Power plants

1 Palm

For its second comeback the kentia has thrown off its ’60s and ’70s connotations of Queen Victoria and the Empire. Now we’re loving it for its tropical elegance. And it hails from the Pacific Islands, no less, being endemic to Lord Howe Island, a dot in the Pacific between here and Australia. Relatively slow-growing, throwing up one frond a year, it seldom reaches more than 3.5 metres in captivity. Full sun tends to burn its leaves so give it bright but indirect light, and treat it right by giving it a shower in the rain now and then.

: Kentia is for William Kent, 18th-century English