Leaderboard

Thrinax radiata

Help Guide Our Update Over the coming weeks, we will be introducing a major update to PalmTalk. While PalmTalk has always been an incredible source of palm knowledge, inspiration, and friendship, the technology and design behind online communities has changed dramatically over the years. This update will help PalmTalk remain the best place online to discuss palms for many years to come, and we can’t do it without you. Why are we updating PalmTalk? We want to make PalmTalk easier, more enjoyable, and more engaging for everyone, whether you are a long-time member or discovering the forum for the first time. The new version will bring many improvements, including: A modern mobile-friendly experience PalmTalk will work much better on phones and tablets, making it easier to browse, post, upload photos, and participate from anywhere. Improved navigation and organization We are redesigning the layout to help members find discussions, growing advice, travel posts, and species information more quickly. Better topic discovery New tools will help surface discussions and content that match your interests, including trending topics, recommended discussions, curated collections, and featured content. New live and real-time features We are exploring live topics and live discussion features that will let us offer our IPS webinar series live and convert each program when it ends into a Palm Talk topic to continue the conversation. Improved image handling Photos are at the heart of PalmTalk. The updated platform offers modern image handling with better display, resizing, galleries, and mobile viewing. Cleaner and more engaging design The updated theme and layout will create a more welcoming and visually appealing experience while preserving the PalmTalk community spirit everyone values. Your content is safe Most importantly: Your posts, photos, discussions, and account history will be preserved. PalmTalk’s enormous archive of knowledge is one of the International Palm Society’s greatest resources, and protecting that history is a top priority during this transition. We want your feedback PalmTalk has always been built by its members. As we work on this next chapter, we would love your input. What do you enjoy most about PalmTalk today? What features do you use most often? What keeps you coming back? What helps you learn or connect with other members? What would you improve? Are there things that feel outdated or difficult to use? What would make PalmTalk easier to navigate? What new features would you like to see? Please share your thoughts, suggestions, and ideas. Your feedback will help shape the future of PalmTalk. Thank you for being part of this remarkable community.

Here’s one for the hybrid fans. This one was identified a while back on palm talk.

Indeed they are a wonderful palm!

Today I received a superlative 1 gallon, magnificently grown by the incomparable @Darold Petty Best Mother’s Day present ever😂

Been MIA from here for a while (you know life got busy), but I'm really excited for my Brahea Aramata to be blooming for the first time ever. I bought it almost 20 years ago as a tiny plant from Lowe's and I know how dramatic the flowering can get on these. Finally I see some flower stalks forming. Not as exciting to my friends and family so I thought I'd share with fellow palm enthusiasts 😆

Yeah they've got some fun stuff over there. That area is such a great microclimate. There are some MASSIVE mango trees over there in NW Bradenton too, especially along the river. Like big grandfather live oak size, but in mangos. Sorry it's "somewhat" off topic, but a cool picture I took a few days ago over there at Palma sola botanical park.. royal poincianas going off!

Areca is still one of the best hedging palms around. Individual trunks are not crazy heavy either, so if you do get a 25-28F cold snap that kills a few trunks it's not too tough to clean up...and they'll grow back reasonably quick. Caryota Mitis have noticeably heavier trunks when they die. In FL the frost is the big issue with Lutescens. Frost-free nights in the low 30s didn't seem to affect them too much.

Yes apart from a million dollar climate controled environment my odds are pretty slim in my climate, I do know of a couple of cool climate growers so they may destined for those places. Wait and see how many I get I may keep a few to try and the rest shipped out to a much better climate that would suite them. They were originally purchased due to a request from another grower who consequently later purchased their own seeds. The cool climate growers got pretty excited when they were released from rps.

Great in Atlanta, or Pittsburgh or Cleveland. Not so much in inland so cal.

Hey y’all. I recently moved to Northwest Florida from coastal North Carolina, and with that, I can finally plant out my potted palms. To start off this thread, here’s the Needle Palm finally in the ground this morning…

I can’t believe I managed to get these ceroxylon seeds to germinat. I wasnt doubting the quality of seeds. I was more worried about my climate being to warm for once, pretty well much sown at the start of summer so my fear was was that I wasn’t going to be able to keep them cool enough to germinate. It was a long hot summer, so the seeds were kept inside on tile floor in the coolest part of the house. So nearly 6 months later they are a popping. Not sure what I will do with them I might have to send them to the polar bear growers down south!

