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In my area up here in the Bay Area, king palms are all over the neighborhood. My own personal experience with them is that they are the easiest and fastest growing palms in the garden, sun or shade. I have groves of them as well as ones growing singularly. Seeds pop up by the thousands just as much in the winter as summer. Some of those volunteers are aver twenty feet tall. I have all the other Archontophoenix species doing well too. The first ones I planted in 2001 sailed through the 2007 freeze (26°F) with barely a scratch. Just some light bronzing on horizontal fronds and they replaced those leaves by summer’s end.

These two caught my eye so much I had to buy them at the Annual PACSOA show, best bit is they are both flowering! Geonoma atrovirens licuala sallehana

Thank you @tim_brissy_13 . If I ever stumble onto one I would give it a try . I think Licuala Ramsayi can grow here . @DoomsDave has a large one. Harry

Just a bit of fungal infection. Has it been pretty damp in your area this winter? Go ahead and plant it. It should grow out of that little infection.

It’s great to see the palm society is alive and well in Australia and growing strong!

They are pretty tough palms . It will hopefully grow out of it. Harry

Well I suppose it’s a good sign. Spear and new leaf appear to have moved about an inch

If I lived in that part of the world I would just go crazy buying stuff. Would need to park a semi next to the back door and just pile em in. Alas I’m in WA and can’t do anything like that.

Hey All- here are two photos from end of January- Virginia after a snow storm which showcases our wrapping approach this winter. Lowest it got this winter was 7F. We will unwrap soon and ill post those pics when we do.

Have you tried spinosa Tim!

Rps have seeds available, easy to germinate, they even germinate in the post in the package!

If you keep it shaded I think they’d be well suited to your climate. From what I’ve seen, Lanonia are a completely different grow to most Licuala and anything from Northern Vietnam and China tends to have pretty good hardiness of both heat and cool. These can grow up to 1000m asl (3300’) well away from the equator. Mine are in ground and have seen down to -1.5C/29F and up to 44C/111F without issue. My climate would be less favourable than So Cal for these I’d say. For reference, the only Licuala I know surviving here are L ramsayi and L fordiana and they are very slow to the point of being stunted.

I dont find archies(kings) difficult to grow at all and I am in a cool 10a right on the 9B border. I also dont plant any palm in cool soil, the developing roots will have to see more aggressive fungus behavior at lower temps. Microbes that assist in nutrient uptake are 20x less active at 55F than at 70F so many palms will not feed well and face favorable conditions for root fungus infection(wet with stagnant drainage, low oxygen, cool temp soils). There is a lot of experience growing various archontophoenix species here and we have the Aussie members who are quite familiar with them. My Archontophoenix alexandre and myolensis are from 25 to over 30' in 14 years and have been over 20' for 8 years. They have seen 30F cold snaps 2x and mostly defoliuated. They have also seen 3 hurricanes. They are pretty tough though I know they can die as small palms at 30F. I bunch mine together to improved coldhardiness a fruiting triple of alexandre and a myolensis, also currently fruiting

If you’re after a beautiful easy growing palm, look no further than the dasyantha. They seem to love whatever iam doing to them. A beautiful understory palm. I have a few in dappled light to deep shade to morning sun and they all seem to love growing in these conditions. They will drink as much water as you give them and a little tolerance to mild dry conditions if you miss a watering. I love them super easy to grow and not too bad on the eye, the poor man’s mapu is definitely worth growing. I even lucked up with a variegated variety from a seed batch I germinated.

Oh hell yeah! Get one and give it a go - and LOTS OF WATER.

There’s a stack of palms up for grabs, at the pacsoa show this year. So for all those palm nuts out there head on up to Brisbane botanical gardens for a palm or two!

A true collectors paradise, even I got a stack of new varieties and some more of what I already had in my collection. You would need more than a truck, a cargo plane to get it back to WA!

So many varieties of palms available, in fact to many to choose from, and cycas species as well a true Mecca for palm enthusiasts!

I saw this unique specimen wandering around today. The groundskeeper says that it goes off like this every year. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

You will be pleased to know I purchased the flowering Geonoma atrovirens, so you don’t have to be ashamed anymore!

Here in Hudson Florida it went from a low of 33 fareinheight and frost in the last cold wave to highs of 90 and warmish nights (68) in a week. Straight from a winter pattern to a summer one, complete with a thunderstorm and surprise rain. Hopefully it keeps up good grow weather

Hi. We had purchased a Pindo Palm 2 years ago in a pot in the hopes to let it grow a little and eventually plant it once our pool was remodeled. I have noticed over the last 6 months that it starts to develop black/brown stains on the stems of the leaves. My intention was to plant it now since it is spring and we are re-doing our landscaping, but I am afraid that it may not be the right time since it has developed this disease. Any advise would be helpful : should we go ahead and plant it ? will it die anyway ? best course of action.

