Thanks, Mike, that's good to know. I was hoping the growth rate was similar to regular T. fortuneii, which seem to do really well for me in my climate.

I did notice my fortunei grow slower and sulk when it gets hotter outside but the Waggies seem to keep growing. My waggies seem to tolerate the heat better then fortunei as long as I keep the soil wet.

I agree with Mike,very much comparable to T.fortunei growth rate in my experience,my T.wag is already opening its first leaf of the spring!

I have both plants growing outside here in Connecticut- both seem to grow about at the same rate- tho the Wag is a bit slower when very young. This past winter was tough on both plants- the Wags leaves where mostly toast- and the Fortunei has much damage to leaf ends.

This past winter was actually milder then the winter of 07-08- but the damage was worse. Strange- perhaps some absolute lows where colder.

The two palms are now uncovered- thus far no spear pull-
they should recover as they usually do, and produce many new leaves. Most plants have over a foot of trunk.

Sorry to be a contrarian, but in my limited experience, waggies are much slower compared to fortunei. I only have 1 waggie which has been in a pot for 2 years, but it has barely grown. I bought as a 1 gallon 2 years ago and is now maybe a 3 gallon size. My fortuneis which were bought in liner sizes at the same time are twice as big.

Not sure about "much" slower, but having grown both, I wold agree that T. wagnerianus is a bit slower growing than T. fortunei. But I think the slow growth is also partly an illusion; since the leaves are smaller, its growth is simply less obvious. It puts out fewer leaves in a single growing season than T. fortunei, but since T. fortunei produces much larger leaves, it looks like it's growing more.

BTW my waggies took a pretty bad hit this past winter, for reasons I still haven't figured out. Likewise my "Bulgarian" T. fortunei--all the above had spear pull (first time ever for my waggies, after 7 years in the ground!) and major foliar burn, but my T. "takil" a.k.a. "Nainital" had virtually no damage at all, and its spear is already unfolding.

Here are some photos, taken back in February; the palms actually look worse now because most of the damaged leaves have turned brown, but I'm hoping they will recover. T. fortunei "Bulgarian":

Waggie:

Closeup of leaf and spear showing damage (this spear pulled a few days later):

T. "takil" (compare to waggie on the left!):

denninmi
So you were the one who outbid me :P

I bought a trachy from the same seller you did a little over a year ago and it pushed out about six or seven leaves in that time. That is, until a couple weeks back when it complete defoliated for apparently no reason :'(
I'm hoping this summer's heat will bring it back to life...

A Trachy is as a Trachy does,my T.princeps,T.fort and T.wag all put out five new leaves last year.I think the only real answer to your question is,the fastest is which ever grows the fastest.

Takil or Naini Tal?Takil is more rare than any other Tracky here in the states,there are people on e-bay that are still selling "Takil" even though they know the seeds were from RPS a few years ago,Martin Gibbons has confirmed that all these seeds sold as Takil were actually Naini Tal,which is still a great palm!just not Takil.

DZ,very cool if you have one!
Going back to the T.fort vs. T.wag debate,as of mid July,I have a Naini Tal that had spear pull last Nov,totally defoliated by spring but now is putting out it's 5th leaf,a T.wagxfort("hayes stiffie")going on the 4th leaf(also with spear pull in Nov,did not defoliate)and my favorite Waggie is also putting out it's 5th leaf.Last year my Naini Tal,Fortunei,Princeps and Wagnerianus all put out 5 leaves,you can definitely tell if these are healthy/happy because they grow when they are.

So far I have found waggies to be much slower growing--either in containers or in the ground. Mine is due for a transplant (tomorrow) so will see if it picks up the pace (it's a lot younger than any of the T. fortuneis I have so this may be a factor).

Jimhardy, do you know why you had spear pull in November? I would think spear loss is more typical in Winter or Spring (if cold was the factor and not excessive moisture).

It was a combo of cold and moisture and my not protecting when I should have.It was late in the season and I was to busy and did not keep the rain off them.We had a late season warm spell without much cold before,temps were in the 70s in early Nov,followed by rain and then it got colder then projected into the upper teens,this caught a Waggy,wag/fort and Naini Tal out,I should have covered them to keep the rain out.Later in the season while they were covered they handled single digits easily,they just did not have time to adjust.

I planted Trachycarpus wagnerianus from seed and now it's been exactly 3 months, but none of the seed germinated yet. I suppose trachys are slow germinators.

I planted one waggie last fall. Don't know what gallon size it was but it had a root ball the size of a picnic ham. I got another one from the same seller about a month ago - the same size as the one I planted last year. Looking at them together, I'd say the first one I planted has pretty much doubled in size over this past year. They're sneaky that way.