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Today I had the pleasure of meeting Tim "Realarch " from Hilo area Hawaii visit my garden. On one of my rare 80f plus days I showed Tim and Bob around my cloud forest at sea level garden. Always great to meet palm people from overseas. Thanks Realarch for coming around and enjoy the Tasmanian seafood tonight Troy

In January 2020 I received my Mule Palm from MPOM. Over the last 5 years its grown substantially and now I am faced with a decision to up-pot yet again, sale it, or plant it. Of course I chose to plant it. A new pot the next size up would be about $300, and then what? In 2 years I'll be faced with the same predicament. This mule has endured the last 3 seasons outside since it's been too large to come in the house since 2022. The lowest we've been since then is 10F and its suffered minimal to no damage (granted - I laid it on the ground and threw a bed sheet over it when it got that cold). Otherwise it's stayed outside year-round. Now, before anyone comes for me about planting it (Yes, I'm in zone 8) my logic is that considering its survival and knowing its marginal palm here - I am willing to see what happens. Who knows, maybe we won't have anymore century level events for the next 100 years. *fingers crossed* Anyway, the predicament has been WHERE to plant it; the backyard is quite full these days. So, the decision to remove my Namwah banana mat was made yesterday, and plant the mule in its place. While I love my bananas, and they do extremely well here - the Namwah was the right plant in the WRONG place and was a constant pain to keep off of the fence, and off of the patio. Not to mention I have plenty of other varieties of bananas. I made the right move. After 9 hours with only a quick dinner break today I managed to somehow remove the established mat of namwahs, and excavate a planting hole for the mule. (word to the wise - do not plant bananas without intent. Be sure that's where you want them for all eternity and have ample room around them. Oh, and use heavy lifting equipment if you need to move them.... ugh😫) Post trunk chop from winter and now the heavy lifting begins... About 2.5hours into it and I'm questioning my life choices ..... QUEUE 200 LB POTATO..... After about 6 hours I finally managed to get the giant potato from hell out of the ground and dig out a 2 foot deep 2 foot wide meteor impact crater .... *notice the red clay - if you know you know* Once removed from its prison... er, I mean pot.... I had to do some root pruning/releasing. It was extremely root bound and swirling. Once the mess of roots had been freed from themselves - the rest is the easy part. To settle in I made sure to add plenty of plant tone and water in incrementally as I back filled the hole using a mix of seaweed extract, superthrive, and root stimulator water. Hopefully that will minimize transplant shock. Fingers crossed. I do expect to lose some of the lower fronds just from how aggressive I had to be with the root mass. Finally after about 9 grueling hours, sunburnt and bleeding .... Hopefully the Mule likes this spot as much as the bananas did, and I get to see some explosive growth. As per usual it will receive nothing but regular waterings with seaweed and unsulfured molasses water to establish the root/soil microbiome this season with no fertilizers for the next 90 days. IMG_0208.HEIC

Here’s a double (formerly triple) in the front garden showing of some color.

Spindle palm starting to look Spindly!

Hey Troy, thanks again for taking the time to show us around. You’ve a lot of amazing plantings packed in there, it was hard keeping up. Your diversity of specimens looked healthy…..you chose well, One always learns new things when making the effort to explore other gardens. The Hedysepe, which you posted photos of in a previous thread, was absolutely beautiful. Impressive Rhopalostylis sapida, Ceroxylon standing by, a fit looking bloke, and some nice tree ferns including this Cyathea brownii from New Guinea. Mahalo agin Troy Tim

Thought I’d post an update on this palm, dropped a leaf sheath yesterday and is looking stellar and chunky. Grown quite a bit in four years. So many threads for this Betakaka/Blue decipiens, I thought I’d add it here instead of creating yet another new one. Tim

It' s sunny today after two weeks of cold and rain, so I ' ll take some new pictures of my C. decipiens after arriving home.

Noticed a bunch of old leaf boots on my Cheesemanii yesterday and without any effort six pulled off to expose some rings of trunk! After further inspection, I noticed a definite purple hue to the crown!!! I may be reading into this too much but hopefully it continues. This plant is 4yrs from a 15G so it did get a good start but it’s grown very well. -dale

With around 400 plus mm of rainfall since the start of cyclone Alfred. You can literally see the new growth in the garden. You think your watering schedule is enough for good growth, then you get this amount of rainfall in about 4 days and you realise you’re not watering anywhere near enough. Although you can never beat Mother Nature it’s amazing to see this much rainfall in the garden and the affect it has on plants. The ground is saturated when I look at how dry my area can get then it transforms into a tropical jungle in the Amazon. The colours of the plants with light lime green to dark green is amazing.

