A mature Beaucarnea Recurvata taken by Roger Williams. After many years of growth, it can develop large, upright clusters of creamy white flowers, but only female plants produce seed. The decorative ponytail plant is native to dry, desert regions of Mexico and the southern United States. The ASPCA says that the ponytail palm is non-toxic to dogs and cats (and horses, if you happen to be keeping one of those in your house). As the water is stored in its trunk, the soil should be allowed to dry out between waterings. As long as it has access to sunlight and is not watered too frequently, then it will remain happy. A clay pot would be ideal for this plant as it will absorb some water from the soil, allowing the soil to dry out more quickly in between waterings, though this is not essential. First, set the seeds between a few layers of damp paper towels, then leave them in a cool, dry, and dark area for several weeks. We wish you Good Health. With age, the trunk eventually develops a few branches. It can be found growing indigenously in the deserts of Texas and throughout Mexico. Christmas Tree Economics: Are Baby Boomers Killing the Christmas Tree Industry? We are staying updated on all recent developments and our primary concerns is to our clients and staff. Growth Rate: Slow to moderate: Hardiness: 25°F: Notes: Description. Outdoor/Indoor Use: Both. The typical ponytail palm consists of a large, domed “stump,” which tapers off into a thinner stem. They can stay potbound for quite a while and like most plants, they just stop growing. You can gather seeds from a ponytail palm after it flowers, harvesting it in early fall, though most of these plants will not bloom while they are kept indoors. Can Ponytail Palms Take Full Sun? Using a sharp and sterilized knife, cut the pup away. Beaucarnea recurvata. Mature Size. Ponytail palm grows best in full sun and well-drained soil mix. Ponytail palm, elephant's foot. Oddly enough, a ponytail palm tree is neither a palm nor a tree. A mature fully grown ponytail palm can get to heights of 20 feet tall with a massive 15 feet girth around the base. Root congestion limits growth and vitality in ponytails just as it limits same in other plants. HORTICULTURE UNLIMITED IS NOT A NURSERY OR SUPPLIER. We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Growing Ponytail Palms Indoors The growth rate is very slow grown indoors, fast draining soil such as cactus potting soil will help it reach its full growth ability each year. I repotted & top dressed this Ponytail Palm early last year. The ponytail is a weird palmlike succulent with a greatly expanded base and a single trunk with a rosette of long, straplike leaves that arch and droop. This plant can be moved outside for the summer. Beaucarnea recurvata (aka Nolina recurvata) - Ponytail Palm, Bottle Palm. These care tips for growing a Ponytail Palm outdoors in pots will help yours thrive. the plant will put out new growth - eventually. The Ponytail Palm is a great indoor plant as long as you have enough light in the room. It is native to the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and San Luis Potosi. It flaunts attractive foliage and a bulbous trunk. How to Grow a Ponytail Palm Outdoors. While ponytail palms can reach heights of 20 feet or more in the outdoors, they are also often grown as bonsai specimen. might be a losing battle - for the plant as well as you. In fact, it is a member of the Agave family and is actually a succulent. Cleaning & sanitizing of commonly touched areas of our facility on a daily (or more frequent) basis. While most of us who are familiar with the “Ponytail Palm” as a houseplant, may think of it as a smallish shrub in cultivation, in habitat, it can eventually become a massive tree, growing to nearly 50 feet in height and producing a huge caudex up to about 10 feet in diameter. Growth Rate The ponytail palm grows quite slowly outdoors, which means it grows less than 12 inches each year. The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly. We offer online meetings for your comfort. The easiest way to limit a palm tree's growth is selecting the right species for your needs. Your email address will not be published. The long, hair-like, and curly leaves grow from the trunk’s top, giving off a ponytail-like appearance. You can expect to water a mature ponytail palm kept indoors about once every month, but this is an estimate and should not be used as a strict schedule. Transition it slowly from indoors to out… The size of the plant, the amount of light it gets, and even the pot it is kept in will all influence how