Kentiopsis oliviformis

Kentiopsis oliviformis is a single trunked palm from New Caledonia, still uncommon in Australian landscapes, and only one of our farms grows it. The trunk is smooth and clearly ringed with old leaf scars, with a defined crownshaft and a compact head of arching pinnate fronds. The detail that sells it is the new leaf, which pushes out with a bronze to reddish flush before hardening to deep green. It is used as a feature palm in courtyards, resort plantings and protected atriums, where one clean trunk is the point.

What this New Caledonian palm needs

New Caledonia gives it warmth, humidity and consistent conditions, and that is what it expects here. Frost is not an option. Wind is the other limit, because exposed fronds shred along the leaflets and the compact head that makes the palm worth planting stops looking neat. Soil should be deep, open and rich in organic matter, mulched heavily, with drainage that carries storm water away rather than holding it around the base. Subtropical gardens from northern New South Wales up suit it, and further south it belongs under cover. Mulch heavily and keep the surface covered, because a bare, baked root zone under a young palm sets it back further than most people expect. The failure mode is a naming mistake. People buy it as a substitute for the kentia palm, Howea forsteriana, which it is not: a different genus entirely, and the kentia is the one that copes with dark corners and cold. Put a Kentiopsis in that position and it declines by degrees and never recovers. Treat it as a warm climate outdoor palm and site it accordingly.

Not a kentia, and not a lipstick palm

Cyrtostachys renda is the other palm here bought for colour, but it colours in the crownshaft and stems, it clumps, and it will only grow in genuinely tropical conditions. Kentiopsis colours in the new frond, stands on one trunk, and works through the subtropics, which is a much larger slice of the country. Pinanga coronata is the choice if you want mass and a thicket of canes filling a bed and softening a wall; Kentiopsis is the choice when a single, upright, formal palm has to hold a courtyard on its own and be looked at from every side. Larger specimens live in mature trees.

Fronds, spear and palm feed

Remove only fully brown fronds, cutting clear of the crownshaft, and never cut or pull the emerging spear. Over trimming green fronds to tidy a palm up is the quickest way to weaken it, because the older leaves feed the new ones. Old frond bases are better left to drop on their own than forced off, which scars the trunk. Feed a complete palm fertiliser with potassium and magnesium in early spring and again in mid summer, broadcast over the root zone and watered in. Orange flecking on the oldest fronds is usually potassium shortage rather than disease, and it will not reverse on the affected leaf. Keep mulch topped up and clear of the trunk base.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 3 sizes, from 300mm up to 110L, priced from $179.00 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. Every size here is established stock rather than a starter plant, so this line is intended for immediate effect rather than for growing on. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.