Today, 18 members of Fous de Palmiers (French Palm Society) visited my Garden on their one week visit to SoFla. Two of them came all the way from the island of Réunion. I showed them my garden and plantings around my neighborhood, then we had lunch at iconic Cuban restaurant Versailles. We all had a great time and the weather was the best ever.

Here is one more than 10 years old. They grow easily here in Rome, the only problem is they do not tolerate any sun

2025 update...still thriving! Looking at last year's pics the trunk does appear to have swelled in diameter.

There are quite a few around SF, including this beauty in Salesforce Park that is itself only maybe 6 years old. No idea where they got it but they must have craned it into place (this is four tall stories in the air). Little brother to the right.

I think this species is often overlooked in the palm community but I think when they mature and get some size, they can look really nice. This one is one of my greenhouse palms and it is about 3 feet tall. It even produces inflorescences regularly but obviously nothing comes from it.

I think we need a new updated thread for these palms... Starting with the big one at Overcliffe Gardens near Dublin in Ireland. This is probably the largest Juania in the British Isles. The Earlscliffe Juania was planted very small back i 1995, so it has been in the ground for 30 years now. The earliest photos I can find are from 2002 and 2003. The third photo below shows it in 2009... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Next up we have the Juania specimen at Overbeck's Garden in Salcome, Devon. The Overbecks Juania was apparently planted in 1995 as well, but it was a very small seedling back then. the earliest photos I can find for it are from 2011 and 2013. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Next up we have another legendary Juania at Glendurgan Gardens in Cornwall that has been in the ground about 25 years as well, alongside Dr Kevin Spence for scale... Here is a grainy photo of the Glendurgan Juania from 2012 before it had properly started trunking... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are other decent specimens in southern England and Ireland, which I will update on in due course...

When I was living in Arizona in 2008, I saw a really nice p. rupicola triple at treeland in chandler. I was inspired by the curved trunks and nice green canopy. When I moved to florida I found a nursery MB palms that carried 1g size rupicolas. I liked the rupicola for its cold tolerance(26F) and its bright green foliage. It also has thorns that don't hurt you, they bend at the base of the thorn. Having been stabbed many times by my various phoenix species I grew in Arizona, I was interested in a pain free trimming process. This triple was planted in early summer 2011 and has been a slow, easy care grower. I thought it might be a permanent hedge but now it looks as if its going to be exactly what I wanted, an attractive medium height canopy for filtering hot western sun. It has fruited 3x the last one a full load of striking red fruits(sorry, no picture). The three palms grew away from each other more than any triple I ever tried, no need to tilt a palm when planting. Here is a pic taken today of the overall palm, and a close up of the trunks. just after a post hurricane Milton trim of the many(30-35) dead leaves After many of my other palms have grown tall and more difficult to view into the crown this one still gives a nice crown view. Anybody out there have phoenix rupicola pic/experiences. they would like to share. For scale, the fence is 4'.

There was quite a display of some lovely collectors palms on display, along with a vast amount of palms and cycads for sale. There was something there for pretty well anyone who was interested in starting a collection that’s for sure.

C. Ambositrae, C. Mananjarensis C. Robusta Verschafeltii cyphophoenix alba, pigafetta behind lemurophoenix

Areca catechu “alba” voaniola gerardii C. Hovomantsina dwarf Areca catechu, Chrysalidocarpus Ambositrae (on left) headless Caryota, pigafetta, Areca catechu dwarf

Chrysalidocarpus Hankona Chrysalidocarpus Mijoroana a grove of Marojejya Darianii!!

It’s a great feeling when you harvest some seeds from a palm in your garden, and this one is no exception. Another fantastic rare palm producing seeds for future generations. I have collected seeds from this palm before with good success in germinating them. Using the baggie method with spagnum moss at 30 degrees bottom heating. A great palm for dry parts of the garden. I also used an artist brush for a couple of days to help the insects out plus a rat trap to keep the rats out getting one back on the rats. They were cleaned in about 2 minutes with a jet wash super easy for a hard seed to clean.

I echo Jonathan’s sentiment above. I don’t really understand the point in such a strong negative statement on something so subjective. I will say though that as soon as I read it I knew it would generate a lot of interest in the topic, so I suppose in some convoluted way it has contributed to the positive discussion of palms. My hot take: Palms are one of the most (the most IMO) useful, horticulturally and botanically diverse and interesting plant groups. You’ve got Elaeis which is the world’s most efficient generator of food energy to the point where it is infamous (not the palm’s fault), Cocos which in used for food, shelter and even potting mix and countless others which produce edible fruit or palm heart and countless others grown for edible fruit, palm heart, sugar, building materials etc etc. You’ve got Lodoicea for the largest seed in the world, Corypha for the largest inflorescence, Raphia the longest frond, Ceroxylon the tallest monocot…all this in a plant family that also contains species that you could accidentally step on at maturity if not careful. I’ll admit I’m a palm nut almost to the exclusion of all other plant families so I’m biased, but to me not many plant families have species which can fit so well into different landscape types; tropical style gardens, cool cloudforest, arid style gardens, large lawn landscape specimen gardens and even more formal style gardens and everything in between. Hopefully that’s enough positivity to counter anything else thrown out there in this thread 😆. I’ll just leave these photos here.

