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Miltonia regnellii var alba has adjusted to its new home in my garden. It's previous host, a guava tree, was extracted last Spring.

I guess Sandy likes the new “digs” eh? Harry

The good old excelsia, it’s been around a long time. Somewhat problematic after a few years in the garden. My solution to this problem is I cut them right back to just one stem and it sorts them right out real fast. Just one single stem will even have the most die hard palm nut asking what variety of licuala is that. It not only contains a problem child in the garden, you also get an interesting look about the garden.

Wodhyethia has become a victim of its own success. Imagine if it was discovered today - a large, landscape suitable palm with a crownshaft, self cleaning and large very full and plumose fronds. You can understand the attraction beyond the palm enthusiast community. I have friends and family that go up to the tropics and subtropics and have showed me photos of Foxtail palms being wowed by them and asking what they are. Objectively they are a beautiful species when well grown and they are adaptable to a range of soil conditions and even some warm temperate regions. I’m right on the limit of where they will grow and there’s less than a handful of long term survivors that I know of (none look good), yet it doesn’t stop them being sold in the 1000s here and people still lap them up.

Cattleya lueddemanniana coerulea, Cattleya lueddemanniana ('Maria Cecilia' x 'Mariauxi'). I read that this species usually does not flower on its second annual growth for the season. It it must’ve been real happy with the hot, humid weather over the past weeks. NYT wrote that the humidity levels on the eastern seaboard were about the same as the Amazon rainforest last week. A real homecoming for the species.

Lovely crownshaft of young Chrysalidiocarpus sp. mayotte. Almost looks like it should be in a pastry shop…

With winter almost over it’s time for the germinated seedlings to be potted up. I potted up two mid winter and they are doing well so they are showing signs of cool tolerance, being from Papua New Guinea it’s showing good signs for a subtropical climate. Time will tell how good a grower it is!

I haven’t got the memory space to remember the names of orchids, got to many palm names to remember! But shes a real beautiful flower.

These are the palms growing in my front yard. They are all fairly recently planted between 1 and 3 years in the ground. My Chamaerops humilis that has an oddly strong costapalmate shape to all the new leaves that have grown this year. it’s only the newest leaves on the main trunk doing this. The oldest leaves are flat. Butia odorata that I got from Home Depot for $70. I wish it was blue but for that price I’m not going to be picky. I did a deep dive on an older post talking about the shift from most of the mass produced ones being blue to now the green ones being most common. I also wonder if the ones with strong blue coloration may be more hardy.. Sabal rosei that @Chester B inspired me to try that was planted this summer. It’s a decent size and was a really reasonable price from project palm Rhapidophyllum hystrix planted this spring. It’s in part sun because I had heard they appreciate some shade.. but I’m not sure that shade would be necessary in PNW climate. It does get at least 6+ hours of strong sun though. It has 4 pups and I’m trying to decide if I should just select a few to have a more structured look or just let it grow fully wild bush style. Trachycarpus princeps x wagnerianus Still very small but starting to really speed up this summer. It has some nice blue coloration and the underside of the leaves are super white but it doesn’t show up well in the pic Trachycarpus fortunei is just a required staple in the PNW. It’s a random seedling but it’s got really nice blue coloration on the underside of the leaves and the leaves are surprisingly rigid on it. It grows so fast, pushes 3 spears at a time all growing season. Sabal minor - this year it just started picking up speed.. it’s starting to open its 3rd leaf of the year and there’s a nice size spear behind it already. The old leaves are pretty yellow I think from not fully realizing how quickly the planting spot got dry last summer. All of these are planted on a large south facing mound. It has been helpful having everything on a slope since the native soil is pure clay.

A line up of today's potential favorite but I just couldn't decide. Encephalartos blue arenarius, Encephalartos inopinus and Cycas multifrondis.

filos!

Causiarum update, it got bigger after milton A year and a month later ... My Causiarum marches on adding height and the crown is at least 3/4ths recovered. How tall is it now? I really don't know, its too tall for an accurate guess, 35' to 40' maybe. The wide angle lens might be making it look smaller, LOL! In person it a beast! Beccariophoenix ALfredii has recovered nicely too. cant get ground to tip of tallest leaf so I just shot 3-4' to the tallest leaf. 8-9' of clean trunk

As a palm grows larger so do the roots. At some point you may lose a lot of roots as they reach far away from the tree trunk. Generally less time in the ground is better. If its been in the ground a long time, I would root prune it in 4 stages over 4-5 months. You do this by digging a circumference around the tree at the desired rootball size. But you do this 90 degrees at a time then let sit and let those roots grow in close to the trunk, then next 90 degrees until done. IN this way you will transplant a palm with many more functional roots ready to expand. If you just have to rip it out, it might survive with a good size rootball, I haven dug mules before and each species/hybrid sp can be different in survivability of transplant. I would do it in late winter if the area freezes each year and I'd do it in mid fall if not. You dont want the plant to desperately need lots of new roots due to a full sun and dry/hot season climate which seems to be more common lately here in florida. And yes you will need to chop off some older green leaves as the roots needed to feed them will be reduced dramatically in a transplant.

Tis a brave person who tackles a Calamus to give up her seeds! That said, I do find the NSW ones are a tad less... bloodthirsty... than their Queenslander friends

You can call it that I suppose, but when they grab you it’s not love on their mind!

Ravenea glauca in flower caught my eye today.

Mid summer is the time for Becarriophoenix to rock!

