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Pindos are tough, oh yeah and the fruit is good to eat. They’re a good bit bulkier than a queen. Buteagrus “mules” are even tougher but they get HUGE. I’ll have to share some pictures. They get bulky like a CIDP without the thorns.

To all the people in life who said I'd never amount to 💩, well, it turns out you were right. But I do have a state nursery sellers license now.

It’s a wonderful joy planting a couple of palms. And even better in remembrance of one the greatest palm germinaters that I have know. So a couple of Mercs palms went into the garden today, a ravenea hillbrandtii and a hypohorbe indica red form along the driveway in a prime viewing spot for that extra bit of remembrance!

Harry, The chart is of course average temperatures. I’m sure an occasional freeze or 100°F temperature occurs in the area both of which a Roystonea regia or borinquena can handle well. I think it’s been since 2007 that a freeze down to upper 20’s occurred in that area.

Royals rock the desert! I’ve seen it, but they are THIRSTY EXPLETIVES.

If you're already watering a lawn, then I'm not sure watering a royal would be much extra. As Jim in Los Altos points out, a royal might like your temps just fine (edit: maybe OK). As for a royals and humidity, here are reports about royals in Phoenix, AZ. Well-watered royals look good in Cabo San Lucas also.

It’s technically not a desert, its Mediterranean climate. But the summers are dry and hot like the desert. We’re fairly close to the high desert, my in laws live there and its a lot colder in the winter and they receive a fraction of the rain. We got 25 inches so far, whereas Lancaster got 8. But the summers are hot and dry as a bone, which makes anyone from the coast think it’s a desert. Having a Royal would be a dream. Im just worried of the dry summers here. I think royals do well in high humidity like Florida. The palm would be on my lawn where I would be watering every day in the summer.

🦜🌴

Close but clouds rolling through right around 3 and kept us a 89.. A few 90 /90+ here and there where the thickest clouds had passed though. 81 at 7:17PM, which is perfect.

We’re technically 33 miles from santa monica. But no one drives to Santa Monica because the drive to Ventura is much easier 😂 its an extra 20 miles but the drive on the 126 is a nice drive to the coast, as opposed to the hell that is the 405. I probably drive by you at least once a month.

Yea , there is very little moisture to be had out there. The highs can reach well over 100f quite often. It is more like a desert in Santa Clarita than weather charts suggest. That’s why I don’t recommend Roystonea or other palms that do well in a more coastal environment. I am inland about 20 miles from the ocean and they are 45-50 miles inland . When the heat hits it will be 92 at my house and 105 out there with very low humidity. Brahea , Butia , or Mule palms would be much more adaptable to that climate than Majesty or Royal palms. I wouldn’t want to try to keep tropical looking feather palms looking nice in , basically, a desert environment. I guess it could be done but not without a lot of water and protection. I am out there on business 2-3 times a week and it is hot most days and quite a bit colder in winter . Harry

Your’s is really close to being a self shedder. Any time now.

Again , Santa Clarita gets some very strong Santa Ana winds that Majesty Palms don’t like. Plus, it is a super arid environment out there . The amount of water to keep a Majesty looking good in the summer would be enormous. Maybe a Roystonea Regia as @Jim in Los Altos suggests , but also like copious amounts of water . My Roystonea Oleracae doesn’t get torn up by the wind the way my Ravenea does . The Regia is way hardier than Oleracae but still doesn’t like too much cold. The weather chart Jim posted is deceptive , I’ve known of some pretty bad cold snaps that have hit that area in the past. Harry

You have seen the " Majesty Palms' Majesty " thread, This one 👇 Right there.. Handle sun better than either than Kentias or Kings.. Visually more tropical looking than Pindos.. Hardy enough to survive the occasional sub 30F mornings during the winter up in San Jose too..

It’s very much age related. I no longer need to have any of mine trimmed because they are self cleaning now. At roughly 25 years old is when they often start shedding their old fronds as well as old leaf bases. Top photo is nearly 100’ tall. Second photo is a younger one (just over 25 years old) that began shedding fronds on its own last year and old leaf bases are pealing back too.

Butia are beautiful palms and make a statement if you have the room. Brahea are nice if time allows or you can find a large one. Brahea Edulis is the faster growing species but the silver coloring of the Armata is impressive. Ravenea Rivularis are nice but in the heat of summer would require a whole bunch of water and they easily damaged by dry winds. Harry

I think spring is finaly here. The last freeze and frost didn't hurt anything but 1 new banana leaf and 1 new elephant ear leaf. All new growth on everything else was untouched and still growing.

