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Got this view last week of some of my Lord Howe Island 🏝 Palms from the upper deck.

I visited Karen Piercy's place this afternoon under the pretext of picking lychee. Of course, the real reason to visit was to commune with the jaw-dropping collection of massive palms. I posted a photo of this Corypha umbraculifera a few years ago, but it was even more overwhelming on this visit. The trunk has to be over 4 ft in diameter, maybe closer to 5 ft. Growing in deep Hamakua soil at roughly 1200 ft elevation overlooking the Hilo airport. Now you know why you don't often see these growing in suburban landscapes. Certainly gives Tahina competition as the most massive palm out there. It's probably still decades away from blooming. You may remember Karen and her husband, Dean, as the organizers of the 2004 IPS Biennial to Hawaii and helping again with the tour of the former Carlsmith palm collection during the 2022 Biennial. BTW, I filled my 5 gallon bucket with delicious lychee. That didn't make a dent in the fruit still left on the trees. Oh, the hardships of living in Hawaii...

Fifteen old leaf bases finally falling away on this eighteen year old P. torallyi’s fattening trunk. This one was planted as a small two leaf seedling. This one has never set seed but a number of dried up immature inflorescences were hiding behind the fallen away leaf boots and they fell off as well. The palm is pushing a very visible fresh inflorescence now. Maybe this one will actually produce something.

These “Potato Chip” Palms seem to have been enjoying life in the front garden for a number of years. The stems “crawl” horizontally and root in wherever they make soil contact. Anyone else growing these, please post photos!

First flower spathes on this 2 headed Chrysalidocarpus Prestonianus Hybrid

Chrysalidocarpus Hovomantsina showing off

This specimen has been in the ground for about 6 years and is finally starting to flower. I love the crownshaft of this species.

Sabal Lisa in Dallas in June after experiencing 12F Four months ago. 8 year plant in background. 6 year tree in foreground. 🌴

This Hedyscepe is according to my records is 11 years old today from germination in my shade house. Is approximately 1.7 m tall.

I started this addiction of mine during covid and I'm hooked, still planting away even though I dont have the space so I cut away concrete to make more land. My wife thinks I'm nuts but supports my alot better habit compared to others out there.

Close to five years past and the palm nursery is getting there. I would say 60 percent was started from seed and the other 40 percent from mostly bare rooted purchased seedlings. When I first started the project I knew it would take around 5 years before you can really do anything with the plants, from planting them in the ground to seller a few of them. It is a love of growing palms and plants that drives me to succeed in such a project, and now there is no stopping all I can do now is grow from strength to strength and build another greenhouse to fill it with more palms. So if you’re wondering how long it takes to build up a palm nursery at least five years. IMG_9723.mov

This is probably my favorite palm in Leu gardens. Thanks Eric for planting this beautiful plant!

Stepped out back and kinda let out a yell. It’s about 30 fee 10 m tall.

Photo from Saturday of my largest Chambeyronia pyriformis putting out a new leaf. This is growing in mostly shade in my jungle section where there is barely any soil on the lava rock. I planted 3 in January 2019; one died last year and the other is only about half the size of this one.

When you’re obsessed with palms, short on space, and totally ignore the ‘space them out’ rule… Fast forward a few years, and boom!

With a couple of Chams to spare why not plant a row of them along the path to the greenhouse. Germinated these few from a RPS batch of 200 seeds and lucked up in the Chamaedorea department. A nice row will make for a nice casual walk to the greenhouse sort of the driveway of driveways only to the greenhouse!

What a privilege to visit Phil’s garden and wholesale nursery (Eumundi Palms) on the Sunshine Coast. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do since moving up to Queensland more than 3 years ago now!!!. The stand out for me was this incredible Cyrtostachys renda hybrid (C. renda x C. elegans). Hopefully one day it’ll produce viable seed, and there will be no shortage of customers for the resulting palms I’m sure, as they thrive in the sub-tropics.

