| |
From
|
|
|
India to Thailand
to China
|
 |
|
|
| |
Roland through
the jungle by elephant
|
|
|
|
Much
reading pleasure by this newsletter of Tropical Centre, with already
more than 500
members!
| Palms |
Through
several trips to India in the past for our garden
statues and the Chinese contacts Roland made at
his trips
for the Wushu
sport, we made a palm round trip through
India, Thailand and China with the help of these contacts.
Especially to see the Trachycarpus
Manipur and Trachycarpus princeps and also to visit
some nurseries we work with.
Although these are not the traditional tourist attractions,
a
visit to the stone gate or Manipur is no problem with
the proper preparations. In Manipur you easily meet other
plant enthousiastics, but in China you hardly meet foreigners.
The city Bingzhongluo can be reached easily with public
transport and from there it's only a short stop to the
desired Trachycarpus
Princeps! In Thailand we visited the nursery of Ruud
Meeldijk, which will be known by most of our readers.
|
|
| Trachycarpus
manipur |
|
|
|
|
Trachycarpus
Manipur (the official name is
Trachycarpus Ukhrulense) is named after the city Ukhrul in the region
Manipur. This palm grows in the most remote corner
of India, the Himalayan ranges of
the Burma boundary. Here it grows on grassy or rocky
slopes around
1800 m (6200 ft.) altitude. The climatic condition
are a average sub-tropical climate of 23°C, in
winter time it can drop to 0°C with a maximum of
-3°C.
This palm is some cold tolerant and there are no wellknown
sources yet how low it can go. But on those hills
a lot of smaller and other plants are growing
like the rose (Rosa gigantea ), which has proven to
survive minus -9°C .So Trachycarpus Manipur is
a very promising and quite cold tolerant palm that
will
be best suited to temperate and subtropical climates.The
Manipur palm grows to 15 m tall with a naked trunk
and full straight. The leave stems are covered with
small thornes which are unharmful. The downside portion
of young plant leaves is a white bluish, by older plants
the leaf is powdery white and its upside is fully green.
When the new form of leaf starts the white powder is
at maximum. It is not identical with the Chinese Trachycarpus
princeps, which is much more beautiful in appearance,
the leaves of princeps have a bluish blue color on
top and the princeps palm has no thorns on its
leave stems. The manipur leaflets are more stiffer
and numerous, the stem more sturdy and not blue, and
overall it seems coarser than T. princeps.
At
the time only available as 2-year old plant, trunk
5-8
cm, total height 35-45 cm: € 10,00.
For the foreign members: at the moment we are selling this new
palms wholesale
through
Europe, so probably it will be available in your country
soon.
|
|
| Trachycarpus
princeps |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
Trachycarpus Princeps is a quite new palm. In 2005
we finally made a trip with some Chinese friends to
Kunming to the city Bingzhongluo in China to
see the Trachycarpus princeps. This palm grows
along the Salween rivier or in Chinese "Nu Jiang" (Angry
river) and it is also known as the stone gate palm were
it was discovered. But in fact this palm not only grows
on cliffs but has a bigger area and grows actually
in the "Nu
Jiang" area in several small populations. The stone
gate is just a part of that area. The princeps palm
is covered with a thick pure white waxy substance, which
easily differentiates it from other species. We spoke
some locals about the temperature in wintertime and it
has enormous differences. In daytime it can be 13°C
and at night as low as -6°C. These are the
temperature from below and not from the mountains, which
have a height
from 1000 to 6800 mtr above sea level. The
upperside of the leaves has a special green color with
a blue
blush (when dry!). There are some disagreements
about the color, therefore we added the last photo.
This photo is our princeps with a Brahea Dulcis on
the background
which
has
actual
the
same leafcolour. Decide
by yourself what it is... for us it is not green! Specific
winter experience is not wellknown, -15°C has been
proven,
but this short experience is no garantee! So a very
promising palm and the most beautiful suited for outside.
Warning: because
incorrect seeds of this palm are being
sold, there is confusion of what the trachycarpus princeps
really is. The difference is obvious: the upperside
of the leaf of the real princeps is not green
but blue bluish, and the white wax underneath is even
to see by the leaves of young plants, and the growth
is totally different. Several nurseries sell the completely
green
palm from the wrong seed as "T. princeps RPS" or "T.
princeps green form" (not as "unknown palm RPS").
This confusing will keep on for a while. It is
not known what kind of palm this really is and if there
is a
relation with the princeps. As long as this confusion
exist, we as a professional company take distance from
al of these selfmade names.
Coming
March, Tropical
Centre brings in cooperation with f.i. Golden
Lotus ten thousands of the real Trachycarpus princeps
palms worldwide on the market. No more
worries of bad germinating seeds, expensive seeds
or not real princeps, you soon can buy the
real one for a reasonable price.
1-Year
seedlings: € 14,00.
For
the foreign members: as we bring this new palm
on the wholesale market coming March, the trachycarpus
princeps will probably be available in your
country soon also!
|
|
| New!
Only at Tropical Centre: winterhardy Bali statues! |
 |
|
|
|
.
|
Through
own production only available at Tropical Centre
and it's retailers.
These detailed statues are 100% winterhardy! Unlike
the original statues from Bali which are not that winterhardy.
These temple guards are available in left and right version,
and also a pillar is available
(see below).
Hanuman,
which means "Broken jaw",
is the monkey warrior and personal guard of Rama.
Statues of Hanuman are used as Guard by temples and
other important buidlings.
Weight
approx. 20 kilo.
Height:
65 cm
Price: € 165,00
|
| |
| Companies:
also available for retailers! |
|
| New!
Only at Tropical Centre: winterhardy Bali pillars! |
|
|
|
Through
own production only available at Tropical Centre and it's
retailers. The original pillars from Bali can freeze and
break, but through our own production we now have a 100%
winterhardy detailed pillar available.
The pillar exists of 3 parts, with holes for f.i. electricity
cables for the Balinese lamps.
Weight
for all 3 parts: approx. 30 kilo
Height: 60 cm
Price: € 165,00 |
| |
| Companies:
also available for retailers! |
|
Till the next time....in 2 or 3 weeks... with
our extensive and beautiful yucca-newsletter!
Roland en Sandra Smeets
|