You might think that for something like this, AI scrapes the internet for information about the various palm species and then synthesizes plagiarizes the information to make these articles. What it actually does is even lazier and much stupider: it just makes up plausible sounding facts out of thin air, and then fills in the requested fields (like the incredibly detailed care information) with completely generic and useless information. This site is now some of the most prominently accessible information on the entire internet when you search for these species (google ranks sites like this that claim to be selling something very highly). This information also gets fed right back into the next plagiarism machine that comes looking for it. Garbage in, garbage out. It would be funny if it wasn't so scary. https://www.viriar.com/blogs/palms-tree-encyklopedia/hyophorbe-amaricaulis https://www.viriar.com/blogs/palms-tree-encyklopedia/ravenea-musicalis-river-palm https://www.viriar.com/blogs/palms-tree-encyklopedia/sabal-pumos-pumila-dwarf-bush-palmetto - These are just a few quick examples of information that is, for the record: completely false, that I was able to find in a minute or two of clicking around. Last year I noticed that the International Aroid Society redesigned their website and included an wholly AI-generated encyclopedia of thousands of Aroid species. Just like this one, it was completely nonsensical and full of misinformation. Unlike this one, it was hosted by a legitimate organization which is the official registrar for the Aroid family, and also a non-profit that promotes education and conservation. After a few months and some negative feedback that section of their website is currently not active, but we are teetering on the edge of completely losing our grasp on collective reality, as this dangerous technology is pushed on everyone.

Jim , that would be awesome . The first time a frond falls on its own will be celebration. I love the way they sway in the wind when they get this big . All that motion is bound to have an effect. Harry

I think the coldest its got in 20 years was 28 degrees. Now this would be a statement

With all this nice weather in So Cal its go time! Get that early start on your spring planting with these great plants at great prices. All plants are grown in full sun so no acclimation needed. We are located in Clairemont San Diego. Sale starts Fri. 2/27 at 4 pm. I will be around this weekend after 9 am. 619-453-1240 pm or text are best. Local pick up cash only!

The averages are a nice guide for optimists; unfortunately sometimes you get bad winters a number of years in a row.

You can probably get by with a queen-leaning mule. I love B.armata but they're slow and expen$$ive.

Im leaning heavily on the Pindo. Not as common as the queen, but hardier I would want to trim it like this, similar to canary date.

Those are killer deals Steve!!! Wish I loved closer man.

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Raised beds are a game changer in palm growing, I have a similar situation with my property lots of rocks and rock shelves. About 30 years ago I landscaped around my house with raised beds, and raised beds are far superior for growing palms if your property has rocks. Make the beds at least 3 feet tall or higher if you can terrace if you have too as well that works just as good. Even a small raised bed works well, a simple one foot border edge works wonders, backfill with the best soil you can find. Then sit back and water and in a few years time instant garden!!

Very large 5 gal E Whitelockii $100

It's good that you bumped this thread @Jonathan. I was just talking with Tad Dyer yesterday about how underutilized this palm is. Tad is a local grower who used to post here many years ago. I'm growing both the green and blue form here (along with blue Copernicia prunifera) and grew the blue alba in zone 9a San Antonio. Great palms!

Hmm , mine doesn’t shed , but then I don’t let them accumulate. Every Fall it has a few feet of skirt that I have trimmed off. Harry This one ( left side of photo)is planted at the bottom of the hill, so it is very tall. It is about 30 years old. It requires trimming or a skirt forms and I am in a fire prone area.

In your zone, there are lots of choices. Have you considered Royal palms? You have mild winters and heat in the summer, both of which would be favorable.

I have a lot of space it’s replacing a 25-30 foot tree. Do you think the pindo butia would look better than a mule palm? One of the nurseries also recommended a silver foxtail queen, but Santa Clarita is the land of queen palms. I might as well get Starbucks wrapped Tesla and join the PTA.

Got down to high 20's a few nights. Wind was blowing and temps remained in the 40's for several days. I think the hybrids can take the high 20 and low 30 weather but not for several hours and several days. We usually have temps like that for 1/2 days and not 5. Let's see how it comes back. My non hybrds I had wrapped up for 6 days. no damage to them at all.

I have an alba, its an easy grow for me. It gets water and occasional fertilizer but its not nearly as nutrient sensitive as the cuban copernicias. No they are not fast, medium grower at best. This one has been in the ground 14 years. It arrived in bad shape, 2' trunk shrunken crown 4' wide with 6 leaves. I am not surprised it is doing very well as its a Caribbean native and well that is very close to my climate. It has been fruiting for 6-7 years. It tends to be a pale green coming out of winter due I expect to low wax from the cool season. It tints a bit more powder blue in the summer wet season.

