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The mid north coast of Australia a subtropical paradise. With thousands of hectares of rainforest that covers a fair chunk of it. Before settlement it would have been one very unique piece of land. Now it has been fragmented into isolated areas broken up by farmland. Much of it is either state forests or national parks with a lot of special reserves locked up for conservation purposes.

The peace and quiet and with a lot of areas inaccessible to the family car there’s always a spot where you won’t see anyone at all except for the animals!

here is one i grew from seed. vulcano ... seed from portugal. awesome you grow platyceriums too! i just started but grow the rarer forms indoors. i started a platycerium discussion on the other tropical plants thread. you have perfect climate to grow so much. i love pasadena but alas couldnt afford it when it was time to purchase a house. lived there when i went to art center. cheers tin

Here are some photos of flushing zamias in the garden, Zamia neurophyllidia A couple of Zamia splendens colorful one leaf flushes, A Zamia flushing bronze, And finally a Zamia inermis flushing after a thorough haircut.

Yes. P macarthurii is now considered a synonym of P propinquum - they are the same. They can be quite vigorous, but not too difficult to manage. You can always chop off stems you don’t want.

You gotta watch those blokes who flood you with seeds, it’s a plot to stop you growing good exotic palms, it’s keeps you busy while they grow the exotics 🤣

Just look at Dubai with what they have created in desert. A tropical oasis, just add water and a big watering system and they created a paradise in a city. The climate has changed and now it’s possible to grow palms once unthinkable of growing in a certain area. Also with so many new palms available from so many different regions there’s something for most climates. Time is only thing that slows a garden down, many people see my garden and would like the same but they are not prepared to wait 10 years or more for that, unless you have mega dollars to buy advanced palms time is the only way to do it. I had a plant collection from age 17 and every time I moved I lost plants due to cold as I was moving further inland away from the coast with frosts. Now no frost so it’s grow whatever I can get my hands on and hope it lives! Richard

When I had more than a couple it was actually my hope to get some up to the Mt Dandenong Ranges Botanical Gardens. Just not sure I’m ever going to get them to a size to be able to hand them over to public gardens where they may not be cared for until they’re good to plant out. The gardens up there certainly do have a better temperature and rainfall profile for G undata than I do at sea level.

Confident it’s a Ptychosperma sp. I’d guess P propinquum.

A little slice of Australia here in Florida: L to R: Archontophoenix unknown (I think tuckeri) Amorphophallus paeoniifolius Archontophoenix unknown (supposed to be maxima) Sphaeropteris cooperi Archontophoenix cunninghamia (not as robust as the others) Archontophoenix alexandrae

Not entirely true your conclusion. Length of petioles may depend also on genetics. For example the cultivar vulcano has short petioles regardless the water it receives. This here is a specimen in my garden I callit wannabe vulcano. Seed originates from vulcano, but the offspring has longer petioles than in an ideal vulcano and therefore crown spreads more horizontally than remaining upright. Otherwise it is a very appealing dwarf specimen, which receives perhaps the least water quantity here, when it does not rain.

A vine that was scrambling along the ground.

With very unique plants that have adapted to cope with all sorts of climatic conditions, and relying on the animals for that symbiotic relationship to survive for a lot of species and visa versa with a lot of animals dependent on that ecosystem for survival.

I have two satakentias from ken johnsons farm, planted out in early 2019 with 2-3' trunk. I also have a smaller one I grew from a 4" seedling in 2021 that was planted in early 2025 is now 6-7' overall. They are great palms and the trunks are pretty thick. I will quote ken " ythey are emergent palms so they like shade when young but with size they take the sun well. The trunk at the crownshaft is about 8-9" caliper, definitely more than my archies and all my other crownshafted palms except for the royals. They hate frost with a couple upper leaves burning a couple years ago. They do look a lot more colorful in sunlight after shedding a leaf. Here is one of mine, they trunks/crownshafts glow in the distance in sun. No sign of inflorescences yet. closeup of the same palm to see the crownshaft color a week or so after a new leaf was dropped Easily my prettiest crownshafted palm. I checked the trunk measurements, 8 1/2' clear trunk as of today.

