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This palm would have been planted a very long time ago, 24 hours by train from Adelaide, South Australia, 18 hours from Perth by Train. How it has survived in the desert is a mystery We had a barbecue beside the train in 35c at 9pm while the train got refuelled, from a fuel tank in the desert for that purpose Regards Colin

first time poster. can't be too careful. good luck to you all

A couple of my genoformis in the garden have a few seeds on them. A couple had started show signs of being (starting to dry out) ready, so I thought why pick a few and put a few in a community pot and see how I go. A couple of extra genoformis in the garden would be nice.

Hello, those things that worry you on the underside of the leaf are called ramenta and are perfectly natural, no disease, no parasites.

Hey guys let’s not do politics . I come here for a break from all that. I have lived in Southern California for 65 years, I love where I live and we have a weather phenomenon with offshore winds . Every area has weather phenomena and politics or blame will not stop them . Hurricanes , flooding , or high winds don’t care what your politics are , nature has the power to, not us. We do our best to survive , we all want the same thing . Harry

one more

If you need a pinnate-leaved Palm in SA, I think I would stick to Phoenix. Just have never seen a lushly stunning specimen that even compared to Allen’s in Tennessee. Even a straight Butia here, despite its cold hardiness, often do not look to good. I think the soil conditions and maybe extremes of the climate keep them from looking as good as they should. Butia anywhere in the southeast look better than they do here in central TX. I am not saying they all look terrible, but the majority of them don’t look great. There were several large ones in my neighborhood which died in ‘21 I’m sure it wasn’t just the cold but that was the last stress to send them over the edge. Here are my robusta’s basking in the warm sunshine yesterday, we’ll see how they look a few days from now! These were 1-gallon when planted May of ‘23, I’m impressed with their growth.

I had about ten of them, grown from seed, these were saved because the roots came out of the pots and sank into the ground, even though they were not watered

What did I get myself into ? I grew up with cold winters that get down to around 0°F almost every winter. I should be laughing at you all . If it wouldn't be for my hobby I would not care at all. Man, these winters in Texas are BULLSHIT . Worst place to grow some cool palms. What's next winter going to be like? Every year the reset button gets pushed.

This is what they're saying for us over on the Weather Channel's website:

After the rats demolished some reinhardtia gracilis seedlings the usual casualties in mortality has happened. So time to clean up the old pots with the soil in them, for various reasons to prevent places for disease, weeds and bugs to live. If you leave them there you always water them for some reason automatically seeing a container and think I should water it. And just to keep things tidy and clean.

this one was made from seed way back in 1989! as you can see the seeds fall on the stem and sprout on the bases of the old leaves

I had in my garden about ten Chamaedorea cataractarum of 25 years old, male and female, which produced seeds, but they all died due to lack of water, but surprise, today I found a little one that grew on its own!

Tip for N Florida, South Georgia, South Alabama. It looks like you may get a rare ice storm. Tie up fronds on small palms if possible and/or wrap frost cloth or a hand towel around spear area on vulnerable palms to avoid ice intrusion in spear.

As soon as they do that it'll go back to being mild (Murphy's Law). Maybe that's what we need. I've finished up wrapping the zone pushing bed. Ironically it looks like the normal stuff is getting set way back or wiped. Hope next winter is average. Seems like mild is asking too much at this point 😭 My parents planted a little Livistona chinensis in the late 90s and it grew great for the first 20 years of its life. Lately it keeps getting defoliated. It's the trunk you see sticking out of the covers.

I get you man I also have been moving further and further south to avoid cold weather and just CANNOT get away from it. Sometimes I feel like a failure for not moving to Florida. I'm thinking about it still but the problem is Florida is only actually warm from Tampa to the south and it is expensive. For what I own here in Texas I would have to seriously downgrade to live in Florida. I've been thinking about the finances and unless I win the lottery I'm gonna have to live in a much smaller and older home or apartment. Houston is cheap. San Antonio is also affordable. Both Florida and California are expensive if you want nice. The reason is that so many people move further south in search of warm weather. You would be surprised how many people hate snow. I grew up in the mountains of New Mexico so I get the snow hate. It can get annoying quickly. In Texas you can have nice and not spend a fortune as things are cheap here. I found a beautiful home in Houston for a great price back in 2016. I live here now and I have a gorgeous garden full of palms that will also have to start form zero after this mess. At least my house is beautiful though. It is like this every year now and will probably continue this way. Alaska and Siberia are warm and that artic cold air is breaking and leaking down all the way to here. I thought about Mexico but they are also freezing in areas that didn't freeze before. The cold is sinking so low it goes almost all the way down to Mexico city. I guess our only choices are to just wait and see what happens. There are lot of us on the same boat. I know many people in Houston who are terrified of this front. Two friends of mine lost a lot of money with busted pipes in Feb 2021. Their rooms are still not finished.

