cage of Turkey wire around the hardware cloth,leaving a foot between the two cages. The second cage is stuffed with leaves and hay;the device is then covered in a white,semi-opaque tarp.

This technique has been successful in overwintering many of my marginal plants,including Zamia (Florida cootie) Cycads,Agaves, and other palms and hardy bananas.

Happy gardening,

DrZ

UPDATE 2008 Still going strong and doing well!

DrZ