Leaderboard

They're fast! I'd already grown them from seed, but I didn't remember they were fast,second leaf and germinated at the beginning of May.

mine produces lots of fertile seeds

Arenarius flush hardening off

Brahea

Livistona rotundifolia super fast growing palm, and a nice licuala sallehana

Potting up a few Ceroxylon parvifrons. The root systems on these things are impressive already. Skipping my standard 50mm tubes and 70mm pots for these ones, they are going straight into 90mm containers.

Johannesteijsmannia perakensis, i somehow dont think I will see it get a trunk in any time soon!

Yeah, they sure move along! Probably right up there with Washingtonia speed-wise; maybe faster..

Here’s the same palm 5 weeks later going into winter growing even stronger. Not a problem for marojejya in cool climates, we have a zone push winner and a great one at that.

Thanks brother and never attacked by kitty cats

This lot are doing well for winter, with 2 degrees celcius in the air this morning! Iam quite surprised for the middle of winter that they are doing fairly well, there have been a couple of winter casualties so the cool conditions are there to kill palms. With six weeks of winter so far it started off as warm start but that soon ended when the whales started to migrate north from Antarctica (I think @Jonathan organised them to bring his cold weather with them!) Do far so good with this lot it just goes to show a little zone pushing and willing to take the risk on seeds the rewards are there, Ive had more winter winners than losers, so that’s saying something about the odds in my favour in my climate!

And they are not even in my greeenhouse or hothouse, just outside under the verandah on the NE side of the house dry and not wet in the rain. Cold wet conditions is what gets your seedlings, not this batch! So far so good!

Johannesteijsmannia perakensis, i somehow dont think I will see it get a trunk in any time soon! I grow so many joeys they are just so predictable in there growth patterns, winter is there only downfall, being even slower for an already slow growing palm. Keep the water up to them they drink like a drowning fish!

Kogi, hapala, dumasii, grandiflora growing great here in Vista/Bonsall.

@Banana Belt I see this a lot with local Sabals. The ones in natural forests here are usually full crown but all the fronds below about halfway down are dead and crispy brown. But they fall off complete with the boot in time and leave a completely smooth trunk. Only the Sabals in people's yards still have boots, for the most part. It's probably because people cut off the frond and then gravity doesn't pull the boot off, like you said. I routinely cut off brown or cold-damaged fronds for cosmetic or clearance issues. But I try to not tear off boots until they are ready to fall off. If I'm pruning stuff and the boots just peel off easy then I'll peel them off until I find one with some resistance, and stop there. The only exception is stuff like a Bottle palm, where I use a razor knife and super sharp shears to carefully snip off the old boots. I might clean up old boots on a Bismarck or Alfredii for similar cosmetic reasons...and because the giant flying cockroaches ("palmetto bugs") love to live in the rotting old boots...

Worth a shot but you get snow don’t you! 🥶

Encephalartos Kisambo flush progressing nicely

Most of us grow palms for their aesthetic value and for me and many of us, dried up brown persistent fronds are a detriment to that. A lush green garden versus one that has lots of dead hanging foliage, hmm, which one do I want to look at and be in? Fortunately most of my palms are self cleaning but many, such as Parajubaea, Livistona, Syagrus, Trachycarpus, Phoenix, and others are not so I trim off yellowed leaves. Rhopalostylis, on the other hand, often shed their oldest frond while still green and quite heavy. The stems and old boots of virtually all the palms that are trimmed here, fall off readily, many right up near the palm’s canopies with just a few exceptions. I don’t think leaving the dead fronds hastens trunk “cleaning” appreciably.

Ooof! I think they might have killed it this time.🤦🤷‍♂️

Great examples of palm survivors Stelios and happypalms! I love reading good news.

great update, a lot of work has been put in that yard!

I think people who don't live in climates like this really understand how hard it is to get things accomplished in summer. I have the same schedule - 30 minutes of work followed by the same for a break. The only difference is I try to stay outside in the shade under a fan and only go inside when I know I'm just too hot. And the weeds in these climates are just insane. That's a ton of work for this time of year.

Chambeyronia hookerii with that afternoon sun in winter that says it’s going to be a cold morning.

I thought my coconut was gone a few years back after a record winter rainfall. I cut it to clean the rot but I was expecting it will not make it anyway. It's not growing in it's normal climate but it's still surviving today.

Triphylla are so cute they need to planted next to a step or that intricate little corner you walk past or the garden will eat it up. They set seed from a young age and they do make fantastic container palms.

