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My second order this season from Floribunda arrived this afternoon and all are new trials for me. They all are BIG in their respective containers as is usual from this excellent vender. Pritchardia aylmer-robinsonii Chamaedorea arenbergiana Chrysalidocarpus ‘Baby Red Stems’ Pinanga ‘Maroon Crown Shaft’ Anyone with personal experience with any of these, please comment.

Obscenities screamed loudly.

I would like to see the poster's location on my phone and tablet without going into the profile. Location is visible on a desktop with the post.

When my large Wodyetia failed , I waited and it was tough to watch such a beautiful palm go through that. No identifiable reason for the failure . No frost , well draining soil , and 7-8 years of solid growth . Other palms in that area of the garden were fine . The Foxtail just decided to die , about 7’ of smooth trunk plus the crown. It looked pathetic for the last year but I thought I could save it. I tried different treatments over a 12 month period , nothing helped. By the time it was cut down , I was so frustrated . A few blocks away , a friend has a huge one is his front yard producing copious amounts of fruit with viable seeds. Nice palms , but finicky here. Harry

All will be good growers, the only one I have not grown is the pritchardia. And as for the rest they all have seen temperatures at 2 degrees celcius, so the zone pushing has been tested on all but the pritchardia. I have lost so many palms to cold weather over the years I have been pushing the boundaries in relation to cool weather, don’t look at as a experiment but as a win for your garden!

None whatsoever on those. They are very nice looking palms and I’m sure , with your expertise , have a very good chance. You have the perfect environment in your garden . Now that my garden has matured a bit , I am venturing out as well. When my friend gets back from Japan , I will be getting my first FB order in . We are going in together on an order. Harry

Licuala pelata var sumowongii, super sun tolerant! Richard

To me all the hose does is keep them alive, but the nitrogen in the rainwater is the best fertigate system one can have. Richard

Moving towards heavy:

Yellow Poinciana starting after looking like a stick tree:

Lagerstroemia speciosa or Queen's Crepe Myrtle:

A few more rhapis in the collection.chojuayahme ahyame kannonchikushima

Yeah, I heard that about the Pritchardia. If it’s indeed hardly differentiated from P. remota, that’s okay since there’s no remota in the garden. Pinanga ‘Maroon Crown Shaft’ was recommended to me based on its possibly being the most cool tolerant of the genus. We’ll see.

Iam so glad iam not on town water, flouride they can have on their own. I have a note for water that’s a bit high in iron thankfully the palms dont seem to mind it, although I have lost some small batches of palms, not to sure if it’s the iron, but they damp off so most likely grower mistake. What are your thoughts on acid rain?

Me too. Our tap water is sourced from city wells so it’s very hard. Lots of calcium and high ph. We’ve had lots of springtime rain up here so everything looks so happy especially after the HOT month of March. By summer’s end, some of my palms have brown tipping as the calcium salts build up in the soil. I do try to flush the soil around the more affected palms with the garden hose periodically and that seems to help a lot.

A nice row of hookeri with almost three in a row putting on show.

Cassia fistula has had an underwhelming year. It did not lose its leaves:

Thought I’d throw in a couple of updated photos. Looking good as ever. They are now all over the garden. Tim

LOL I am currently watching a neighbor who had a broken irrigation system in sand. 4 royals are wasteing away even with our (NOT THIS YEARS) rains. They shrivel up from the grow point down. It takes a few years for them to come down. If you think aobut it and use Google AI's estimate of 63-64% water from an oil palm, it means 2/3rds of the weight can be lost in dessication. And it occurs from the top down so the tendency to topple shrinks with dessication/time. Ive also seen abandoned field nurseries where some royals waste away. The guy up the street has 3of 4 where the crownshafts are gone and the trunk is continuing to dry up and dissappear top down. I walk my dog by there everyday. As the thing dries out and loses height there will be less of a damage risk dropping it. I have thought about this a lot as I do have a fat royal with 25' of clear trunk. Its not a coke bottle so much. I'd say 28 in ch minimum trunk diameter with a max probably 5" more than that. A simple calculation on water weight is using water alone based on 64lb ft3 says that tree is 8000 lbs of water in the trunk with one third of that wood which is not counted in the weight. I would estimate 10,000 lbs for the trunk overall if wood is 0.8 the density of water and 33% the volume of the trunk. Who wants to chop down such a tree and then have to carry those 5 tons of wet trunk away? It could easily be 1/3rd of that weight and if you let it dry out and crumble you have mulch you can spread, and not have to carry away at all. Im still thinking about it for the day if it comes in my lifetime.

