Kentia palm
Also called Thatch palm, Sentry palm, Paradise palm.
| Light | low light |
|---|---|
| Water | Every 9 days in the growing season, every 18 in winter |
| Pets | Cats safe, dogs safe |
Source: ASPCA Animal Poison Control, toxic and non-toxic plants list.
The kentia palm comes from Lord Howe Island, a speck in the Tasman Sea a few hundred miles off Australia, and grows wild nowhere else on earth. Seed from the island has been exported since the Victorians, who filled drawing rooms with it because it survived gas light, coal smoke and cold rooms when nothing else would. It is still the palm to choose for a dim corner, and it is still slow: two or three new fronds a year is a good rate. That slowness is the whole trick, because a plant that asks for very little can live for decades in conditions a faster palm would not tolerate for a season. Like every palm it cannot be pruned into shape, since each stem grows from a single tip, and a pot that looks full holds several plants rather than one branched one.
Ailments observed
| Brown tips on otherwise healthy leaves | Dry air, fluoridated tap water, or feed salts. Use rainwater, flush the pot with plain water every few months, and raise the humidity. |
|---|---|
| Fine webbing between the leaves | Spider mites in dry heated air. Rinse the whole plant under a shower monthly, which prevents them as much as it cures them. |
| Yellow leaves at the bottom of the plant | An old frond dying back, or waterlogged compost. One at a time is normal. Several at once with wet compost means the roots are drowning. |
Questions from the margin
Why is my kentia palm growing so slowly?
Because it does. A kentia makes two or three new fronds a year in good light and fewer in a dim room, and that slowness is exactly why it survives conditions that kill faster palms. It is not a fault to fix.
Filed underPlants for a room the sun never really reaches, Plants that will not poison the cat, Plants that forgive a beginner, Statement plants
Neighbouring entries
Areca palm
Dypsis lutescensAreca palm care that keeps the fronds green, with how often to water, what browns the tips, why spider mites arrive, and how big it really gets.
Parlour palm
Chamaedorea elegansParlour palm care for a shaded room, with how often to water, why the tips go brown, and why you must never cut the growing tip off a stem.
Chinese fan palm
Livistona chinensisPleated circular fronds that split into drooping fingers, a slow tolerant palm for a bright corner and a large pot.