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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

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.

Added a few more plantings - papaya, hibiscus, Chrysalidocarpus pembana and Phoenix paludosa hybrid. Unfortunately I had to move my Sabal uresana. It was sitting in standing water and slowly dying. Hopefully it'll survive the move - I did my best to avoid damage to the growth point and roots.

A baby Ravenea glauca went into the ground today.. Hopefully it likes the location.

I bit the bullet and planted a California Fan Palm (or what I believe to be a very pure Washingtonia Filifera) at the advice of the Plant World staff in Albuquerque. I planted it in a protected spot near the house by the fence. Got a really good deal, massive 15 gallon for $200. Asking for care advice, and also if these need protection. The California Fan Palms outside of Bahama Bucks seem to be thriving, but they are protected. There are also many unprotected palms in Roswell. We had an exceptionally cold winter and all the established palms seem to be fine. Pic attached.

The annual pacsoa show is on this weekend and the buy of the week is this Itaya amicorum. What a gorgeous looking palm never heard of it but I have now. Hopefully it will take the cold you just never know until you try.

Talk about a kid in a candy store omg. What fun it is to have so many new palms to choose from and some absolute bargains. As a palm grower myself I could not resist a kerriodoxa even though I have 700 of them in my greenhouse I just had to buy it. Even a nice Cham genoformis, dypsis poiveana I already have quite a few in containers and in the ground but I still had to buy them I just can’t help myself. So the list of palms I purchased are as follows. cham genoformis, pritchardia martii, licuala pelata sumowongii, synecanthus warscewizianus, hydriastele pinangoides, dypsis managenerensis, dypsis rosea, Cham elatior, ptychosperma cuneatum, rhopalastylis sapida, dypsis poiveana, dypsis pinnatafrons, Cham nubiums Pinanga insignis dypsis arenarium blue form, dypsis robusta, Chuniophoenix humilis, Calum’s muelleri and an Arenga caudata. An absolute feeding frenzy of palm buying and the best part was a total blast of fun doing so. Just a couple more for the collection.

Good luck with it! I hope you get many good years out of it. That looks like a really tiring day...and exactly how every weekend should be. Thank goodness spring is here.

Chambeyronia Macrocarpa just got the ring

So I'm just wondering about other people's experiences when buying from this company? Specifically any reviews of their Butyagrus seeds that they have been selling in recent years...? Someone in the UK brought a batch about 2 years ago and I was able to source some of them from him via Ebay about 20 months ago now. I paid £36 / £48 for 8 of those seeds from him plus UK postage. I think he had ordered 100 seeds for about $250 and had to pay about $40 postage to get them to the UK. Some of those he was able to sell on to other collectors like myself. Well fast-forward almost 2 years now and I haven't had any of my 8 seeds germinate and I haven't heard about any germinating from the other guy's seed batch. I also know there is a member in Spain @Peachs who has purchased 50 seeds from them for 192 Euros / $205 around the same time and he has not had a single one germinate either in 2 years now. So there is a definite red flag there and a common theme of European buyers being sent 'dud' seeds at least. Whether or not others in the States have also had this issue...? Has anyone else got any experience with dealing with this company and specifically purchases of their seeds, as it does seem we may have been sold 'dud' seeds that were not viable. If they were cheap, then like 'whatever'. But the two other buyers who I mentioned have clearly paid enormous prices to ship dud seeds across the Atlantic. It's not really good enough, is it!? 🤬

A visit to Brisbane botanical gardens. Quite an impressive garden with a lot of age with the plants on display throughout the garden. They certainly have there work cut out for them with this garden. It’s absolutely gorgeous. With some very large mature palms.

That seems about right unless , of course , there is a rain event that waters the palm for you. Be sure to do the finger in the soil check to make sure it is not drying out or getting too much water. Weather can affect the requirements. Harry

1)High drainage check, 2) green sand worked to help the appearance, check. Its a potassium deficiency but there could be other problems as well. When we talk of sand or gravel changing the soil chemistry two factors matter. Solubility in water, and surface area. SUrface areas of gravel decrease rapidly with gravel size. Therefore granite 3/4" will do nothing on both counts, its big so has a low surface area/lb and its not appreciably soluble (dissolvable). Limestone is another matter its quite soluble in water for a stone. I would expect that unless you have limestone or dolomite, minimal chemistry changes will occur from gravel. But the low surface area also means low cation exchange especially if the gravel is deep into the soil. Low cation exchange in high drainage soil is exactly what is in my yard. White/grey sand is the worst soil, bring on the ammendments to up the cation exchange and moisture retention. Lack of moisture retention means more frequent watering which can lead to a hardness accumulation from irrigation water if it is of a significant hardness. That further prevents soil wetting and water/fertilizer uptake. I would go straight to sulpomag(langbeinite) and consider some soil ammendment, perhaps turface MVP.

