Hey, what's up garden and friends? Jeff your tropical plant party. How's everybody doing? I hope you're good. I am Great doing some things out here. I don't know when this video is going to come out, but right now I'm trying to get my plants ready to be picked up and go off to a greenhouse for winter storage So I'm scrambling to get videos filmed on the plants that won't be here this winter to talk about the Alexander palm This is one I've wanted to talk about for a long time. Just get putting it off So I thought it'd just pick up the camera. We could do a little plant chat talk about the care But still gonna keep it kind of casual. Alright, so the Alexander palm. This is a tachyrosperma elegance goes by the name king Alexander palm Alexander palm and the solitaire palm because it typically is grown with one truck Just to straight up narrow pole they have very slender trunks naming wise because of that Alexander name and then king Alexander oftentimes they The name gets used interchangeably with the arcanthrophenics Alexander a Which is a very different palm and has different growing requirements That's not what we're talking about here. That's why I made sure to put the light name up there These will reach anywhere from 20 to 25 feet tall. They are tolerant of fairly low light conditions But I would still say they do best with moderate or medium light Full sun when they get larger when they're smaller the they'll scorch a little bit more easily with too much direct light on them They like an organically rich well-drained potting media that'll hold on to some moisture for a while But not stay soggy because that'll cause the plant to arrive don't want that to happen for best growth and best appearance in the plant Don't let the soil dry out at least nothing more than the top probably enter to of soil That would be kind of the max on that one of course during the winter months you want to reduce the watering I'm talking about indoor care here I personally consider them to be a moderate to a fast growing palm tree They appreciate regular water regular fertilizing with an all-purpose pump fertilizer something like that Keep it consistent every couple weeks to once a month during the growing season and then that's something to go ahead and pull back on During the winter months when the day links are a lot shorter. You like some humidity So there may be some brown tips some discoloration on the foliage if there's not enough humidity in the home being said Just like another plant keep it away from drafts hot or cold They're just direct air blowing on the fronds. That'll increase how much brown you have on those tips The reason I wanted to talk about the Alexander palm is because I get asked fairly Frequently what some of my favorite palm trees are to grow indoors that have that fun shrunked appearance on them This is this is it this is my favorite now most commonly the adenidia palms the Christmas palms Those are what we see sold I think more frequently in the nursery trade as far as house plant palms go that have a fun trunk on them Like the two you see I have the two down here. I have several of them They're fun palm trees, but I think that they are much more of a pain to grow indoors in the Alexander palms For one the adenidia palms they grow a little bit more slowly They prefer a lot more heat adenidias are less forgiving of cooler temperatures They need a lot of light they prefer a good amount of humidity if you want to have nice robust Trunks on the plants. They realistically an adenidia palm is only going to look good indoors for a few years Unless you have a like humongous windows or an atrium something like that Of spot where you can provide a really good amount of light and warmth the solitary palms Though they do prefer a warmer climate. They are more suitable for being kept in the home They're not going to be as fussy when they don't have the high humidity and the high heat and they don't need full sun The bigger they get the more light they're going to want and of course watering needs to be adjusted based on how much lights a plant get And these are smaller they can take I would say low to medium light But you're still going to get the best growth out of them with medium to bright light I still would avoid direct sun with them until they've reached a considerable size probably over six to eight feet tall It's when you used to scorch almost every time it got brought outside during the spring But once it reached about I'd say eight feet tall somewhere in there It stopped doing that it didn't need anywhere near as much of an adjustment period It was much more adaptable to just taking the sun I know it might be looking at this and thinking Jeff what the hell are you talking about who can fit this in their house Well, here's the thing. Okay, I've had this one for really really long time That they don't get this big overnight you get one in a three gallon container You have easily a decade probably until it's pushing out from an eight foot to ten foot ceiling It may be like seven years. It just depends on how fast the plants growing because that's going to vary Depending on the amount of light and heat and water and those things on that note of watering these plants I water this plant