Did you happen to catch this amazing piece in the New York Times about Ceroxylon quindiuense, the rare Andean wax palm? It’s the story of some botanists chasing down the last remaining stands of this tree, which is native to the cool, misty slopes of the Colombian Andes. Fascinating stuff!
Also fascinating: This palm can grow and thrive in only a few places in the world, and one of them is here in coastal California, even in the coolest, foggiest parts of the California coast. We grow Ceroxylon quindiuense ourselves for your home garden.
Our cool coastal humidity (Karl the Fog in San Francisco, June Gloom in Los Angeles!) makes this cloud forest palm very happy, which means we can grow it successfully in our gardens. The two palms pictured above, in the San Francisco Botanical Garden, actually produced flowers in the summer of 2019; they are believed to be the first Ceroxylon quindiuense to flower in North America.
Another fun fact: The SF Botanical Garden recently planted 50 small specimens of this palm in their new Celebration Garden, and we grew them all ourselves down on our farms at Grubb & Nadler Nurseries!
We obtained seeds from Quindío, Colombia, right near where the NY Times article takes place. We planted them in 2016, and after 14 months of germination, they were ready to transplant. Our crop of 1-gallon Ceroxylon quindiuense is now gorgeously thriving! Here’s a snapshot from the farms:
Once it’s grown, Ceroxylon quindiuense has a long, feathery leaves and an elegant ringed trunk with a pure white color that stands out beautifully in a lush green garden.
Jason Dewees, our own horticulturist and author of the award-winning book Designing With Palms, was fortunate enough to travel to Colombia with the International Palm Society to see the few remaining wild specimens of these trees in their native habitat. Here are a few of his photos of Ceroxylon quindiuense from that trip:
Jason’s group viewed these trees in the Cocora Valley, Quindío, Tolima, and Tochecito, where they saw the tallest palm in the world (196 feet!).
We grow this exquisite rarity ourselves on our growing grounds at Grubb & Nadler, and sell it in 1-gallon size (which looks like the babies on the production cart photo above) when we have it. The plant list at the end of this article shows which of our stores has it today.
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