I can't tell you anything about them, but I took a couple of photos when at the Marjorie K. Daugherty Conservatory in Omaha NE, over a year ago now.

The railing is about 3-1/2' tall and iirc, the base of the tree is below (4-6ft.?) ground level of where the railing is. ~16 feet tall?

Plant label:

Thanks Bill, I've been to that conservatory. The Borassus palm they have is gigantic!

Thanks! There were so many large specimens there, many of them the tag was inaccessible or difficult to view. It was wonderful, like being in the Tropics.

Don't ask me if I'm wrong with some of the titles. ;-)

Afrocarpus Gracilior: (front center?).

Araucaria Columnaris: (?)

Dioon Spinulosum:

Ilex x Attenuata EastPalatka

Too many to show but well worth the trip. :-)

Yes, I remember being amused to see Ilex X attenuata as a conservatory plant. Of course, up there, it is. It's a really nice greenhouse collection, not as many plants as some larger conservatories, but an interesting variety all the same and everything was very well grown.

The gardens are nice as well, sometimes displaying plants like Hydrangea serrata which although common along the US seaboards, are infrequently grown in Omaha as far as I could roughly determine.

I also went to that part of Omaha to see the UP's giant choo choos:

We replaced our ficus hedge with podocarpus (not sure of variety) in south Florida (zone 9B) because it was less invasive and slower growing than ficus, and thus easier to maintain. However, when we have very wet periods, it grows very quickly. My neighbors watered their new bushes like mad so it has gotten huge fast.

Yes will this is always an issue with hedge plants, nothing just grows to a certain height and stops...and plants in an almost tropical climate can grow very quickly if fertilized and watered. (sometimes if not)

There are zillions of other possible hedging plants besides Podocarpus in HI or FL. I was at a grocery store in coastal Georgia earlier this year and saw an attempt to use Podocarpus as a tiny clipped hedge about 2 feet tall in the parking lot islands. Where there's a will there's a way.

In NSW Australia I saw beautiful hedges of the native lily pilly - I wonder if that would work in Florida. Someone recently (w/in the past year) posted to Houzz of a Myrtaceae with edible fruits native to the West Indies and maybe Florida but I don't remember the deets.

(There are also gorgeous hedges throughout SE AU and NZ of various native Pittosporums, but FL would be way too hot & humid for those!)

User AC M, it sounds like you didn’t plant the Maki variety of Podocarpus. the Maki variety is a very slow grower and requires little maintenance, supposedly. can you send a close picture of the leaves of yours.

Davidrt28, Many sights say the Maki variety only grows to 6-8 feet while other say 8-10’, and some even say 12-15 feet That is why i am trying to find soneone who actually knows about Podocarpus Maki. The pringles variety only grows to like 2-5 feet and stops, i believe

' Yes, I remember being amused to see Ilex X attenuata as a conservatory plant. '

It was one of the few I had pictures of the labels.

There was an Ilex Cornuta 'burfordii' too.

It was first week of December when we went so didn't take the time to look around outside (Late Fall like).

There was Christmas oriented things going on inside with a poinsettia tree and model trains following tracks laid around in different areas.

Another large palm (2?)

Wstt, the reason why you are finding a variety of mature heights is because there simply no way of guaranteeing how tall any plant will be. Podocarpus macrophyllus var. Maki is notably slower growing than its parent tree, and much more compact, but it certainly grew taller than 8’ when left to its own devices in zone 8b, where I lived for over twenty years.

It is, however, very easy to maintain as a hedge, adapting nicely to shearing without looking like heck as many do. If you are honestly looking for something that is going to stop terminal growth at a certain height, sorry. No one can make promises about this plant.

Rhizzo_1. Thanks. I’m more trying to figure out how fast or slow it grows per year in Hawaii and no one seems to knows. And how quickly a single stem with tiny branches will fill out. Thanks.

To anyone hwo know about Podocarpus Maki, are the following ok to purchase as a hedge? (If you zoom in you can see how thin them are, but they are like 4-5’ tall and in tiny pots.). How fast do you think they’d fill in and grow in Hawaii (12b) and how far apart would you plant them? Thanks in advance for any help in this.

That will never turn into a satisfactory hedge. That is a twig in an “annual” growers pot. The ones to the right in the picture are much more what you’d need, but even those look small. You will be very unhappy if you buy that.

AC M, the ones to the right are just the same but all bunched together so not any thicker. The guy at the nursery said plant 2-3’ apart and once out of these tiny pots they’ll fill out. He said it’s because they are in tiny pots they aren’t thicker. But, he’s trying to get me to buy them so that’s why I’m asking here.

The one I photoed I just pulled out from the bunched up ones to the right.

I disagree but I'm going to defer to the expertise of others on this one, largely. My counterevidence is that I have had a Podocarpus sprout from the base after a cold winter. Even the growth of the one I've had since then which hasn't been damaged, is very BLE like, and it tends to break from the base. I feel like many a hedge of Podocarpus has been started with plants looking like that or worse.

BTW I can only assume the ones I saw in a parking lot island were 'Pringles' the supposedly very compact one. Thanks for the reminder on the cultivar name, I'd read about it somewhere. In fact now that I think about it, some of them might have still had a label on them!

Oh, I was looking at the massing and the larger black pot and thinking that was a small decent sized pot. All of the podocarpus I have ever bought that have been satisfactory have had at least 5 stems. My gardener one installed some with 3 stems, they looked awful but I kept them, and 5 years later they still haven’t filled out. They get sun all day, and lots of irrigation when new and rainwater now. It’s a great hedge material, but you need to start with something more substantial.

These were the twiggy ones, 5 years ago, you can still see through them! Not much of a hedge

Even thick ones need to be planted 12-16” on center where I live to get the nice hedge appearance when they fill in. Their growth habit is upright rather than spreading. Sorry if I seem so negative, I just know how disappointing it can be to spend money on the wrong materials.