Lady Palm Rhapis excelsa

Lady palm clumps rather than forming a trunk. Slender canes wrapped in coarse brown fibre push up from the base over years, each topped with a fan of broad, blunt-tipped deep green segments, so the plant reads as a leafy screen rather than a palm silhouette. What sets it apart is its appetite for genuine shade, which most palms merely put up with. That makes it the standard answer for a dark side passage, a lightwell, an atrium or an indoor pot away from a window.

A palm for the dark side of the house

Grow it in shade to part shade, indoors or out, in frost-free gardens or in a pot anywhere it can be brought under cover. Water is moderate, with regular attention through summer, and the mix or soil needs to drain freely rather than stay soggy. Growth is slow and stays slow, so a clump thickens over years instead of racing anywhere, and buying the size you actually want is more sensible than waiting on a small plant to get there. The failure mode is direct sun. Exposed canes bleach to a sickly yellow-grey and the blunt segment tips scorch brown, and on a plant this slow that damage sits in front of you for a very long time, because the marked leaves are replaced at the same unhurried pace as everything else. Do not shift a shadehouse-grown clump straight into an open courtyard, and be wary of a west-facing window indoors. Trimming a scorched fan to shape does not help either, because a cut segment simply browns along the new edge and stays that way.

Lady palm, kentia or a Licuala fan

Against kentia palm, the split is shape and purpose. Kentia gives height and a single slim trunk, so it lifts the eye in a tall room, while lady palm spreads at eye level and blocks a view, which is what you want in a side passage or between two buildings. Against mangrove fan palm, the other clumping fan palm here, the difference is climate: Licuala wants tropical warmth and humidity and marks in cold, while Rhapis copes with dry indoor air and cooler southern conditions. If the space is dark and also dry, lady palm is the one of the three that will not sulk about it. Compare the whole shade group in the palm range before choosing.

Thinning canes, washing leaves, feeding lightly

Prune in spring as growth picks up. Cut the oldest, tallest or shabbiest canes out at ground level rather than shortening them, since a topped cane never regrows a crown and stays as a stub. Remove badly marked leaves at the base of the stalk. Feed lightly with a controlled release palm fertiliser in early spring and again in mid summer, at half rate for pot plants, and skip winter feeding entirely. Wash the foliage down every few weeks indoors, top and underside, which is the practical control for spider mite in heated dry rooms. Repot only when the clump is truly congested; it grows better slightly snug than swimming in fresh mix.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 10 sizes, from 140mm up to 200L, priced from $21.95 to $2639.00 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.