All Activity

One of the first palms i planted on my property, in a very similar manner to be used as a pioneer canopy palm, and that affect was created. There was thousands of the palms in this area!

Yes it makes no sense. The one palm did have some kind of health issue but apparently cutting off all the fronds was a quick and inexpensive way to deal with it. This was at a highway exit ramp so probably done by TXDOT.

It appears the jury has come to a verdict, male!

I found them quite easy and satisfying to germinate as well. I was given some fresh seeds at the palm society sale at Fairchild Botanical Gardens in the Miami area back in November and all 5 germinated within a month. I used the baggie method and one grew up so quickly that it punctured a hole in the baggie!

I can see this one falling into the dypsis complex category, going as far to say dypsis sp!

Nice little project you got going there congratulations! They take cool temperatures around 2 degrees Celsius in my climate, no frost though. Don’t overwater them as seedlings.

@gyuseppe and @Phoenikakias are correct. I will say a boy and a girl, or if you want to get technical staminate and pistallate flowers!

Oops, sorry Tim, I stuck an ‘e’’ in your last name. Tim

The one on the left yes. The other one on the right I think it is too early for any assessment.

Male

Here are some photos of one of my favourite palms the Carpoxylon macrospermum!!! Definitely one of the easiest palms for me to grow from seed. They only took 2 weeks to germinate outside when our nighttime temperatures in September where dropping to 18 C or 65F. I brought them inside once October came and the nighttime temperatures started going down below 15C or 60F, and they didn’t skip a beat. I made sure the soil has super good drainage, they practically grow hydroponically. Soil composition is a mixture of sphagnum moss, zeolite (To help keep the nutrients), pumice, perlite. I will fertilise them when the heat comes back. I will try leaving them outside next year. I am curious to see how cold hardy they will be here in Ibiza. At 4 months old.

i was pruning some of the taller canes out of this diminutive palm which was acquired as Dypsis soanieranae about 5 or 6 years ago. After searching for info, it’s obvious that’s not a correct name. One reference even said it is extinct. Anyway here are a few photos of an interesting little palm which hopefully can be identified. I think its a Dypsis, but that’s as far as it gets. I’m hoping that some of you Dypsis sleuths can parce this one out. I’m talking to you Hilo Jason and the other Tim, Mr. Brissey. Thanks. Tim

