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Many flowers over the years. First time I’ve seen seeds. Will see if they turn out viable. 20’ish years old from a 20 gallon. Dana Point, CA

An update at the end of July, 2026.

Thanks for looking

Another one

Been awhile since I’ve posted photos of the Dictyocaryum in the garden. Over the years it’s evident that they are a bit out of their element in my garden, but are still beautiful nonetheless. Out of the original four, two faded away, the remaining two are powering on, although one took a hit from the months long drought last year. It seems to be rebounding as of late.The difference is apparent in the photos. Finicky at this lower elevation tropical climate. Always keeps me guessing. Tim

A nice little 18 year old dypsis louvelli goes in the garden at the end of winter. I have been waiting a long time to plant this special one, one rare palm!

Formerly Peckerwood Garden and Yuccado Nursery. Located in Pine Island, Texas. Brahea dulcis Sabal uresana Brahea berlandieri, Sabal uresana,Nolina nelsonii Serenoa repens Dioon edule, Nolina nelsonii Sabal causiarum Agave ‘Miquihuana Silver’ Brahea berlandieri Brahea berlandieri Brahea moorei Brahea dulcis Agave victoriae-reginae Yucca linearifolia Sabal uresana Nannorhops ritchiana

I was looking at some rainforest in north qld the other day and spotted these palms. Lots of purple on these ones.

Here’s an update on how this palm looks roughly two years later. It’s been a relatively fast grower for me so far and is one of the most colorful palms in my collection.

I originally bought this copernicia alba from Ken Johnson. It had 3'+ of trunk in mid august 2011, with a tiny crown due to sitting in 90 gal pot for years. Ken said nobody wanted it and he recommended it to me. It was delivered with a few other specimen palms(C oliviformis). Over the years I notice that each year a bunch of spears(~10 or more) at the same height rose up and pushed the previous years leaves down towards the horizontal. The new leaves open pretty quickly when the palm is ready. They can be seen separated against the sky fromt he old ones in a cluster. It reminds me of a new flush of flowers. SO I use the term "flush" when a good number of leaves open is quick succession( a couple weeks). A couple days ago against a story sky but some sun peeking through at my back I took a pic to show the "flush". The only other palm I have that does this is P, rupicola. The rest take a week or more between the opening of spears. This palm was hit by Hurricane Milton and lost some was as leaflets were bent. It was one of the better performers of the well exposed palms in my yard. Here it is with the dead leaves from Milton still hanging on. You can see this years flush is separated from last years by angle to the horizontal. As you can see its in sandy soil and has a little clay underneath at 2'. Its not in a wet spot irrigation or soil wise, and it did suffer in this drought but looks ready to go after the recent rains. The leaves are now self shedding to a smooth trunk the latest 3' of trunk(out of view here). Does anyone else out there have an alba story or a newly planted alba?

A species that probably doesn’t get much attention on here - Gaussia maya. It’s been bulletproof for me on a north facing brick wall which probably helps with additional heat retention. Love the chunky base, will look great when the leaf bases start to fall off.

Macrozamia johnsonii I grew from seed is now coning. 1996-2026. These are large plants with 10ft+ leaves.

Lovely crownshaft of young Chrysalidiocarpus sp. mayotte. Almost looks like it should be in a pastry shop…

Arenga micrantha and Engleri, two species that grow very well here and are also resistant to light frost

Hey there everyone. Its been a while. Had a rough NYC winter this year. Lots of snow and cold wet weather. Windmill Palm took a little beating!! But still thriving! 16ft to top of crown, 12ft to top of trunk. Just gave her a prunning. Unfertlized seeds avaliable.. not sure if you can pollinate them? Good luck to all this winter!! Bobby

And here are some random updated photos of the garden. Too many to list names but just ask if you have any questions about IDs.

