Barb ... in all fairness, this "waggie" was a transplant back when I moved to Vancouver Island 6 and a half years ago. It's suseptablity may be in part due to that and soil conditions. Adding fertilizer won't change the hardiness only better prepare it for dormancy.

Cheers. Barrie.

K (of N P K) is Potassium, as everybody knows.
Potassium is needed to get plants through harsh winter conditions.
Golf courses apply Potassium to greens over several applications beginning in Fall.
Barb

Another interesting finding is that wagnerianus, so far, looks like it might be even hardier then fortunei (even hardier then the nainital or fortunei with the SFH trait, somewhere in the neighbourhood of -21C)...
Just thought I'd throw that in there. Oh, and I recall someone showing a picture of a wagnerianus with the leaning trunk... You've got to think (hope) that a palm with that trait would be even hardier 🙂
If I was to speculate as to why wagnerianus would be hardier... Perhaps it is a more northern form of fortunei and the smaller more compact growth is an adaptation to snow and cold??? Any other ideas??

I have a Wagnerianus with the trait but it isn't as significant as my nanital.

Barrie,
I too have seen T. wagnerianus killed at around 20f... Must be trees that are genetically weak or something, as individuals can clearly survive (in most cases) temperatures similar to, or colder then, fortunei I wonder if the same is true for 'regular' fortunei (i.e. individual palms that are killed at much higher temeratures)?

Here is a link to Dr. John's website, interesting that the nainitals outperformed needle palms and now he is seeing T. wagnerianus outperform nainital! The thing to keep in mind, though, is that his freezes are much shorter then ours here in Ontario...

http://hometown.aol.com/fitzroya/myhomepage/cooking.html

Paul

I bought 30 1 gal. size from a man in Calif. who has a big nursery in Columbia. I don't know how authentic they are ,.
but they look good. This man is a well known horticulturist and quite knowledgeable. Robert Chumley

I have three "takil" specimens from different sources and they grow obliquely. One "takil" is at 5 gal size. T. wagnerianus is a favorite because it stays a deeper green after winter. T. fortunei palms often have yellow on the lower fronds by the first half of spring. All my wagnerianus palms are of a darker green than the T. fortunei palms. Even the hybrids handed to me by a local palm society member. I have two wagnerianus germination trays. The first tray is from Victoria-area palms and the second from four US of A palms (from two different states). One palm stateside was so rigid and dark green that I have decided to cultivate its "strain" since it had been pollinated from a tree of the same batch.

speaking of "takil", what ever happened to Trachycarpus Tesan? That was going to be another wonder trachy! 😀

speaking of "takil", what ever happened to Trachycarpus Tesan? That was going to be another wonder trachy!

Nucci, you wouldn't be.....................would ya?

I have one. Not much difference between the 'Tesan' and the 'Bulgaria'. They seem to grow a little slower than a "regular" Trachy.

IMHO 'tesan' is just a form made up to make a profit...

Any palm that you have labelled as 'takil' and is larger then a single leaf is certainly T. fortunei 'nainital'... We all got hosed on this one I'm afraid... The sad thing is that now we have 90% of the people who have shelled out the money for 'takil' (i.e. 'nainital') still calling it that. I don't think the confusion will ever disappear completely.

IMHO 'tesan' is just a form made up to make a profit...

Any palm that you have labelled as 'takil' and is larger then a single leaf is certainly T. fortunei 'nainital'... We all got hosed on this one I'm afraid... The sad thing is that now we have 90% of the people who have shelled out the money for 'takil' (i.e. 'nainital') still calling it that. I don't think the confusion will ever disappear completely.