I started my “palm garden” in 2024 after moving to a new home. I wanted to make a thread to share some pics and posts as I go. first, my hurricane cut palmetto. Fully unprotected. Showing hurricane cut pics after install, and 1 year out. Home weather station read 12.9F this year as the low. Maybe 5 times total sub 20F. Honestly, most the brown on it was there at end of summer. Very little damage noticed. second group - 1 year of growth on my L. Nitida. Now in-ground as of March. will show my other nitida later. I love these things, and want them to work so bad. Fingers crossed. Then, some windmills. Palmettos are my love. so the windmills feel like “yogurt, when I really want ice cream”. Ya know? Being zone 8, windmills are plentiful in the area, and do well here. I didn’t always love them, but they are growing on me, for sure (literally). working on a Z9 garden now. Mostly doing some robustas and cycads. And an CIDP I ordered from Etsy. I also have a ton of Oleander blooming. And others In the mix. Comments and critiques are very welcome. I tried to share info to answer the sort of questions I had last year.

One palm that has become so popular that it hardly even gets a second look from a collectors point of view. Out done by its own popularity yet it still shines through as a number one favourite with gardeners and new home owners. Such a grand palm in colour and size from a small seed. An easy palm to sell due it’s tough as nails grow in a lot of places plant me iam tough attitude. I like them and they are still a popular palm yet overlooked with so many varieties of new palms a collector just won’t worry about them due to the fact they have already have them planted. But if it was a sabinara they would sell like hot cakes to the collectors lining up for more that’s for sure.

The new larger palms that have been donated to the gardens have tucked themselves in well with all the recent rains. Kindly donated by Colin Wilson the largest ones and a few smaller ones by myself. A nice group planting of some joeys and a single kerriodoxa along with a lanonia dasyantha they are established and just need time to get up and growing. But there in the garden and will be gor the years to come.

No time like the present then to plant my alfredii, if there as tough as they say they are this planting session will be a spring holiday for the afredii then! How tough are they we will find out!

Aloha - This year, we got off the island of Hawai‘i and travelled to the closest thing Europe has to offer, the Azores, an island group in the middle of the Atlanta that is part of Portugal. I know it is not totally the same, as it is much further north in the Atlantic. The closest in climate (in my gestimates) that Hawaii has to offer is Volcano on the Big Island or the higher cloud forest elevations of Kaloko Drive in Kona (Big Island). Maybe somewhat close to the climate is also Waimea (Big Island). We are staying right next to the Terra Nostra Park (Parque Terra Nostra) in Furnas on the island of Saõ Miguel. That place is truly amazing! It is a 150 year old botanical garden, with several thermal (hot) pools you can take a bath in. Anyway, I will start posting a few (mostly palm-) images below that we encountered. It might be the only place in Europe (Please correct me if I am wrong!) where you can see a fairly dense palm forest as well an abundance of large tree ferns. Furthermore, the garden's collection of huge Araucaria spp. (plus 2 Wollemia nobilis!) as well as their cycad collection are quite neat. I just wish their palm collection was a tad more diverse, their website states that the collection contains 19 palm tree species. In that climate you ought to be able to grow way more different palm species 🙂. Maybe they need to hire a palm-nut from this forum!! Fun fact: The garden was started by US Vice Consul to the Azores Thomas Hickling. From Wikipedia: "In 1795, he was appointed by Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, as vice consul of the United States (a position continued by his son), beginning the oldest continuously functioning American diplomatic representation in the world (in Ponta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel). Sadly, in the current political climate, it was decided that 12 diplomatic posts of the US to be permanently closed, incl. Ponta Delgada.

Iguanura polymorpha!

First flower on Lanonia calciphila. Wild collected the seed from Vietnam many years ago. Back again later in the year.