Time to weed the lava and misc AM light…

We got hit pretty hard by hurricane Lala With many trees down. I got very lucky that the only palm loss was a Kerriodoxa elegans that had the unfortunate fate to end up under a giant fallen Guatemalan cypress and one of my peach palms came down. The Kerriodoxa still has a spear so it will make it. I chainsawed the peach palm and will eat the heart of palm, but it’s already got suckers coming up so no problem there. We’ve had a number of hurricanes come by pretty close, but nothing was ever as bad as hurricane lala. I also learned that the damage seems to be consistent with winds coming down vertically from above as opposed to sideways, which is very weird. Several places had trees down in a 360° radius. I looked this up and it seems to be a thing with hurricanes. They’re called mini downbursts. I was pleasantly surprised by the amazing tolerance of Bismarck palms. But also very disappointed in beccariophoenix which sadly are pretty much all leaning sideways. I am going to leave them that way so they make that coconut style curve at the base. But talk about a weak palm none of them have trunks yet so perhaps they will root in better once they make a trunk. I figured the Big Island would be a pretty safe place from global warming, but clearly it’s not. The super El Niño is churning out storm after storm and Hawaiian waters are now warm enough for them to actually intensify close by. on Sunday, another tropical storm is passing by this time much further to the south.I guess you can pick your poison, either fire And drought or hurricanes. I also learned what a hurricane cut means. Most of our royal Palms are now sporting that hurricane cut. They have a very effective coping mechanism of just dropping lower leaves, which is not good for anything going under them, but they look fine. .

I will say this Geonomas are really starting to impress me in the cool tolerance range. Quite rare palms in this part of the world, but after getting my hands on a few different varieties they are proving to be very cool tolerant, not to bad for palms that are prized ornamentals. Cool tolerance is one thing they need to be to survive in my winter and grow well. Another issue is water they drink like a drowning fish. So if they are to live in the ground it’s going to have to be some pretty good soil amendment landscaping duties. And these are tube stock seedlings not advanced palms, so iam impressed with how well they take 2 degrees celcius Geonoma pycnostachys Geonoma look longivaginata sub sp vallensGeonoma atrovirens Geonoma bondaria

Dave I would place in the shade and only use organic fertiliser like fishmeal or seaweed until they re established

I just happened upon this article published this past April, documenting the rediscovery of a species of Ravenea not definitively documented since its original description in 1927. The species is Ravenea latisecta, and there have been a few possible sightings in the ensuing 99 years, although apparently virtually all of these were misidentified, most turning out to be R. robustior or R. madagascariensis,. According to the article, there are no documented specimens in cultivation. So this is apparently quite a find and gives some hope for other species that have been "hiding" while presumed extinct. You can download the article from ResearchGate here.

Mid summer is the time for Becarriophoenix to rock!

Best contribution I can make to this thread. Got a few sprouts growing nicely but I’m aware this is the easy part. Time will tell whether I can keep them happy long term here but I’ve been inspired by some success in cool climates. Not sure whether to fear my frosts or occasional extreme heat for this species. Probably both!

Dypsis mirabilis with strings of pop beads. Tim

Veitchia

Kerriodoxa elegans, Johannesteijsmannia altifrons, Geonoma atrovirens, iguanura wallichiana var major, Areca vestria red form, sabinara magnifica, reinhardtia gracilis, chamaedoreas are must have, variegated rhapis. Then there are Zamias, Cerotazamias they all compliment palms and there are many of them to collect. Good luck once the palm bug bites you it’s a whole new world of plants!

Pinanga sp.’Thai mottled dwarf’, or at least sold as such.

Life has been busy and I haven’t had much time to be on PalmTalk or work on new plantings in the garden. It’s just mowing and weed wacking like crazy over here. But I did just find some time and inspiration to get a few new plantings in the ground so I wanted to document them here. I’ll post some updated pictures of the garden as well, after the new plantings. First up is Chrysalidocarpus Mijoroana: Next up is somewhat of a mystery. My old garden had a Chrysalidocarpus Pembanus hybrid (most likely crossed with Madagascariensis). I tried many times to get seed to sprout and only ever got 2 to germinate. So this is an F2 Chrysalidocarpus Pembanus hybrid, most likely crossed again with something in my old garden: And then I was able to plant some smaller Dypsis in the jungle area. Dypsis Beentjei: Dypsis Maranoseta:

Lehmannii and whitelockii

Here’s Jayne Mansfield my big Roystonea oleracea. Makes my heart sing to look at that lovely thing. And my big regia in the background.

