Kentia Palm Howea forsteriana

Kentia palm comes from Lord Howe Island, where it grows under rainforest canopy in sandy, coral-derived soil with salt wind moving through constantly. The habit is a single slim trunk with a small crown of dark green fronds arching outward on long stalks, and growth is slow, so the plant you buy stays close to that size for a long while. Deep shade is not something it merely tolerates, it is what the species was built for, which is why it remains the standard indoor and shaded courtyard palm.

Growing an island understorey palm in a pot or a courtyard

Outdoors it needs a frost-free position, and it is best suited to coastal gardens where humidity is steady and the air is mild: courtyards, lightwells, atriums, the shaded side of a building, or an understorey planting beneath established trees. Shade to part shade is the brief, water is moderate, and growth is slow enough that patience or a bigger pot are the only two options. Soil should be free draining and sandy rather than heavy. The failure mode is water, and it kills more kentias than anything else. A plant sitting in a decorative cache pot with no drainage, or in a mix that has broken down into sludge, loses roots quietly over months, and because the palm is slow the decline reads as a mystery rather than as rot. Let the top of the mix dry before watering again, tip out anything standing in the saucer, and repot into fresh open mix instead of feeding a sick plant. The second trap is sun: stock raised under shadecloth burns badly if it is dropped straight into an open position, so shift it in stages over several weeks.

Kentia, lady palm or ruffled fan

Against lady palm, the difference is shape and job. Rhapis clumps and screens at eye level with fan leaves, while kentia gives you a true palm silhouette and height on a single trunk, so it is the one for a tall room, a lightwell or a courtyard where you want the eye lifted. Against ruffled fan palm, the difference is climate: Licuala needs tropical warmth and humidity to hold its leaves in good order, while kentia handles cooler southern rooms and mild coastal gardens without complaint. It also sits in the feature tree range at specimen sizes.

Light feeding and minimal pruning

Cut off only fronds that have gone completely brown, taking the stalk back close to the trunk, and leave anything with green in it. Do not trim brown tips into a point, as the cut edge simply browns again. Feed lightly during the warm months with a controlled release palm fertiliser, at half the label rate for plants in pots, and stop over winter when the palm is barely moving. Wipe the fronds occasionally indoors to clear dust and to catch spider mite before it establishes, and hose garden plants down in dry weather for the same reason. Large containers often carry several plants set together as a clump, so treat that pot as one plant when watering and feeding.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 17 sizes, from 200mm up to 1000L, priced from $52.95 to $22439.00 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 choosing a tree for a small backyard.