Trachycarpus is Europe’s number 1 palm

The following article appeared in the October 2011 issue of the German publication 'Baumschule'

The demand for exotic plants, especially hardy palms, is ever increasing. Almost by chance Herbert Riphagen’s palm business started to develop, initially with germinated palm seeds, which he exported to Spain and Italy. This made him one of the first people to sell hardy palms and other sensitive exotics like Dicksonia antarctica or Musa sikkimensis, the Darjeeling Banana.

Trachycarpus princeps, a rare exotic from China

Dutchman Herbert Riphagen was born in Indonesia, where he spent his early childhood. He later returned to the Netherlands with his family and began gardening there. He first tried to grow the Fatsia japonica, known to us as the house plant Japanese Aralia, and discovered that the plant could survive temperatures below 20C. With this experience under his belt he ordered Trachycarpus seeds on the internet and then sold the surplus germinated seeds.

He gradually established contacts with Italian and Spanish companies, which ordered 15.000 - 20.000 seedlings. Riphagen was one of the first people to start trading in Trachycarpus wagnerianus, named after Albert Wagner, a horticulturalist from Leipzig, who brought this windmill palm from Japan to Europe. Riphagen sent seedlings to Spain and Italy, where they were cultivated and subsequently brought back to Central Europe. Through the palm trade he came into contact with one of the largest nurseries in Brazil, which operates in the South at a height of more than 800 meters above sea level. Here, Riphagen explains, temperatures drop to minus 2C to minus 4C every day. This gave him the idea of sending the seedlings to Brazil, where they could be cultivated at a more favourable price. They develop into strong, hardy plants there more quickly, and have thicker trunks than plants from China. In this way he established an exclusive cooperation with a Brazilian nursery.

From this nursery the Dutchman also imports Trachycarpus fortunei with thick trunks, as well as other species such as the indigenous Butia odorata, Butia eriospatha and other Butia species. Diverse genera and species are available, amongst which several palms from South America, such as Chamaedorea, Lytocarium, Syagrus, Sabal and Trithrinax. Although transport from there by sea container is more expensive than transport over land from Spain or Italy, the plants from Brazil are stronger and hardier, according to Riphagen.

For over 20 years his company had a 600 square meter show garden in Heerde, in the centre of the Netherlands. During the last six years, however, there was an increasing demand for hardy palms. This induced Riphagen to take over a 20.000 square meter high glass nursery in  Erica, very close to the German border. The former rose nursery has a computerized, fully automatic climate-control system which the manager can also control via the internet. The company’s goal is to cultivate and import palms, to export them to retailers and to promote sales of hardy palms. Besides this Riphagen wants to offer a complete range of hardy palms to the Northern European market. For this reason he buys plants from Asian countries such as China, Korea and Japan, and from Mexico. He selects a wide range of palm species, including rarities such as Trachycarpus princeps, whose natural habitat is limited to a region in China. As Herbert Riphagen reports, there are also palms being cultivated that are not yet named and are not yet assigned to a genus or species. In the meantime his range has expanded with tree fern Dicksonia from New Zealand and Darjeeling-banana Musa sikkimensis from Bhutan. Dicksonia is hardy in temperatures down to minus 8 to 9C. Yucca rostrata can tolerate even lower temperatures, according to Riphagen down  to minus 18/20C. Musa sikkimensis is a species that is as hardy as Musa basjoo, the Japanese banana, and can survive temperatures of minus 20C. In addition, this Musa sikkimensis, which is propagated from seed, has attractive leaves, that have zebra-like, dark purple stripes on the leaf surface, red/purple colouring at the bottom of the leaf and a yellow/green pseudostem. This creates an interesting contrast with green leaf colours in the garden.

Data on the winter hardiness of palms mostly originates from American literature. However it’s dryer in the USA. The winter hardiness of Trachycarpus is given by Riphagen to be to minus 20C. According to him Trachycarpus is the “number one” palm for Europe. Mi. Minus 16C is according to Riphagen no problem for Trachycarpus wagnerianus, but he advises protecting the plants below minus 12C by tying up the leaf fronds. Under no circumstances should plastic be used, because the palm-top needs air around it. The most common reasons for the plants dying are through drying out or through being too moist in the ‘heart’ of the plant for too long.

New bare-stemmed Trachycarpus fortunei

The company, operating under the name GardenPalms, is offering a new product, bare-stemmed Trachycarpus fortunei. This palm has its mesh-like trunk tissue removed by hand, which can take up a day’s work when the trunks are higher. Because of the labour costs this work is done in Brazil. These plants have their own special charisma and are reminiscent of coconut trees. As the mesh-like tissue gives the plant some protection in winter Riphagen recommends protecting the stem with reed mats during the winter if temperatures drop below -9C (we don’t yet have information about the exact hardiness of these bare-stemmed trees). He can’t confirm that Trachycarpus wagnerianus is hardier in winter than Trachycarpus fortunei.  Both species are equally hardy in winter, only T. Wagnerianus has smaller, stronger leaves which prove to be hardier in windy conditions. Jubaea chilensis, the honey palm, which is hardy at temperatures from minus 12C to minus 15C is also in the range. However, this plant needs a temperature of at least 12C to grow. More favourable, therefore, is Butia eriospatha, the jelly palm, which grows at temperatures from 4 to 5C, which means more growth each year in Germany and the Netherlands..

GardenPalms endeavors to not only offer a large but also an extensive range of plants, ranging from seedlings and young plants to large plants. He therefore sows 400.000 palms every year, of which about 250.000 seedlings germinate. He also produces 250.000 young plants every year. 50 percent of these are sold and the rest continues to grow in stock. For the young plants he uses high pots with ridging that prevents corkscrew growth of the roots.

Plants from various countries are imported in large containers every year. Twenty of these containers are imported from Brazil, ten to twenty from Asia, ten from Tasmania and one or two from Mexico.

For the cultivation of plants the company buys its own fertilizers. As palms only need small amounts of phosphorus, it uses mixtures with a nutrient ratio of 3:1:3 (N:P:K) and some iron and magnesium. As the imported palms have to grow new roots on their stems, it developed a special substance called Palmbooster, which encourages root growth. To make hardy palms even more accessible to the consumer, small plants will be sold in trays through promotion actions at discounters next year. Included in these actions will be Musa.

The prices for palms are calculated by the length of the stems. For orders worth more than 500 Euro, GardenPalms delivers free of transport costs within Germany and the Netherlands.