Obi Island, C elegans and mates then Obi Island leaves, then B madagascariensis

Just starting a thread for us to show off how our palms have grown over the years! I’m sharing my own photos, grown in partial sun, narrow space, no fertilizer, and just 1km from the sea here in tropical Singapore. Drop your own Before vs Now shots too! Whether your palms exploded with growth or took their sweet time, we’d love to see how different species perform. Bonus points for rare or quirky ones! 😎 Pic 1: Dec 2020 – Bismarckia nobilis, Areca catechu, and Johannesteijsmannia altifrons. Pic 2: Jul 2025 – Same lineup, 5 years later. Pic 3: The Areca got so tall it no longer fits in one shot with Joey! Here’s another angle. Pic 4: Dec 2020 – The Licuala orbicularis pair. The left one was already a decent size, the right one a bit behind. Pic 5: Jul 2025 – Both have grown into handsome plants with nearly perfect round leaves. Worth the wait! Pic 6: (Bonus) Dec 2020 – Trees planted by the government behind my garden, fresh in the ground. Pic 7: Jul 2025 – Trees grow like champs! Nice to have a government that values a green neighborhood. 🌳

Hard to believe June 21, 2025 is here. What a cool, wet Spring we had. Getting our first summer heat wave here in the DMV zone. The winter was a cold one in my estimation with two nights in single digits(5f and 8f) and corresponding days below 32f. Nights were consistently in the 20’s but day temps did tend to moderate above freezing. A cold winter and spring though. @Allenmy big Trachy got the dreaded single digit pin holes and some segment damage but all in all, had a good, relatively unprotected winter. I did give it some crown lights and black landscaping cloth wrapping but nothing too drastic. It’s neighbor, the Needle, is undamaged as always and is really bulking up some trunks. The Brazoria has always had a really hard time with its fronds in winter. I cut all the damaged fronds off and it’s got two new fronds following the slightly damaged 2024 spear. It’s also sending up spikes. I really like the trunk on it. And it’s fronds are massive…so it’s a catch-up challenge every spring. the small Trachy got lights around the trunk and wrapped in landscaping cloth. The fronds remained uncovered did extremely well unprotected so I have a feeling it’ll do as well as the big one in this south facing backyard. This is the accidental, squirrel planted Butia Odorata. It’s a long story and a very slow grower but as soon as I get a pinnate frond, I’ll be posting it…it gets some lights on the ground and leaf pile cover for now while it is so small. This pair, total protection Chamaerops and zero protection McCurtain are growing in to each other but I like the way they look together. Hard to believe the Chamaerops came back from near total destruction a couple years ago. Then there’s the good old no protection stand by shady Needle. 1/3 the size of the bigger fuller sun Needle but happy just the same. Welp, that’s about it. No winter deaths and I can’t complain about the recovering ones. I’ll have to order some fertilizer and give them a good dose. Before you know it, it’ll be Christmas 😂

Some nice old baronii in the garden doing well. The new golden cane is my sales push on this palm far more attractive to me than lutescens, but each to there own on that one. I do get the odd seed or two from them.

A few new summer plantings that just went in the ground this week. Now that I actually have some canopy and protection, I decided to get a couple of Joey palms in the garden: Joey Magnicia on the left and Altifrons on the right. Altifrons planted (above) with my loyal companion Suubi in the background. Magnifica planted below: Then for some sun plantings, up first is a Pritchardia Martii in my Hawaii / Pacific Islands planter: overgrown 1 gallon plant above, planted out below. The last new planting for now is a Lemurophoenix that I’ve had in a pot for years. These seem to hate being in pots (at least for me) so I’m hoping it gets happier in the ground. Sadly this spot only opened up in my Madagascar planter because I recently lost a trunking Chrysalidocarpus Infanadiannae. Some sort of fungus took it out. Hopefully this Lemurophoenix thrives in this corner spot.

First picture is the front area with a Adonia merrillii and a bentickia nicobarica planted in 2023 2nd picture are 2 coconuts the biggest one planted in 2015 and the smaller one grown from seed from hurricane irma in 2017 3rd picture is a small dypsis decaryi 4th picture is "palm row" with a bottle palm spindle palm and a foxtail all planted in 2013 5th picture is a robelini and the back part of palm row 6th picture is a robelini planted in 1997 with a spindle planted in 2012 7th picture is the side with a coconut and Chinese fan palm both planted in 2012 with a satakenita planted in 2024 to replace a huge Sylvester palm killed from hurricane ian The last 2 pictures are the patio with some butias sabals , licuala grandis and some king palms all ready for whatever I come up with next lol.

