Brahea armata - Blue Mexican Fan Palm tree

Brahea armata is a fan palm with beautiful stiff blue-grey leaves. In summer the palm flowers down with many cream-coloured flowers on long branches, followed by spherical fruits. The plant grows fairly slowly, likes to stand in full sun and is moderately hardy. Very distinctive and attractive plant with large, blue/grey fan leaves. It grows to 12 m in height. Natural habitat is Rocky canyons, north-western Mexico and California. Prefers full sun in a dry, very well drained situation. It is frost resistant, and established good sized plants have been known to survive -10C, or even to recover from lower temperatures when damaged. It grows slowly but steadily and once established is one of the most beautiful and sought after palms in the world.It reacts very badly to being dug from the ground so it is important to buy pot grown specimens where possible.