Update May 2026..

Had this one in the ground for 26 years. And it seems to have enjoyed growing in the garden. I do know with the dead leaves not to mulch them in the garden they get seperated for the big compost heap. Too many times when planting plants in that area you get the needle sharp spines in the hands. One glorious palm not that often seen in my area!

Some nice dictyosperma album var conjugatum needed a bit of attention. So time to wack em across the potting bench. Thanks Merc!

Two easy palms that are always setting seeds.

A change in the season has seen the garden go into a relax mode, with the dry weather a lot of leaves have fallen. Fortunately we have had some good rainfall to push the garden back. And the summer root activity has gone into new leaves and spears.

Typical flood or drought situation, this is the case with these seeds, not wanted hundreds sitting on the ground. Any other time I would have put the eyehole lot in to germinate, such a shame. It takes time, space and money to grow hundreds of something you’re not interested in.

Up the back yard near the propagating hothouse is the sancona, it endures many a tough time and is in need of a good feed. But finally after 26 years we have a trunk forming. Some palms in my climate just want water, this one is in a dry spot without irrigation donuts done quite well considering the circumstances it grows under, basically in the bush!

How bout a small ‘BUMP’. So, how are all of the posted specimens doing? Thriving I hope. Here is a photos I took yesterday of a grouping grown from seed back in 2012. The tall palm in the center surrounded by B. condapanna is B. nicobarica. Tim

As one would be aware of I just can’t get enough of this palm. An absolutely gorgeous palm. If I see one for sale, the dollars are thrown at it!

I brought back three Kerriodoxa elegans palms from the farm. Two of them were the same price, but their overall appearance is completely different. Obviously, the one with the taller trunk is much bigger. It seems Kerriodoxa elegans has male and female morphs. I believe the one with short, sturdy foliage is the female plant.

Cocothrinax Alta and dypsis lastelliana looking good!

Hydriastele beguinii obi island

Really like this one ! Probably hard to find stateside. Harry

Not sure what this is. Located at ANSG without a tag!

A couple of common palms got a bit of attention this afternoon! Dypsis lutescens Howea fosteriana rhapis loaensis wodyetia bifurcata dypsis plumosa

some of my ALSTROEMERIA in bloom, called lily of the Andes of Peru

crysophilla warscewizianus Johannesteijsmannia Altifrons Chuniophoenix nana All looking rather good! And they catch my eye continually!

In an area full of Copernicia's:

Even though she's even smaller, she's very pretty, Harry 🤗

This part of the garden definitely caught my attention after I planted this anthurium, just the pop that spot needed!

They get rather tall at least 5 meters on this one and still growing!

Chamaedorea plumosa doing its best impression of a crownshafted palm, with very little encouragement from me. I’m sure this has something to do with our recent heat wave and continued warm weather.

I have a little Licuala Mapu that has been slowly declining in my greenhouse cabinet. 🥲 After doing a bit of reading I think the issue is the soil. I think what caused the decline of the palm was water logged soil, so the leaves started showing browning on the edges & then eventual death to some leaves. I am not typically an overwater-er so I am surprised I ran into this issue ! I think also what the main culprit was inside the cabinet the pot has drainage holes on the bottom & sits in a tray of water (which I add to increase the overall humidity in the cabinet) - so the pot has been waterlogged for quite some time ! Anyways, I have been trying to figure out a good soil mix. I read that 2/3 pine bark, 1/3 seramis is good. But I don't have seramis where I am located. What are some alternatives ? I was thinking 2/3 pine bark with maybe a gritty soil, like succulent type soil ? thoughts ? Also when repotting, I think I'll use a clay pot (sounds ironic, but will help with the over watering issue). Also when repotting, I am not sure how root sensitive these palms are, but I want to remove the old water logged soil from the roots. I am thinking of using a hose to gently do so.

Quick update on my Bentinckia Condapanna, He survived 100-90 degree temps for a few days, its cooling back to 80-85, came back with slight burns but he grew new and healthy fronds with a new spear incoming! I am growing him in Corona California.

Not the big island, only getting one leaf a year, and it's worth the wait....

Missed the latest posts in this thread, looking good everyone. Dale, back in the early 2000’s I had never even heard of this palm, available species were a bit limited, at least for a newbie like me. Yours looks like the type, with the new colored leaf. You know, mine used to throw the new red/orange leaf, but it’s been awhile since it’s done that. I wonder if I’ve just missed it or if the palm grows out of that stage. I’ve posted these photos before, somewhere on PT, but here they are again. Tim