I saw your post on the other site and thought you'd post here as well. I was thinking about it flowering whilst still small. I wondered whether it might be that with slow growth in a cooler climate it was responding to years (seasons) rather than size. Mine are about that size but no sign of any flowering. There's usually separate plants for the sexes so the flowers will be one or the other. I've never worked out what the visual differences are, probably images on the internet that can be googled.

From memory of the last time you posted photos your plant seems to have darkened up. Have you got it in very bright light? Mine are darker but they get very bright light with a little direct sun during the day.

Hi tropic, by other site you must mean PalmTalk.
Err my palm is on a north facing windowsill that gets some sun but surely palms are shade lovers?

Of course as far as being shade lovers goes it varies tremendously over the range of thousands of palm species. But metallicas, although understorey plants, still like a lot of very bright light. I had some in deeper shade and they became an "off-yellow" shade of green, definitely looked sickly (for metallicas). Moved them into bright light with occasional bursts of direct sun coming through the canopy and they quickly put out new leaves in the typical dark colour. I think most Chamaedoreas are like that. They are quite tolerant of shade but it's with the metallicas where you notice the difference most. But you wouldn't want to put direct sun on them through glass. In your situation, under tree canopy during summer.

I think someone on palmtalk suggested it was a female. Are you going to try and find a boyfriend for her?

Oh I aint putting it outside in summer, I know Ill lose it! And no Im not looking for a partner for her. I dont know anyone nearby with plants. Heck I dont know anyone nearby, period!

my chamaedora elegans flowered for me once but i killed it months later. sad huh huh

Very nice, Larry!

Josh

You think you might lose it from weather, or theft? I've only been to England around Oxford and London, in summer. Never really got a good feel for the weather.

But with your plant, it looks good anyway. It'd probably be a rarity there, so a shortage of suitors for her. I noticed the bloke who got the prize for palm display at the latest Chelsea Flower Show didn't have any palms in that line. They all looked fairly standard fan palms. Apparently he's won several years in a row.

Howdy,

Larry, I wanted to comment on your palm but couldn't sign in. Guess the problem is fixed.
Your C. Metallica is so pretty, I've never seen a flower on a small palm before, ever. Congrats.

I forgot how pretty Metallicas are. I love the glossy, silver/green foliage.

Tropic, your little guy is a cutie, too. Do you know how tall they get in soil? Toni

Just noticed this discussion, I remember this plant from a previous post. Very cool it's making the flower! Love the bright orange color, much more interesting than a parlor palm bloom. I would love to find one of these plants for sale somewhere. Looks like a bunch of paper airplanes to me.

Have you had other plants stolen before? What a bummer!!

I put out my beautiful pothos a year ago and someone stole it. I am still bitter over it. A barber shop man on second avenue have it to me because they were killing it. I trimmed it back and it grew beautifully over winter. It grew 3 feet in 2 months after the haircut.

Toni, they can get over 2 metres, well over head height. But the fronds are still small. Because they're so slender it's difficult getting a photo of a tall one and still be able to see it against the background.

Holy thread resurrection Batman!

Anyone had much experience of these? After 16 years in the industry, I don't...

But looks like I'll be using some of these shortly.

I have a client that needs small plants that won't grow too quick, in a high light area that gets very cold in the winter. The first point rules out small Yuccas so I went cap in hand to my Dutch plant supplier and asked for suggestions. His best bet was small (4" pot) ones of these.

So let's hope he's right!!!

Jon, I love hearing about your commercial exploits with plants! How cold are you talking about? Are leafy/woody tropicals the only acceptable option? (If interested in other suggestions.)

It's to go in a long but narrow/shallow trough, and it's an unheated glass walkway. I'm in southern England, so even though it's a corridor from one bit of a building to another, it'll get down close to freezing.

My Dutch plant guru suggested something Mediterranean like Olive or Citrus but most of those kinds of things are bug magnets.

If it was my own job to look after I'd probably go Yuccas, but my staff have a tendency to let things get too big. Yuccas are pretty easy to keep to size if you want to.

If larger plants can provide some shade, Chlorophytum comosum would love that. Remained evergreen in my Mom's yard during winter when the lowest temp all winter stays above 20.

There are several palms and cycads that are hardy, evergreen here during a normal winter like that, but I'm not able to tell you which kinds.

Tradescantia zebrina and pallida would also work well as ground covers, easily growing back if foliage freezes, which I wouldn't expect from what you described.

OK so I bought a couple of boxes of these (ã3.50 for those of you that know what that equates to).

Nice looking little plants, let's see how they go.

Then did a little blog post on them too.

Here is a link that might be useful: My blog