a lot Of course more in the summer than in the winter time mean during the winter time I don't water it at all because I no longer have it in the winter because it doesn't fit my house anymore The years when I did have this in the house I made sure the soil stayed consistently moist even during the winter time I would never let the soil drought more than maybe the top two inches. That's about it They're not exactly drought tolerant. Oh, that's something that they do have in common with the Edanidia palms But the difference here is that with an Edanidia palm if you keep that consistently moist in your home And it's not like 80 degrees with tons of sunlight. They'll just rot and die Okay, that's not fully true. I'm being a little bit hard on that Edanidia palms Train get that out of the way. There we go These still I can't get the full thing into frame like I said I've had it a long time. It's done a lot of growing over the years I've had this one for maybe I want to say like eight to ten years somewhere in there It was probably I don't know five and a half to six feet tall when I got this plant And I know it looks like it's like it is it's a gigantic plant I've only had to repot the plant once and it can stay in the pot that's in for a very long time Palm trees are notorious for enjoying being somewhat pot bound The solitary palms can go a very long time without needing a new pot However, I do still make sure to pull some of that surface soil every spring and amend it very heavily With a nice nutrient rich potting mix that's been mixed with some organic material like compost hum as something like that That just that helps buy some time in between Repotting the plant right now. That's in a 36 inch pot and the pot is roughly if 32 36 inches tall. So that adds three feet to it So while the plant looks absolutely massive because it is and you got to subtract three feet from that So I'd say in the time I've had this palm it's roughly doubled in size and just like any of this You can't see that the bananas are in the way indoors They're going to be prone to spider mites potentially melee bugs My pool just turned off so that's probably going to be kind of weird in the audio Don't know what happened there There's a ghost in my filter provided they get the right humidity and airflow spider mites aren't as likely to be a problem But that's something you can handle fairly easily by spraying them off using horticultural oils and things like that to treat them I've never had any pest problems with these but again, they haven't been in my house in like Four years I would say it's been about four years since I was a little fit this in the house Whenever I repotted it because that's when it stopped fitting through the door I mean now that wouldn't fit that definitely wouldn't fit my ceiling either In summary, this is probably my favorite of the trunk palms Yes, mine is very big So it probably doesn't seem like the best thing to recommend is a houseplant There aren't a lot of palms that have that smooth trunk to them with the rings that stay smaller and do well indoors There's always bamboo palms the myon palm Maybe an option But still they just they don't have the same appearance and there are a fair amount of palms that will stay smaller and have any look and trunk on them Those palms are typically ones that like a lot of heat and humidity and moisture and just don't make the best houseplants I wouldn't necessarily say this one makes the best houseplant It compares into something like an edinitiapom which are the ones that are sold most commonly At least here in the US as houseplants these are definitely a better option Don't get me wrong. I think edinitiapoms are adorable It's like they're probably one of my favorite palms it just as far as cuteness goes But as far as growing them indoors, they just they're not the best Like I said unless you have lots of light and warmth and can give them plenty of water They tend to fizzle out after a few years Whereas the Alexander palm These much more tolerant of the indoor conditions But are some of your favorite palm trees to grow in the house This in general just palm trees are just houseplants they would ever want come it down below I love talking everybody The lighting is horrible today so I apologize for video equality But I just found out that the people who take the palm trees the way you're coming tomorrow Like they just told me so I just I had to get this done I might get a ladder out and see how high I can hold my tripod up to get some better shots Yeah, I can figure that out the magic of editing Oh and the mine has some burnt fronds on it That's just last year's growth it hasn't fallen off the plant yet That's basically what happened the place that I store the plants That's that's that's they did that It just happens the Alexander palms and the edinitias they both do this They're old foliage it tends to just kind of fizzle out and brown off And over time it'll collapse down and fall down on its own All while flushing out with nice lush new green growth Anyways hope you all are doing well Having a great day and a great life and everything's just going beautifully for you And of course as always and most importantly everybody Keep on growing Bye bye