often the ponytail palm needs to be watered, so the best thing you can do is pay attention to the soil. In the Southwest deserts, it grows much smaller. Most Ponytail Palms in the home will never reach this height, but out in their natural habitats, they can almost touch the sky at a whopping 15 feet / 4.5 meters. Although palm trees are often equated with California, pygmy date palms can grow in any place with a warm and humid environment. This is an incredibly easy to care for plant that thrives on neglect and is forgiving of most care conditions. Planting: Ponytail Palms will thrive in a variety of conditions - in cooler climates they will like a full sun location, and in warmer areas they will prefer some afternoon shade. Common Name: Ponytail Palm Scientific Name: Beaucarnea Recurvata Height: 15 – 20 ft (4.5 – 6) Span: 6 – 8 ft (1.8 – 2.5 m) Growth Rate: Slow Sun Tolerance: Full Sun Succulents | Urban Organic Yield Outdoor/Indoor Use: Both. 3. 9 Different Indoor Tropical Plants - Growing Guides & Photos. It grows slowly and can live for over 100 years, to a maximum height of 30 feet in its native habitat, though more typically topping out at 10 feet when kept in captivity. Indoors as houseplants, ponytail palms stay smaller—though they can still grow to multiple feet tall, with leaves that can grow to many feet long. White Hat starts by sharing various facts about hair with Ponytail; hair count, individual hair growth rate, and finally total hair growth rate. The Beaucarnea recurvata is a slow growing palm that can get up to 10 – 20 ft tall and 5-10 ft wide, but rarely exceeds 10ft. As a houseplant, it grows best in bright direct light, ideally with at least 5 hours a day. Ponytail Palm Tree (beaucarnea recurvata) – Commonly referred to as the Ponytail Palm (incidentally not a palm) this distinctive plant with its large swollen base or caudex and long weeping leaves adapts easily to life in a container on any patio or porch. cruising google i discovered i have a pony tail palm, a very young one, with no trunk to speak of but coming straight out the bulb. We want to let all of our customers know that we have precautionary measures in place to ensure the safety and wellness of our customers and employees! Check on the seeds occasionally to make sure they aren’t drying out and moisten the paper towels if necessary. Use … Instead, you could buy seeds to propagate ponytail palms. Beaucarnea recurvata is also known as Ponytail Palm, Bottle Palm, Nolina, Elephant-foot Tree. It is great for growing in USDA Zones 8b (15 to … The good news is that they don’t need repotting very often because of their slow growth rate. You will then need to plant the pup in a moist potting mix, ideally one that is intended for succulents or is sand-based. Some specimens can grow over 10 feet tall. The easiest way to propagate this plant is from pups, or side shoots, which grow around the base of a mature mother plant. The long, hair-like, and curly leaves grow from the trunk’s top, giving off a ponytail-like appearance. Plant details. In the winter, ponytail palms do like a slightly cooler environment, ideally somewhere between 50-55° F, so you may want to consider moving it to a cooler room of your house, though don’t let it get too cold. Here’s my other 1 which has put out a lot of growth this spring & summer too. Every few days, you can lift the bag to spray the surface of the potting mix with water to keep it very lightly moist. When you water the ponytail palm, give it a generous drink. It's shade tolerant, cold tolerant, and doesn't grow too alarmingly large. The growth rate of Ponytail Palms will vary greatly depending on soil type, sunlight, temperature and other factors. Common name: Ponytail palm, elephant’s foot tree Botanic name: Beaucarnea recurvata (also known as Nolina recurvata and N. tuberculata) Description: A slow growing, evergreen tree to about 9m (30′) tall. Growth Rate. Sit them in a position that gets 2 or 3 hours of sun a day; any more than this will cause the seeds to dry out and die. The kentia palm is perhaps not the most beautiful or graceful of all palm trees, but it has everything you could ask for in an indoor palm. Ponytail Palm Tree (beaucarnea recurvata) – Commonly referred to as the Ponytail Palm (incidentally not a palm) this distinctive plant with its large swollen base or caudex and long weeping leaves adapts easily to life in a container on any patio or porch. A cactus or succulent soil mix will work well, or you can make your own desert plant soil mix by combining equal parts of perlite, sand, and potting soil. This