M amicarum seems to be building some momentum…

It’s pretty easy to see what makes a saintlucei so popular. You can’t go past that beautiful look of an accent palm, with a trunk that’s straight as an arrow and the arched leaves to the white crownshaft. Easy to grow with a little dry, cool tolerance. They love black sandy loam soil that’s free draining. Single plants will set seeds. Just another one of those Chrysalidocarpus that are an absolute winner!

My macrocarpa is doing great in this spot and microclimate. It just opened up a new frond. Thought I would share in case anyone in the area is considering buying one. I would add Im in central Valencia, climate may differ slightly from places further north in foothills where it gets colder, like Saugus, Canyon Country. The teddy bear palm has been doing exceptionally well, it’s almost in full sun most of the day.

Iam not to sure what gives such deep red, I do know it’s anthocyanins that cause the red. But some years I get a lot of deep red colour and other years lighter red. It could be temperature, moisture, heat, cold. Whatever it is we need more of it!

I’ve got some Veitchia arecina, the oldest being about 12 years old and is way overhead. However, it’s never flowered. Then I have another one that is about eight years old and has decided to flower like crazy. It’s pretty cool because the flowers are right at eye level.

Yup, as others have pointed out, these are about as adaptable as they come. Here’s one I plant many years ago; still trunkless, but with fronds nearly head- high.

One of the contenders for slowest seedling is Chrysalidocarpus titan. Long known only by informal names like Dypsis sp bejouf(a), folks in Hawaii fell in love with this species largely because of the grove of two dozen trees planted at Bo Lundkvist’s Malama garden. Those trees are now huge and producing baskets of seeds. The only demerit I’d give it is for the exceptionally heavy fallen fronds. They must weigh around 40 pounds (20 kg), maybe more. You can only have grass under these. Any companion understory planting would be crushed. I started mine from seeds. Big mistake. Pay whatever a 10-gallon plant costs. Germination took 18 months. After they went in the ground, glacial growth rate the first five years. Finally, they got serious about growing. After ten years in the ground, still no trunk, but they open a perfectly respectably 3-4 new fronds a year. After seeing mature specimens in so many Hawaii gardens, I have very high hopes for these. Construction site 2016 2017 babies went in the ground and promptly burned. Today 1. titan 2. lastelliana 3. carlsmithii 4. cabadae. 5. Clinostigma samoense Another competitor for slowest ‘Dypsis’ goes to Chrysalidocarpys decipiens. Habitat photos on line suggest this palm grows in arid parts of Madagascar. Maybe the reason mine are growing so slowly is that they are in shade and typically get 140” of rain a year. SLOOOOW. After 13 years, they have only now started to trunk. Most individuals I’ve seen in local gardens have two trunks, but I have seen one example with six. Both of mine have twin trunks. 2014 Not obvious, but both trees have two trunks even at this stage. Today The same slow growth rate is seen in this mysterious palm that might be related to Chrysalidocarpus sp. blue decipiens. Who knows? I don’t think taxonomists have tackled this one. After a painfully slow childhood, this finally began to trunk last year. I really don’t see any resemblance to Chrysalidocarpus decipiens. This one has a single trunk. Leaflet arrangement not that similar. Different coloration. 2016 Today At the opposite end of the growth rate spectrum, this mystery palm went in the ground from a small one-gallon pot 13 years ago. Now it might be around 50-60 ft tall (15-18m) tall giving my Pigafetta some competition. This was obtained at a nursery liquidation sale with a very faint ‘Dypsis’ label written on the pot with white grease pencil. No species name was visible. It has a strong tristichous frond arrangement, but the crown has disappeared into the clouds, so that feature is not especially noticeable now. The base of the trunk is very swollen. Some Big Island growers seek out unusual ‘Dypsis’ variants or hybrids of unknown paternity. I suspect the explosive growth rate I’m getting might be due to hybrid vigor. Great if you are after instant canopy, but be prepared for telephone pole syndrome down the road. 2013 I have both Chrysalidocarpus saintelucei and Chrysalidocarpus basilongus in the garden. The white crownshafts are pretty consistent, except I’ve occasionally seen some red in saintelucei. These similar palms are easy to distinguish when growing near each other. C. basilongus is a bit more slender and has a very faint hint of blue. C. saintelucei has a more striking green trunk with white rings. Both produce abundant seeds that easily germinate, although saintelucei has a thoroughly discussed habit of breaking off its heavy infructescence before they mature. saintelucei 2013 today Crownshafts are usually mostly white, but occasionally I'm treated to a bit of color. basilongus Turning to clumpers, C. cabadae, C. lanceolata, and C. sp. Mayotte Island’ closely resemble each other after ten years or less in the ground. Maybe each will become more distinctive after they start blooming. C. lanceolata seems more distantly related judging by the slender base of trunks in contrast to the swollen bases of cabadae and Mayotte Island. cabadae Mayotte Island lanceolata Chrysalidocarpus baronii and C. psammophilus look about the same in my garden. Oddly, DNA sequence suggests they are not all that close. C. baronii is supposed to be closest to C. decipiens. I don't see it. Ignoring the taxonomy, each is an attractive, slender clumper, but no fireworks yet. Photos of baronii 'Black Stem' are very eye catching, but mine was only recently planted so can't say if it will live up to the hype. baronii psammophilus I only include Chrysalidocarpus lutenscens for completeness. The common ‘areca’ palm is vastly over planted in Hawaii, usually as a hedge to screen out unpleasant neighbors. There are so many more interesting clumping palms that could step in if only the public knew about them. I inherited two clumps from the previous owner. If only these were rare or a recent discovery, everyone would want it. And finally, the award for THE WORST Chrysalidocarpus in wet east Hawaii- drum roll: Chrysalidocarpus decaryi, the triangle palm. For some mysterious reason, this desert species is widely planted in east Hawaii. They look like crap for years until the crown inevitably snaps off leaving a dead trunk, which is a modest improvement. Why do people still plant this one? Photo from a neighbor's property. Hope this update gives you some ideas of what might be good additions for your garden depending on your climate. If you haven’t been following this thread, I’m at 700 ft growing in black volcanic cinder generously amended with compost. Rain varies a lot, but averages around 140” (3.5 m) annually. Fertilizer twice a year is slow release 22-7-14 with trace elements. Never gets hot or cold, 60-83 degrees F almost every day of the year.

