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The elusive and rarely seen early spring, monsoon tease.. Not all the time you see a " cool season " thunderstorm w/ marginal summer - like structure produce a brief ..but very summer - like.. haboob .. Haboob -lite? Mini -boob? perhaps? ha ha.. 3 / 10 /26 ...Right before the " Meltdown " began.. Whenever you hear the term " Virga " in a Wx forecast, this is what they mean.. In this case, it managed to reach the ground.

Yes @Hu Palmeras, it is a very beautiful island. But we did have a little weather after my arrival. I arrived on March 10, then lots of rain. Lots! Saturday, March 14 at 8:30 am the power went out as winds picked up to very intense gusts and rain fell in sideways-blown sheets. We wisely decided to skip our usual trip into Hilo for lunch and grocery shopping. Friends brought a small generator to keep the refrigerator going and we had dinners by candle light.. This lasted through Sunday and finally Monday at 2:30 in the afternoon the power came back on -- but not for everyone. Sleeping at night during the storm sounded like an oceanfront condo with storm waves crashing. The interminable wind and rain had quickly become exhuasting. When things finally calmed, I walked the garden to find big dead, very heavy! ohi'a logs had fallen and broken up into pieces in several places in the garden, but amazingly no real damage. I have a lot of cleanup to do, but am so grateful for friends and neighbors pulling together here to make sure everyone is safe and not stressing too much. I realize how addicted I have become to my devices for weather reports, news, and virtually every kind of information. With no power and no internet we were cut off from the world -- but we could drive into town, buy a delicious coffee from Kohala Coffee Company, and catch up on the essentials, then vacate the table for others in the same situation. Our area had more than 20 inches of rain from Saturday through Sunday but some areas of the island had in excess of 45 inches, and damage from rain was worse on Maui and Oahu. This kind of storm is known as a Kona Low, for you weather buffs out there. 😉 A friend on the Kailua-Kona side said it was the worst storm she had experienced in her 33 years here!

Out in the scrub again running around. Getting in a swim before winter gets here, and as usual bangalows in the wet areas and creek beds. Such a tough palm, but they do like moisture. Even there native habitat some of the leaves can look a bit tatty. So if your plants need is not perfect fear not even in habitat they can appear a bit tatty.

Don't instantly move them to direct all-day sun. Only morning exposure for maybe 2-4 hours to start. See how they do. Gradually shift them to more sun if they are responding positively.

Thanks very much for the replies. I will proceed with removing the 2 trees. From what I’ve gathered from different sources, I also think it’s Lethal Bronzing.

Howea fosteriana and if you like the curved look of the leaf get a bellmoreana. A much better choice for indoors!

First up sack the gardener for cutting of a bit of garden eye candy, they said it years the younger generation are not interested in things like gardening, pidgeon racing or anything outdoors. Heaven forbid nowadays they are only interested in a google pixel addiction, what will our palms become in the future. There will come a day when they will look at botanical gardens and go what are those things growing, that’s if botanical gardens exist in 200 years. Seeds are the future generations and without people germinating them a lot will be lost. Richard

Hook up that V8 you got and haul her out of there, oh that’s right the price of fuel now you can’t afford to that V8 to haul her outta there!

I agree that this is not Sabal Lisa. I may be pulling at straws. It has been this odd color for over a year. Accordingly, it is not cold damage. Perhaps it is a sick Borassodendron as suggested by idontknowwhatnametuse. If it is a sick palm, I do not why Mounts is allowing it to propagate. An enigma wrapped in a riddle.

@Honza the existing fronds look pretty good. It doss look like the older fronds are starting to spread slightly downwards, which can be a sign of an upcoming flush. Mine in the ground here in Florida usually flush twice per year. But in ground is always faster. I use "palm" type fertilizers, similar to PalmGain. Revoluta aren't picky, but will probably want some micronutrients too, especially Manganese (avoids "frizzle top" flushes) and Magnesium (avoids yellow tips "Aurea" effect).