I guess you wouldn't want these in your garden then? The pointlessness of subjective criticism.

It’s a fantastic feeling when a palm you planted a lot of years ago is flowering. Finally becoming an adult palm after 24 years. Originally a purchase from Rich trapnell of rosebud farm in Kuranda. Time will tell if it sets any seeds but either way it’s pretty exciting as a palm grower when a rare palm flowers.

I had the opportunity to spend the morning with Bill Austin in his garden recently and wanted to share some photos here. Bill is and has always been extremely welcoming with his garden and has spent countless hours with me over the years. I am so thankful for that time and he has been a huge influence on my own garden. I will try to list IDs with many of these photos but might miss some. Enjoy! one of many Chrysalidocarpus Prestonianus Chrysalidocarpus Malcomberi (one of many forms) another C. Prestonianus Orania ?? a monster Chrysalidocarpus Carlsmithii that can’t support the weight of its own branches. This palm has been on PalmTalk many times and is incredible to see in person.

Cyphosperma naboutinense Chrysalidocarpus “metallic ovobontsira” Cyphophoenix alba with joeys cyphophoenix alba thanks for looking and special thanks to Bill for always opening up his garden to share!

another Marojejya Darianii C. Hovomantsina Kentiopsis Oliviformis Cyphophoenix alba with lemurophoenix behind it Clinosperma Macrocarpa!! (New cal holy grail!!) Clinosperma with my shoe for scale

On a a stroll today along Lake Houston. I thought that this volunteer Sabal minor growing in the bark of this oak tree was interesting!

Here is my Jubaea grown from seed in 2009

We went on a trek to Cape Tainaro which I think is the southernmost tip of continental Europe. Beautiful place and some nice flowers. Euphorbias are in their best right now. Enjoy!

So yesterday the Montgomery Botanic Garden had its annual luncheon and they showed us their 15 sprouted Palmyra Atoll coconuts that they collected last year. These are the largest coconut fruits known, and very oblong. The trees apparently are not distinctly bigger than the regular types. BTW, The folks at Montgomery had to beg the folks at the US Forestry Department to NOT cut those trees down - since they were thought to have been introduced for agriculture to the Atoll. MBG convinced them that these were obviously an endemic variety and were not the same as the agricultural one. See the attached pictures for a comparison with a regular sized. coconut.

Lemurophoenix, just an amazing palm. Tim

Flowers... they caught my eye.

New Palms for the Spring Season We are ringing in the Spring season with a brand new price list, new palms for your nursery / garden, alongside our extensive list of rare and exotic species. First we have a restock of Kentiopsis piersoniorum (pictured above). This New Caledonian beauty adds a dramatic flair to any garden and is sought after, and Floribunda is one of the only places you can find it, available now as seedlings for $25.00. We continue our New Caledonian theme with Cyphophoenix nucele, a palm that has a beautiful white crownshaft and upright leaves, available in 4in size for $8.50. Basselinia glabrata is an amazing talking point in the garden, with its interesting stacked inflorescences. These are available as 1 gallon sized plants at $20.00. Hailing from São Paulo, Brazil, Lytocaryum hoehnei is endangered in the wild, but you can help preserve or distribute it to add it to more gardens and preserve this beautiful species. Seedlings available now for $4.00. Reinhardtia latisecta from Central America has amazing wide leaflets and beautiful inflorescences. A wonderful clustering understory palm for warmer climates. All this and more are on our new price list, enter (N) into the search to filter out the new items, but don't forget to explore the rest of the list for old favorites! We also have the trunking cycad Lepidozamia hopeii available in our cycad section! https://floribunda.xyz/pricelist

This red Areca vestiaria frond popped open the last few days. Took all winter to get there but looks good.

Waggy planted where mule was. Couldn't take seeing the empty dirt spot any longer! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HMSAP001GTw

Seeds galore!!! I bought the above palm as “Malcomberi hybrid” but as it’s matured and now set seed I think it’s Chrysalidocarpus Prestonianus, which is fine with me. Below is the first ripening seed on my Robusta Hybrid. I had a Robusta hybrid in my previous Hilo garden and these seed are about double the size of that one. I’ll try to germinate some and see what happens. And below are the first flower spathes pushing out on my Burretiokentia Koghiensis. Not even trunking yet and pushing flowers?

