Blue
Ribbon-Awarded Palm
May,2000:
Cyrtostachys renda (lakka): SEALING WAX
PALM
The Wise Gardener's choice for
MAY's BLUE RIBBON Palm is Cyrtostachys renda, or Sealing Wax Palm!!
Your Wise Gardener did NOT have to think about
this particular month's palm candidate more than a mere 4 minutes, to select it
the winner!! The choice was rather easy, indeed!! The reasons are two-fold:
UNUSUAL COLOUR, and EXOTIC FORM.
 Feast your "palm-lovin' eyes" on the photograph
at right and see this species fabulous attributes: the
incredible RED colouration of its "lush" clumping trunks!
Wowie! Yes, palm lovers, they are the colour of
antiquities' sealing wax!
Some also refer to this lovely Zone
10-11 palm as the "lipstick palm" for obvious reasons! It
requires much moisture and much dappled sun! (Its origin is the understory forests
of Malaysia and Borneo.) Our specimen is planted on the eastern side of our house,
next to the wall. Here it can feed off the latent heat radiated from the concrete
exterior wall on the coldest of nights, thereby giving our "sheltered" red
sealing wax palm a VERY beneficial micro-climate, approximating Zone 11-B!
 An added
bonus for our specimen is that it's planted within four feet of the home's A/C unit
heat-pump, which releases warmer air (than the surrounding ambient air) from the condenser
coil. This keeps a warmish breeze blowing around and through it, to keep any
potential "frost" away from it! The result is a palm, subjected to no cold
minimum winter evening temperatures, much below 45 degrees F.! This is a VERY HAPPY
palm, at eight feet tall, (and four years old), that should not look anywhere as good as
it does at our "semi-tropical rancho"! Remember, this is Zone 10!!!
Red is one of the rarest
colourations in a palm trunk. The sealing wax palm is a king among
the palms': "Royal Family"! Its beauty is without rival and one's pride in
ownership of cyrtostachys renda NEVER wanes!
Yes, sealing wax palm is more than worthy of Blue Ribbon Palm
of the Month honours this
MAY, 2000!
Paul, "The Wise
Gardener!"
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