We bought a potted palm about 5 years ago, and it started blooming for the 1st time a few days ago. The weird thing is that it only blooms at night, and the blooms are VERY fragrant. While IANAGardener, this seems unusual to me. Are night blooming palms common? Is it common for a palm to only bloom once in 5 years?
And what type of palm is this? (Sorry, I don’t have a picture.)
It is about 6 ft tall now and maybe 2 - 3 feet wide.
The trunk is woody or bamboo-like.
The leaves are 12 - 24 inches long; They are gently tapered, and about 3 inches wide at the widest spot. I seem to remember that the center of the leaves (longitudinally) is a lighter green than the edges of the leaves.
The blooming part is a stem about 18 - 24 inches long, which would probably have stuck straight up if the palm was outdoors, but is now laying on its side (pointing towards the light). The stem has several ball-like things with a lot of nubs on each ball. Each nub opens up into a small white flower. And like I said, it only seems to bloom (and be fragrant) at night.
It sound like it could a Dracaena fragrans to me. These plants are not related to palms in any way, though they have a lovely tropical appearance. As for not blooming in five years, indoor plants often bloom less frequently than plants in their natural habitat. Many will grow happily without blooming at all.
The link shows a plant with striped leaves, but they also come in plain green, or with less pronounced striping.
Ding, ding, ding, I think we have a winner! Yes this looks like it. Everything in that page’s description fits. It also says that those grown indoors rarely bloom. But then, that doesn’t take my wife’s mega-green thumb into account.