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Hi I’m a Hong Konger born and raised there. We see banyan trees like how Americans and Europeans view oaks. I loved plucking the tree “beard” when I was a kid but I think everyone in Hong Kong have tripped over those pavement roots atleast once in their life😂. They’re so iconic tho idk what they were thinking when planting them in tiny roadside holes. Almost all of them are Chinese banyans (ficus microcarpa) but we also have many other native fig species. Too bad I can’t grow them in my current climate, thinking about it Hong Kong was really a tropical plant heaven…

Are they planted in groups like roebellinis? Is that a majesty behind?

Here’s a better photo to illustrate the watering bulbs. You can control watering speed by plugging the bottom of the tube with sphagnum. This helps the water slowly absorb into the medium rather than spilling down your wall.

I should've started this in January. Well another week pushing Texas further into drought, but it looks like things are going to change this coming weekend, at least for me. Currently predictions are showing rain on Saturday and into at least mid next week. Get those spring gardening tasks done, as it it looks like things are going to get muddy.

Platycerium have been remarkably easy indoors for me provided their light and water requirements are met. A big breakthrough was using glass, open top watering bulbs to provide adequate moisture without removing the mount from the wall. Once properly set up, you can water at will with zero drips or potential for wall damage. Much easier to hose them down in the greenhouse (Honolulu) but for indoor plants, this has made my life sooo much easier!

A rupicola is a statement tree and more sun tough than butias. I had a butia in arizona, the summer sun was tough on it, it obviously yellowed on a number of the older leaves, it loved winter though. A Phoenix rupicola is a very tropical looking, very sun tough palm. I planted mine because of how beautiful they were at treeland in chandler arizona. They are good to a cold 9B, maybe a warm 9A. I have a triple, its a big statement but you can see this shot focuses on one of them. They never look pale or yellowish. Even now we are in a severe 5 month drought (we are only allowed 1 water day a week) they look happy. Rupicolas are subject to a 6 month dry season in habitat. The ones in arizona looked just like mine, bright green.

Update: clearing a bit of mold in one of my containers. This is why sterilization is important.

How about the coco queen?

If that is the only way to get seed from the lonely female , and you are up for it , go for it. I don’t do any of that here in my garden , but it isn’t because of ethics ….I’m lazy!😂. If I get seeds , it is all Mother Nature , let her do the work. Harry

If one were to take the lows that sabal minors have endured at the Denver zoo, multiple times at or below what the 1 time event in Knoxville, that a needle palm endured, sabal minors are the clear winner. End of story.

Sometimes planting in Fall or Autumn is nice . A bit cooler and still time to get settled before cold weather. I didn’t wait for Spring to add soil/ refresh container for Ernie . Yesterday I lifted him out of his pot , not root bound but soil disappearing. I added a few more pebbles to the bottom of the container along with a mix of potting soil and perlite. It seems Ernie likes to “eat” soil, hmmm. Harry🤔

November 2017 pretty bedraggled garden going in. Couple Years later... Couple more again... I will post recent photos and additional photos of the aftermath of the "Fatal Florida Freeze" in the next day or two.

At least 2" here last night, isolated storms popped up late in the afternoon, almost like it was August, and one of them sat over us for a long time. Hopefully more on the way for a wider area, lots of moderate rain chances showing in the 10 day.

Beautiful! Yes , it takes time and effort . It shows at every turn . Harry ”A garden is a show of faith “

Here are some photos of our garden starting with a blank canvas in November of 2017. We had relocated back to the states from Central America because of our parents bad health. We had originally planned to settle around Cape Coral but our dog Lucie, who we found abandoned in the rain forest, and returned with us as a souvenir discovered PSL and that was that! She has since become a real saint and is in heaven now! October 2017

Couple more photos from my garden. This one is taken the day before the catastrophe. Similar photo below taken today, 3-2-26 The brown tree in the background is a Mango. I am increasingly optimistic that the Wodyetias will pull through. As an aside, all of the Earleaf Acacias around here (they are everywhere) are defoliated and/or burned. Not sure if they will recover, but most likely will. I was going to post more photos but my camera skills pale in comparison to my wife's abilities. She took photo #1 on her phone, I took #2 this morning on my kindle so you can see why I choose to regroup. She has graciously agreed to document the carnage with me tomorrow morning. Once they are downloaded, I will continue the documentation.

Breathtaking, Richard. I would also take several walks there; every time you see something new and every moment is different.

Got 1.07" of healing rain Friday night. There's hope Delilah ☺️

Not a big wet summer, but some good showers in spring and early summer, I would say it only dried out for about a month, it was the thunderstorms that saved us, that and the good rainfall in spring that soaked the ground well.

Had a great germination of H. coriacea over the last couple months. I’d read they can be difficult to germinate but this lot did a great +/-90% germination of a selection of 100 seeds, over about a three month period of warmish treatment. I’m doing a bit of a trial to see how many I can get through the first winter. Same with the medemia (100) to see if I can lure out a couple survivors which are a bit more cold and wet tolerant. Interesting ‘corkscrew’ root on some of the hyphaene. Who’s had success in cooler climes with hyphaene?

You would not be learning how to grow if you never challenge yourself. All my horticulture knowledge has been self taught from reading books and working in the horticultural industry. And after all the years I have been working with plants I only became a qualified horticulturist last year and as a high school drop out, iam quite proud to say I have become a horticulturist. And that was a personal challenge for myself. Plants are easy to grow just think like a plant does!

So Krete is the place to be. Korinth looks to be be a scorcher during summer.

My experience is the same here in Atlanta. I don't know if Rhapidophyllum wants to be dry in the winter or if it's an issue of seed source. S.minor seems bulletproof; sun-shade, wet-dry, it doesn't matter.

Has there been good rainfall this summer?

HEIC format is not really supported, try JPG.