Growing Broadleaf Lady Palm Or Fan Palm In My Garden

My Broadleaf Lady Palm or Fan Palm has been with me for about 18 years. When I first received this baby palm, it was only about 15 cm (6 inches) tall. It was so precious to me that I placed it under my porch, away from direct sunlight. I took good care of it but it seemed to hardly grow even though it stayed healthy and green. At that time, I did not know that it was slow growing palm.

Broadleaf Lady Palm and Fan Palm are its common names. Its scientific name is Rhapis Excelsa. Fan Palm grows well in moist soil with good drainage. Poor drainage will cause browning or spotting on young tender leaves and if the soil is left as it is, it will cause root rot.

Fan Palm are easy to grow. It grows well when placed in semi-shady places, away from direct sun. It can be grown in the ground as a landscape plant or as indoor plant in homes, offices and malls. It can adapt well both outdoor or indoor. As indoor plant, the plant will grow slower. It does not need much fertilizer.

The leaf of Broadleaf Lady Palm are like "fingers" spread out. The end of leaf are like jagged edge of a saw.

The lower part of the palm is covered by coarse brown fiber.

Propagation of Fan Palm is through suckers. Suckers are not easy to remove or cut. I did remove a sucker once when I re-potted the whole plant into a bigger pot. After getting the whole plant out of the previous pot, I slowly remove the soil around the suckers and using a sharp knife to cut it off from the connecting root.

The leaves of Fan Palm can be used for flower arrangement.

The new leaf grows up like a spear from the centre of the plant and it will slowly spread out like a fan.

This is the upside of a Fan Palm leaf. This leaf has 9 "fingers". Some has 13 to 15 "fingers" or more.

This is the underside of the leaf.

So far, caterpillars is the only problem for my Fan Palm.

These caterpillars eat the leaves and use part of the leaves to wrap and to nest in. Sometimes there will be very tiny black droppings of the caterpillar on the floor too.

This is the caterpillar enclosed inside the curled up part of the leaf. Usually if I see tiny black dropping on the floor tiles, I will look out for the curled up leaves and cut off and throw away the part with the caterpillar.

I will cut off the horns of all the wicked,

but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.

(Psalm 75:10, New International Version-NIV)