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A view from my deck ! 15 years old and my largest of 4 Lepidorachis.

Upon request by the owners and IPS president Andy Hurwitz I am posting information about a one of a kind legacy property available for sale in Hawaii. PT is not normally the correct venue for real estate ads, but I believe when you read more you will see why an exception is made here. Although memories of my visit there in 2022 will forever be etched in my mind, please address inquiries to the owners, not to me personally. Please see information and photos from the owners: A New Chapter for Casa de Las Palmas We purchased Casa de Las Palmas in 2017 from the estate of legendary nurseryman Jerry Hunter. Jerry was the owner of Rancho Soledad Nurseries in California, Palms of Paradise in Hawaii, and Mount Soledad in Pacific Beach. Dubbed the "Dean of California Landscape Architects", he held license #33. His designs are found throughout the San Diego area, including San Diego Zoo, Balboa Botanical Gardens, and a host of other public and private venues. Along with collecting and hybridizing many new plant varieties, he built the first plant tissue culture laboratory in San Diego. Casa de Las Palmas was Jerry's private Hawaiian retreat. Over the course of 35 years, Jerry transformed seven acres of upper Hilo farmland into a true garden masterpiece, creating a magical realm of exotic palms, waterfalls, meandering lava-rock paths, water gardens, and flowering tropical plants. Now over 45 years since planting began, it's a vast and mature botanical collection of rare palms, cycads, philodendrons, bromeliads, anthuriums and orchids. We have been honored to be the caretakers, but the time has come for us to move on, so we are offering the property for sale. Before we list it on the open market, we want palm and garden lovers to know it is available, in the hope that we can find a custodian for the future. The property has a 2-bedroom, 2-and-a-half-bathroom house with a separate apartment, and potential for additional dwellings. We currently do private garden tours, film shoots, and small events, and there is plenty of room to grow a successful business here. We had the delight of hosting IPS members for a lunch and tour during the 2022 Biennial in Hawaii. Please do contact us if you would like any further information. Irene Francis & Lars Woodruffe 646-338-7882 irenefrancis@hotmail.com https://houseofthepalms.com/

Nothing better than a day in the bush, checking out the native palms, even a couple of Livistona Australis in the steep sandstone rocky country!

Hello ! Was lucky enough to explore the forests of Costa Rica : from altitude cloudy forest to dry savanes. They have it all, with amazing species. A special thanks to Jeff who gave me great advices and IDs. Some of you might know him.

Posting a few photos of my Parajubaea torallyi. I planted this palm about 15 years ago from a 5-gallon pot. It currently has about six feet of clean trunk and it’s about 25+ feet tall. This time of year, I tug on the old leaf sheaths to see if any of them are ready to come off. If they're ready, they pull off easily. However, if they aren't, no amount of pulling will remove them. It’s not unusual to find Arboreal Salamanders (Aneides lugubris) under the old leaf sheaths as shown in the photo below. I'm in the San Francisco bay area.

I've had one for a few years here in Lakeland: My Progress Thread: Palms and Others of Interest

It’s been a long road to get to this point, but we’ve finally achieved it, we own acreage in Australia 🥳. The acre parcel is located 3 km from the township of Malanda, 15 minutes to Atherton (main hub on the Atherton Tablelands), and just over an hour down the stunning Gillies Range highway to Cairns. 740 metres above sea level and typically 6-7C cooler than Cairns in summer (29 Vs. 36C this Saturday), with minimums rarely dropping below 12C in winter. Also humidity tends to be lower. I’m hoping the climate is a suitable candidate for Juania australis, Ceroxylon, and Hedyscepe. The land is red volcanic soil, which is very fertile with good drainage and moisture retention. Ultimately I would like to build a house on it and retire up there over the next 10-15 years, but that all depends on if I can convince my wife to leave the Gold Coast. If not, we’ll use it as a holiday home and split our time between the two locations accordingly. For now, it’s my playground to plant sun loving palms that will provide future canopy. As each species goes in, I’ll update this thread. The YouTube video shows the land as it is now. Over the next few months all the infrastructure will go in (town water, underground power, sealed roads, concrete access driveway etc).

