ADONIDIA - VEITCHIA MERRILLII HYBRID

There is an interesting story behind the plants I’m showing you here. About five to six years ago, we got some seeds from a botanical garden that were labeled as Veitchia merrillii (aka Adonidia merrillii). The seeds we got were thought to be pure Veitchia merrillii. The seeds germinated but about half of the plants produced didn’t appear to be pure merrillii. It ends up that these different plants are a hybrid of a Veitchia merrillii crossed with something else. And, they were showing much better cold tolerance. Most likely it’s with another species of Veitchia that are more cold tolerant. This is to our customer’s benefit as this means perhaps they can grow these and end up with a smaller palm that resembles V. merrillii. These should tolerate full sun. Cold hardiness is unknown but should be below a freeze. We only have a few left. I have no garden photo of this hybrid mature as no one has ever done it before as far as I know. If we were to guess, this is a cross with Veitchia arecina as they were the closest palm of the same genus nearby.

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