Belmores do great here 10 miles from the beach North county Bonsall

Some pioneer palms for the new garden, they will help in creating a microclimate, planting them along with a few trees will help to start a canopy. And also break up the harder more difficult areas to garden in, once the ground has shade in my climate it completely changes, more moisture means better growing conditions. You just have to make that start with new plants sooner or later!

I couldn’t help myself in buying an original plate from 1896. It just goes to show that palms have been of intrest for a long time, and to stop by lord Howe island and collect seeds way back then they certainly had some great minds to think about the beauty of palms. Botany has always had its place in history and will continue to do so.

One of those palms folks can’t help but stare at in amazement, Neoveitchia storckii.

I was recently in Chesapeake/VA Beach and the palms are doing really well down there!

I wanted to give people a heads up that 4” plants of this Mystery palm are now available on the new Floribunda price list. So if you were not able to get seed from me last year, but still want this plant, you can order them from Floribunda. It’s listed as “Chrysalidocarpus Sp Hybrid - Jason Dunn”.

A special bit of colour in these plumosa seedlings. They could almost go for being red arecas there that red some of them. The seeds are from my own palm in the garden. It will be interesting to see how long they keep there red colour for, but gor now there definitely interesting as seedlings.

The long forgotten solitaire palm a beautiful Australian palm. I have three mature beauties in the garden. Tough as well heat tolerant cool tolerant and a little dry tolerant. A great palm and a nice single stem ptychosperma well worth growing.

If anyone would like to see how my gardens doing this year i made a video here on youtube:

A new frond on my Rhopalostylus Bauri Cheesmania . I lost a R. Sapida a few years ago after 20 years of solid growth . It was terminated by a heat wave because I failed to give it shade . I happened on to this species and decided on a shady position in the garden . It has been here for about a year and thriving. Harry

Variegated Caryota mitis are a clourful plants especially in sunlight. Sorry only one picture had the leafs in the sun

Massive flower on this, will produce enough seed for the world 10x over. two story high Areca macrocaylx "red" next to it. aloha

Always nice H rheophytica.

Drop dead gorgeous Bentinckia condapanna.

Beautiful Marojejya darianii. Really impressive how much sun these can take.

Phil clearly knew what he was doing when planting Archontophoenix pupurea with “Blonde” Archontophoenix alexandrae. Pretty sweet contrast.

If my Chrysalidocarpus prestonianus hybrids turn out half a nice as Philip’s, I’ll be chuffed. This looks to have some C. pembanus in the mix I think.

Well I don't post much palm pics here (yet), but that's mostly because I only really got started on my palm planting in earnest a few years ago and until now never really felt like I had much pics of palmy landscape worth posting. Some of my palms are planted among grass and overgrown brush that desperatelt needs to be cleaned out. Anyways last summer I decided to take out 3 large (40 foot) Chinaberry trees that were planted in a row 20+ years ago. Palmageddon kilked them back nearly to the ground, but they then resprouted on the lower 15 feet or so of trunk. Those sprouts were epicormic and thus very weak jointed to the trunk. Once the branches would get to about 15 feet long they would tear away from the trunk and peel back 5 to 10 feet of the trunk. So last summer I decided to rip the trees down along with all of the brushy undergrowth. Here's some pics of that in progress. This past March I replanted that area, and beyond (not pictured) with palms, cycads, yuccas, agave, etc. Then since the area was now exposed to copious amounts of sun, the weeds exploded from dormant seeds. In the last few weeks I've been focused on pulling the weeds and mulching it in. Mostly it's a mix of pine bark mulch and rocks of various sizes, texture and color. The last pictute was taken 20 minutes ago. It only shows about one third if the entire area I have been working. You can see that even in that area I have not yet completed the mulching, etc. ... it's a work in progress for the rest of this summer/fall. I will add more pics as progress continues. -Matt