My favourite at the moment is lepidozamia peroffskyana, a plant that’s native to my location. Here’s both male and female cones being pollinated by the weevil that is so important for pollination with this species.

Ptychosperma nicolai

@epicure3 there's a really nice one over at Palma sola botanical Park if you drive over there. One of the nicest and biggest orange geigers I've seen in the area. It's flowering really well right now too.

I have had 2/8 pop from same batch. They are in my germination box - a plastic ice cream box with barely damp vermiculite/perlite that sits behind an arm chair in my sitting room. It gets some sun in the cooler months so it probably quite warm for a few hours some days but mostly room temperature. If I had lots I would have just put them in a pot in the shadehouse but these are too precious to risk hungry rodents.

The Howea belmoreana presents well from the street outside my garden now too. It is above the wall with its foliage, visible in the center behind the two trunks of Chrysalidocarpus pembanus in this photo. The 5 gallon bucket from the big orange box provides perspective. I need to borrow Tim's shovel for future garden shoots.

Garret, yours an excellent looking example of copernicia baileyana! Mine started growing faster once it trunked. They are not fast for sure but the slower growth at that height is desirable, its a better view than looking up there. These are great palms for florida, but as they get tall, the hurricane damage is greater. Milton hit my yard at 100-110mph, the damage increased with height seemingly regardless of species. My bailey was spared some as it was about 15-16 feet tall, as tall as the house. My C. Fallaense was not so lucky at 25' overall, about 70% damage to the crown. Palms taller than the house saw the worst winds. My neighbor said my 40' royal was bent horizontal in the wind and it lost all 18-20 leaves, just a spear left. My bailey is still in recovery mode, it lost half the leaves to wind damage, lowest first. At this time 3/4ths of the crown is back, though it still holds 6-8 leaves that saw some damage in Milton. Milton seems to have stimulated trunk growth some as it has for several other palms of mine. This palm was planted in this time of year in 2011 about so 5 years older from a 3 gallon. The trunk, from ground to the last dead leafbase is 10' first, 6months in the ground sept 2011. New growth had smaller leaves since it was grown in shade and I put it in full sun. Next 15 months later Dec 2012 it was pumping out leaves at a good rate. Then it started to go vertical and carry more leaves by june 2015. Then it was hit by a hurricane IRMA in 2017 and suffered a spear bundle infection (caused by spear fracture) that persisted for two growing seasons till I managed to kill off the fungus with repeat treatments of daconil. Just when I was wondering if it the fungus was still present, it started to grow faster. This was a period of slow growth for 2 seasons as the infected spears grew out. In sept 2020 about 10 years in the ground, it was trunking and looking fully recovered with a good growth rate. Here it is with a full crown sept 2020, pictured with my larger Fallaensis. Frankly, I wish they both stopped growing at that size as the colors are best when you can see into the crown. Then it was hit by two hurricanes the next 4 years. The sharp thorns on petioles of the newer leaves shred the leaflets on the older ones in the hurricanes. Now here it is 20 months after Milton damage, still recovering. It is 16 years in the ground. I am hoping for a full crown late this summer. Trunk is about 6 1/2-7' clear and 10' including the dead leafbases waiting to fall off in the wet season. Let it rain please!

Finally starting to get some of the seedlings into the ground. A few additional Livistona species start the perilous trek to adulthood. @Plantking165 pointed me in the correct direction for a true Dwarf coconut. That coconut is going to attempt life opposite of the Atlantic Tall for best survival chances. You can also see the new Adeniums from GreenThumb resting on the rocks. The next couple of photos are plants from the CFPACS Spring Sale at SJBGNP. This Bismarckia nobilis will start life in the ground this year. Hopefully, I was gentle enough with the roots while cutting the pot apart. Thank you, @CodyM The first Chrysalidocarpus decipiens seemed to do pretty well during the heat last summer. I had an opportunity to add two more to the garden. Thank you @STLOUISPALMGUY! Clay Porch had 3G Phoenix theophrasti for sale. I've had trouble with these getting a fatal leaf spot in the past, but as tough as they are, I'll roll the dice again. Let's all hope we actually have a rainy season this year.

The solitary one I have in Leucadia is getting more light now that I removed a Guava tree to its west and a little north. The top of the wall is 6 feet high for perspective.

You either love em or dislike em. Each to there own on this palm, but it’s a proven winner regardless with its yellow colour and it’s predictable landscaping growth. It’s hear to stay, no wonder it’s been around so long. I even grow a few for that question got any golden canes?

