Does anyone grow Trachycarpus/Chusan Palm, and could you talk to me about it?

[SarahAndQuack]

As it says on the tin.

Do you rate it? Any pitfalls? Any advice?

I've got one. I bought it about 20 years ago when it was about 12 inches high, and it's grown to about 30 feet high now, albeit with quite a restricted root run.
It needs very little maintenance, - we used to trim off the leaves as the died off, but we can't reach them easily now so don't bother. It also produces sprigs of seeds which fall off by themselves as they get old.
It seems to be extremely hardy and doesn't mind any cold weather we get, and didn't even react to the Beast from the East a few years ago.

Very hardy, fine with getting very little attention. I occasionally hack off the side shoots. Move it with leather gloves on because those spines are no joke! They make my skin itchy.

I inherited one with my house, dug it up from shaded dense clay soil, now it's been in a 45cm pot for the past 4 years or so. It hasn't grown much (probably from about 75cm to 1m), so I'm considered putting it in a bigger tub. But I like a nice ceramic pot and don't want to spend £££, and at least I can still move it around fairly easily.

Thanks both, so much! Whereabouts are you?

Mine needs to go into clay/rubble soil in the North East, but a sheltered garden. I think it should be ok, but it's good to have word of mouth.

Sheltered garden, south east. It doesn't get that cold here usually but it has survived a week or two of snow. RHS says it's H5: hardy in most places throughout the UK even in severe winters (-15 to -10).

I'm in in South West. Mild and wet here generally. Clay soil , but its got quite a restricted root area on one side due to existing retaining walls.

I’m in North Northumberland, mine is in a sheltered spot by a wall and does fine but not grown massively over 20 years. Looks great! Have bought a second one this year (a B&M bargain) for an even more sheltered, south facing site. Confident it will do well.

Thank you so much, all!

I was worried because the RHS says 'Needs protection from strong or cold drying winds and will need protection from hard winter frosts,' and I skipped straight over the H5 rating!

I'm so glad to know it can cope with clay. And the slow growth is not a problem!

I shall now feel much more confident.

We planted one in our old house over 25yrs ago.
Good sunny spot between the shed (which sat on proper concrete foundations) and the path, it thrived with the only real care/maintenance being the trimming of lower frongs and (the ugly) seed pods.
Nowadays I look on Google Street view and see how it is now towering over the garden, if we were still living there I would have to consider if I still wanted it.🤔

Planted one in our new garden 3yrs ago (same location and garden is orientated the same way), clay soil and it is going great guns.
Based on the growth rate of our old one, this one will be getting too big just as we are turning up our toes.😆

Well, it's in and planted and I am really pleased with how it looks - hopefully it will thrive, and the client will be happy! I really appreciated all the reassurance.