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Or towering teddy bears (Chysalidocarpus leptocheilos) - at left - aflame in the setting sun.

Most elegant palms…here are 3 planted together.

@OCKev and @sonoranfans my Archontophoenix tuckeri in the westering light of late afternoon….

This is my first leaf that shows color. Every one is perfectly edged and the center w greenish yellow. It is Spectacular! It does looke like trunk is speckled. Cecile

It’s still a Ptychosperma elegans. Still not too happy.

I think it was around 1900. They were immigrant families who created gardens and brought exotic species. There's a nursery that has or imports Rhopalostilis to Chile. I hope they start giving out seeds soon. It only blooms. The photos below are from the nursery where the Rhopalostilis is located. They import, sell, and propagate them there, but with some seed viability issues.

Same palms different angle.

Rhopalostylis sapida peeking out in all its splendor. Vergara Palace Garden. City of Viña del Mar in Chile.

Chelyocarpus species, kerriodoxa elegans and Johannesteijsmannia altifrons all three super easy to grow.

Red Latania

I trimmed some lower leaves that were beginning to yellow on my Encephalartos lebomboensis. The lower leaves were also smothering some adjacent plants. The plant is flushing so it will still hold plenty of leaves.

I think this Encephalartos kisambo pushed cones s couple of years ago but I didn't see them fully develop to confirm it's sex. Based on the early stages of these 2, I am guessing female.

This Dioon palma sol is still holding her cone as the flush pushes.

I’ve got a showroom of mature specimens so you can see what the various species look like when they big.

My S. bermudana, like my Butia yatay, is also putting out 4 blooming spikes this year. I'm assuming this is just because these two palms are maturing, not due to unusual weather...?

The multi-caudices Encephalartos horridus male is awash in flushes right now. The pale green leaves have yet to harden and attain their final blue color.

Orange geiger trees ( Cordia sebestena ) are starting to bloom again in Arizona! Some of the 1 gallon plants I started from seed a couple years ago are making their first flowerings.🎉 With the warmer winters Arizona has been having for the last several years, this species may even become another 'tropical' alternative for desert gardens.I have been growing potted specimens totally outdoors, unprotected, for 3 years now.🤞 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

When I first moved to Florida, I planted a Bismarckia in mid2010 and a sabal uresana in summer 2011. Uresanas are often mentioned as alternatives to bismarckia in 9a. These palms have stood next to each other over the years making for an easy growth comparison. Bismarckias are generally regarded as fast growers and uresanas are said to be slow. First, Bismarckia several months after planting a 5 gallon bought at a big box store. Everything but the spear had heavy mold spots so I kind of treated it as a rescue. It seems to have that purplish hue after winter that is often associalted with a whiter leaf. It adapted fast to sun after being tortured inside the box store with palms stacked in a pile around it. It put 5-6 new leaves out the first year. late july 2010 bismarckia then about a year later I planted a sabal uresana "icy blue" I bought from tejas tropicals in texas. It was a strap leafer and I put it in a pot. About 6 months later it was ready to go into the ground as the pot was root bound. A little over 2 years later in sept 2013 both had grown well. IN this pic the uresana looks a bit bigger than it was (relatively) since it was closer to the observer. It had turned darker with less "icy blue" color but was clearly not just a green sabal. The uresana was about 6' overall and the Bismarckia was closer to 10' in this pic At this point the bismarckia was trunking and growth was accelerating and here is the pic from june 2015. The uresana not trunking was putting more leaves for a bigger crown About 4 years later the uresana had lengthened it leaves and had gone into trunking mode. It went skyward chasing the bismarckia but still 6-7 feet over all behind the biz in height Last week I took another pic and noticed about a 10' gap even though the uresana had sped up and grown to about 25' tall. compared with 35' for the bismarckia I thought it was interesting that the growth burst of each happened at trunking, as we are often told by the literature. Yes even sabal uresana grows well after trunking. I also though it is interesting to note that Sabal Uresana has a wider crown, that was a surprise. I had always thought Bismarckia would be wider as it throws more shade but its a couple fee less in width of the crown. The Uresana crown is more open though, and it took a lot less damage than the Bismarckia in hurricane Milton(oct2024). Part of the lesser damage suffered by uresana could be due to less wind damage as there are higher wind velocities at height, but also part might be the Uresana having an open crown with smaller leaves that have less wind drag. I do think Uresanas will have more blue than mine in a drier hot climate. Bismarckias are very versatile, they don't need much fertilizer and mostly they are self shedding. Just keep them happy and the weevils wont come to dinner(I had a sick one attacked by weevils and killed). I treated the Uresana same as Bismarckia, limited fertilizer compared with my other palms The Uresana has persistent leaf bases which are still strongly attached near the ground. Since I do the trimming, I am happy that Uresana is a slower grower, as the Bismarckia is now too tall for me to trim from the ground. And the Bismarckia(female) is a mess, dropping 150-200 lbs of seed a year. I just got done raking up half a trash can full of Bismarckia fruits, and there is at least that much still hanging on the tree. Uresana has not fruited yet at 15 yrs. Sabals are notorious for liking heat to grow fast and they both had plenty of Florida heat. For those thinking about Sabal Uresana, its not Bismarckia fast but its more of a medium grower for me after trunking.

Thanks, but it’s those lucky Hawaii growers, and a lot of other peoples gardens that have beauty off their own. One thing I do know is we all share the love of palms, some of us a little more crazy about them than others. I myself are one of those crazy palm lovers who just love gardening. Every gardening has his or her own style of gardening!

All iam going to say is perfection in a palm the chamaedorea adscendens!

They are indeed, yes I get seeds, hand pollination gives the best results. I usually get around 500 seeds each season. Another few weeks and this lot will be ready to harvest!