Yep, passed plenty of the big Mangoes growing on that side of town pretty often.. If they're still there, were some chunky Guamuchil in the same area too.

Dare I say, arborvitae would give you cheap, solid screening for decades. Move the palms forward.

It is a lovely example, I was at the mother in laws house and spotted it in her garden. I then proceeded to explain to her what the palm was and how it got to be in her garden. It has no trunk yet and its about 4 meters to 5 meters.

Did Tim send one down to you express postage, whos a cropping now 🌱

The garden has a pretty impressive rare fruit collection as well.

@Merlyn Yeah, I'd get rid of the Foxtails if their close. They might look fine for a while and then collapse. Hollis had that happen with a Bismarckia out of the blue. Thankfully, no one was standing anywhere near it at the time. It is good to see some green coming back in your garden and in the area, in general.

Oh it will live here, Australia has a very unique climate all in one day it can be snowing, bushfires drought and flooding all 4 seasons in one day just pick which location you want to be in!

Naah, save the measuring contest for when we start seeing Cordia subcordata, rickseckeri, and morelosana specimens

Red is the color of the day.

Maybe it's time to do a "northernmost Geiger Tree" topic...

Hey palmtalkers. Just wanted to share the progress of my bailey palm. I planted this one from an overgrown, rooted in the ground, 1 gallon baby palm back in May 2016. A picture of that at first planting is shown as well with it being the tiny palm, center of the pictures. It has about an overall height of 9 to 10 feet now to the top of the leaf. Has been slower growing for me than I would like. It gets way to much shade from the surrounding palms now that they outgrew the bailey. It's hard to show in the photos, but this one has that blue-green color. One I prefer. Has been through 3 major hurricanes. Irma, Ian, and Milton. Some winds from Helene as well. It still holds damaged leaves from Milton, but I didn't want to over trim. Took some leaves off and left the others. Hopefully now that it's getting larger and a bit more sun, it will start to grow a bit faster.

@Silas_Sancona Pretty neat! I've driven that roundabout, but didn't notice it at the time. Thanks for pointing it out!

Maybe not something commercial landscapes might do, but, I wonder if folks there / in similar, extremely marginal areas treated it like something you might cut back to near the ground right before a significant cold spell, then cover w/ heavy leaves ..couple layers of Palmetto fronds perhaps? thru those episodes if that would be enough to get the roots / any section of remaining trunk thru sub - 30F cold spells. Seems it grows fast enough, especially there, that it would be flowering not too long again after pushing new growth, esp. if sited in an ideal spot. Yea, it's St Armands and " cold " really isn't an issue there, but, specimen there has been planted since... ..at least.. 2013, perhaps a year or two earlier? ( 1st shot ) ..Bad quality street view shot, but still there in '19. iNat Obvs. from 2020 < Blue > and again last fall < Purple > ..That's over a decade of surviving a few chilly winter evenings. Not bad, imo..

I don't comment much but I was saying on a dozen Facebook forums that the damage was bad but less than the 2010 freeze, I think we can all see that now, at least for cocos, which would seem unusual, in my neighborhood in old eau gallie, almost every coconut palm is recovering, almost all the cocos at frigates (including others), the old talls at squidlips that survived 2010, even relative juveniles are recovering well. The bottom line, this was an extremely rare strong adjective freeze which we aren't used to here, 2010 was deadlier by far but a totally different animal, and the royals, we all know by now that relatively established robust royals are not nearly as sensitive to freezes as most think.

A while back, there was some consideration among a few growers in Orlando to try growing these. Not sure if anyone actually planted one outdoors, or if it managed to come back from the ground after most of the city saw 24F-25F this winter.