Wow , quite the selection there. Harry

It was way early for crocuses. Has the weather gotten better across I80?

Martin, My own experience is quite different up here. I don’t hesitate to plant nearly any palm in the winter despite our often copious amounts of rain except for very marginal species. I’ve planted A. purpurea, myolensis, and alexandrae as well as cunninghamiana in the coolest wettest part of winter and have never had a loss. Perhaps my amended soil drains a bit better than yours but this valley is almost all yellow or black sticky clay and my garden is no exception. I once had an A. Cunninghamiana “Illawara” completely bare rooted and sitting in a cold five gallon bucket of water for nearly a month in January ‘25. I finally got around to planting it in early February of that year. It opened a new leaf by the end of March and has done well since. You certainly are right about them needing lots of water after they establish too!

I"m reusing old shelves as well. I'm trying to learn how to make boxes. This use to be a shelf in an old rubber storage shed. BTW i made the cutting board as well. Back in January I built a bathroom cabinet to hang on an empty space on the wall. Made a LOT of mistakes and re-did some pieces a few time for the door. Now I'm gonna buitd 4 doors (two up and two down) to cover up the DVD's and CD's on the shelves. Had to figure what hinges I need so used this practice door I made before the bathroom cabinate to test the hinge. Yup, looks like what I need. Now to design and buil the doors. LLL Bought some Select Pine from Lowes. Was about $26 for a 1 x 3 x 8 footer. Funny the wood came from New Zealand. What happened to the American North West lumber industry?

Hey folks! Long time lurker of the forum and decided that it's about time to contribute some photos of a windmill palm my dad and I planted in 2008/2009( from my recollection) in the Blacksburg, Virginia area. Also asking for advice since the palm is getting over 10 feet high and my dad's having trouble wrapping it, and would appreciate any advice on the best, most optimal way to keep the palm protected for a few months every winter without breaking the bank or breaking a back . Photos are provided below from various years. We purchased the palm when it may have been about a year old, ( small fronds no trunk) planted it south facing, a couple of feet from the house. The backyard kind of sits in a ditch, so we believe the small hill gives the palm some protection from wind. The house's elevation sit at about 2,200 ft, and like the region, is known for its unpredictable winters and some wind, given elevation and latitude. Some years the winters can have bitter cold snaps, some can be mild, and spring can start in February or late April. I believe we let the palm go unprotected one year and he or she did not do so well. This past winter the palm did well but the frond tips sustained some damage, which we believe was from the wrapping. My dad's been in charge of covering it up in the winter, with varied success. He's been asking that I reach out for advice regarding protection since the palm is growing rather large and the frond tips are getting damaged with his wrapping style. I've provided some photos I was able to find of the palm over the years, and a most recent one from this May, as well as various wrapping styles baby photo is from 2014 Bad wrapping one year severely damaged the fronds Photo with the green chair is most recent May 2025

Looks like you're dedicated to success. Can't wait to see it unwrapped.

So I got a good deal on this approx 10ft Beccariophoenix Alfredii. Purchased a couple months ago and paid for installation. Well fast forward a couple frosts and the FL hard freeze and the nursary never called, and I was cool with that, heck I was cool with them holding it until March especially with the recent cold snap, didn’t want to disturb the root system well they called two days ago with no prior warning “we’ve got it loaded and would like to deliver today” so I really had no choice. Still alive obviously but I’m concerned about the burned fronds a the transplant, in fact I feel they under exaggerated how burnt it got. Am I crazy for thinking it a little unprofessional of the nursary to deliver it in this state given it was not burnt at all when purchased. Anyways it’s in the ground at my place and I guess I’m looking for reassurance and care going forward. I was very excited to find it and now I’m worried about it below is before and after

pretty things can start out ugly 😄. I think they will look quite ok in a few months if the rainy season cooperates. There's probably a lot of natural fertilizer aka industrial waste in the soil lol

@SCVpalmenthusiast I agree . The original post says that they are having problems in San Diego which is better climate than up here in Ventura County , for the most part . I have had a bit of burn on shade grown ones but that gets corrected quickly with new growth. I’ve been growing them in 9b - 10a zones without losing any for over 35 years. Even further north , they grow. Easy palm to grow , just add water . Harry