One beautiful palm from New Guinea. Clumping, colorful, well behaved, and attractive entire leaves. Copious amount of indument on the rachis and leaf veins. Been in ground for around twelve years. I’ll add photos of the colorful inflorescence and seed if and when that happens. Tim

My students and I have been landscaping our school for 40 years and we have a long-tested collection of Sabal palms. I thought that people in zone 8* would be interested in what can be grown long term. The coldest temps these palms have experienced is low teens. I will add more pics if people are interested. The list: S. causiarum, S. minor, S. tamaulipensis, S. rosei, S. x texensis, S. uresana (green and silver), S. pumos, S. bermudana, S. mexicana, S. etonia, S. palmetto Lisa. (4 years old). Added last summer: S. blackburniana, S. miamiensis. In our area, S. palmetto reseeds like crazy. S. minor is native and common in low lying areas. Rhapidophyllum and Serenoa are native about 1 hour south of town. Pictures in order top to bottom: S. causiarum, S. uresana (silver), S. tamaulipensis, S. Lisa, S. Riverside, S. palmetto

I've not shared anything with you folks before, simply because I haven't had anything to offer. I was not born with a passion for palms. We (my wife and I) fell into this peculiar and fascinating world quite by chance. Like anything, the more you learn, the more interesting things become. That said, all we have to offer you is our experience managing a legacy garden. Irene & I bought Casa de Las Palmas on Hawaii Island in 2017. The garden was the tropical fantasy world of the late San Diego nurseryman Jerry Hunter. Mr. Hunter was successful. He’d started his company in the 1950's, and was the 33rd licensed Landscape Architect in California. He'd been involved with the design of San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, and Balboa Botanical Gardens, among many others. He had the first tissue culture lab in Southern California. His parents had been the go-to people on the west coast for begonias. He was essentially American plant royalty. He figured out that if he grew his tropicals in Hawaii and shipped them to California, he'd be ahead of the competition. He built a nursery in Hilo and bought the land for Casa de Las Palmas. It would serve as his home away from home, and as a showroom for his wealthy clients. Construction of the garden began in 1981 on almost seven acres of upland pasture. The volcanic clay soil was not suitable for planting juvenile plants, so untold tons of cinder and rock were brought in, and the landscape shaped and molded into what we see today. Most of the planting was done into cinder mounds. For the design of Casa de Las Palmas he worked with the local landscape architect Brian Lievens, whom he would task with sourcing some of the rare plants from east Hawaii's growers. Brian was gracious enough to provide us with the original planting plans of the garden which are now laminated and framed on the lanai. These exquisite plans (like a cross between a complex wiring diagram and an artwork) were how we learned about the palms in the garden. We spent endless evenings cross referencing the botanic names with The Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms. Being a nurseryman from San Diego, Mr. Hunter had a crew of extremely hard working and talented Mexican men build the garden for him. A swimming hole was hand-hewn under one of the waterfalls. A delicate stone foot bridge was created over the stream. We were told that the lava rock paths took three years to complete. And the scale of plantings were nothing short of colossal. The kind only a successful nurseryman like Mr. Hunter could even contemplate. We were lucky enough to apprentice under one of the original employees, Cristobal. Without his dedication and care we would never have got off the starting line, our ignorance would have been absolute, the garden would have fallen into chaos. I recall how early on we planted a dwarf papaya on a cinder mound next to a Metroxylon amicarum and Dypsis carlsmithii (now Chrysalidocarpus carlsmithii), much to Cristobal's unspoken, but obvious, distress. Shortly afterwards a large palm leaf fell and destroyed the papaya. We took this as a sign that the garden requires a certain amount of respect. Since then, staying true to the intentions of the garden has been something we work hard on. When we plant, we consider the design. Perhaps we plant a Alocasia zebrina underneath the Caryota zebrina to mimic its petioles. Perhaps the Pinanga distitcha should be planted near the Licuala mattanensis “Mapu” to mirror their mottled leaf forms. Constant working in the garden reveals new insights every day. Sometimes it's like garden archeology, discovering a long-overgrown path or a rare plant languishing under piles of fallen leaves. Sometimes it's a lesson in design - realizing that most of the plants in an area share undulating leaf forms or that the color scheme is quite deliberately rigid. Casa de Las Palmas has evolved from a carefully orchestrated young garden into a mature ecosystem. Plants have produced progeny and plants have died. The blueprint has gotten a little more fuzzy. Many of the palms are too big to groom now. Everything fights for light, air and nutrients. It has become naturalized. Pretty soon we realized that the nutrients the garden demands couldn't be met by chemical fertilizer. It was just too expensive. So, we looked into goats. We now have six gelded males rescued from the butcher's block and fenced on a neighboring paddock we own. They provide plenty of manure for the garden. Their poop doesn't smell much, is hard and breaks down slowly and can be flung from a shovel in showers through the dense plantings. The plants love it, but we do supplement weak or needy palms with a special palm fertilizer as needed. Legacy gardens are by their nature equal parts demanding and rewarding. They offer those of us new to gardening an incredible learning experience. We certainly don't have the kind of money, manpower or knowledge required to create something so remarkable from scratch. But like buying a beautiful, world-weary house, after a lot of work, you can enjoy something unique, grand and magical. Really for us it is the magical spell that Casa de las Palmas puts you under, one that removes us from the world and enchants us, that makes this legacy garden so very special. Lastly, I'll leave you with three things of note that we have learned: Map your garden. Don't make it too big. And don't go planting Clinostigma samoense down the driveway...or any heavy crownshaft palms for that matter! com.google.android.apps.docs.editors.kix.editors.clipboard?uuid=ecbeebc8-9124-4c8d-9ebd-e5cbdce7e26b