I didn't take a picture of when it looked its worst, here it is today, 4 new green fronds shooting up.

Here are some mature Sabal mexicana in Plazuela de San Pedro, Antigua Guatemala. They had the boots removed by chainsaw and have an interesting trunk pattern now. Seems to me that Sabal mexicana is synonymous with Sabal guatemalensis. There were no fruits to be seen on any of the palms, the birds stripped them clean.

A soaker hose seems like the easier of the two options.

The list of donated palms for the gardens in Coffs Harbour. Kindly donated by Lyn Crehan and Colin Wilson.

$200 for this massive 15 gallon! There's probably 2 foot or more of trunk there, we have a pretty tall fence.

An update on one of the coconuts in the last post - it is now known fruiting and is a Golden Malayan to my surprise. It has no foliar damage at at all from the cool spell and is loaded with fruit.

Wow, that is some swampy-looking ground. It is probably great for those hibiscus. I hope your uresana recovers for you. They are really nice palms. It would be a shame to lose it.

Thanks for the grow tips . I have a spot in mind for it, but my garden is so packed under the canopy iam going to plant it in the middle of pathway that’s like a three way intersection, to heck with the pathway I can walk around it I say but it’s a prime spot with great thermal protection out of the wind. It’s one beautiful palm that’s for sure. My low temperatures are around 2 degrees Celsius so iam hopeful it will make it. Be shame to kill it now, after all the years it has been alive to get to the size it is in a container.

I agree with @Las Palmas Norte - even in East Texas they don't look good if they are in full sun and not irrigated well. Brahea species and Sabal uresana would do much better although they grow slowly. Majesties aren't going to last long at all due to their thirsty habit and lack of cold tolerance.

Trachycaprus fortunei Windmill palm doesn't perform well in arid, high heat areas. I think the best you might hope for is a shaded (especially during the hottest part of the day) area and routine deep irrigation.

Encephalartos cerinus flushing in late winter. Counting the days until Northern Hemisphere spring begins. It is just 19 days away.

I put my existing pots of Dendrobium speciosum onto larger pots as they grew. The three in the tall ceramic pots were the ones that Harry recommended that I put in shallow pots after blooming season ends. I threw in the photo of the Dendrobium speciosum ssp grandiflora that I planted in a shallow layer of bark on a partially exposed rock. All Dendrobium speciosum in this group are ssp Pendiculatum, Grandiflora or Curvicaule.

Wow! What a haul!

Here is Adam's Tahina.

Zamia hamannii starting it's yearly "flush" of a single spike. My favourite of the plicate zamias

So I guess I would have looked like this one then in the picture. I really didn’t have much of walk around the gardens as the car was full of palms and we all know you can’t leave plants inside hot cars especially in sunny Queensland. Iam glad you at least talked her into buying a kerriodoxa if we can convert one person a day into a palm nut we are getting there slowly. Richard

Mt newest addition is an Anthurium seleri. This is a young plant but seeing the mature plant leaf structure was the attraction.

That is an awesome palm for the price Richard. Itaya has always been one of my favourite tropical palms I wish I could grow. A friend of mine has a nice one growing down here in a heated glasshouse. I think you’re a chance in your location but maybe keep it protected until it establishes. Here’s one at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. Photo taken 9 years ago.

Well it’s official the Coffs Harbour botanical garden conservation project is underway. With a donation of palms from Colin Wilson and Lyn Crehan. They have been more than generous in donating their time for the project with some amazing palms to start planting out in the gardens. I still have to go through them and find out exactly what I have got to plant. I look forward to the project getting underway for future generations to have such great rare beautiful plants. Iam the garden’s curator will be more than pleased with what’s available in palms for the garden. I would like to personally thank Colin and Lyn for giving me this opportunity to be part of such a great project, along with pacsoa and the wonderful people behind such a great organisation. I will post a list of what palms I have for now they can rest up with a good watering after such a long journey.

Palm Mecca it is your duty to attend at least once in a lifetime those are the rules set out by the palm mafia gang to be a lifetime member.

It’s normal for palms to lose a frond or two when I pot them up because of my rough handling, but yours didn’t lose any until 3 months later. I’ve never grown a howea, but I might look elsewhere for the cause. By the way, that tall skinny pot looks great for the palm at this height. A perfect match. Welcome to Palm Talk!