That first picture of the pointed leaf is a good one, that’s one to get the seeds from such a beautiful shape.

Intresting bit of history for the lytocarum in the Netherlands. Thanks for sharing. Back in the seventies I was just a pre pubescent trouble kid running a muck and trouble would find me. I once worked in a Howea nursery counting Howea seedings to send to holland in late 80s. So iam familiar with the Dutch trade in Howea. The Dutch are pretty famous for indoor gardening and set a lot of standards for the industry now. Well shead of there game going back many years. I still Loved wondering through the old Dutch flower markets in Amsterdam, some amazing cactus collections to see there!

They take a fair amount of sun. I have seen many of them in planter beds next to roadside hotels and restaurants. A landscapers dream plant.

Here it was when I first planted it! I really had no hopes it was surviving up here 😂 Crazy how much it filled out this corner in only 4 years with suckers lol

Nice to have the photo proof, looks great

Consider Chambeyronia! Oliviformis macrocarpa….

No one has suggested a foxtail... Wodyetia bifurcata... I'm fairly close to OCKev in La Mirada and these things grow like weeds for me... They are self cleaning but they do drop egg sized seeds that are easy to pick up and discard... Really no mess... Butch

Agreed Harry, in the trade, there isn't much activity as far as new introductions are concerned. Nevertheless, there is nowadays much more to choose from! In the early 2000's I even found Cyrtostachys clusters at Howea-cluster prizes and of course, I had to buy one! 🥳 Never seen them in recent years.

Back in the seventies , I too was in my twenties , @wimmie ! The plants I grew were not palms 🙄, they were on the illegal side …..hmmmm. In more recent times , 1990’s until now , the whole palm availability spectrum is different . That which was common at any nursery is now very uncommon. Harry

Roscheria melanochaetes, growing into a solid seedling! And the dypsis manajarensis is not far behind!

Dypsis lantzeana loving the cold weather, along with the triangle palm keeping the tree fern company!

Another one in the garden.

We had a nice period today with only a few minor showers, so I went out and used my newly repaired lawn mover to clear some grasses and get some pictures of my dwarf "betelnuts". Backstory: I was given six seeds by Don Thornton in March 2014 and got two seedlings. Don gave me 19 more in October 2014, from which I got 3 more seedlings. As far as I can recall, all the seedlings grew to be dwarfs. I planted 4 of the seedlings along my driveway (totally full sun) in June 2017. One was never in good shape and died. The others have grown well and two are now flowering and maybe producing seeds (I can't tell for sure). This is illustrated in the second photo below. The first photo is the trio, about 10 feet tall, lawn chair and tractor for scale.

And some more from Punakaiki and surrounds including Pororari River track, Truman Track, Pancake Rocks, and the bottom end of the Paparoa track.

Was on the west coast of the South Island recently for 2 weeks camping and experienced lots of great habitat. Here are some photos, mainly from start of the heaphy track. The first photo is from the deck of a friend’s house at the Mohikinui River mouth.

How far is your garden from the Ocean and how farther inland does the Ocean affect the climate?

It was nice to see all the folks and enjoy a cool garden with some interesting terrain!

The clump I have is 27 years old. They also split into two as well. I only saw the clumping due getting in and cleaning them up one day, I just thought it was just one big clump!

😎😎 nice tour

Some photos of the Summer Meeting in Melbourne are attached below. A special thank you to @Jdash for hosting! It was great to see @PalmJuan , @kinzyjr , @chuckg , @CodyM , @Fishinsteeg234 , @Maddox Gardening-youtube , @rick , @D. Morrowii , @Midnight Gardener and plenty of others today.

After mowing my lawn today, I did take the time to get the grass a little further back from my filifera as well as my little mule: I also spotted a pair of Texas spiny lizards on the side of my house while I was out working:

Just had the chance to explore some of the mainland Nikau Habitat on the West Coast of the South Island, and collect some seed. Never spent much time looking into this palm in habitat but it's incredible the variation depending on location, above/below canopy, and distance to the coast. Underneath the canopy they spread very wide, almost like Coconut or bangalows... there was many with green fronds below horizontal. After getting above canopy they turn into the typical shuttlecock shape. Also amazing to see hundreds of seedlings like grass around some really old ones in the forest. Enjoy..

Yeah Phil, thanks for the wonderful photos. I was beside myself and overwhelmed on a visit to Pancake Rocks a few years ago. Nothing like being in habitat Tim

Good stuff Phil, looks stunning. If you're only going to have one species of palm, it better be a good one, and that's a beauty.

Many of these photos will be similar to the ones originally posted. But I was in Punakaiki yesterday and thought I'd get some pics, along with some seedlings to raise for my landscaping project... Some of these photos are blurry due to resizing - but they are all 100% unedited (no filters... in case you were wondering about the colours!) Your classic Kiwi coastal bungalow: These things grow anywhere including in cracks in cliffs. These were in a cavern right by the sea... Flowering had just begun, but no fresh seeds yet. After talking with a local conservationist nearby, who agreed (under the radar!) that I could gather some seedlings for personal use only (it is supposedly illegal to take seedlings). But regardless I gathered about seven healthy seedlings, as well as some big ones that came free (taproots intact) out of gravel type material. These were all ones directly beneath parent plants that would have had very little chance of survival to maturity. Then, back on the east coast later that day potted them up for use around my landscape project. This is my Pitt Island one which came directly from Pitt Island and has been growing happily in ground ever since.

Wonderful shots. Tough grow here, alas, so enjoy the pictures that much more.

Lastly... the obligatory sunset pics...

The road was washed out in many places due to Cyclone Gita recently passing through a few weeks back.

And more...