Howea forsteriana is one of my favorite landscape palms. I planted several small ones throughout the years. These are some of the ones in the front yard. They become very dramatic in the wind and since coconuts are impossible here, these are about as close as you can get as a Cocos impersonator.

Woke up to the alarm going from the security cameras, so in a pair of jocks raced out the door half asleep, and there was this palm theif going hell for leather shoving palms in her trolley faster than Donald trump’s tariffs going around the world. I don’t know who got more of a surprise, the palm pilfering fingers froze up in shock at some raving palm nut standing there in his jocks half asleep or me seeing this google eyed palm nut helping herself to the finest palms know to man kind. I mean come on I had heard of rumours on palmtalk about a heist, apparently possum peachy and her accomplise California @Harry’s Palms sitting in the getaway truck had plotted a hit unknown to me but iam sure others where in on it, butter fingers @gyuseppethe Italian connection iam sure was involved, he has some good connections to move such goodies abroad @Than @Phoenikakias, and some local connections @Jonathan and @tim_brissy_13 had orders in for anything that would live in refrigerator. But I shrugged off such a brazen attempt. California Harry was heard yelling hurry up will you, but then I heard him say quick grab that one as well. I mean how much can koala 🐨 bear! An international hit right from behind the scenes, with the mastermind of the operation going hell for leather at it. I have put up a picture of the said palm pilfering person involved. So any information is greatly appreciated, as the authorities just said good luck catching her we been waiting for years to catch her, she keeps alluding us. And she had a possy of pekinese dogs as protection foaming at the mouth sent charging at me! Just let it be known that the peachy possum gang and the head Don @palmtreesforpleasure the mastermind behind such a brazen attempt have all been put on Santa’s naughty list, where watching you lot🌱🤣