While this particular ridge may back down, ..a little.. and parts of CA / Pac. NW may ..emphasize ...may.. see a return to something " not quite as ridge -y " as we start April, going with our local forecasters ..and current data elsewhere ..a transition to " unsettled " here is quite unlikely. FYI: Daniel Swain will be live again tomorrow at noon local AZ and PST.

Hard to see if there’s an embryo there. Make a clean cut with some sharp pruners. But there’s a pretty good chance that they are viable seeds.

This whole setup is kinda crazy in the western N. Hemisphere. This all got started about 10 days ago. An Omege Block was set up in the far northern pacific ocean. A large cold pull got pulled up under it's eastern flank. This cold pool was dumping heavy rains and snows over SW Canada and down into Washington state. Now when a trof digs back, then it will force a high pressure to form immediately downstream. Well, due to the more wes to east, orientation of that trof over the pacific NW, the high formed up off the coast of california. So now in this configuration, all flow from west to east across the pacific gets blocked up. So the air now has to flow either over or under the north pacific high, then under the pacific NW trof, over the west coast high pressure and then drop down over the midwest. Basically a reverse "S" pattern. This then contributes to two events that happened in that time frame : (1) the massive flooding in Hawaii as that was air having to flow under the north pacifc high, which them got blocked from flowing east because of the west coast high pressure. (2) the cold snap that just dove south to the east the rockies, This was was a downstream streching of the Polar Vortex due to a large pulse of warm air in the high latitudes, upper atmosphere .... courtesy of that north pacific high pressure. So where are we now ? The high that was in the north pacific is abating. West to east flow is starting to reestablish itself there. The huge slug of moist tropical air that was pulled up north from east of Hawaii helped to build this huge high pressure system that is sitting over the SW states. Given the time of year we are in, the atmosphere still has strong flow in the northern hemisphere, unlike the weak flow seen in the summer. With the north pacific flow resuming, that area will see another large cyclone form up and the high over the SW will get pushed to the east, southest and weaken over the next week. Texas will get hot at the end of that process as the high will come over it. After that, in April the patterm changes back to unsettled weather in the west and a warm up in the east as a more typical spring like pattern settles over the lower 48. It was a crazy end to a winter. -Matt

My location won't help much, as there aren't other growers from where I am over here on these forums. And I am aware I am not getting climate-specific advice. Answers will still give me context and reference. I've been able to successfully grow many different species of palm, all following advice/descriptions from growers from other parts of the world and by looking up the species native environment. It's not true you only need advice from other local growers to be able to understand what a plant needs. In this age of online tracking and AI, I am simply not giving out any personal details about myself on the internet at large, and that includes my specific location. Think of that how you please, that is my right. *** Thanks for everyone who offered advice.

That definitely doesn’t have fused leaflets, like Sabal ‘Lisa’ does. As for any variegation, I only see necrotic leaf tissue, and no variegation. Not sure if it’s just my phone or if I’m missing something here, but I see no yellow/white sections in the leaves at all. Can you please point exactly to what you’re looking at?

I'm somewhere between Hawaii and coastal Florida in climatic terms, I would put it. My rainfall is not as good as yours, about half as much as Hilo. I do need to water during the summer, usually daily if it's sunny. Out they go now, and I will acclimate them to full sun and see how they do. Thanks for your help.

I think you're right. I've been reading over what Florida growers have posted on growing these, and Florida is usually a pretty good gauge for what I can and cannot grow (I'm aware inland Florida is different than coastal, and I've counted with that). I'm never gonna get 55º nights here. As soon as April rolls around it'll be 90-95ºF during the day and around 77ºF at night. I have kept them in a growth house which always keeps nights warmer than outside, so it looks like they're moving out now. But it is what it is, unless I throw them into the fridge for the nights, it's never going down to 12ºC/55ºF. Thanks for your input. I will keep them as cool as I can during night time, but it might not be good enough for them (in which case I will try to rehome them with someone who has more suitable conditions). I will look into nicobarica, they look nice although not as colorful. But probably a better idea for me.