I offer four plants, grown from RPS seed. I ship via USPS Priority Mail with tracking anywhere in the 48 contiguous US states. The price is $35 plus $17 shipping, payable by PayPal. PM me for my PayPal address. The pot size is 4x4x6 inches and the palms need to be moved up a pot size, or better, ground planted. I have let them get a bit too large for my standard shipping box, 4x4x24 inches. Therefore the tallest frond and/or spear may be bent in the box. This will not affect future growth. I may delay a few days for shipping, rather than make four trips to the post office. Thanks for reading !

Up in the clouds...unlike relatively flat Australia, there are some good sized mountains in Java Corypha utan...have only ever seen this growing in coastal areas, right down to the ocean...these ones battered by constant salt and winds off the ocean Actinorhytis callaparia - cultivated Licuala grandis at the entrace to Bogor BG Latania verschafelltii in Bogor BG Nstivr Rattan in the mountains growing near Pine forests Kerriodoxa in Bogor BG Perhaps Rhopaloblaste sp? in Bogor BG Cyrtostachys and friends in Bogor BG Oncosperma tigillarum in Bogor BG Bogor BG Cyrtostachys renda in Bogor BG Hydriastele in Bogor BG Interesting coastline in East Java Corypha utan down near the shore

You need a few Arenga engleri for your garden!

For vacation for few days in Punta cana I saw rows of Pseudophoenix vinifera (commonly known as the Hispaniolan Wine Palm) unfortunately some are dying but others looks super healthy… They lost a lot of them … Some still looking good I hope the city will do something to preserve them they might be very old here … IMG_2776.mov

What is killing them? I have one here on O'ahu for about 25 years. Planted next to a leaky lily pond so it get lots of water from the pond. Have not taken a picture in about 5 years.....Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle attacked once but drove them away from this palm.

I always thought my oldest and largest Trachycarpus Fortunei is male, as it never produced any seeds and because it had all the traits of male infructesence. But this year it’s as if it discovered its female side. Obviously it struggles with this new task and so the fruits/seeds it produces look very odd. Only very few seeds look like regular Trachycarpus seeds. Can anyone tell me what this is?

Subject of what to do about lower leafs on a Jubaea Palm that is browning up or dead but won't fall off has been discussed many times. But recently I have realized after doing a little experimentation, that it is best to leave a dead leaf on the trunk until if falls off on its own. If a dead leaf is cut leaving a stub behind, the stub will persist for very long time often many years. But if the dead leaf its allowed to remain it will fall off much sooner than if cut to stub. Reason for this is the dead leaf is constantly pulling away from the trunk from gravity much more so than a cut stub, allowing for the attached fibers to break one by one until there is nothing holding the leaf to the trunk. Forcing a leaf or stub away from the trunk should never be done, because it increases the chance of infection entering the wound. The Jubaea prepares in advance of a natural leaf breaking away from the trunk by retreating living tissues in the scar area so that when the leaf suddenly breaks away the wound it is already mostly healed and ready to harden off. The same principle probably applies to many other Palm Species with normally smooth trunks. Climate, health and other factors do influence whether a leaf will break away from its trunk cleanly but trying to force a leaf or stub off the trunk is risky to the health of the palm.

Shortly after starting a trunk. Basically when the trunk grew high enough where the drooping leaves no longer touched the ground for support, they just fell off on their own. When the palms were still young and looked like bushes, the leaves would turn completely brown but would not fall off so I cut them to a stub. It took many years for those old stubs to become loose enough so I could break them off without damage. In Jubaea there are two factors which break the fibers of the old leaves and stubs. 1) Weight of the dead leaf drooping down which slowly breaks the fibers holding he leaf on the trunk, and 2) expansion of the lower trunk caused by compression of the weight bearing down as the mass of the trunk increases with age. Fibers holding old stubs at the bottom of the trunk will not fall off by gravity, but will over a much longer period of time eventually break away from the trunk due to expansion caused by compression. I know many people do not agree that Jubaea trunks get wider with age because Palms don't normally do that, but when looking at the leaf scars at the bottom of any Jubaea it is obvious the scars are stretched out 2 to 3 times their original width and are flattened or squished thinner several times original. Also I know Jubaea widen at the base with age because I have measured it year by year leaving no doubt.

the second pic is rupicola for sure. Note how you can see through a leaf close to the stem for a inch or so then the leaflets blocks sun/sky away from the stem. The second pic shows this very well. Sometimes it doesnt come from a pic due to the leaf angle with the camera or due to a full crown blocking light. Here is my rupicola triple, hard to make out the individuals. This is a 15 years from 3 gallon triple cooking in our worst drought in 30 years with limited irrigation water. Each palm of the triple has about 5' of trunk still covered in dead leafbases. A closeup of the stem shows the "see through" at the stem Rupicola is not a large palm, the leaves are 8' long and the tree trunk, leaf bases on, is about 13-15". Mine were well watered, right next to irrigation popup and palms that are near the popups tend to get thicker trunks as they get more water and the trunk is ideally 65-70% water. I have found that trunk thickness of a number of common palms here depend on watering and soil drainage(can kill water intake if root systems are small. Those not on irrigation are always skinnier of the trunk. Rupicola is a great mid size palm, not a large palm.

