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Oh yeah nice I reckon that’s already showing it’s the real deal! Great looking plant even at that size.

They thrive in Sydney, but Melbourne is a stretch. There was a decent enough one for years at a nursery here in a prime position near a pond and with plenty of shelter around it. I’ve got a few advanced seedlings on trial in the greenhouse and whilst they all survived through last winter, they all spotted up a bit with temps down to 2C or so quite regularly. To put it in perspective, I’d say they seem less hardy than Kerriodoxa elegans, Licuala peltata var sumawongii and Areca triandra which were all untouched in the same conditions.

My spindle is growing a new frond. 2 fronds were lost to roommates abusing it. 1 to spidetmites.

Hoping mine speeds up now that it's gaining some size. I have five in the ground since 2022 and this one's my largest - all about 5 years from seed. Not my fastest Sabal but a close second to 'Riverside'.

How are the Cyphosperma at Leu Gardens doing after the winter freeze?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpodiptera_cubensis Fruits in the summer!

I am not certain when it fruits. I will research.

Yeah I’ll still experiment since they are super cheap to replace I heard the bud can handle 22 degrees probably only when mature

No worries I will give it a go, iam sure the wife’s essential oils will get raided for that one treatment, it’s either that or a foot bath with the peppermint oil!

Yeah maybe as it matures in ground it gets more hardier I’ll protect it while young and see and they are super cheap to replace

I’ll give them blooming destruction alright!!! Richard

https://palmpedia.net/wiki/Sabal_causiarum It may take a little while to get to this size. It probably is 70 years plus. However, it is a relatively fast grower and is known to handle West Coast conditions particularly well.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder so I'm not going to discuss what palm looks ugly or not. That's just your opinion in this case. Speaking of Deer Park . Do you think I stayed 6 weeks inside of a hotel or just drove around within 10 miles ? Sure I haven't seen all parts of Houston, probably never will because it's just too big to explore every single subdivision and I also been to the Northside as well. I agree with you saying it was an accent palm . Houston in general was never a place where palm trees were a typical landmark. There are way more palm trees growing in Jacksonville or even Pensacola as well as New Orleans. You have to drive south of I-10 to see them more frequently planted along public places , it's also warmer by a few degrees in winter as well. North Houston is more like a 8b/9a zone since 2021 .Sabal palms are the best for this area. You need to understand that most people aren't palm enthusiast. They see a palm they like in the area and buy it at a nursery or BB store. 95 percent don't look for hybrids or whatsoever. Too much of a hassle for them plus they aren't that easy to get. Sure money can be an issue too. I'm glad there are people like you who want to see where their limits are but to be really fair it would be more convincing if the palms you have go through the winter unprotected because that's the only way to see if they can even make it on their own. Protection is cheating and I have done it myself.

I was given this cycad several years ago but don't remember which species. I believe it's one of the cold hardy ones either Cycas panzhihuaensis, taitungensis or guizhouensis. Leaflets are somewhat soft - not stiff like revoluta. I can't tell them apart ...

Welp It was 80 yesterday, 35 when I woke up, and now it's 50. Once again snow went to the north (literally 9 miles north) of us and to the south of us and we just got cold and wind again. Oh. And rain. More rain. I keep trying to gauge how long it'll take for water to drain out of this Muck Hole® I dug in my backyard, and it's rained every other day since so I'm just assuming it's a lake now and will never drain.

This is one of my favorite flowering local trees - can't remember the name of it though. No leaves yet but stunning yellow flowers against the clear blue sky. No measurable rain yet this year so far.

I've decided I want to put a big black colocasia in this Muck Hole® in my backyard. It can be a corm it can be a bulb it can be a cutting of a bulb, I don't care. Can trade. I don't know who the other aroid people on here are besides @metalfan and I totally forgot his name but that dude from Rhode Island. Worst case scenario I sell some stuff and buy a starter plant from Brian's Botanicals.

Blast off on a nice Princeps and the blue munchii slowly turning blue. This heat wave should help all!

Well, I got a few sprouts and a couple plants I bought from Wellspring. But I'd had enough for now. Maybe we try again when it warms up. I thought my idea was clever, I had a Sterilite tote, bottom water only, I bent some old curtain rods to hold up some plastic leaving just a little room to vent, open more when I watered, some varieties wanted 90° to sprout some wanted low 80s, but after a couple months of nothing - I dumped it all into my Muck Hole® in the backyard. Pour one out. Maybe we'll try again one day, but trying to germinate these indoors totally sucks.

Here is my parvifrons, finally speeding up a bit. 3 leaves in the past year. But a long way from trunking.

This is a thread for those who don't mind getting stung by a palm, basically post anything about the following genuses: Acrocomia, Aiphanes, Astrocaryum, Bactris and Desmoncus. Here are some of mine Acrocomia aculeata/mexicana from Tabasco Astrocaryum mexicanum from Chiapas Bactris major from Michoacán Bactris mexicana var. 'Mexicana' from Tabasco (Loading) Right now I got around 18 sprouted seeds.

I hope so a mild winter, being such a large plant it should be fine, it’s the heat they dislike. The kangaroos just wander around the garden, they become friendly eventually and don’t worry about human activity. I like them they add a bit of a Aussie theme around the garden!

Obviously not in CA but I have heard of a couple reaching trunking size here so they can take long cool winters. I was recently gifted a couple of seedlings of the rubrum cultivar. They seem awfully fragile but I will leave them out in the shadehouse over winter and see what happens.

I planted this coco crinita back in 2001. It was a tiny thing that was a bit wobbly in the pot. I figured it would throw some adventitious roots and firm up. 5 years later, I've had it propped up with some wood boards, but it still can't keep itself upright. Do I need to build up more dirt around the base of the trunk? (Don't mind the weeds...new mulch going down today 🫣)

Sorry I hate filifera, glad they aren't common in Houston 😆. Cant stand the severe looking columnar bulky trunks and shaggy dull green mess. Marcus, we've already been over this. You going to the industrial wasteland near Deer Park is like someone only visiting Riverside and saying they've "seen all of LA". I work near Deer Park but live on the other side of town, they are completely different worlds not just in plants but in demographics and development. I won't try (as many others that lived in Houston have also) to convince you that queen palms were a common landscape plant because it's just a fact. Never have I said they dominate the landscape but were a common accent plant like in other northern zone 9 places. Mind you I've spent lots of time in the New Orleans area and have been to most of North Florida as well. Equating a warm stretch to luck...is that not the same as equating a cold stretch also to...luck? I don't need luck, something in the middle gets the job done all the same 🙃 Simply by expanding my planting options to things that are around the hardiness level of a queen palm +/-, I can increase the number of different palms that can grow here by probably 200 or 300% or more. Why should we be terrified of some risk when the reward is so high? Maybe you are content with a few common palms simply for the "vibe" but I want much more than that and I want to try things that other haven't as well.