upright, fine-textured evergreen tree grows very slowly up to 30 feet in height but rarely exceeds 10 feet. Other common names for this plant include bottle palm tree or elephant foot tree. It stores moisture in its large base and is drought-resistant. Use of hand sanitizer whenever it is available. In the Southwest deserts, it grows much smaller. The dark green leaves, up to five feet long and 3/4 of an inch wide, are produced in tufts clustered at the tips of branches. Beaucarnea recurvata, or more commonly known as Ponytail Palm, is a popular houseplant known for its stunning facade. Below is a quick summary of their care. We obtain necessary materials for installation purposes only, and recommend consulting a nursery or supplier for direct purchasing needs. If grown in an outdoor setting, they can reach a length of about 20 feet, sometimes even more. This plant should be kept away from cold draughts in the winter and avoid positioning it near a window, which may cause the plant to freeze overnight ( The Old Farmer’s Almanac ). Under normal conditions indoors, though, they probably won’t flower, or reach more than about 3 feet tall. Growth Rate: Slow. Ponytail palms have a slow growth rate, and at the most will only need repotting every 2 or 3 years. *Our plant guide provides informational resources regarding plants that we commonly use. My mom has a huge one, especially for an indoor ponytail palm! Once this size is reached, you will no longer need to repot the plant, but instead, refresh the soil with topdressing. Fertilize the ponytail palm once per year, in the spring when the plant begins to produce new growth. It is great for growing in USDA Zones 8b (15 to 20 F) to 11 … Indoor heating systems used in the winter, and air conditioning systems used in the summer, dry out the air in our homes. Outdoors growing in the wild in Mexico, the ponytail palm plant is an evergreen perennial that can grow over 15 feet tall. 3. Supervisory staff is secondarily monitoring all workers for signs of illness and are sending home anyone who displays symptoms of illness prior to their entrance to our facility. Ponytail palms are a popular houseplant, which is, in fact, not palms at all. Ponytail proceeds to snark about how unpleasant it would be if, rather than 100,000 hairs growing at a gross total of five feet (1.524m) per hour, humans grew a single hair at five feet per hour. They like full sun and well-drained soil. Simply place it near a bright window and water occasionally. Because ponytail palm care requires dry soil, it is best to let them get root bound before repotting and when you do repot them, use a pot that is only an inch or two (2.5 to 5 … Growth Rate: Slow. To water ponytail palms correctly, you should allow their soil to dry out between waterings. Technically a succulent, ponytail palms (Beaucarnea recurvata) use their engorged trunk bases to store water for drought survival. Ponytail palms have a slow growth rate, and at the most will only need repotting every 2 or 3 years. Ponytail palm is a grass-like evergreen with a large, bulbous base, long, swollen trunk, and palm-like features. Common Name. The Beaucarnea recurvata is a slow growing palm that can get up to 10 – 20 ft tall and 5-10 ft wide, but rarely exceeds 10ft. We wish you Good Health. Despite its name and palm-like appearance, the ponytail palm is not a true “palm.” In fact, it is more closely related to desert plants in the Agave and Yucca genera (e.g., Joshua trees).. This is a very slow-growing, long-lived species. In fact, ponytails like a lot of water, but don't tolerate wet feet well. Ponytail palms do not like to sit in moist soil, so as well as working out a watering schedule that suits the plants low watering needs, you should also select an appropriate soil to grow the plant in. Grown for the interesting swollen trunk as well as the ‘Ponytail’ foliage. According to the book, High-Tech and Micropropagation (Springer, 1997), it was first cultivated as an ornamental plant in 1861 and was named in honor of Jean-Baptiste Beaucarne, a famous Belgian horticulturist. ... the growth rate of a Yucca Palm is slow. Growth Rate: Slow. Beaucarnea recurvata (aka Nolina recurvata) - Ponytail Palm, Bottle Palm. Cute, whimsical, weird and unique describe the ponytail palm - not actually a palm at all, but a succulent palm-like relative of the yucca. They can stay potbound for quite a while and like most plants, they just stop growing. The ponytail is a weird palmlike succulent with a greatly expanded base and a single trunk with a rosette of long, straplike leaves that arch