It's going to be bad enough here in Abq..but.. the saving grace is that it appears there won't be any precip.. or cloud cover.. so should be sunny out.. Short duration..

I remember during the 22/23 winter over here, some places had a bit of snow down south and ended up having a 15F night as a result. This is what stung Heathrow airport when it went down to 16F back then, recording the coldest January night in 35 years. Whereas other nearby areas that didn't have any snow cover didn't dip below 22-23F. So there was a difference of 7-8F across a few miles and it was purely due to whether an area had laying snow on the ground or not during a night with clear skies. It can knock your potential minimum temps down by another 10F. So a setup that may have only produced a 20-25F night can instead produce a 10-15F night instead with laying snow cover, since the rate of radiative cooling is almost doubled due to the snow's reflective properties, which increases the heat loss/transfer upwards on a clear night. Contrary to what I have heard people say in the past, snow does not benefit you during a freeze. It will bring added moisture problems making it a wet-freeze and it will increase the likelihood of having a very, very cold night during an event, should you get clear skies and laying snow cover.

Here is a pic of the surviving queen palm in Bellaire taken this morning to capture its growth between the freezes. Its actually in the early stages of flowering, which is impressive, but the developing spathe is on the other side. I'm hopeful it will be able to brush off this freeze.

brahea edulis at the botanical garden of naples

I have this one with fruit (seeds in them, I presume.)

Harlingen, Texas is showing 26°F , Pearland 16°F but here West of Austin we might not break 20°F. Weird event. I protected the palms in Pearland yesterday. Most received heater cables before wrapping . Unfortunately I didn’t give the Bismarckia heat, just defoliated and wrapped in a tarp. The low as of yesterday was 20°F before dropping today.

Front yard Sabal before the blizzard Sabal guatemalensis finally made a full recovery from 17F last year S. causiarum

I would enjoy adding these to my collection but as I don’t sell plants I would probably buy no more than 5 depending on final price.

Life would be better, Dave, if you went back to the RED Converse !

So, I was looking at the latest (at time of comment) NAM 12z run, and I noticed quite the afternoon warmup. After reviewing the H5 trend, it appears that the trough/storm could be speeding up? Looks like it might be another "way out" that I might not have considered. Because the faster it all moves, the more daytime warming would occur for Texas —that might help in melting some of the precip, and limiting radiational events. This is addition to the fact that NAM could be picking up to "warm nosing" that the global models might be missing out on (aka, more sleet instead of snow).

Nice , looks like you will have some wee ones soon. Interesting how some Chamaedorea produce bunches of seed and others like your Genoformis produce only a few. I have followed your posts , and with my own experience , noticed that the bifid leaf ones are the ones that usually produce fewer seeds. My Metallica gave me one seed this year and another one still green on the plant . I keep them in close proximity to assure the best outcome. I have 9 plants in two seperate pots . I started with 8 plants , one seed sprouted 6-7 years ago so I know that the seeds are viable. The plants were quite old when I found them in the back of a nursery that was closing. They had three pots with 4 in each pot , I bought them all and gifted one of the pots to my sister in law. That was about 25 years ago! Harry

Man, I give you so much credit for always being so optimistic. I definitely can use some of your optimism. I'm at a point where I just want the cold to nuke my yard so I can get back to the drawing board and learn from the cold winters. Summers getting hotter and drier and winters colder . What a good recipe for keeping all of us Texas palm growers happy. I often get to go to Poteet and there's a place with a dozen of CIDPs I thought I would see them not defoliating this year. It's so sad.

Build a basin about 4-5” high and 24” across arounde a week your clump and fill it up with water at least once a week; they’re thirsty things! Keep them happy and they’re gorgeous!

looks like a washingtonia robusta

Laughable at best, and a really bad arm chair take on the situation.. #1: California does PLENTY of prescribed burns, every year.. #2: You do realize that when you have 100MPH winds and ember storms created by those winds, On top of the fact that many areas in S. Cal haven't seen any rain since ...last APRIL, anything that catches on fire of this magnitude is likely destined to burn ..To the foundation.. #3: Is this really your opinion? 🤦‍♂️ Might examine footage a bit more closely. PLENTY of " Street Palm " specimens went up ..and contributed firebrands / ember cast into the fire itself.. in both of these fires, and countless others, over and over again.. After this experience, Guarantee discussions among various municipalities out there about inclusion of palms in future landscaping, esp in the really high risk WUI zones will come up.. As far as the vegetation type itself, yes it is dense.. that is called " Chaparral " ..it has always been there, and experienced periodic fire ...Forest vs. Chaparral? Totally different vegetation types... Completely different behavior during... / response after a fire.. Please educate yourself on California ecology..

