Where are you located?

Palmbob,

Thanks for the confirmation. I've read a little more about Majesty palm and came to know that they come in full size, medium size and dwarf. I'm not so sure which is mine. I have two of these plants, both potted. Here are some pictures.

1st Plant (Height: about 8 ft):

I've kept this one several years in the pot and now it's really outgrowing the pot at about 8 ft. However, I've noticed that it has a very short trunk. I wonder if this is a dwarf variety?

Has very short trunk.

2nd Plant (Height about 6 ft)

This is a little younger palm which is a few years old now. Again, I wonder if it's also dwarf variety as there's hardly any trunk visible at this stage at all.

Subtropix, I'm in FL and where are you located? Do you have any of these palms? I'm planning to plant my two Majesty palms in the ground and wanted to learn as much about them as possible. Since they can get really big ... it's good to know ahead of time how they'll turn out eventually and whether they'll like the growing condition here. Where I am, it's zone 9b.

I don't think there are any medium, dwarf and full size Ravenea rivularis - only full size. They can be stunted due to lack of water, sun, nutrients, root space etc. but a Ravenea rivularis is a Ravenea rivularis. There are other Ravenea species that grow both larger (Ravenea robustior ), and smaller (Ravenea glauca), but these are very rare in cultivation and you'd only find these in collector's gardens - or you'd have to import the seed and grow them from seed yourself. What is sold at garden centers across the country is undoubtedly Ravenea rivularis, and that's what you have there.

Thanks, Josue, for the comments. That was what I thought so too all this time. Then, I found this article and was like ... huh? Anyway, here's the link to it. I wonder what the writer of this article was referring to when they mentioned Ravenea rivularis.

http://www.palmtreepassion.com/majesty-palm.html#.WVbJDFEkqLg

It says the full size one will grow to 50 plus ft tall and 12-15 ft wide. As long as it grows tall and have the 12-15 ft crown spread up the air, I guess that will be ok as I'm thinking of planting it close to a privacy fence in the backyard.

The writer of the article is referring to all palms in the genus Ravenea as being Majesty Palms. She goes on to talk about three different species of Ravenea saying they are respectively tall, medium and small. R. rivularis is her "tall one".

Bananafan, do you see them planted around you? I have seen pics of them in the ground and they do look attractive (kinda remind me of Jubaea chilensis in fact). They are so commonly available and cheap in the indoor trade (for which purpose they are very poorly suited btw), I would be surprised to here that they are not planted in exterior landscapes. Outside, they seem easy (yes, I have a containerized one which I protect over the winter in my Zone 7 collection). I also like Queen Palms (and have a few of these containerized), but understand that planted in the landscape, they have a reputation to be messy and require maintenance. I still like them as they remind me of probably my very favorite palm species Roystonia regia (Royal Cuban palm).

Thanks for clarifying that for me, tropicbreezent.

Subtropix,

I might have seen them before, but I wasn't able to tell them apart from the other palms. Here are a few pictures I downloaded from the net and some of them seem to have very huge trunks that remind me of bottle palm. Maybe when they are juvenile, they look like bottle palms. As they grown taller, they'll look more like a Majesty palm?

I'm not too sure if this is a Majesty palm or a bottle palm. At this stage, they look so much alike.

The grown up ones look more like what Majesty palm should look like, I'm thinking.

Yes, I do agree that Queen palm can be very messy. We have some in our neighborhood and I have a constant supply of their seedlings. It's almost impossible to get rid of them. That said, they are actually pretty nice looking palm, I must agree to that.

I'm curious about the two names you've mentioned--Jubaea chilensis, Roystonia regia (Royal Cuban palm). Will take a look at them and see if I can use them in my landscape as well. I wonder how cold harder are these two. I know the Majesty palm is down to 30 degree F or so.

Majesty palms do OK down to about 27F... will burn below but usually not die until 24F unless stays at that temp for a long time (24 hours eg.). Roystonea regia is hardy to about 22F but will be burned... the larger the palm, the hardier. Jubaeas are hardy down to the mid teens and are among the cold- hardiest of all the palms.

Palmbob,

It sounds like Majesty palms should do ok here for me.

I just learned that Roystonea regia is also called Royal palm. I have a young plant in my yard which I bought a little while back. I read a little more about them. Here are some pictures I downloaded. They are a beauty with their nice green crown shafts. It so much reminds me of my Christmas palms and Fox tail palms--both of them I've planted and they all have done ok the past few years.

The cold hardiness of Jubaea chilensis is impressive. According to this article here, it has the thickest trunk among all the palms. My yard may be too small for this plant to stretch, but nevertheless it's a very unique palm indeed.

http://www.junglemusic.net/Chilean_Wine_Palm_Tree/jubaea_chilensis_palm_tree.html

Good luck with Jubaea in Florida... they do NOT like that climate and struggle mightily there... few make it to trunking size and most die soon after. They do NOT like tropical climates. As for your other palms, if you can grow a Christmas palm (Adonidia) you can grow just about anything tropical.. .those are super wimpy palms when it comes to cold so you would have absolutely no problem with a Majesty palm, at least in terms of cold.