Leaderboard

I’ve been observing this palm for probably 50 years now. It was planted at Two Harbors Catalina island around 1920-28. Its looking better now than a few years ago due to the drought ending. It gets only rain, no irrigation.

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

I have had received some interest in this elegant Malagasy species that I have been growing, and I'll take a little time to present some pictures and comments. Seeds from RPS were sown in July 2008. Good germination, four plants were planted out in April 2014. Here is a pic of the quartet taken a few days ago: I took another pic (in rare full sun) from a different angle with a lawn chair for scale: The pinnate portions of dead leaves tend to break off, leaving numerous very thick leaf bases that exceed in toughness any other genus I can think of at the moment. Here is the largest one. Smaller palms next to the left are Dypsis (still Dypsis) rivularis. For a while, plants of the two species were of identical height. Two larger palms in the distance are Clinostigma exorrhizums. Inflors are two or more feet long, very straight and vertical, emerging from those tough leaf bases. Three of mine have produced them - I'm not sure which sex they are. Here are two that fell off after dying. This species is among my favorites. They do trunk after sufficient time, as I have seen in published photos. But I am in no hurry for that.

So when we do that, the flowers open within about 48 hours and then begin getting some pollination for seeds. Crazy, this is the only species that this is a problem with. Weird. First picture is today’s surgery. The second & third has some surgery that we did about six weeks ago.

Let me introduce you to the Tau Kiani Botanical Garden on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile. I think I’ll have to contribute some exotic palm trees; they have something interesting going on there on the island.

An update at the end of July, 2026.

The bismarck palm is a very fast grower and a good trouble free choice for beginners. This one has 6 new spears at the ready, and will replace the entire existing crown over the next 2 months. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

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

Hey all, here’s something I can’t quite figure out. My neighbor and I have a couple of this species and they throw out flower spathes regularly. But they simply never open on their own. So… We’ve taken to performing surgery to free up the flowers.. The thickness of the spathe is just crazy thick. We have found that if we simply allow them to sit, eventually the contents of the spathe will just get moldy-and yet never open. We are generally perplexed at why this is happening, but it is what it is. It actually requires a combination of a sawzall, a vibrating saw, and some clippers deftly used to remove the woody section without damaging the flowers excessively. The walls are thicker than my thumb is wide.

If you want a palm that’s easy to grow and fit into any reasonable small space, the feather palm, wedding palm or the lytocarum weddlianum is the one. Easy to grow and germinate, single plants will set viable seeds. Quite cool and dry tolerant. Perfect understory or bright light palm. An absolute beauty of a great palm that’s gives a lot of effect for little work!

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.

This is a big boy. Thick, heavy trunk 25 feet from the soil line to the top of the tallest branches. Dead knock off for a cocos, if it wasn’t so thick at the trunk!

I wax walking up the front entrance to my home and noticed the boot was ready to drop off my Chrysalidocarpus decipiens. Here it is after removing the old boot.

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

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

Time to weed the lava and misc AM light…

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.

M amicarum seems to be building some momentum…

After over a year of waiting, some Butia lallemantii is showing activity!

A few R. Sapida in SF

This Cycas is now hardening the flush I posted a few weeks back. The leaflets don't start until about 5 feet up the rachis.

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!

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.

Thanks for looking

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.

Iam lucky enough to live near the habitat of linospadix monostachya. They make a fantastic garden palm, predictable size and growing patterns. They flourish with good water, cool tolerant wet deep shade understory is there perfect habitat. Somewhat similar growth habit to lytocarum weddlianum and similar growing conditions being a little dry tolerant once established. They look amazing in habitat by the hundreds covering the forest floor under the canopy.

Spring is only another 5weeks away, now is the danger time for any of the new plantings, so far so good with only one palm taking a bit of burn.

Some blueberries on the dreadlocks. Also my breakfast raspberry substitute fresh off the guava tree. Yellow.

Hydriastele splendida living up to its name. Tim

Chambeyronia macrocarpa var flavopicta on a rare sunny Melbourne winter day - this show never gets old. It produces exactly 2 new fronds per year for the last few years. Every late July it will open a frond which stays red longer in the cooler weather than the one that opens in summer.

@Meangreen94z the Pearland palms are nuts, great work. Amazed by the majesty palm, very jealous of the A. totai. My yard is neglected and much less palmy these days, but a few things are chugging along: Sabal uresana from Barton Springs Nursery. Not as silvery as the John Fairey palms but still pretty nice. I am not sure what this one is. Also bought from Barton Springs Nursery in a 1 gallon pot years ago. I remember the pots and signage had different labels, some said Sabal bermudana, others Sabal domingensis. It has grown nearly as fast as my Sabal causiarum and looks very similar. The causarium is unfortunately dead... a transplant casualty during our yard remodel.