I think the best way to think of Cordia sebestena is just one of those beautiful-but-marginal plants that will likely have to be replaced at some time in the future everywhere but in 10b or warmer areas. Of course most of us know that we regularly install sensitive plants that are not long-term, even if they are widely planted. We have seen quite a few on this forum that were decimated by this year's freeze, which was far from being a record freeze. A stretch of warm years gives people undue confidence. And whether people replant them or choose a hardier alternative is just a personal decision dictated by garden attitudes, patience to see if the plant can return, or the strength of the wallet when a replacement is contemplated. Perhaps the smartest advice if you like Cordia in a marginal area is to plant either the Yellow Geiger (Cordia lutea), which is a bit hardier and probably sensible long-term in zone 10a; or the White Geiger (Cordia boisseri), which is a solid 9b or even 9a...being extremely hardy (to 20F) and makes a gorgeous tree, even though it lacks the orange color. It is nevertheless quite showy. There are beautiful trees in the Key West cemetery and around town there. It's native from the Rio Grande Valley southward and thus very used to "Blue Northers." It's also grown all over the low desert, and even does well at the cool California coast (I noticed a beautiful blooming specimen in Balboa Park, San Diego), so a very adaptable tree. I also agree with Nathan (and he has noted this in other posts on Cordia) that the Mexican orange Cordia (C. dodecandra) is very much worth trialing for cold-hardiness, as it has been overshadowed by C. sebestena in the trade, even in Mexico...but getting plants or seeds from Mexico is not necessarily easy under current USDA regulations.

Between freezes, that is. It is really one of the most sensitive Florida-native dicots (or just of commonly cultivated dicots) to freezes. The reason they're common is because they're easily propagated and replaced, particularly in commercial landscapes, where the landscaping crews just tear out the dead/damaged stuff and quickly put in new nursery stock. But southwest Florida is far more susceptible to freezes than is southeast Florida, and Sarasota is pushing it since it is significantly north of, say, Naples. A zone 10a designation does not mean you will be 10a every winter...not by a longshot. And a big issue is the leaf-skeletonizers, which don't harm the plant, but which many people are not aware of, and then when they see the plant looking like crap for a certain period of the year, decide they suddenly hate the thing that used to be the "pretty little tree with those beautiful orange flowers."

Excuses excuses, you polar bears need a a germinating lesson! But honestly would Tim our president of the southern palm mafia chapter send you the floater iam shocked at such accusations! I reckon it’s the happypalms knack!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 ps hopefully I can get a few to you

I grow this in Jacksonville FL ----collected the seeds in 1988 from habitat in Northern Domincan Republic --- in my front yard ---

Im thinking of using arecas and the traveler palm combo. Its a bit risky given they’re firmly zone 10 and my zone was 9b until 2023. But I think it will look the best.

I think I found my solution, the travellers palm (ravenela madagascariensis) I may buy two 15 gallon and one 25 gallon and place them staggered so the smaller specimens have width and the taller one gives height. I think it should provide relatively good screening even when they grow taller.

Everytime this palm loses a leaf sheath is quite the event. Who needs sun on a rainy day with this in the front yard, It’s really quite the chunk. Tim

A great palm for SoCal

You could go with what I have on the outside of my wall which was first to obscure the wall and later to create a privacy screen above the wall. Further down the wall, I have planted some Encephalartos species, both Encephalartos ituriensis and hybrid Encephalartos sclavoi x whitelockii. There are hybrids of Cycas revoluta x multifronidis which might also handle your conditions and grow both full and tall. Space them at intervals to achieve the desired coverage.

I’m surprised the utility company hasn’t cut that back. Harry

Yes, I have five of them in the ground...Three of what I'm fairly sure are Jamaican/Atlantic Talls; and two of what I purchased as Red Spicata, in both cases from mail-order nurseries in Miami. They do "fine" here (some other types, however, have collapsed in winter). "Fine" meaning if you find just the right amount of morning sun and dappled shade, in an east- or south-facing area under good canopy, they put out nice leaves...problems being at least when young, they only produce about three leaves per year under those conditions. Really not enough to have a great plant, I feel that five is the absolute minimum for a healthy specimen...though I suspect leaf-production will improve over time. Also some issues with blanching if the sun hits the leaves during the low-sun season, again, careful siting required! There are mature palms here in the desert, most of them now cut down by unwary home-buyers who didn't know or care what they had. The remaining one in La Quinta is impressive in size but the crown can look dry and kind of ratty at certain times of year, and old leaf-bases hold on since there's little rain or humidity to tease them off naturally. Nice to have it here, nonetheless! There are beautiful specimens growing a couple hundred miles southeast of here at Golfo de Santa Clara, but since it's on the Gulf it enjoys humidity and slightly milder highs in summer. The crazy case was an absolutely gorgeous one growing outside of the desert, in Corona of all places, it was beautiful, but when sold, the new owner chopped it down. There are plenty of threads on all of this, if you search, elsewhere on this forum. This topic has been drilled to death here...but ultimately I look at it as a somewhat marginal but fun thing to have around, but I keep it in the "semi-temporary" category. If they start trunking and looking great, so much the better, but I don't necessarily expect it.