All Activity

I had a low of 37.6F this morning here in Melbourne. Happy new year to everyone

34.2F in the backyard here, with medium frost around 7:30. The frost built quickly to around 8AM to almost snow-like consistency on all the roofs.

No, too strong wind locally. I know my limits.

This reminded me to check my ‘Fayetteville’ seed batch. It’s been in the baggies too long. I think about 5 weeks. Transplanting these out today to 4 inch pots.

Where I live in South Central Florida, we grow coconut palms, but farther north in some locations they do not grow well. I believe in Florida many times it’s the cool nights and days rather than extreme temperatures in the 9b to 10a locations that makes it harder for them to do well. I’ve never lived in California, but I have looked at the temperatures at night and many 9b to 10a places do not bottom out to extreme temperatures but what I am told Coconuts do not grow well in many locations there. If you live anywhere that you get extreme frost, most likely coconuts will not live there because they do not recover well from that.

yes. As @Las Palmas Norte and @ZPalms said, the seeds will have a mix of genetic traits passed on. Best thing to do is keep collecting seeds and growing them out. Find the ones with exceptional hardiness, and continue. Plant Delights has a few 100 of these seeds right now, doing just that. I’ll be excited to see if it makes it in their catalog eventually. btw - they just release a few new batches for 2026. Their Sabals are a great use of $30. Most all are 4 years old prior to being sold.

35F this morning. Not expecting frost or freeze here for at least the next 7 days.

I would say’ A alexandrae and I don’t think it’s A cunninghamiana because of the color of the crown shaft. I have grown A myolensis and I don’t think it’s that either. The other ones I don’t have much experience with or at least I don’t remember growing any. Also, some palms grow skinnier when they grow closer together, especially when young, so you can’t always go by the thickness of the trunk to determine it species.

It did here kind of, the tempest with a cold bias hit 31.8 for 3 minutes with an hour at 32. Light frost on the plants in front but not a lot. Damage remains to be seen, there was some in November but after some chill I'm hoping for less this time. The spindles will look terrible if not🤞

Welcome to 2026!

There's no such thing as too many Silver Saw Palmettos. I have a few, but would like to start using more of them. You're welcome anytime.

Have you ever tried a kerriodoxa elegans yourself? I bet you did!

Can't believe I hadn't seen this post so far. @mnorell the way you structure your description of your cocos experiment is perfect. Step by step, with all the necessary info, to the point.. great source of knowledge. I bet you had good grades in writing at school!

Interesting what your take is on those Pacific Talls from Let's Grow Florida. I bought and imported two of those coconuts and I am growing them here in Southern Greece. Green Malayans Dwarfs are grown to about 1.5 - 2m in a massive greenhouse up in the Netherlands and sold as temporary landscaping / temporary houseplants all over Europe in large quantities. Ikea sells (we finally get an Ikea here on my island this spring) what appears to be a Yellow Malayan Dwarf and, somehow, examples of these are managing to make it through multiple Mediterranean winters - even colder ones than mine. We were supposed to go to Jamaica October 30th and I had plans to bring back a Jamaican Tall and a couple of Maypans but the vacation got cancelled when Melissa struck 2 days before, so we ended up in Thailand instead. It would be nice to have had a Jamaican Tall and been able to compare to what I have from Let's Grow Florida - I've been to Jamaica several times but never really paid that much attention to coconut shapes until recently. That said, I am extremely pleased with whatever these two cocos are as they happliy take full sun during our hot and arid summers (>45C / 113F) and came out remarkably green and intact compared to the sun-battered and yellowed Green Malayans Dwarfs I've been playing with over the years. I've only recently been able to get the dwarfs through winter by keeping them in pots and giving them shade in the summer and full sun in the winter, with the intention of putting them into the ground when they can take the sun. Though, I'm not sure the dwarfs ever will. They really are wimps. Our winter has been warmer than usual. We have had daily highs of >20C (68F) up until about 3 days ago. I marked the spears for the first time on all three cocos last Monday and was surprised they all put on some growth since then. My Malayan Green pushed its' spear about 1 cm (.4 inches) but the Talls only pushed about 2 or 3mm. In summer time, the Talls clearly grew at a faster rate than my dwarf. Coconut diversity is definitely the key to finding a coconut that works with a particular climate. Only this spring I learned I can bring coconuts into the European Union without any need for pytosanitary certificates, so I want to get my hands on as many different varietie as possible. When spring comes and I am sure there is no chance of coconuts freezing to death waiting to change planes up in Frankfurt, I will be bringing a bit more variety of cocos from India. An exporter there sells sprouted coconuts for 0.15 eur each. Looks like he gathers all extras from farmers in his area and, as you can see, there seeems to be no lack of diversity:

Very hard to make a positive ID from the photo, but I’d say it’s not A cunninghamiana. In general A cunninghamiana doesn’t retain green on the trunk and the crownshaft colour is more olive green and speckled. Leaflets are generally not quite as wide as other species or held as flat. The 90 degree twist I’ve found isn’t a reliable trait as other species sometimes have it, but that being said I’ve not really seen many A cunninghamiana without it. This looks typical of A alexandrae to me. I couldn’t rule out tuckeri, maxima or myolensis from the photo either but they’re just much more unlikely.

I can bring Bizzy , sabal uresana, or silver saw with me too. Let me know

NICE ! I’d like to fit in a tour sometime this spring. 😎✅

I've seen palms that were labeled ... incorrectly. Even after pointing out the error and some brief talk about the differences, 3 weeks later they were still mislabeled.

For me it’s Bentickia condopanna. 1gal to a very full 7gal this year. I’ll follow up with pics. Away from home and hope last couple nights didn’t damage it too much under tree canopy @ 34 degrees. I’ll know tomorrow and follow up here.

Dang, didn’t know radiata grew that quick ! Good job

Looks good. I got some decent sized Yucca that way once.

These don't look good and with 3 months until spring, I'd be looking at plan B. Washingtonia seeds are cheap and fast. In the mean time, nurse these along as best you can.

You all have been so helpful! It’s an exciting time to be pushing hardiness with more hybrid palms coming into availability.

I’ve just joined here this year and found it to be a great source of knowledge plus experience to fuel my own drive. I’ve been collecting for 20 years but kinda put my hobby on hold while my kids grew. They are teens now and accompany me to palm society meetings. Great folks and we stick to plants as conversation (which i really appreciate). I don't often scroll the topics but rather i see Palmtalk posts when I’m google searching to learn about new species. I have great optimism that at least 100 species can survive long term where i live and perhaps more than you think will survive in Oviedo.. I agree not all post are for me and i contribute when i think it can add value. If i see pessimism about a species i wish to share success stories that I’ve had. Not to brag but to model determination and patience needed sometimes. I sometimes see folks say ‘Don’t waste your time’ as a reply to questions about zone, etc. and this reminds me of typical social media where i don't care to spend time. I think to myself , don't waste YOUR time discouraging someone who’s a curious learner😊 Feel free to check in with me if you have species that you are questioning. I dont mind sharing what i know. In my service i visit from Orlando to Sarasota to Spring Hill so i see what going on with palms over a pretty wide area and visit as many gardens as i can. Check out CFPACS (Central Florida Palm and Cycad Society) for nice day with plant folks and we have an auction with donated (by attendees)plants at the end of the event. I really appreciate the group and wish i made the time to start involvement earlier. I’ve looked at these last couple years as self directed education for my field. Good Luck in 2026 to yourself and the rest of you PalmTalkers /PalmListeners

Still right at 38. Foggy and damp it's insane humid. Dewpoints are very high its holding the temp up from dropping. I don't think we will go below freezing tonight.