Post Script: Hilo Hero Tackles Tall Tassie Timber... Tim vs Eucalyptus regnans, Tall Trees Forest Reserve, Styx Valley, Tasmania.

The gate bell rang. Not expecting anyone so I have to risk my recently polished nails on the touchscreen monitor. Ooh it's a delivery man (my favourite kind of bell ringer) But wait.....I haven't bought anything for a while. Has St Therese sent another miracle down to me ? No, it was that naughty man happypalms, recognising my near palmless state he took pity on a poor pathetic crippled lady and shouted me a lovely new palm from Chris and Arden. Drum rolls please ...... I do know the name and species by the way but do you ? Thanks Richard for the lovely prezzie. Still swooning over the loveliness of it all. Peachy

After 2 frantically busy days bringing all my potted plants and hanging baskets indoors, plus all assorted backyard junk, treasures and memorabilia, bringing all the birds inside and taping up vulnerable windows, I just sat there waiting for something to happen. By the second day of nothing I was so bored I decided to install the new dishwasher that has been sitting in the kitchen laughing at for 3 weeks. Like most good things, a lot of rolling around the floor was required but it is up and running if ever I decide to cook something. Then the cyclone came. Okay now I have lived though a real cyclone. I asked myself , "Is that all there is to a cyclone ? Is that ALL there is ?" Ooooh spooking moment... I am channelling Peggy Lee.....quick someone cut my hair....I need to blink. Let me assure you that taking all the plants and hangers back out is a lot harder than bringing them inside. First all the twigs and small branches have to cleaned up outside, the Chamaedorea plumosa that got torn out by the wind replanted ( it lives it lives) and the hired help paid overtime to clean the floor after days of muddy little dogs and cats, birdseed and feathers from all parrots and a few little wee wee spots that appeared when the dogs were too scared of the heavy rain to go outdoors. Today, a week later, the place is back to normal apart from my back and the only thing left to do is load the dishwasher with a week's worth of dog plates and coffee cups. Oh there is the shade house to rearrange eventually but it took me a year to get the placements right the first time and that was without any cyclonic interventions. Sorry to all those who think they are in my will too Peachy, Cyclone Survivor.

kentiopsis pyriformis kentiopsis piersoniorum (with pyroformis behind it) C. Malcomberi, C. Carlsmithii. K. Pyriformis a row of Ravenea Sambiranensis Chrysalidocarpus Ambositrae on right, not sure about palm on left.

pritchardia, Pinanga Caesia, Marojejya marojejya insignis Bismarckia with Bill on his lawnmower for scale! Carpoxylon Macrospermum carpoxylon with pigafetta towering behind them

I'm not sure if I want to open another thread but since Piedras Negras, Mexico is right next to Eagle Pass Texas I thought I'm going to post a few pictures from my short visit. I come here quite a lot since some of my family lives here. Phoenix Dactylifera, CIDP, Washingtonia Robusta and Syagrus Romanzoffiana do pretty well here. Lots of new Queen planting.

About the only cyclone damage I had was a Joey palm washed away I planted a couple of weeks ago in a gully. All was not lost just picked the little fella up and repotted him. I got away with Alfred pretty good in comparison to some places.

CIDP, Seguin TX

The first is Chambeyronia macrocarpa the second is I wish I knew it’s a beautiful poem, but I don’t remember which one it is. the third Kentiopsis oliviformis the fourth Pseudophoenix vinifera the fifth Hyophorbe verschaffeltii like many here I have quite a few different palms I haven’t grown as many as Eric from Orlando,I’m sure, but I have grown quite a few different palms in my life and still enjoy growing more IMG_6011.mov

Here it is. About 30 feet (10 M ) overall.

I want to show you guys this Hungarian living in Slovakia how insane he is in a good way! He's growing Hyophorbe lagenicaulis, Bismarckia nobilis, Phoenix roebelenii, Dypsis decaryi, Latania lontaroides, Archontophoenix alexandrae, and other tropical palms and plants planted outside in his garden. In winter, you can see in the video how he protects them with heating cables in the ground and wrapped around the trunk and leaves. He even uses growing lights to keep them alive! This is just insane considering that Slovakia is in Zone 6 You can find him on Facebook as Jardín Tropical 2004! ScreenRecording_02-18-2025 22-55-57_1.mov

Bought another Butia Odorata. Home Depot couldn't find the palm in their system. It was priced for 70 dollars. Got it for 25 dollars hahaha. What a lucky day.