Posted by Bill_TX7b
on 4/29/2009, 9:01 am, in reply to "Cold Damaged Majesty Palms (ravenea rivularis)"
207.193.242.50
I'm no expert but hopefully someone with more knowledge will chime in. I will offer a couple of my thoughts. I can tell you put some time into your question and it deserves a response.
You've already had some Majesty Palms killed by frost. It is likely these five will suffer the same fate.... if this event didn't get them, something else will. As you stated above, there is much discussion on how to care for Majesty Palms. Remember, this is a tropical plant. Kept indoors with heat/ac running equals not much humidity, which they need. Also, the light indoors just isn't the same as good old sunlight. Bottom line is that they just don't make a good indoor plant. For that fact, outdoors can be a challenge to. In my opinion, they are "throw away" palms. They're cheap at Home Depot, when one dies, go pick up another one if you gotta have Majesty Palms around.
So i don't sound all doom and gloom i have a suggestion. Look into Lady Palms, Rhapis excelsa. They do great indoors and are a good looking palm. I've had one in my office now for 5 years and it is doing well. You have to treat them with the same caution as far as exposing them to freezing temps as you did the Majesty Palms, but they hold up nicely to being moved in and out of the house.
On the Majesty Palms you have currently....... don't prune the fronds off yet, wait and see if they will put out new growth. If they do, your palms should be okay for now. When they put out a couple new fronds, trim them up to make them look better.
--Previous Message--
: My wife and I purchased from good 'ole
: Home Depot five of what what we believe
: are Majesty Palms (ravenea rivularis)
:
: at the end of last summer. Being that
: we are in New Jersey (plant hardiness
: index of 6a-6b) the trees came indoors
:
: soon after fall began, in an effort to
: avoid them being caught in a frost
: (which outright killed a few Majesties
: we
:
: had purchased the year before).
:
: As they were around 6-7 ft. each we
: placed them in various spots around the
: house, not only to prevent any one room
:
: from looking like a jungle, but to
: experiment as to where they would do
: best indoors; there seems to be much
:
: discussion as to the proper way to care
: for these babies indoors. The results
: were interesting, but best reserved
:
: for a different forum. Suffice to say
: they all survived the winter well.
:
: Sometime around early April, when the
: weather turned noticeably nicer and the
: threat of frost was minimal, outdoors
:
: they went, onto our deck. While the
: threat of a frost was minimal, it was
: not eliminated. The trees went through
: 4-5
:
: intermittent nights in the next 10 days
: or so, where the temps were below
: freezing, somewhere between 32-29F.
:
: Below are pictures of the damage done.
: The question(s) we would like to pose
: here is, are the trees dead, or does
:
: the appearance of the green
: fronds/trunks indicate that indeed the
: trees live, and if they are alive, what
: is the
:
: best way to ensure that they recover
: (proper pruning) from this point? Do
: we cut ALL the fronds/trunks down (as
: if
:
: we were pruning the individual fronds
: of the trees), or leave them up
: although the leaves are dead?
:
: Your anticipated speedy responses to
: this are GREATLY appreciated!
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