Palermo was a bit of mixed bag. Still pockets of stunning ancient heritage, but unfortunately the city in general does appear to have lost its way. The botanical garden on the other hand was a pleasant surprise, with a fantastic variety of palm species. Also the most comprehensive collection of citrus trees I've ever seen, the majority of which were full of ripe fruit. Well worth a visit. Washingtonia robusta Church of St. Dionisio 14th century ruins Phoenix sylvestris Washingtonia robusta Not 100%, but I think this is Trachycarpus takil. Labelled Trachycarpus fortunei. Brahea armata Butia sp. Brahea edulis Trachycarpus martianus Jubaea chilensis Trithrinax campestris Rhopalostylis sapida Chamaedorea metallica Archontophoenix maxima Roystonea regia Chrysalidocarpus baronii Brahea decumbens Brahea brandegeei Brahea armata Chrysalidocarpus decaryi Trithrinax campestris Brahea aculeata Nannorrhops ritchiana Parajubaea torallyi Sabal maritima Dioon spinulosum Encephalartos lehmanni Chamaerops humilis var. argentea Howea forsteriana

As the sun fell lower in the sky, something red was lit up toward the east. What could it be? Grabbed the phone and went to see. A sight I have never witnessed before, the unveiling of a fresh inflorescence of Loxococcus rupicola -- and wow, was it ever RED! Below you can see what caught my eye. Closer -- evidently I was disturbing a pair of Madagascar geckos -- can you find them? Below you can see the formed seeds on another Loxococcus rupicola. I sometimes have trouble remembering the name of this palm. My trick is to start with Coca-cola and then it falls into place.

This is the luckiest palm in my garden. Twice it has been narrowly missed by huge falling trees, surviving without so much as a scratch. It even seems to like the decaying Cecropia trunk 1/4" from its base. Love watching this beautiful baby grow. Do you have Johannesteijsmannia magnifica in your garden? Or a photo of one you have admired on a palm tour somewhere in the world? Post your photos here! Not kidding about it being "in the jungle!"

A few more photos. Tim

I see a few out there in palm land want to start selling plants. It’s quite simple really, you don’t need a degree in business management! Step one choose quality stock to send, the customer is always right. Make sure they are aware of what you’re sending, seller communication is critical. Package your plants well, this is critical for a couple of reason, it’s nice to receive well presented plants, and if there are delays in shipping your plants stand a better chance of arriving in better condition. Post immediately express postage, there are various methods of packaging choose one that suits your taste, but remember you should be able to shake the packaging and nothing move around. And if all goes well you will have yourself a nice little hobby business that can grow as big as you want. Remember quality plants packaged well, seller communication and your in the business of supplying plants!

I noticed a spadix beginning to push out of my Pseudophoenix sargentii a couple of months back with anticipation. It is the first one this palm. Today I checked it's status and saw that it never fully opened. We'll, at least it has hit this milestone and may flower someday in the future.

I'll let you know how this beccariophoenix does in Orlando. Current forecast is 25F. Way too big to protect so I'll just water the soil well

I know there are older threads with similar themes, but hopefully we can get this forum moving again. Post your pics before the snow melts.

