Palms

PALMS

No other family evokes the tropics more powerfully than the Palmae in one of its many forms, whether the graceful Coconut Palm arching over a beach or the stately Royal Palm along an avenue.

Immensely tall or relatively low, feathery or fanlike, massive or dainty, there is always a palm that will suit one's needs, gardens or balconys. All it require will be a little imagination on your part.

Cyrtostachys renda

Better known as: Sealing-wax palm or red palm

This is a tufted palm, which means that it produces offshots and grows as a group of slender trunks, each with its own crown of leaves. The main attraction about this palm is its bright red leaf sheaths, which appear down nearly the full length of the trunk as well as the leaf stalk. The colour is similar to that of old Chinese sealing wax, thus giving rise to the popular name. The leaves are stiff and feather-shaped and a fully grown clump is not too large for a small garden.

Cyrtostachys needs full or partial sun and moist soil.