Letters

Your chance to air your news and views
Chamaerops No.33 Winter 1999

Special edition of „Chamaerops“
I would like to suggest that every member of the EPS send pictures of the palms which they have planted outside to Martin Gibbons, so that they can be published in a special edition.
Only palms which have some chance to survive in Central Europe (Trachycarpus, Washingtonia, Phoenix etc.) should be published, and no extravagant plants which need huge expenditures of protection in winter.
With every picture, the technical data should be briefly mentioned. For instance: exact position (town, metres above sea level); date and height at which it has been first planted out; present height; male or female plant; first blossoming at a particular height; lowest survived temperature, with or without damage; estimated age of the plant and special tips. However, there should not be too much information, or it would become too voluminous.
My aim is merely to have a collection of as many beautiful plants as possible, with short information, in one publication. It’s always nice to show something like that to friends, especially when one of the plants is your own. Maybe there are some particularily nice pictures (illuminated at night, or decorated as a christmas tree) which especially deserve to be published. I have some palms in parks in my neighbourhood which almost nobody knows of.
As an alternative, a special homepage could be created, analogous to this special edition, which could be continuously updated with new pictures. If somebody wants some more information about a palm, he or she could ask directly the owner via e-mail.
Bernd Schnell, Germany

Great idea! Your pictures will be published in our Picture Gallery. webmaster

Here is my method to get palms safely through the winter:
I take a large umbrella, cut bubble plastic to the right size and fix it with a staplegun onto the umbrella (that means, on top of it). Then I put the umbrella up and attach it with wire to the trunk of the palm. Like this, no humiditiy from above (snow, rain, ice, etc.) can find its way into the heart of the palm and its fronds stay always bright green.
Hans-Peter Kölblin, Efringen-Kirchen, Germany

Trachycarpus squeezed out
It is my opinion, that since 1995, when I joined the EPS, even the last bit of hardiness has been squeezed out of the poor Trachycarpus, and countless Rapidophyllum and Sabal rotted away in european gardens (two or three in my garden too).
Unless anybody comes along with reports on genetically manipulated palms, the subject has been treated quite comprehensively, and even such mutations would be rather questionable news.
On the contrary I always take very much pleasure in articles treating a specific variety of palm or introducing a botanical garden. I would like to mention especially the following reports: Saving an Endangered palm (Ch. No 30), Costa del Chamaerops (Ch. No 27), Land of the Long White Cloud (Ch. No 26), Thrinax morrisii (Ch. No 25), A Himlayan Phoenix (Ch. No 23), etc.
If in course of time I can gain the necessary specialized knowledge, maybe I myself can write such articles. Till then I for myself am much more interested in a Clinostigma in the tropical mountain forest than in a Trachycarpus in the Harz which has just about escaped death.
Heinrich Böhm, Bremen, Germany

Trachycarpus wagnerianus with stripes
Some weeks ago I sowed a lot of Trachycarpus wagnerianus seeds and got a great germination rate of nearly 100 %. All seedlings are growing very well and fast, but there was one mystirious seedling among them. This one leaf seedling shows a broad white-yellowish stripe on one side, from the top to the base. I never saw this before. It looks like the stripes on the leaves of a Rhapis excelsa „Variegata“. Has anyone seen something like that before? Please contact me - info@palms.de.
Jörg Schumann, Röhrsdorf, Germany

This discoloration is indeed a variegation like in the Rhapis excelsa you mentioned, normally induced by a virus or genetic aberration. It can occurr in virtually any palm species though I have not yet seen it in Trachycarpus wagnerianus. This could grow into a very attractive plant! T.S.