M. sinclairii was thriving for many years (I'm guessing it probably still is, though I don't remember seeing it on my most recent trip) at the Huntington Gardens in San Marino (adjacent to Pasadena), California. A summer-hot/dry (high temps in the 90s) area with excursions into the 100s. The specimens there always looked good (at least in my memory) over the years...so I think there may be something other than some hot days that would cause problems for this species. I would expect, like some other NZ plants, that they could dislike warm night temps for long periods. Or perhaps related to drainage or substrate selection (see the article below). I had one for several years in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, which is cooler in summer than Pasadena/San Marino and it was trouble-free as I remember. A really wonderful plant, IMHO, and a shame that it isn't widely available. I suspect it may have had its heyday in California in the 1950s and '60s (the Evans & Reeves days) and fell out of circulation over the years for changing tastes or grower/availability reasons, and I'm sure there are a few hiding around in surviving tropicalesque SoCal gardens from that period, and it of course has been a coveted collector's plant in more recent decades. According to the San Marcos Growers info page for this species (which Tracy mentioned above), the variegated form was introduced by the USDA in 1925 and recommended for both Florida and California...I wonder if it has been cultivated successfully in Florida with the region's very warm nights...I certainly don't remember ever seeing one there. The following is a short article I found In a January 1899 edition of Tropical agriculturist and magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society: MERYTA SINCLAIRI. [sic] (THE PUKA TREE.) In reference to the very interesting letter of My. Boscawen’s in our last issue, we may now cite the following passage from Kirk's Forest flora of New Zealand:—“ This noble species is one of the rarest plants in the world, being restricted to a few individuals growing on one or two small islands near the northern extremity of the colony; its leaves are larger than those of any other plant with entire leaves in the New Zealand flora. It does not occur on any part of the mainland. In 1869 Professor Hutton and myself visited the Taranga Islands, where we bad the good fortune to find a few trees which had long been known to the Maoris, when a description was published in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute.* The plants found at that visit were confined to old Palaeozoic rocks on one of the small islands of the group. Mr. Robert Mair has recently discovered a few plants on another island; and T. F. Cheeseman has found a single plant on the largest island, which is entirely volcanic. The plant forms a small tree from 12 feet to 25feet high, with stout branches; it is charged with a peculiar resin in all its parts, and the bark is easily wounded, producing large callosities as it heals. The leaves are alternate, crowded near the extremities of the branches, and carried on long leaf-stalks, which vary from 4 inches to 14 inches in length, the blades being from 9 inches to 20 inches long, many of the leaves were 30 inches long, including the leaf-stalk, and from 4 inches to 10 inches broad, equally rounded at both ends, or slightly contracted below the middle, with the margins slightly waved, and strengthened by a remarkably stout marginal nerve. They are of a thick texture and bright-green colour. The male and female flowers are developed on separate trees, and are arranged in panicles from 8 inches to 16 inches long at the extremities of the branches. Meryta Sinclairi is of great value as an ornamental tree, and is easily cultivated in Auckland, Taranaki, and Hawke's Bay, but_is unable to resist the light frosts experienced at Wellington. It is easily propagated from seeds, and, under cultivation, makes a handsome symmetrical tree, very different in habit from the somewhat naked irregularly-branched trees on the Taranga Islands. The finest cultivated specimen is one raised by Mr, Justice Gillies from a cutting brought from the Taranga Islands in 1869. Its present height is 25 feet, the trunk is 4 feet 8 inches in circumference, and the spread of its branches 28 feet. Meryta Sinclairi is only known with certainty to be found on two or three islands of the Taranga group, opposite the entrance of Whangarei Harbour, in the province of Auckland district. It is reported to grow on the Poor Knights, further to the north, and may possibly occur on one of the Three Kings Islands, about thirty miles from the North Cape.” A specimen of the tree, 3 feet in height, is now in the Temperate House at Kew.—Gardeners’ Chronicle, Nov. 19

Why would they cut most of the fronds off? That's literally abuse to the palm. I understand getting that kind of haircut near powerlines which obviously makes sense

Jason, that’s always a ‘feel good’ story for me and I remember that day like it was yesterday. It was so cool that we lived within 5 minutes of each other. Tim

Geese Troy, it looks perfect! Tim

Flawless!! Well done!

Gona be funny when the new hardiness maps drop everyone a zone.

Thank you Scott. Only thing is, they're a bit broader leaved and show no red or bronze color even though they're situated in full sun.

Rhopalostylis baueri $20/50; $30/100 Rhopalostylis baueri v. "cheesemanii" $20/50; $30/100 Chrysalidocarpus baronii $25/50; $35/100 Pritchardia minor $25/50 Archontophoenix cunninghamiana $15/100 Archontophoenix alexandrea $15/100

The Minuvida garden in January. Everything growing well with daytime temps mostly in the mid-60s and nights in the mid-50s.

Lawn/leaf 30 gal. paper bags are best to protect small palms. They protect from cold and wind. Large palms: wrap them in whatever you can, old blankets, large cardboard boxes, etc Avoid unbreathable plastic.

After 42 long days, the Trachycarpus ravenii seeds from Rare Palm Seeds finally arrived at my address 🌱 A total of 200 seeds, of which 50 belong to my friend. I soaked my 150 seeds in water just now. It will be fascinating to follow their development and observe which characteristics they express over time — growth rate, cold tolerance, phenotypic variation, and more. The journey begins now.

That’s an incredible amount of rain. The landslips have been on the news over here. Terrible.

I need to plant more Archontophoenix to create that same look. A beautiful place. Thanks for the pictures.