I'll add a vote for 'Boyette'. Bottlebrushes usually have quite a short flowering season in spring/summer, but this cultivar is genuinely repeat-flowering. Mine usually flowers 3-4 times per year, sometimes in the middle of winter. It is quite cold sensitive though and probably needs some protection if temperatures are going to be at the low end of z9a. Feijoa and Cordia boissieri are also great options.

I hit 28 degrees the other morning. Forecast was 32. I did put some of my potted tropical palms in the garage for two nights. Also bought some of my copiapoa cacti into the house, though the bulk of them stayed outside I haven't seen any noticeable damage to anything. It prolly wasn't cold enough, long enough. Also, it was a very dry cold. Plus, the day before it hit 97 degrees, so plenty of heat prior to the cold snap. Though it did drop from 97 to 37 in an 18 hour period. Last time we had a sudden swing of that magnitude was back in the mid 1980s. Now back to full on summer for a week or so. I expect April to be a bit wetter and cooler than March, excepting this last cold snap. -Matt

@Merlyn Good luck on the palm recovery. Some stuff seems to respond, and others are past the pale. Now we have multiple gardens that are Darwinian in nature 😁

I have seen the same palm a year ago in the summer and it was the same color. It does have a large look to it.(Borass...) but it definitely is not cold related. The leaves are similar to pictures of Sable Lisa that I have seen, but I can't understand the variegated color.

Mounts parking lot

That looks more like a Borassodendron with cold damage

B. macrantha ( and lunaroides ) are great ..and stay on the smaller side. B. forficata is another good option too. B. purpurata might suffer some cold damage during any colder winters, but typically bounces back. If it succeeds, Hong Kong Orchid ( B x blakeana ) should be trial- able. Have seen pictures of Desert Willow growing in Colorado ..so cold shouldn't be an issue.. Wonder why Eric had issues w/ any he'd tried.. While you usually find them growing along seasonally flowing washes, plenty of specimens growing next to permanent ponds / lakes in neighborhood parks here that i've never seen being effected by such a " wet " placement. Cultivar you mention is nice ..and stays at a reasonable size.. ..and doesn't set tons of seed like others can. Type in Desert Willow Palmtalk " nd you'll find tons of shots i've posted through the years regarding the various color forms seen ...everywhere.. here. Agree, don't see why x Chitalpa should have any issues there. Texas Ebony is fantastic. . Big, woody pods it can drop aside, I really can't find a fault w/ that tree. While it might get nipped during your cooler winters, esp. when younger, imagine it should push out of any damage quickly w/ any heat afterward. ...If it is still there, there is a HUGE specimen growing ..very close.. to the shoreline of Sarasota Bay at Selby Botanical in Sarasota. No doubt it probably taps somewhat salty water from the bay yet doesn't seem to mind that one bit. Was a little surprised myself when i first observed that. One of the greenest trees in view, even when it is 105++ here for ..months.. While it can take plenty of drought and ..practically now extra water, once established, Calliandra eriophylla ..and californica, our red - flowered sp. , can get HUGE if provided deep but regular water ..which, to me, suggests they should be able to tolerate wetter areas.. Trial -worthy there ..at least.. True, ..both of these do want organic - rich soil conditions, which is why ..if you have the space, you could dedicate a small bed for such plants.. Say a bed near a house, where runoff accumulates, and where it is easy to dump leaves / other yard cleanup debris in to help keep the soil in such a spot enriched. ..An idea at least..

Here's a Bottle palm experiment with trunk cutting. These two have been in the ground since February 2019, and survived a bunch of freezes and defoliations along the way. But they always had Queen canopy before, so this is the first serious cold front since I cut down all the Queen telephone poles. Both of them spear pulled yesterday with a white bottom, but horrendously stinky. The East side one (closest to the camera) I think is pretty much a goner. The fibers around the heart are still white, but seem to be partially disintegrated. It bubbled up a LOT with hydrogen peroxide. I may cut this a bit lower tomorrow, to see if I can get closer to the palm heart: The one on the West has a better chance...maybe. I filled it up with hydrogen peroxide and it also bubbled and spit at me. But on this one the fibers near the heart are fairly firm. I put a random stick down in the center and it only went down about 3 inches or so. I'm guessing my cut was just a few inches above the palm heart: