The beauty of Trachycarpus princeps shifting colors

garryendson · Post by **garryendson** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 4:36 am

Summer is around the corner with my princeps putting out 1-2 leaves just this year .Big smile
They are shifting from green, bluish to silver at the uppersides of leaves, extremely fascinating,apart from the white undersides.
In general, they are bluish more or less on top with white powder beneath. It gives me a totally new perspective of T.princeps which were appreciated by growers merely for the white powder to the undersides of leaves.

One more photo

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:05 am

Looking good Garry-

They should have some nice size after this summer!

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:05 am

Beautiful indeed!

What is the reason for the concentric circles of different shading on the upper leaves in the first photo?

Cameron_z6a_N.S. · Post by **Cameron_z6a_N.S.** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 12:48 pm

Great shots as usual, Garry.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:59 pm

Beautiful Garry.

I'm thrilled with the nice and fresh Princeps seeds I got from you.
Can't wait until they look like your photos!

Barb

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 5:26 pm

beauties.......gotta get one!

F1aReD · Post by **F1aReD** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 6:50 pm

Looks awesome. I'll have to get myself one of these

garryendson · Post by **garryendson** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:41 pm

TerdalFarm wrote:Beautiful indeed!

What is the reason for the concentric circles of different shading on the upper leaves in the first photo?

Aside from covering the whole leaves, the white powder is also present in the form of a ring or ribbon on the upper leaves .
Sometimes, It is forming a ring at the tips or in the middle of all leaflets or developing a blue silver ribbon at the bottoms.

But not all princeps are that blue silver varying from seedling to seedling as some are just slightly turquoise which you could say are just green if not compared with other trachycarpus altogether.

Wollemi25 · Post by **Wollemi25** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:01 pm

How old are they and where did you get your seeds for them?

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 9:02 am

Where Garry lives he can basically take a
little canoe trip and after a little hike....
pick a few trash bags full!

Garry

So far I have about 4 princeps potted up from the seeds you sent me

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 2:36 pm

Approx 6 of Garry's princeps seeds have germinated; others just a bit slower.

Can't wait to pot them up...
Barb

garryendson · Post by **garryendson** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:03 am

Wollemi
They are 2.5-3.6 years old, excluding 6 month to 1 year germination.They were collected from the stone gate.
Glad that the seeds have an easier and earlier sprouting this year.Anyhow the germination is generally very difficult and sporadic, taking up to 4 years.
Jim that is a romantic exploration if it works like that ,

But first I need to be a good mountain climber on the steep cliff .The odd thing is the seeds are so rare each year possibly due to the nutrition deficiency and enormous rain or dry season when blooming.So even an excellent climber may end up with the an empty bag.

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 9:25 am

Your still a lot closer than me Garry but I get what your saying

Barb

I have about 5 of Garry's Princeps seeds/seedlings potted up
with their first leaves and a few more that are still germinating.

This would mean that in 3 months,one third were potted and about half
have germinated-this is extremely fast for Princeps and a pretty darn
high germination rate too!

Some of these seeds can take over a year to germinate!

Fresh seeds with this one makes all the difference!

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 10:11 am

Jim, yours are moving along faster than mine.
Agree freshness is the real trick here, and then optimum conditions for germination.
I was really impressed at how fast they popped.
BTW, who thinks of romance when seed hunting?

first I need to be a good mountain climber on the steep cliff

Garry, the steeper the cliff, the more desirable the seeds are.

Barb

garryendson · Post by **garryendson** » Wed Apr 13, 2011 7:04 pm

But what is weird is that we got low germination of around 20% but good for hard -to - germinate princeps from 2008's fresh seeds while some reported good results.It is still a mystery.
Barb, the cliff is almost vertical and will be upside down if we wish it to be even steeper. In that case, the seed hunter needs to be a spiderman accessing them.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:08 am

Garry,

Those are famous pictures.
Hard to believe anything could grow on vertical rock faces.

upside down

tectonic uplift?

I'm very happy with the few that have germinated so far.

I bought some Waggie seeds from two other sources...won't do that again, germination rate ZERO.

Barb

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:20 am

That's amazing Garry

They would appear to be safe up there.....from everything but water and gravity

Cameron_z6a_N.S. · Post by **Cameron_z6a_N.S.** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 10:42 am

Garry, fantastic pictures!!