Hi everyone! I’m a newer palm grower in Southern California, and I’ve recently fallen in love with Chamaerops humilis. One of my favorite things about the species is how variable it can be. I recently found a beautiful var. cerifera with small, star-like fronds, as well as a wispy form with a completely different look. It’s been a lot of fun searching for unusual specimens. I’d love to see what everyone else is growing! If you have an interesting Chamaerops—silver, weeping, long-petioled, compact, or anything else—please share some photos. I’m always on the lookout for unique forms.

I love your Vulcano! How long did it take for it to get to this size? If I can’t find a small one I’ll have to order seeds somewhere… Im a member of the Los Angeles international fern society- I love all ferns but platycerium are my favorite. I am collecting the old school cultivars, because they are not well documented and I don’t want them to be lost to time. I keep a few of the rarer tropical varieties, but I bring them inside during the winter time. I’m testing p. Elemeria and p. Andinum this winter outdoors… I hear they can take our cold. I also went to art center! I graduated a few years ago.

Looks like some sort of infection in the crown that has now completely pushed out. Growth should be normal from this point forward.

Bad luck! We worry about freeze damage before it happens, but forget there are plenty of other hazards that can damage or take out palms, hail, wind, falling trees, extreme heat etc. Dodged that one, it seems. Bottomed out at -2.3C which matches my lowest of 2024. It didn't go below freezing until 3am however and warmed quickly once the sun came up. That will be no worse than the -1.9C earlier in the month which apart from Alexandre had nothing covered for. Now have a full day sun to put some heat into the housebricks, driveway etc's thermal mass. Should make a difference. Yesterday was the dreaded cold sunless day forecast to clear at dusk.

That’s all we need to see it’s possible, I have transplanted Johannesteijsmannia and had a little success so I guess get enough root ball and as little disturbance as possible they will live. The inflo may get a little longer.

Ian goo to keep an eye on it see if it sets seeds, iam sure it is cool tolerant.

Hi, thanks for the quick response. Would that be what they commonly call here a Macarthur palm (P. Marcarthurii), I understand the same species? That was my first guess, many growers told us it was a P. Elegans, but I understand those do not cluster. Some even told us it was an Adonidia… Will P. Propinquum be easy to manage to that they don’t overtake the small strip we have? Thanks again, I’m clueless about palms, doing the research for the backyard project. Any suggestions for underplantings that will play well with these palms…?

Who else is growing this? Seems unfussy in all but full sun but I prefer the less robust shade grown look. of one I planted in the bush with zero aftercare!

Interesting! Wonder if it's related to night temps in summer? Ours are significantly cooler than Auckland, so maybe we're a chance?? Edit: and having said that, we do get temps around 40 every now and then!

Asterogyne martiana, seen in the Botanical Garden of Basilea, Switzerland

Been growing nicely in deep shade since 2020 Just planted The other day. Iʻm 5ʻ10" tall so itʻs doing just fine.

Here’s Jayne Mansfield my big Roystonea oleracea. Makes my heart sing to look at that lovely thing. And my big regia in the background.

My AC decided to stop working Friday afternoon and yesterday my thermometer hit 122F as the high. Hopefully this thing gets fixed soon because it's 90F inside my house here in the east valley.

My 3 Coconuts continue to recover. Probably time to hit them again with some food. The place still looks like a mess with other recovering species. Going to be another season or two without a freeze to get her back to her splendor. The 2 in the middle are Coconuts. Left side is one of my 2 Royals and on the far right my V. joannis. You can also see the tippy top of my Triangle just below and left of the joannis.... My 3rd Coconut out by the corner of my front......