Looks good Steve. I was told Kisambo were super fast. Mine did not get the memo. Whatever I’m doing, Kisambo does not approve cuz it’s slow as molasses. Love Arenarius. Underused in gardens for sure. -dale

I germinated a few from one of my adult palms . Same thing , pretty fast at getting their second leaf. Those look great @gyuseppe ! Harry

SLC Mem. Alvin Beggman Poem, (Sc. Beaufort x Laelia esalqueana). My tiniest little Catt type. I just love this little cutie 😊

A nice one I grew from seed seems to like winter.

Trithrinax brasilensis growing in my Jax FL garden

yes

thank ye

Yeah I’d say that’s right. That Burringbar grove is on a slope which aids drainage. I’ve found it’s often the cold and wet combination that’s the issue. When I started growing palms, many species were thought not to cope with Melbourne winters, even things like Chambeyronia macrocarpa which is now known to be pretty much bulletproof in a variety of planting positions. Species like Bismarckia nobilis and Chrysalidocarpus decaryi languish in boggy soils here especially if not in full sun, but give them a sunny, well drained position and they don’t even flinch in winter.

Encephalartos “true blue” Arenarius pup throwing a 5 leafer. I have only tried to propagate 3 Encephalartos pups and I’m batting 1000 so it seems pretty foolproof. I started this one about a year ago from a softball sized pup so patience is the name of the game.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DawFBSXtAqw/?igsh=MXdqZjNrcTBzNzVhdA== I have failed you, Palm Gods. But I am appeasing the Aroid gods. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DawFzYjtIlU/?igsh=ZWkzdHRmNDQ3ZzB0 Oh and y'all saw I bought a bottle palm right?

If I knew you bought them, I would have sent them to you for free.

Back in October 2025 I discovered that a huge banana had made a direct hit falling on this Veitchia. No photo as the banana obscured the palm. It was a struggle to cut the giant banana and remove all the rotting fruit and I might have cut down the palm too. However it was far from a ladder and would have been dangerous to attempt without assistance so I let it be. I noticed as the months went by that the upside down leaves remained green and I had planted the palm where I needed something to hold on to along this slope so I figured I’d use the trunk as a hand rail as long as possible. Yet here it is growing again!

Today it caught my eye that for the first time in close to three years probably I planted new palms yesterday. It’s a hoot to get back out there again. The vendor suggested that I keep the.Licuala triphylla potted since it’s so small. He said you’ll never see it, but I am gonna try to make sure it stands out a bit. Anyway, I planted it and the other three in an area that I’ve started working on again, now that I can walk around the yard pain-free.

Dioon mejaie flushing in Jax FL

Let’s see what’s cooking in the greenhouse!

Len, you may be right about the ID, but all I am saying is that I value the look of the thin trunk and the dainty, light and wispy crown on a rupicola. Getting one that has a fat trunk like the ones above would not be my first landscape choice when it comes to rupicola even if it really was a pure rupicola. I planted mine with the idea in mind that the trunks would be the size of a reclinata or slightly larger but without any suckering. As for the exact ID, I am not attached to my opinion, I don't care if it's a rupicola or not, all I care is that I prefer the thinner trunked, more tropical looking version of rupicola. I would simply add that looking at the rest of the comments in the thread. For most of us who are intimate with rupicola because we grow them, the palms in question shown above look like a hybrid rather than a pure rupicola. I can only offer my opinion on the matter, there's really no point arguing about it because unless someone does any sort of genetic testing, we're not going to know what it really is. The specimens from the Huntington are cultivated specimens and show the same form as the ones in habitat: this is the form that I prefer and it's the form I have chosen. PalmPedia has a lot of photos, and there the Balboa Park rupicola also sticks out as being rather large trunked compared to the other ones. http://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/Phoenix_rupicola.%C2'> Bottom line: my answer for Leigh would be: if this is a palm you like the looks of, then buy it and grow it. But be aware of the fact that there are forms of rupicola (hybrid or not) that have thinner trunks and IMHO look better. Here is the rupicola from Balboa Park (Courtesy Geoff Stein), it's nice but too big and massive for me to use in my landscape. I have mine growing on steep parts of my property where they should look like Cliff Date palms in habitat.