Hedyscepe Species, Big Mountain Palm, Umbrella Palm

I have few of these beauties growing in my garden. I live in Coastal 10a zone and the ones planted in shade have greener full leaves and ...Read Moregrows well;furthermore, it looks very healthy. I have a 15 ga planted in full sun and it looks beat up! I bought it as acclimated to the sun. Once planted, the new fronds are growing much smaller than the ones planted in the shade, in addition the palm looks like it's growing short and stout compared to the ones planted in the shade. Hedyscepe Canterburyana seems to not like seeing the sun when young. Needs to acclimate to the sun slowly and should be in shade and let it grow into the sun as my recommendation. My experience is similar to others in my zone.

I have this palm growing in Tauranga, New Zealand. It
seems to have similar requirements to Rhopalostylis
species (it is i...Read Morencluded in that genus). It prefers a
fairly narrow tempreature range, not too hot and not to
cold. Southern California suits Rhopalostylis species
very well as when I have travelled there I have noticed
that Rhopalostylis actually look better than in their
native country. I saw some beautiful specimens in
Balboa park, San Diego.

This is one of the very best palms for Southern California. It is one of the few palms that do much better here than in warmer, more tro...Read Morepical areas of the world. It originates from the Lord Howe Islands off Australia at a high elevation and is used to cool weather. It doesn't have a lot of cold hardiness though (damaged at temps below 27F).

But for attractiveness, you can't beat this palm here (this goes against what Riffle says in his book Cultivated Palms of the World- a great book, but he says this is not a good looking palm... what do you think?). It has elegantly recurved leaves, a turquoise crownshaft and green, ringed trunk- just screams tropics. It is a fairly slow grower, prefering some shade until it forms a good trunk.