My old house that I bought in 1990 was down in the city below . We got frost every year down there . I planted two 10” King palms and never had any issues with them . There are some sky scraper A. Cunninghamiana in our city that are very healthy , they have to be very old palms , probably planted at least 40-50 years ago . I think they are pretty hardy palms . King palms are very common in this area even with non collectors , most look pretty healthy . As long as they are watered regularly , they should thrive. Harry

Richard beautiful palms and many species to choose from, please enjoy

My Tuckeri fared well too and guess what I'm doing now with seeds from her......😛

My first year here I bought a couple of 5' Adonidia that were sold as Archontophoenix. I wrapped them in a string of mini Christmas lights their first winter in the ground and they sailed through 27°F without damage. The following winter I didn't bother to protect them and 27°F killed them. They look a lot alike as juveniles!

I appreciate the offer but there's literally hundreds of seeds I could collect here. A local grower has a really cool planting of about a dozen mature decora in two rows about 6' from each other. Each pair lean into each other forming a really cool canopy. I'll have to take a photo of it next time I am there. 😊 In my garden I have 4 decora plus two mariae x decora and a rigida x decora! First pic is my largest decora and second is the mariae x decora I grew from seed. Note the red color from the mariae parent but unfortunately the color doesn't last into adulthood.

This Encephalartos was barely holding a couple of leaflets on these last leaves from its last flush. I don't recall it flushing last year, but I see what will be the first Spring flush in my garden this year. I don't include my flushing Encephalartos laurentianus as a spring flush because that began in January.

Rich your advice was spot on. I didn't intervene and consequently didn't get any viable fruit to set. The leaf base came off that was holding the old inflorescence today. It revealed some nice color too.

Hello all; I thought maybe someone could diagnose this poor Howea which I have never seen myself so far but my brother has sent me photos. He bought it about a month or two ago and he repotted it about a week later. He has put it in a very bright spot but no direct sun. He may have underwatered in the beginning but I told him to water a bit more. Humidity is quite low in his flat, sometimes 50% but when heating is on (not so often) it can go down to 20%. Can you tell what the problem is from this photo? Low humidity could be the culprit in combination with too little water maybe? My Howea is in the ground and can take the entire summer with 30% humidity with no issues. I did tell him that he shouldn't have covered the base of the stem in dirt but I don't think this could be the problem, dunno.

In general plants spread their range of environments by being the ones that survived under conditions where their siblings did not and it "can" help but usually does not mean a batch of seedlings from one plant will all be more cold hardy unless that batch of seeds has come from a group or swarm of plants that have survived for years under more stressful conditions. It is usually a small percentage of seedlings that carry on a more favorable trait and then that trait can increase over more generations of seedlings from the original survivor but there are limits. Cross breeding of more northern populations can increase the chances of survival to certain conditions. Also if the seedlings just get a cold hardiness gene passed on, then it would be a great step towards a better plant for a colder environment but if it also gets another trait, like hopefully the ability to use sun more efficiently at a more northern latitude then you really have a much better survivor. All plant people want to find those survivors though because it is certainly a way to increase a plants survivability. So yea collect those seeds and give it a try and stay tuned to this forum to buy seeds from people who have already located those desirable plants and sell the seeds.

wonderful, Gyuseppe.

I removed the winter protection from this Fayetteville NC Washingtonia today. It was growing during it's time while sheltered but without any direct sunlight, the new growth appears a bit yellow and weak ATM. One emerging spear I used a small bungee cord to stabilize it. Overall, the winter was fairly mild, no colder than 29°F overnight.

Seems like spring is coming early this year!

Large Palm 8-15 feet palm protection method https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xXYReAkuZLmpBR1afOfRRK-8iBWnPhoK/view?usp=sharing

They survived and are doing great. I didn’t lose any sabals or cidp in that freeze. The sabal uresana has grown much bigger than the casariums. I’ll try to get some photos. I have about 20 sabals in the front and back yards. First pic is the Puerto Rican and then Puerto Rican next to Mexicanas, then uresana is the last pic. The one on the first pic I have to prune the side fronds that block the sidewalk.

Since I was out in the garden with the camera earlier this week, I snapped a couple of photos of the nicer of my two Dypsis ambositrae because I was so impressed with the great color contrast of the emergent spear and most recent petiole against the white leaf sheath and green leaves. What an attractive palm these are! The progressively closer look provided in this sequence.

I do not know if it is a fast growing Chamaedorea, but for me, it is very, very, very fast. At the same time i bought a Cham. Woodsoniana with the same size. Now, the size is 50% less than the radicalis. P.S. of course

This is mine. Is the radicalis var. Arborescens. It is growing in a pot and grows like a Roystonea!