PlantFiles: Solitaire Palm
Ptychosperma elegans

To whom it may concern,I successfuly grew one Palm from seed,indoors cause Switzerland dont have the sweet tropical weather of Florida or Southeast Asia.
Was not complicated at all,no special soil or fertilizer was required,only pacience,planted the seed and after a few months could see the little Palm leaf growing.(25C is the temperature whole year inside my flat).)
My pretty Palm is now 8 years old and reach the ceiling,so I sadly must give to a neighbor with more space at home (indoors)
I imported the seeds from Thailand personally and gave some to friends who also were successful.
If possible I will upload a photo and hope this modest note incourage other potential amateurs Palm lovers.Al

This palm does well in Southwest Florida and is very common in street, residential and commercial plantings. Readily available at retail stores, it is often incorrectly tagged as "Alexander". Often seen in double or triple trunk form.

I am in a northern rural suburb (old orange grove) of Tampa 12 miles from the GOM and have had a double in the ground for about 7 years. The largest has about 5' of clear trunk and is flowering profusely now. This past Jan we had a 29 deg advective freeze(the 1st freeze since Jan of 2003) and it did not even spot, not a bit of leaf burn and this was completely uncovered, no protection...to my pleasant surprise. You see them all over coastal areas west of me and all over Sofla. About 5 feet away a Dypsis Cabadae had about 30% burn but is ok now-same with my Arch. Alex (true King).

This beautiful palm is extremely common here in Ft. Lauderdale (and justifiably so...).

A fabulous palm with zero problems in my climate. They are fast growing, cheap, and self prune- if you are thinking of a Queen Palm do yourself a favor and get a Solitaire instead!

This is one of the only 'hardy' Ptychosperma species by So Cal standards... it can handle temps into the high 20F range without any problems. It is a pretty fast growing palm here and makes a great landscape specimen if keep out of the high, drying cold winds we get in the fall. It has arching leaves with wide, premorse (bitten off at the ends) leaflets). This is one of the few solitary Ptychosperma species (most sucker). It has many similar cultivational requirements as the common king palm.