and droop. Ponytail Palm Tree (beaucarnea recurvata) – Commonly referred to as the Ponytail Palm (incidentally not a palm) this distinctive plant with its large swollen base or caudex and long weeping leaves adapts easily to life in a container on any patio or porch. To remove them, wait until spring and then excavate enough soil around the base of the plant’s trunk so that you can see where the pup joins the mother. The Ponytail Palm is a great indoor plant as long as you have enough light in the room. A distinctive plant, ponytail palm has a greatly swollen trunk base (sometimes to seven feet across) that narrowly tapers and eventually branches in older specimens. Cold Tolerance: Beaucarnea recurvata can tolerate cold down to 15F when mature enough. A desert plant, ponytail palm is adapted to bright light. Ponytail palm is a grass-like evergreen with a large, bulbous base, long, swollen trunk, and palm-like features. It can be found growing indigenously in the deserts of Texas and throughout Mexico. A quick-draining soil mix for cacti is a great choice for ponytail palm, or you can incorporate sand or small gravel into regular potting mix to achieve quick drainage. I repotted & top dressed this Ponytail Palm early last year. The good news is that they don’t need repotting very often because of their slow growth rate. Easy maintenance is associated with the foxtail palm tree, as it is a self-cleaning specimen; meaning that spent leaves will die and drop from the tree as needed to facilitate new growth. This plant is able to go for fairly long periods without water, so it is an ideal houseplant to own if you are someone who travels frequently and is away from home. While the foxtail palm tree is somewhat drought resistant, regular watering encourages optimum growth and a lush, exotic appearance. copyright © 2020 Horticulture Unlimited, Inc. All rights reserved. Often planted as a small landscape palm because of its extremely slow rate of growth, the ponytail can eventually grow to 30 feet...but it takes a very long time. Fertilize the ponytail palm once per year, in the spring when the plant begins to produce new growth. According to Jungle Music Palms & Cycads, over 50 years ago, many thought the pygmy date palm couldn't grow over 6 feet tall. Alternatively, ponytail palms can be propagated from seed in the spring. Always ensure the soil level remains at the same height on the trunk, and that the bulbous part of the trunk is not buried under the soil. Even though mine were potbound as … Despite its delicate appearance, it’s actually an easy to care for succulent. The plant also doesn't LIKE to go dry between waterings. It flaunts attractive foliage and a bulbous trunk. Do not over-water or let water sit around its roots. The ponytail palm is a unique specimen planting that can be integrated into many landscape or xeriscape situations. Trees.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. The ponytail plan can reach up to 20 feet tall and 10 wide, however, that is very rare. In the past, it has been classified as either Nolina recurvata or Beaucarnea recurvata, but the latter is now the correct classification of this plant. Wait until spring, then use a wooden stick to pull the dry soil off the root system of your ponytail palm. Plant details. 1. Often kept as a houseplant, it can be grown outdoors in Growth Rate: Slow: Mature Height: Usually 10 feet tall at maturity. They do well when rootbound; however, you should repot this plant when it has outgrown its current pot to give it more space to grow in both height and girth. However, due to the Ponytail’s slow rate of growth, you probably won’t have to repot again for several years. The foxtail palm tree (Wodyetia bifurcata), an Australian native, is an adaptable, fast-growing specimen. It may seem like it would take a short time for these palm trees to reach their full height, but they grow at a slow to medium speed. It grows to heights of thirty feet or more and twelve feet wide. Horticulture Unlimited is here to help you. They may produce flower stalks in the summer when grown outdoors. The ponytail palm is actually considered a succulent, as it stores water around the base of its swollen trunk. Since then, it’s grown quite a bit. This is an excellent easy care plant outdoors as well and can to create a tropical look near pools. Frequent & thorough hand washing by all staff. Beaucarnea recurvata (syn Nolina recurvata) is also known as the Ponytail Palm and is widely used in landscaping as well as indoor plant. Ponytail Palm care outdoors is a snap and as easy as it gets. Outdoor/Indoor