Hello everyone, My name is Sebastián Vieira, and I’m writing from Colombia. I’m a naturalist and currently the Executive Director of Salvamontes Colombia, a non-profit organization focused on the conservation and restoration of threatened species and their habitats, mainly through the creation and long-term care of private natural reserves. Although I didn’t come to conservation through a formal biology track ( I originally studied and worked as an engineer and spent many years working in telecommunications ), my interest in plants and the natural world has been with me for as long as I can remember. Over time, that curiosity slowly turned into field work, conservation projects, nature photography, and taxonomic research, especially on Pleurothallid orchids. It was that long, hands-on relationship with nature that lead me to be a co-founder of Salvamontes, and nowadays, its leader. Andy Hurwitz invited to come and participate in PalmTalk, and share with everyone here our amazing story, so it’s really nice to finally introduce SalvaMontes and our work here, especially thanks to the invitation from the International Palm Society, whose support has been fundamental for one of the projects I care most deeply about. That project is the Sabinaria Natural Reserve, located in the Darién region of northwestern Colombia, close to the border with Panama. This is an incredibly rich rainforest area, still poorly studied, and it happens to be the only place on Earth where the striking palm Sabinaria magnifica is found. A few years ago, while visiting the area, it became clear that much of the known habitat of Sabinaria magnifica was privately owned and increasingly exposed to deforestation and land-use change. Given how limited the species’ distribution is, it doesn’t take much habitat loss to create serious long-term risks. With that in mind and with crucial support from the International Palm Society, we were able to acquire and legally protect 50 hectares of tropical rainforest, securing what we believe is a meaningful portion of the global habitat and population of Sabinaria magnifica. Today, that forest is permanently protected as a private natural reserve. What makes this especially rewarding is that Sabinaria magnifica also works as an umbrella species. By protecting its habitat, we’re also conserving many other threatened organisms that depend on the same intact forest. This includes species like the critically endangered harlequin frog Atelopus fronterizo and the rare tree Magnolia sambuensis, along with many other plants and animals that are still little known. For us, Sabinaria is much more than a single-species project. It reflects a broader way of doing conservation: protecting habitat first, learning directly from the field, working with local communities, and committing to long-term stewardship rather than short-term interventions. I’m really glad to be here and look forward to learning from all of you, sharing updates from the field, and exchanging ideas about palms and their conservation around the world. I am also sharing some images showing the Sabinaria palm and its natural habitat. Finally, it is very important to thank and recognize the important support and participation of biologists Norman Echavarría, Norberto López, Saul Hoyos, Gloria Galeano and Rodrigo Bernal. Without them this project would not be a reality. PS: I will come back soon with additional information and images. Warm regards from Colombia, Sebastián Salvamontes Colombia

Got my grubby hands on these two hybrids from Floribunda. Anyone else trying them? Or growing them already? This first one is a prestoniana hybrid of unknown pollen parent. And these are the decipiens F2 hybrids. Jeff says these are from a clustering, smaller palm and that it is fast growing. Lastly, one of my decipiens nearby looking good with a new spear not far from opening

Here's one growing in the water at Presa La Boca, Nuevo León, México. However, this is freshwater, not salt water.

Areca vestaria sp.

2 pics from yesterday and 2 from today. I love this dypsis Mt. something or other

Searching Google Maps for somewhere nice to have lunch, I came across a restaurant opposite Giardino Garibaldi (always on the lookout for potential palm locations 😉). As we tucked in, I noticed this specimen in the distance. Upon closer inspection, I believed it to be Butia odorata x Jubaea chilensis. It's producing viable seed, which is most likely self pollinated as there aren't any other cocoid palms close by as far as I could tell (some Syagrus romanzoffiana 5-10 minutes walk towards the coastline). Most of the seed floated in water, but I'm persevering with them as I've germinated floating Jubaea and Butia before. Further research online uncovered an old article on the European Palm Society that confirms the ID. http://www.palmsociety.org/members/english/chamaerops/041/041-14.shtml by Juergen Plaumann (Chamaerops No. 41). There is also a picture of it on there. BxJ seed with endocarps intact. BxJ cracked and endocarps removed

Thank you @Josue Diaz for hitting me up with great palms

Used some tarps and 8 ft stakes at an angle to create a northerly wind block. Ran C9 lights under them. Also made some visqueen greenhouses on some smaller palms in the yard, and within the tarp windbreak. Palms that are protected: Coccothrinax Azul Coccothrinax Hiorami Pinanga Adagensis Thrinax Radiata Chamaedorea CostaRicana, Ernesti Augustii, Microspadix and Cataractarum Chambeyronia Macrocarpa Howea Forsteriana Palms that are going to die: Chrysalidocarpus Pembana, Lanceolata Chambeyronia Oliviformis Archontophoenix Myolensis, Tuckeri Sabal Mauritiformis Palms that got the crown wrapped and C9 lights and will defoliate: Archontophoenix Cunninghamiana x2 Beccariophoenix Alfredii. Forecast for SW Volusia 24 tonight, and 27 Sunday night.

