Fortunate to get Seed

This is the time of year that we’re harvesting seed from our windmill palms, Trachycarpus fortunei. Unlike our native Sabal palms, which have both male and female flowers on each plant, Trachycarpus are usually either male or female. Consequently, if you’d like to have a seed crop, it’s best to plant these in groups of three. That way, you’re statistically more likely to get at least one male and one female. Every now and then, a windmill palm will produce both sexes on the same plant, but this isn’t something we can count on, since we’d like to have a seed crop each year.

Back when our winters were colder, we focused our attention on collecting seed from plants that had survived extreme winter cold. We found that the offspring of these palms were much more likely to survive cold winters, than the run-of-the-mill, unselected windmill palms. Over the years, we named several seed strains, that continue to be available. Trachycarpus fortunei ‘Taylor’ are plants grown from seed from the ancient specimen at Taylor’s Nursery in Raleigh, NC. This plant sailed through -9F in the winter of 1984/1985. Trachycarpus fortunei ‘Charlotte’ seed came from two old specimens in the Myers Park region of Charlotte, NC. These also came through the -9 F winter of 1984/1985. Trachycarpus fortunei ‘Greensboro’ hailed from a church in Greensboro, NC, which is at least a quarter zone colder than Raleigh, NC. The fourth clone is Trachycarpus fortunei ‘Norfolk’, which came from an old row of specimens at the Norfolk, VA zoo.

Some of the other windmill palm cultivars on the market include Trachycarpus fortunei ‘Columbus’ from Larry Green, which has survived -2F near Asheville for a few decades. Probably, the most legendary seed cultivar is Trachycarpus fortunei ‘Bulgaria’ (photo below) from Kiril Donov. Reportedly, this plant survived -17F in 1993. Trachycarpus fortunei ‘Nanital’ got great fanfare when it hit the market from Nanital, India, but in our trials, only one of six survived. Trachycarpus fortunei ‘Wagnerianus’ (often incorrectly listed as a species) is a highly-prized, commercially discovered, seed cultivar that is much more compact, with thicker leaves. There is a good chance that this is a ploidy mutant, since it seems quite winter hardy. Trachycarpus fortunei ‘Hayes Stiffie’ is a stiff-leaved form, from Alabama plantsman, Hayes Jackson. There are a few more, but these are the ones you are most likely to encounter in commerce.

This is not to say that every seedling of these cultivars will be equally as hardy, only that the chances of hardiness increase with these varieties. Factors like natural genetic variation, planting conditions, cold duration, and other factors, all play a roll in winter hardiness. On a sad note, both the Taylor and the Greensboro palm are now deceased, but neither due to cold temperatures.