I wanted to share what I believe are probably the nicest coconuts in Naples and probably amongst the nicest in SW Florida that I have come across. They are next to the post office off Goodlet-Frank Rd. There’s a canal right near them so they are able to get filtered irrigation. This is not the warmest location in Naples, but it’s clearly one of the most ideal for cocos. This location bottomed out at 36F this winter, and is typically 2-3F warmer on the coldest nights than my home just past Livingston.

There are a couple growing ok at a collector’s garden here in Melb last I checked but as you know we’ve got a bit more summer heat here. I’ve never tried myself but might be getting some sprouts soon to trial. I did germinate a batch of C prunifera a couple of years ago. Silly me didn’t prop the seed up and bring a remote germinator the growth points were stuck way under soil level. I then also left them out unprotected over winter and within a week or so they all quickly rotted out. In future I’d treat these like the Livistona that require heat (eg alfredii). High ratio of perlite of something in the mix and protect from winter rain while young.

Santa Clarita Valley? .. Perhaps something " ..Majestic " ..AKA Ravenea rivularis. Mule would be ok too, ..just not as Majestic..

Butias are underrated for cold hardiness. I think they are (arguably) more hardy than palmettos. They are very popular in SE Virginia and piedmont NC - areas that can struggle with palmettos.

Yes they pretty good for that tropical look around the garden. And an easy palm to grow and lots of seeds available, in fact a species of chamaedorea thay are often overlooked and underrated by collecters just because there common. I love them. Richard

Here are some palmettos and Trachys I found In Pigeon Forge, Tennessee If any of you guys live nearby and Are willing to go Check them out I would love to see an updated picture. https://www.google.com/maps/@35.8116304,-83.5781456,3a,41.4y,288.42h,91.13t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sg58FdslmsPwhrClxdXVwEA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-1.1288713871387017%26panoid%3Dg58FdslmsPwhrClxdXVwEA%26yaw%3D288.4156306357441!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDExNS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Congratulations John...hope it all goes swimmingly!

Hit 45F for a low this morning. Temp went up to near 50F for a few hours lastnight before we managed to sneak in some radiational cooling before sunrise. For the next 7 days, not looking at anything below 50F. For the next 10-15 days, very low chances of dropping into the 40s. Spring is on, but do we get another frost? My guess is probably, or at least close to it, but i think we might just be done with freezes here. Side note, the warmth from the past few weeks (minus the cold snap we just had) has pushed everything to flower and start leafing out here. Everything is doing something at this point, maples are getting leaves now and the birches are starting as well. Oaks will follow sooner than later.

Today I noticed how conveniently located my coconuts are on this tree.

Two lots over caught my eye today.

To clarify, there are plenty of harmless and even beneficial insects and organisms, this post is about the pests that consume and harm plants, and in nature are often kept in control by weather and surroundings, but if you choose to commit the two unnatural actions to put a plant in a pot and put it indoors then they potentially become a seriuos problem. There are plenty of reliable growers (like PPP/RPS and Hornbach's supplier) who focus from day 1 to have bug free plants. In the case when a grower wants to import plants e g to EU (like RPS import seedlings from Asia) there are laws requiring costly phytosanitary certificates, so these bugs are no joke to authorities. I don't know why you think Europe would be against chemicals, maybe the US allows some more but for farmers and professional growers there are plenty of effective pesticides also in the EU, less so for amateurs (legally, although easy to find e g on ebay).

Sounds about right. I ordered 30 baby palms from Florida while the southern US had good temperature, but USPS' route took them first to Wisconsin, so they died. I will not make any more assumptions about shipping route.

Yes, it'll be a while before they start suckering (if they do). I'm posting a picture of my reclinata hybrid (unknown father) and it's almost the size where my sylvestris x dactylifera and my theophrasti started suckering. Probably will sucker in 2025.

I am living in Brunswick, GA now. There are some very old canaries at the old courthouse that survivied 3 F years ago. I havbe a few seedlings from them. certainly they can survive wet cold. But a zone 9 3 degrees is less damaging than a zone 8a 10 degree cold. Still, I venture they would certainly do better in NC winters than sylvestris or reclinata. Reclinata is marginal here, but there is one I know if in town that's been there for a few years. Sylvestris is quite common here. Surprisingly, I see dactylifera more in Florida than here. And then there's theophrasti for cold hardiness. All that being said, it's not worth fighting a battle to keep less hardy phoenixes alive without significant protection.

Thought that I would give an update since the growing season is now over. The Phoenix dactyifera did bite the dust, I am unsure that I will replant it since it seems to not do to well here. But the other two dates are doing very well. Phoenix sylvestris (left) and Phoenix reclinata (right)

Update: Some expected cold damage but now are starting to push out new fronds