So I know that you were not happy with me and my comments before but this is exactly what I was trying to convey. I was not trying to hurt your feelings or be unsupportive of your ventures. I was simply advising you of the harsh reality of nature. Nature does not care what mankind has described a region to be or that a general trend of warm temperatures is a sign of some sort of absolute minimum temperature. This type of thing happens and will continue to happen. I have (as well as many others) seen this occur several times in my lifetime and have come to the realization that Florida is not immune to intense arctic cold fronts, especially at the worst possible time. Planting tropical palm trees in Florida is always a risk as is any zone pushing. If you want to grow coconuts and similar palms, that’s great but they will never be viable long term in North Florida. And as you can see, even Central Florida is not a sure thing. At this point, there are people in South Florida who are worried because they have super tropical stuff like Areca Vestiaria and Cyrtostachys Renda in the ground. So they have been zone pushing too and it had been working out due to the moderate winters. But it had risk all along just like growing Coconuts and Adonidia in Jacksonville. Wrap your plants, add lights, move what you can indoors and hope for the best. But if your plants die, you will always be able to replace them. It just depends on whether you want to continue spending money on temporary plants.

Took a bit of time, but this little Fiji palm is looking rather elegant as of late. It was acquired as B. microcarpa, but it keys out as B. seemannii. I’ll have to look at the next seed batch more closely. Any one else growing Balaka? Tim

We took a short walk through the community garden today and the exotic plants are doing well, the cold doesn't seem to have affected them... The big surprise, at least for us, is that the yucca gigantea has remained healthy at its core and is sprouting new shoots. It will survive the coldest winter here in a long time. Joy reigns supreme 🤗

Kind of hard to get a good photo of mine because I’ve intentionally planted a lot around it for protection, but here it is coping with its 3rd 40C+ degree day this year. Just starting to produce clean trunk and grow upwards after years of crawling.

Pinanga maculata. Tim

Dictyosperma album var. conjugatum (supposedly) new leaf.

Happy new year everybody. A small update of my coconut palm in Cyprus. It's still alive for another winter. I increased the water in the summer and it started to make a difference in the growth.

Nice new Lepidorrachis leaf, always eye catching.

Probably not that exciting for most palmtalkers, but a healthy Chrysalidocarpus lutescens in my neighbourhood is not common at all. Probably the largest one I know of in all of Melbourne. North facing wall, less than 1km from the beach. The popular opinion is that they don’t grow here but can do ok if conditions suit.

Chrysalidocarpus titan beginning to gain more height. No trunk yet, easily 15ft. tall. Had to get a pic with the blooming vireya.

Photos today following the ice storm. Low this morning got down to 22F, and the high got to 32F. Washingtonian robustas: Washingtonia filifera: Sabal uresana

First flowering of Burretiokentia vieillardii.

Good for you, Harry! They look super healthy now. You almost can’t walk through my landscape without seeing Archotophoenix. They’re everywhere. Nothing here seems to ever bother them either. Without them, I’d have WAY fewer palm species since they are the main shade producers. The low winter sun manages to get through though which is a plus.

Veitchia vitiensis, one stunning smaller palm. A grove would be nice, but at least I have the one to oogle. Tim

Phoenicophorium borsigianum, a Seychelles palm. Tim

Pinanga disticha, Licuala grandis, Licuala glabra var. glabra.

A built of Basselinia inflorescence’s. B. eriostachys and B. glabrata. Tim

Chambeyronia oliviformis powering on and opening a new frond yesterday despite a maximum of 44C/111F with 75km/h (46mph) winds. Tough palm. The nearby Chrysalidocarpus lanceolatus which also decided to open up a frond in the oven wasn’t so lucky. The heat and wind sucked the moisture from the frond and it wilted quickly.

Went thrift shopping for som fishes for the kitties when I saw this set of four. Hadda have em! How about you?

January 2026 update:

Another update on this one, sorry. It caught my eye this morning opening a new frond. It’s been growing great. -dale

You guys get a few more points in California for Rhopalostylis, Ceroxylon, Hesyscepe, etc. hah! Here’s my Blue Decipiens. Still a ways off from trunking when they seem to speed up. I’m guessing this one is 8-9 feet tall from ground to tip of newest leaf.