Just a few midsummer yard shots from today: Starting with the biggest and the fastest...my filifera continues to grow larger by the day: Next, we will see the smallest and slowest growers I have in the ground, a couple of Trachycarpus fortunei x waggies: Both are growing fine...just quite slowly. They sit on the east side of my home and I am planning to remove the grass in this entire area in the fall to create a nice bed. Right next to the back porch I have a corner with 3 C. radicalis in it. One mature non-trunking form, a juvenile trunking form, and second year from seed non-trunking form: The rest of that same bed is occupied by my Rajapuri bananas and some dypsis lutescens that I grew from seed my daughter collected on a past vacation: My Sabal mexicanas that both spear pulled last winter after 20F and freezing rain (had to trunk cut the second one) : My Butia that also had to be trunk cut after the freezing rain: Silver Chamaerops, P. sylvestris, and second year mule seedling: From left to right C. radicalis seedlings, BxJ, and S. mexicana community pot. And the mule that replaced my Butia in the ground after the spear pull and trunk cutting: I know it should be less hardy than the Butia, but it is definitely getting established quicker. Fingers crossed for a winter or two of zonal average lows and no freezing precipitation so it can really get going strong.

Recently had a chance to drive past the old place and check it out. Fortunately the new owner was standing out the front and recognized me, so invited me for a quick walkaround (I only had 15 mins free) Mid winter here, and everything was looking pretty good. The new owner is doing a good job! Looking over towards the Beccariophoenix alfredii and Ptychosperma lauterbachii Veitchia joannis was looking good Pritchardia hillebrandii (rescued from Wal's place ) was doing well Dypsis 215 was still there but owner told me had struggled with dryness and lost some stems. Dictyosperma were growing well, although one has succumbed (or is about to) to a health condition...v. conjugatum on right Ptychosperma lauterbachii was covered in inflorescences and was looking awesome...IMO a better palm in that climate thn P.macarthurii Beccariophonxis alfredii...8.5 years from a 200mm pot...doing well! Full size Alcantarea in front of it for scale Satakentia were looking awesome...should be more widely grown in SE QLD those crownshafts were fat! And the Neoveitchia rescue palm is still alive! Satakentia crowns

Pinanga insignis on a rainy day. Tim

Gaussia palms are actually quite showy when old boots are trimmed off. Here's some of mine... I've sold about 2 dozen of these to fellow Arizonans - just based on their unique looks. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Pritchardia

Some color…

Bonjour, je vous partage mon expérience de pollinisation puis semis de mon cycas panzhihuaensis. J'ai récupéré deux fleurs mâle dans d'un cycas panzhihuaensis, j'ai eu de la chance. Comme vous pourrez le contacter sur les photos, tapoter puis déposer 15 jours sur la fleur femelle. Récolté le 24 novembre 2025. Conservé dans un carton sur un lit de riz. Semé le 17 janvier 2026. Elles ont toutes commencées à craquer en mars 2026. Première racine le 19 avril 2026. Puis elles ce sont suivies. 29 sur 107 pour le moment. 14 jeté. La 28 ème à germer 67 jours après la première et la 29 ème à germer 88 jours après la première. Je suis dans l'attente pour la soixantaine qui reste. Semé en frigo chauffant, sur pierre ponce 2/4, température constante 25/30 degrés.

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

Yea spelling wrong. To hard to look up on phone. Any way growing nice under shower tree

It’s the beginning of soil making on lava in the background of this Metroxylon is a pile of trash tree. It will take 2 to 3 years with the pigs help to get turned into soil so I’m just gonna keep throwing debris behind this bloke. We are building the soil up for a nearby rainbow eucalyptus, but the palm will benefit as well..

One of my unknown Prtichardias has a spadix with flowers emerging from it's spathe for the first time. The spathe is an interesting cluster of bulbuous shaped heads that individually open. I don't have Don Hodel's book on Pritchardia species to help identify the species. Thoughts are always welcome.

Very warm and very dry start to summer. Multiple days over 100F, and long stretches between rain. I fertilized a month or so ago, and been watering a couple times a week. Getting some beautiful green growth. All discoloration was from transplant shock last year, and will probably trim it all off next spring. So far, just been clipping the burnt-ends. It’s putting out its 4th frond of the summer, and all the new ones at over 7ft long. Easily my favorite plant in the yard, and very exotic looking for the area. NC Zone 8a.