Update on transplant 6 months ago. Going well, almost unaffected

While definitely not its first ring, I’ve always loved how defined the growth rings are on Hyophorbe Indica. -dale

Fronds steadily increasing in size, thats what you want. Five foot hoe standing next to palm for scale. Keep the core health and away from freezing this winter and it will continue to grow. In 35 years it will look like this:

Chamaerops humilis cerifera

A nice garden in Kaikoura, about 2 hours north of Christchurch, taken on holiday recently. Is the second pic a standard Butia odorata, looked a but different to me?

Dioon mejiae seems to always flush later into summer for me. Perhaps it needs more heat than some other cycads I am growing?

Chrysalidocarpus saintlucei gets thicker in full sun and thinner trunk in shade here. Full sun specimen front and center in this photo.

The mid north coast of Australia a subtropical paradise. With thousands of hectares of rainforest that covers a fair chunk of it. Before settlement it would have been one very unique piece of land. Now it has been fragmented into isolated areas broken up by farmland. Much of it is either state forests or national parks with a lot of special reserves locked up for conservation purposes.

A vine that was scrambling along the ground.

The peace and quiet and with a lot of areas inaccessible to the family car there’s always a spot where you won’t see anyone at all except for the animals!

I have two satakentias from ken johnsons farm, planted out in early 2019 with 2-3' trunk. I also have a smaller one I grew from a 4" seedling in 2021 that was planted in early 2025 is now 6-7' overall. They are great palms and the trunks are pretty thick. I will quote ken " ythey are emergent palms so they like shade when young but with size they take the sun well. The trunk at the crownshaft is about 8-9" caliper, definitely more than my archies and all my other crownshafted palms except for the royals. They hate frost with a couple upper leaves burning a couple years ago. They do look a lot more colorful in sunlight after shedding a leaf. Here is one of mine, they trunks/crownshafts glow in the distance in sun. No sign of inflorescences yet. closeup of the same palm to see the crownshaft color a week or so after a new leaf was dropped Easily my prettiest crownshafted palm. I checked the trunk measurements, 8 1/2' clear trunk as of today.