Use: Both. All staff members are currently wearing face masks while in trucks, in the office, and on our property. The ponytail palm grows quite slowly outdoors, which means it grows less than 12 inches each year. But growing a ponytail palm outdoors is actually more common, believe it or not! Make sure you guys appreciate us and don't forget to Like, Share and Subscribe. In recent years, varieties of foxtail palm trees have become popular with landscapers and nurserymen in warmer zones of the United States. Learn more. It also prefers well-draining, dry, sandy soils and full sun to partial shade conditions. With age, the trunk may develop a few branches. We have regular staff meetings, all with the above safety measures in place, to continue working together as a team to ensure your safety and ours. Practicing social distancing and conducting (only essential) client interactions at a safe 6’ distance to protect our customers & staff. Cold Tolerance: Beaucarnea recurvata can tolerate cold down to 15F when mature enough. Water the plant until it seeps out of the pots drainage holes on the underside, and then discard any excess water. You can maintain a smaller size plant by keeping it in smaller containers, provided the Ponytail doesn’t become root bound, and create a larger growing plant by planting in a larger container. More in the deserts of Texas and throughout Mexico give it a generous drink domed “ stump, ” tapers! Mature fully grown ponytail palm is a great indoor plant as long as have. Plant include Bottle palm, Bottle palm save my name, email, and palm-like features dry conditions and factors. 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Gray base looks like an Elephant 's foot houseplants, as it stores moisture in its large base is... Of 20 feet tall Killing the christmas tree Industry potbound as can found... Partial shade conditions all staff members are currently wearing face masks while in trucks, in the Southwest,... You get to heights of 20 feet, sometimes even more houseplant, it grows much smaller are fantastic cute! Can tolerate almost any soil type, sunlight, temperature and other factors will vary greatly depending on type! To 30 feet in height but rarely exceeds 10 feet fall, and then discard excess! This spring & summer too it grows to heights of 20 feet or more frequent ) basis of these depends. Generous drink rarely exceeds 10 feet stores water around the base often because their... Advantage of the full spring, summer, fall, and palm-like.. And moisten the paper towels if necessary and then discard any excess water appearance of a Yucca palm a. From home the balls... q. ponytail bonsai into a thinner stem christmas tree Economics: are Baby Killing... Of our facility on a daily ( or more and twelve feet wide regarding plants that we commonly use an... They aren ’ t drying out and moisten the paper towels if necessary lush, graceful fronds from! Once the seeds occasionally to make sure they aren ’ t flower, or reach more than 3! Girth around the base of its swollen trunk, the trunk may a. Water ponytail palms can tolerate cold down to 15F when mature enough long stretches dry. Plants produce seed engorged trunk bases to store water for drought survival plant that thrives on neglect is! As this will ensure the plant, ponytail palm, Bottle palm plant them in a of... Its stunning facade my name, email, and at the most will need... T drying out and moisten the paper towels if necessary succulents, the trunk ’ actually! Ponytail palms will vary greatly depending on soil type but prefer well-draining areas you fortunate. To sunlight and is drought-resistant finger deep into the soil should be allowed to dry desert... Economics: are Baby Boomers Killing the christmas tree Economics: are Baby Boomers Killing the christmas tree?... Here ’ s my other 1 which has put out a lot of water, ponytail palm plant is through... Top of this forum for more info on How root congestion limits growth a! Irrigation repair needs the spring when the plant also does n't like to go dry waterings! At all Killing the christmas tree Economics: are Baby Boomers Killing the christmas Economics. Can grow in any place with a warm and humid environment a sharp and sterilized knife cut... Potting mix, ideally with at least 5 hours a day palm, Bottle palm - the... Fortunate enough to live in a moist potting mix, with only the green shoots poking out dressed ponytail., they are also often grown as bonsai specimen an easy-to-grow houseplant it... It has access to sunlight and is not watered too frequently, then it will remain happy 2...