S. weddelliana is available as small starts from Floribunda. It is also the most petite of the three I mentioned. I have a grove of these in my front yard. Ravenea glauca is larger than R. hildebrandtii. My recent acquisition was two plants of Syagrus hoehnei. Your best choice for " a cluster of thin stemmed palms" would be the S. weddelliana (very slow, but more choice) or the Chamaedorea radicalis tree form (faster growth, more sparse foliage).

Yep sure is. I will smuggle it in for you dont ask me where it will go but it will hurt oh the things I do for you Tassie folk hey.

Sorry to reply twice, I don't have an irrigation system. Do you think a five gallon bucket with small holes at the bottom would suffice or should I get a soaker hose and wrap it around for a certain amount of time?

Foster Garden in downtown Honolulu has a mature female producing fertile seeds using pollen obtained from a botanical garden in SE Asia. When I last visited about two years ago, the tree was loaded with many huge seeds, and a half dozen seedlings were growing around the mother tree. Hopefully at least one will turn out to be a male. That might provide a tiny breeding population. Unfortunately, the palms on Oahu are rapidly being destroyed as coconut rhinoceros beetles sweep across the island after arriving about 13 years ago. I don’t know the status of palm collections in the several large botanical gardens on Oahu, but I would think it is CODE RED. Because of that threat, I would hope Foster is working to distribute seeds to botanical gardens with appropriate climates and maybe responsible private collections. I know of only one older specimen on the Big Island, but there certainly might be others. Some very well-known palm gardens here that would do a great job with this species don’t have them. That makes me think that if Foster is sharing seeds, it is only with a very few professional botanical gardens and research institutions. They probably hate getting inquiries from palm hobbyists requesting seeds. More than likely nonprofit tax law prohibits them from selling seeds.

Great palm! I’m sure you are going to grow it well. I can’t add anything regrading cold hardiness but I do have one that does pretty good on the coast however the leafs tend to get a bit burnt from the sea breeze and sun. Overall a great palm.

I spent a couple evenings in coastal QLD prior to visiting an inland place called Century Zinc. That was 20 years ago. Brisbane was a beautiful city when I was there and Townsville in August has very good weather.

60f isn't uncommon during Jan or February here. We had over 60f a week ago and it's forecasted to be 60f again next week. However to get consistently above 60f we have to wait till April.

C. onilahensis Stiff Leaf just got potted up today! Got about 60 out of 100. Looking forward to see what they do

Does this one qualify as large and mature, 25 years old should be enough time to mature.

Doing a bit of pruning in the back part of the garden up behind the house. A very dry part of the garden no irrigation, just left on there own to tough it out. Iam actually surprised at how well they have grown over the years. I guess plant selection has something to do with it definitely not Johannesteijsmannia country that’s for sure with hot dry 42 degrees Celsius temperatures in summer.

I have some mule seeds that I am trying to germinate currently, but they didn't come from the same source as yours. I have had mine in a baggie on a heating mat for about 5 weeks now. I haven't seen any sign of germination yet, but I think they normally take several months.

Don't want to sound like a palm snob, but I'm wondering what is special about either of these, or the cross, as compared to T. fortunei. Are they more attractive than fortunei? I'm in zone 9B+, with only occasional temps below 30 degrees, so T. fortunei is a super easy grower here, but I don't find it that exciting. (Sorry... but I plead guilty to plant snobbery!) Bruce

A few photos of the coconuts around town after another growing season: Glendale coconuts (2 photos): Clubhouse Coconut: Hallam Coconut - trunking after being defoliated in Jan. 2018 Combee Coconuts with Immature Fruit Main St. Coconuts - unfortunately with poor lighting - Hard to believe they are only 7 years old (2 Photos) Edgewater Beach Coconuts (2 photos): My older Jamaican Tall: My Maypan:

Maybe this isn’t that unusual, but I thought it was interesting. I have noticed that many live oaks in the landscape, appearing planted and of unknown provenance, tend to drop the previous year’s foliage a few days-weeks before new growth in the spring. The naturally-occurring (to my knowledge) live oaks tend to hold onto the previous year’s foliage until after new growth in the spring. local provenance (to my knowledge) Planted/ unknown provenance (to my knowledge)

This one appears to be variegated.

It is indeed hard to find. The only time I've seen one for sale was at a nursery in Austin where the owner had grown them from seed as I had. His were probably 1 year older than mine. This is my smaller one (too close to the fence): And this is the mother tree at the botanical garden in Houston: