Family Arecaceae
Originating from Mexico, California

• Stunning white/silver/blue evergreen architectural foliage
• Great for Mediterranean and contemporary gardens.
• Hardy and easy to grow in southern and coastal regions and in pots.

The large silver-blue leaves of this palm have a dramatic and sensational impact. Their colour is exceptional and is matched by their stiffly held architectural fan shapes, emerging from a basal mound, clad with dark brown leaf bases at first, which slowly thickens to form a smooth grey trunk up to 40cm thick. The new leaves emerge as a spike, like a folded fan, and gradually unfurl to reveal their tough pleated palmate shape with leaflets.

The architectural impact of these palms cannot be overstated, they look stunning in large pots and grow happily in them. Their colour border on white/silver when grown in strong sun and nothing can match them for use in a monochrome planting scheme. They are well suited to planting with all spikey plants, such as yuccas and agaves, aloes and cordylines, as seen in the photos of ours growing in the Mediterranean display beds at Urban Jungle Suffolk.

Huge 4m long inflorescences bearing hundreds of individual creamy white flowers are produced on mature plants, although this is rarely seen in the UK. Hardy in all but the most central and northerly gardens, and easy to grow in full sun, and all but heavy wet soil.

Height and spread after 20 years 2.5m x 2m.