I dunno guys, the plastic wrapped telephone pole look in the middle of the yard is growing on me. Spent the day protecting the weaker stuff. I did Xmas lights, blanket, and plastic over 2 Majesties, a small B. Clara, a small C. Alba, small Acoelorraphe Wrightii, Chamaedorea Costiricana, Chamaedorea Tepejilote and a Phoenix Rupicola. Also protected my non-palmy Brachychiton Rupestris just because I'd like to try to keep some of the size it put on this summer. Going to tent the Rhapis and Engleri tomorrow with a reptile heat bulb under. Some other smaller palms got upside down ceramic planters with Xmas lights underneath like the Chuniophoenix Nana, Licuala Fordiana, and Lanonia Calciphila. I had a new shed built over the summer with a ton of windows and a heater specifically to give me a place to stash everything during events like this so I got that all loaded up too. Luckily it was beautiful out today and I didn't have anything else going on so I had to time to take care of everything. Hope for the best!

I couldn't find a pic or vid of your Bismarkia but it is probably protectable if under 10' tall

Thanks for all the good detailed info everyone. I’ve come to peace with what happens, it’s just so hard when it’s been year after year. I brought my frost cloth with me and have a few frost bags. I’ll cover the citrus as they are all small. The Bismarckia is so big I’m not sure how I’m going to protect it. I’ll wrap my two smaller queens and that’s it. I’m now glad I didn’t get as many things planted as I had hoped this year. Everything potted is in the garage, there’s over a hundred palms in here with most being Sabals, Trachycarpus and Butia and Butia hybrids.

Wine break as I continue to pile on the apocalypse level protection. Feeling so deflated and running on the last ounce of care. I really can't take another 10 degree below average winter anytime soon. I'm about to chop off the Archontophoenix leaves and wrap the trunk/bud with whatever material I have left. But will it even do any good at this point? 😭 I used up most of the material on the Cyphophoenix, given it only grows about 3 leaves a year. I'll be devastated if it dies, was hoping for at least another 2 or 3 years with it

If you know where Princeton Plaza / Da Anza Park is located in Almaden ( Roughly where Blossom Hill Rd / Meridian Ave intersect ) There are half a dozen seeding B edulis specimens planted on a nearby street anyone can easily access.. G.E. Street view. Image from Feb. of 2023..

Sometimes palms drop parts that annoy hell out of me. Like spent infructescences, like that from an Archontophoenix tuckeri. Maybe there’s some that vex and annoy you?

The 500 joey seeds I purchased on the 26/11/2024 are starting to pop up. Taking roughly around 5 weeks one box I placed on bottom heating the other 6 boxes went into the hothouse inside plastic bags in there boxes., both are germinating at the same time. So you really only need a warm environment to germinate them there quite easy. I won’t start to pot them up yet I wait for the first spike or leaf to appear before I transfer them, joeys are so easy to grow just don’t damage there roots and everything will be fine. Iam pretty confident in growing joeys I done a few before so another batch of 500 seeds should give me at least another 300 more joeys if all goes well.

They should update the hardiness zone map next year again. It's absolutely misleading for any new palm grower.

yes Darold, maybe you're right, because the last time I was at the botanical garden, in 2019, before I got sick, the brahea edulis was much smaller, instead this one in the photo is very tall

Gyuseppe, I believe this palm is B. armata. Note how the spadices extend well beyond the fronds, and compare your image to the others posted.

I haven’t really seen any mule palms doing so well here either. Several died in the ‘21 freeze and those remaining that I know of have not exactly thrived. A few more planted since but have fried in the freezes we receive each year.

Beautiful palm, good luck. It’s well worth the time and effort. Tim

I believe it's just normal shock adjusting to the new environment. The same thing happened with one I planted back in March. These guys love water so over watering isn't the problem. If you're experiencing windy conditions you would do well to water more.

Those of you in Texas have time to order supplies (Amazon) to protect for Tuesday if you hurry? If you need any ideas let me know.

I found Cham costaricana to be relatively short lived for me in our Backyard Jungle above the Isabelle Canal. I don't know if that's normal or unusual. I tried Cham pochutlensis from seeds but never got very far with them. I suspect they prefer a less sweltering climate and cooler winters. Our 6-7 month ferocious summers are just too long and hot for them. Definitely more suited to a NoCal mediterranean climate.

This might be my favorite palm tree. I think I have 11 now, but recently the feral hogs have really tried to destroy the last five I planted. This area needed to be mowed a few days ago but nothing to mow now.

Mine has seed but I haven’t been down there in a while. This is when the flower first emerged. Harry after all the extreme wind we have had I don’t know if any seeds are left. They were green last time I was down there.

Very nice photos . It looks like you have created a retreat. My wife and don’t stray from home very much , we prefer our “tropical oasis”. I have spent over 25 years creating our retreat. Harry Looking East from our deck. Still plenty of room for that special palm! A brief visit with one of my garden friends. Early morning , a new frond for my C. Obtusa A stroll down the west side of my yard to begin a day of gardening Sunrise from our deck , rain coming?