This pot has a few various size/age parlor palms (Chamaedorea elegans.) The biggest one has been with me for about 20 yrs, separated from a group pot a few yrs ago when that pot was getting too wide to go through a doorway.



I think this other palm is a Chamaedorea but IDK what kind, something other than cataractum or elegans. A neighbor gave it to me around 6 yrs ago. I've always had it in a pot but couldn't resist putting it in the ground for a bit while it's warm to help pretend I live in a tropical place.


Pics of the big clump pot didn't come out well & it's too hot to try again today. Will add that soon, and some pics of sprouts that have come up from finding ripe seeds on palms in FL & NOLA.

That bottom one is a beauty. Love the idea of sticking them outside for the summer. I just got a potted palm. Will have to get a pix.

Thanks, it's really grown on me! LOL! I look forward to seeing yours. ;)

Kinda chewed up...got it on clearance but I think it will pretty up

Yes, looks like it got a bit dry in the past. The new leaves should be great looking! (Assuming the roots don't have any more difficulties.)

My potted palm has been doing terrible!!! Not sure how I have been such a bad palm mom, but they do not seem to like me haha.

Tiffany, I also love that one in your last photo! It looks familiar, reminds me of Bamboo Palm, Chamaedorea seifrizii but I get palms confused all the time, especially those in the Chamaedorea genus; they all seem to look alike to me. If you ever find the ID on that beauty, please let us know!

A very knowledgeable horticulturist (I think it was @Metrosideros) once told me the differences between the Cat and Parlor Palms but I lost my notes when my computer crashed awhile ago. I think one has more of a clumping and suckering habit than the other.

I have a few potted palms that stay outside year-round; they never seem to do well indoors. I moved this small one inside a month ago but I'm sure I'll be putting it back outside soon because I know it will get ratty looking if it stays inside for long. It was labeled as "Parlor Palm" and I'm sure it's a Chamaedorea but not sure if it's C. elegans or C. cataractarum:



I have one Lady Palm (Rhapis excelsa) that I purchased seven or eight years ago. I almost lost it to a winter freeze a couple of years back but it seems to be recuperating and growing. We just moved two months ago and we have Lady Palms spreading by their rhizomes in a couple of areas of the yard. I found some sprouting up in the screened pool area so I dug them up and potted them but they've not done too well ... possibly because of the horrendous heat as well as lack of sufficient rain and possibly from too much sun due to my short attention span.
In-ground along one side of the house, the one that I almost lost to a freeze (with Caladiums, etc.) and one I potted up that's looking so hot; one stem is bare:


Pigmy Date Palm (Phoenix robellini) and I think both of these are Cat Palms (Chamaedorea cataractarum):

Lindsey, sounds like there's a lot of room for improvement? LOL!

Gorgeous collection, Lin! I have no idea how to even try to sort palms, especially from pics. I had parlor palm for about 20 yrs before realizing they are male/female trees. Obviously, I'll NEED to move to FL also at some point to launch a very UNserious investigation!

Whatever their particular names, they're all so cool, IMVHO!

The Parlor Palm is single stemmed. The Cataract Palm throws suckers from the base of the plant. Often Parlor Palms are grown with several in a pot to give the plant a fuller look.

Hi Dave, thanks for your input! I just went and checked my Chamaedorea palms and the small one appears to be the Parlor Palm (as labeled), it has a bunch of small plants potted together. My two larger ones must be the Cataract Palm because those both have suckers coming from the base. I'll try to get some pictures later.

I picked up palm s=DS in Italy and grew them and got this. Med. fan palm?


Then this may be a cataract palm. I have had it several winters. And it goes out for summer



I have kept Lady palm on my wish list after reading Geoff Stein write about them.

Fabulous! Especially love the underplanting of pretty purple Oxalis as the base of the top one!

Thanks! It works out well. The oxalis does go dormant when the pot comes in for winter. then goes WHOOSH when spring comes. I pulled some oxalis bulbs out when I repotted this spring, though it still looks full. And with the regularly spaced rain we're getting this year, the leaves are really huge on the oxalis.

I repotted my biggest/oldest pot of palms last weekend but it was too rainy to take a pic until yesterday.


I repotted the one with companions too, from my orig post.

they look good. The rain down there sounds awful

TYVM! The rain is welcome! For 5 weeks, there was none at all. So much cooler when it's raining too. I did have a trick trek home from work the other day though, some flash-flooding caused some detours.

The 1st pic in my last post - that pot has been out in the rain all week. Palms love that.

When winter threatens to show up, these 3 sprouts will be my newest potted palms. I just noticed them a few days ago & put rocks around them to make sure I don't step on them.


Whenever I see ripe palm seeds that I can reach on a tree in a public area or already on the ground, I grab some. I have no idea which gathering the seeds that yielded these sprouts were, but YAY! I'm so happy to see them! They're not necessarily hardy here, most of the seeds I've found in FL, so these will be potted... well, at least 2. This is not a bad spot for a palm & it could be a hardy one...

FUN! they look like the ones that were a fan palm I got in Italy. But maybe many other palms start this way as well.

A 4th sprout!

Tiffany!! What palms are those sprouting? They sure look like the things I yank out of my yard all the time. One of these days I might have to pot a couple up to see what they turn out to be.