If it’s another Roystonea I’d say Borinquena as it has similar cold hardiness to Roystonea but is a smaller palm. Those who have both like @DoomsDave say noticeably smaller with a trunk that stays brown vs gray. I have 3 Regia in my yard. Here’s 2 that are within a relatively similar age to that palm (maybe within a year or two)with the main difference being the bases on mine are bigger. Not quite as stretched out but you can see they are to an extent due to being young and growing fast.

Iam lucky enough to live near the habitat of linospadix monostachya. They make a fantastic garden palm, predictable size and growing patterns. They flourish with good water, cool tolerant wet deep shade understory is there perfect habitat. Somewhat similar growth habit to lytocarum weddlianum and similar growing conditions being a little dry tolerant once established. They look amazing in habitat by the hundreds covering the forest floor under the canopy.

M amicarum seems to be building some momentum…

After over a year of waiting, some Butia lallemantii is showing activity!

Chambeyronia macrocarpa and hookerii a nice example pairing together!

Spring is only another 5weeks away, now is the danger time for any of the new plantings, so far so good with only one palm taking a bit of burn.

Iam quite surprised at this glorious beauty of a palm taking quite cool temperatures down to 2 degrees celcius. The 4 young palms are doing great and the recently pacsoa purchased flowering one is not fased at all by the cool conditions. What they don’t like is hot dry conditions, the more humidity the better. I do know they are water loving palms and the more the better, I sit them in shallow trays of water pretty well much all year long. One gorgeous palm, will I ever plant one in garden not too sure they are that rare, and my climate does suffer drought conditions, i could irrigate but the day I forget to water would not be a good outcome!

And a trifecta of chamaedoreas!

A nice trio of kerriodoxas!

It may only be one seed on this dypsis species, but a great sign for better things to come, it will set seeds!

Here’s the duo of both varieties, slow in my climate, water lovers and Iam surprised they have taken temperatures as low as 2 degrees celcius. Both varieties planted in the ground and rostrata seems to be wining the race in growing the best.

Was checking on the progress of some Iriartea seed and noticed they were beginning to germinate. The embryonic leaf, cotyledon, is cute as a ‘button.’ The one seed in the group already has a ‘radicle’, the embryonic root. Just some FYI. This palm is a beast. Tim

Mike, I posted some photos of my male Ravenea julietiae and male Ravenea glauca inflorescence and flowers. I have both male and female Ravenea glauca and have had success pollinating the female resulting in many seedlings in the past. Hopefully these visuals will assist you in determining if yours match the male or females of these fellow Ravenea species. The Ravenea julietiae photo actually shows both an actively flowering infloresence and a spent one in the process of dessicating. From March 2025: I assumed that my Ravenea julietiae is male due to similarities between its flowers and those of my male Ravenea glauca. Glauca flowers and inflorescence are much whiter. Both are blooming now.

The Gaussia I recently adopted from @DoomsDave is happy , I guess. It just opened a new frond. Enjoying the tropical weather we are getting here. It sure got my attention this morning as we are having our coffee . Harry This little corner on our patio seems to be a great holding area for new acquisitions!

Getting a few exotics in the ground, they are doing well for winter. So why not plant them. And a thanks to @Jonathan for the brugmansia. Licuala ferruginiaIguanura wallachiana calyptronoma occidentalisAnthurium vietchii draceana goldieana brugmansia sanguinea Pavetta australiensis

Cocothrinax eckmanii, a slow growing palm, 25 years old!

A nice little Pinanga sarawakensis doing well in winter.

That is the nursery I was referring to! They are pretty darn good , not as good as when Karl and Helen Doebler were there , but Danny does a good job. The nursery that started my palm journey. Karl used to bring in seedlings from folks in the Palm Society and had dedicated a corner of the greenhouse to sell them. They still have some rare ones now and then . Harry

A few R. Sapida in SF

Fresh C elegans

Can always buy a bougie swamp cooler from MistAmerica up in Scottsdale.

Hard to believe that this little thing could turn into that in 10 years or so if all goes well!