Another of the non-Madagascar Dypsis palms. This time from the island of Pemba which is off the east coast of Africa and north of Madagascar. It is a clumping palm native to, you guessed it Rainforests. So why is it so happy here in my Hawaiian Desert? It is reported to have trunks heights of up to 40 feet. WOW, that's gonna be some clump when mature.
At first I just bought one from the Home Depot in a 5 gallon pot during the summer of 2005. I planted it in the normal fasion, taking it out of the pot and sticking it in the ground. To improve drainage I dug a ditch to the edge of the terrace and filled it with cinder.
I grew so nicely that a year later I bought two more from Home Depot. This time I tried pot planting. Small one on the right just had the top of the pot cut down to soil level and planted. To the one on the left I did the same and cut off the bottom of the pot as well.
Look what happend in a little over a year. The first one has really grown like crazy and has a sucker coming. The one that was purely pot planted (right) also has a sucker and is bigger than the one on the left w/the bottom of the pot cut away.
