Flame Thrower Palm Chambeyronia macrocarpa hookerii

The hookerii form of Chambeyronia macrocarpa is grown for one event: a new leaf that opens glossy red and holds that colour for a week or two before hardening to deep green. Below it sits a single ringed trunk, a swollen crownshaft and a compact crown of stiff pinnate fronds with broad, leathery leaflets that arch rather than weep. It is a New Caledonian rainforest palm, and gardens use it at close range, beside an entry, a path or a courtyard seat where each flush is actually seen.

Shelter is most of the job with this one

Grow it in tropical, subtropical or mild frost-free coastal gardens. In habitat it germinates under rainforest canopy on nickel-rich ground, and the garden equivalent is a pocket with overhead protection, deep organic soil that drains, and a mulch layer kept back off the trunk. Cold dry wind, salt-laden gales and heat bouncing off paving, glass or a rendered wall all scorch the leaflets, and a scorched frond stays scorched for as long as the palm holds it. The failure mode aims squarely at what you are buying the plant for: the emerging red leaf is soft and unhardened for exactly the days it is coloured, and one afternoon of hot wind or hard glare in that window turns the flush into a brown-edged rag. Plant it where a wall, a fence or established canopy takes the weather off it, give the crown clearance so fronds are not rubbing brickwork, and keep lawn and competing roots off the root zone.

Named form against seedling stock

The obvious cross-shop is Chambeyronia macrocarpa itself. The species is variable from seed and plenty of seedlings push a bronze or coppery new leaf rather than a true red, so the hookerii line exists because growers select for the strongest colour. If the red flush is the reason you are buying, take the named form. If you want the palm mainly for its build and treat colour as a bonus, the straight species does the job. For colour that is there every day of the year instead of a few days at a time, teddy bear palm carries a permanently furred rust-brown crownshaft, though it is a larger plant built for an open garden bed rather than a sheltered corner. Larger plants sit in the semi-advanced range.

Feeding for colour, pruning for the crown

Prune almost nothing. Take fronds off only once they are fully brown, cutting close to the crownshaft without nicking it, since a wound there can let rot in. Never shorten green fronds to tidy the plant, because the crown carries few leaves at a time and each one is funding the next flush. Do that work in the warm months so cuts dry quickly. Feed with a controlled release palm fertiliser carrying magnesium and potassium, once as the weather warms and again in late summer, spread over the root zone rather than against the trunk, then renew the mulch. Colour intensity follows plant health, so a fed and sheltered palm flushes more convincingly than a hungry one.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 5 sizes, from 180mm up to 160L, priced from $70.95 to $1099.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.