Hey Ben, I was at the SABG on July 14th and this is how the Livistona chinensis looks. Still showing damage from the freezing rain (and the cold) we had back in February. I was at the River Walk this past weekend and those still looked pretty good! I noticed that thee were three Queens remaining as well. Sadly two of them are zombie palms as the growing points were killed despite still having some green fronds. One Queen right next to the buildings survived. I am really happy with how my Robusta’s are looking this summer! They have really grown well and have such deep glossy green fronds. I’m going to enjoy them while they are still small. At some point, years from now, hopefully they’ll be as large as these two near the Pearl:

First question is how close to your foundation is it? I don't normally see Cycads creating a problems for foundations unlike some trees. A photo or two showing size of your Cycas revoluta will be helpful. Rather than chopping it down at ground level you can also dig it up and relocate it. Cutting it down to ground level will work on the main caudex but if there are some small subterranean pups they might survive and emerge later. I just posted a pup photo that I intentionally removed from the main caudex of my Encephalartos nubimontanus that finally flushed a leaf after transplanting about 3 years ago. I see you are in the "North Bay" but wasn't sure which bay you reference.

Procatavola Key Lime Star (C. Lime Sherbet x Brassavola nodosa). This blooms so frequently and the best color is in the summer; can really see how it got its name Key lime.

Hello and welcome to the forum. Howea like regular watering and can survive indoor environments pretty good with low light. It is good that you are not over watering but be sure it gets enough . The drainage of the pot is kinda critical , especially for house plants . They need to have the water pass through and moisten the soil without stagnating at the bottom of the pot. The other factor is dust and air circulation with adequate humidity in the air. When I had house plants I would always give them a holiday outside , sometimes for a couple of days. A covered patio or shady spot with a light breeze works wonders , Kentia’s love cool nighttime temps of low 60’s. Use a shower setting on a garden hose and gently hose the palm down . If there is dust , wipe it off with a soft rag . If there are any mealy bugs or pests use a mild mixture of soapy water on the rag or in a sprayer. Bugs hate soapy water , palms don’t mind at all. The new growth looks great so I don’t see it being in too bad of trouble. By the length of the petioles it looks like it could use just a bit more light . Good luck with it , growing palms indoors can be tricky but you have one of the most adaptable species so it should be able to be worked out. Harry

I hear you. I wasn’t happy about pulling them since they had just started to take off. I planted them a year or so prior. This picture was right after the freeze. The one on the left was a goner and never really got established. The middle one was nice and fat. It was the only one I was pretty sure would recover. The one on the right was also a “pretty sure”. But after 2 months, there was almost no growth and I started to have doubts. So I just started over rather than wait for the whole summer to see what happens and then try to figure out what to do with the bed. It was a pain in the ass and took a few days to dig out the roots but I don’t regret it at all. Also, my wife wanted a mango and this spot works great for it. The ground plants were coonties (Zamia Integrifolia) and flax lilies (Dianella Tasmanica) that I separated from other beds and were sitting in pots waiting for their time.

this Chamaedorea radicalis, almost 11 years old from seed, courtesy of @doomsdave

Ravenea hilldebrandtii and a nice young Chrysalidocarpus mananjarenesis. This couple should be a great addition for the garden in couple of weeks time!

Look for ptychosperma waitianum and burretianum. New red leaf and a beautiful palm. Worth a try! I just put down 120 seeds iam that confident of burretianum! Richard

Attended the Hilo Orchid Show this past weekend and in a word, spectacular. The displays and offerings were extensive and the crowds large. Planning a trip to Hawaii? This time would be a good time to visit. For me the stars of the show were Paphiopedilum, especially the Paph. Wossner Black Wings. Too bad they were out of specimens, but I did manage to bring home something else. (Separate post) A few photos. Tim

I rescued this orchid from an ill chosen spot in the garden and gave it a new home. It has since thrived and best of all, the name tag was still attached. No idea when or where it came from, but now I’m a big fan. Tim

Brassia Edvah Loo 'Nishida’. These take up so much room in the house. I have three of them. In the winter, I always want to throw them out. But when they bloom, I love them all over again.

My Alphonso Mango tree hasn't produced fruit very consistently since planting it about a decade ago. A friend who is an avid orchid grower shared his secret for getting his under performing orchids to bloom. He holds the orchid over his rubbish pile and advises it that it's next home will be in the trash if it doesn't bloom. I tried threatening my Mango tree because my wife advised me that a non fruiting fruit tree is useless. She wanted to remove it. I see that my threatening has worked. Have you experienced a similar situation?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DawFBSXtAqw/?igsh=MXdqZjNrcTBzNzVhdA== I have failed you, Palm Gods. But I am appeasing the Aroid gods. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DawFzYjtIlU/?igsh=ZWkzdHRmNDQ3ZzB0 Oh and y'all saw I bought a bottle palm right?

Ehhhhhh like 5 of the grocery store seeds made it. None of the cool stuff @WaianaeCrider sent me survived. They're such divas and not easy at all to balance moisture and airflow. I did buy a couple Red Ladies and a Hovey from Wellspring. They're all in 5g now, the Red Ladies are in full sun and the Hovey is still on the carport. The Red Ladies are really taking off but it's probably too hot for them and time to feed them. I'm trying to upload pics of the elephant ear bulbs @N8ALLRIGHT sent me but I'm not getting cooperation. I finally sold the last 2 and I have a volunteer from my soil dump pile. At some point some Pink Dragon alocasias will pop up from there. Anyway, as always, more stuff on the evil sites.

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

Ok. This is Florida I'm talking about here. You're not gonna get real temperatures in the negatives, and especially that negative. A google search would go a long way. Maybe I'll use a plus sign next time just for you 😉

Yeah 9b isn't quite ideal for them my fiji dwarf and red spicata came through this winter ok in the ground the spicata is in an area where it gets shade and a few hours of sun a day it does well its partly under the oak the fiji is in full sun no protection here is how they look now I just layed down that pine straw a few days ago I still gotta lay it around the fiji dwarf