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A view from my deck ! 15 years old and my largest of 4 Lepidorachis.

I see a few out there in palm land want to start selling plants. It’s quite simple really, you don’t need a degree in business management! Step one choose quality stock to send, the customer is always right. Make sure they are aware of what you’re sending, seller communication is critical. Package your plants well, this is critical for a couple of reason, it’s nice to receive well presented plants, and if there are delays in shipping your plants stand a better chance of arriving in better condition. Post immediately express postage, there are various methods of packaging choose one that suits your taste, but remember you should be able to shake the packaging and nothing move around. And if all goes well you will have yourself a nice little hobby business that can grow as big as you want. Remember quality plants packaged well, seller communication and your in the business of supplying plants!

Nothing better than a day in the bush, checking out the native palms, even a couple of Livistona Australis in the steep sandstone rocky country!

The more isolated and remote the more I like it. I live in a community on a hundred acres with a 5 acre share, the idealistic hippie community that works!

I used to watch Ryan Hall Y’all. Lately have been enjoying Weather with Travis. He really goes through all the models and trends from one day or one run to another. He’s very comprehensive and conservative in his interpretation of the forecasts. He used to be a TV weatherman in WV. Highly recommend!

Yep at again buying more plants, or doing a bit of trading nothing beats the barter system. A few good ones and throw in a Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana and a nice anthurium claudiae with a zingiber sp and you have the perfect recipe for the tropical look, and why not I say!

it looks like a male

My beccariophoenix alfredii seed grown over 1 year. The seed took 7 months to germinate and it seems to really enjoy the climate here in Ibiza. I have left it outside all winter and it’s still rocking. Can’t wait to do an update at the end of the year.

First thing is first you need stock, 3 years at least for a lot of varieties. But I will say you can germinate and sell seedlings and you will make just as much doe as the next person. One person in Australia god bless him may he rest in peace Merc psillakis known as the germinater sold germinated seedlings to many a grower. And he had the good stuff, i purchased many seedlings from him. Oh and yes I do international mail orders. Pm me!

Here’s my Prestoniana Hybrid from FB. Got it about 6 months ago and immediately grounded it. It didn’t care one bit. Doesn’t look like much but it’s definitely gotten bigger and shed those ugly stretched fronds most FB plants come with. I have no doubt it will catch steam from here on out. -dale

Hope the best for everyone involved. Because of the wide array of forecast models, everyone east of the Rockies is wondering how much of their garden will still be standing come March. We could get anything from 23F-37F in inland Central FL. 🍹 May the Jetstream be forever in our collective favor.

They never get boring!

Place plastic bags over them, use coco peat perlite just slightly moist, squeeze a handful to test if drops of water come out it’s to wet add more dry medium, for germinating them in. Spagnum moss just slightly damp again squeezing as a test for moisture. Bottom heating as @Than mentioned is the best thing to use. And dont overwater them once they germinate and you’re waiting for them to grow a bit before potting up. Bury your seeds to the depth of the seed size ie a 4mm seed at a depth of 4mm is best, and cover them then push firmly on top of your medium. Good luck and happy growing!

Fun fact: Ryan Hall lives in Pikeville KY not far from me and also used to be a TV weatherman.

He actually doesn’t. Trust me I’m on his server on discord he and all of us are very conservative in forecasting. He can act like hes hyping but he only hypes safety and stuff like that. NOT forecasts.

Male

Yep it's ridiculous. My suburb squeaked by into zone 9b in the latest USDA hardiness zone map (1991-2020 data set) yet somehow 4 out of the last 5 winters end up zone 8b....and we're now on track for 19F or 20F Monday 🤦‍♂️. I'm not delusional to expect a warm winter ever year but the constant back to back 5+ degree negative departure from average is tiring so we're gonna complain about it on the Internet 😆

it looks like a female

Good job! Growing from seed requires patience and a bit of skill. I have waited a year for some of them . Sometimes they don’t sprout at all . Harry

I am not good at knowing the difference on these . Perhaps @happypalms , or someone else can help with ID. Harry

Most Archontophoenix palms are a bit root sensitive and must be planted with care not to massage or disturb the root ball when planting . Even with care , they can stall for a while before showing growth. If the soil is not draining well or becomes dry between rain events , that can cause problems as well. My “Archie’s” are almost constantly watered , even in winter . They are water hogs once established. It could still push a spear out , watch for it before giving up . As long as there is green , there is hope. Harry

A lot of collectors want seedlings, simply because they want that certain variety of palm, once you understand the market you can target for those sales, one disadvantage to mail order you need small stock so you can post it cheaply. So germinating and selling the seedlings has its advantages, but you also need a good supply of seeds. And then that has its own advantages and disadvantages, low germination rates push’s the price up and then other growers don’t want to purchase at those prices, but what is price when you’re a collector the sky is unlimited with what you will pay! Richard

Nice guide for those that want to do this. Germinating seeds is sometimes very slow unless you have the facilities to move it along. I guess it would be easier to buy seedlings as I did when I started in the early 1990’s. Harry

Yes the germinater, he could germinate a rock. You pretty well much know what I have, it’s all available, some in limited quantities and others as many as you want, a few things are staying in the collection and not for sale!

The further away from the rat race the better, sometimes I wish the world would leave me alone just to grow my palms and live in my garden paradise. Richard

Here are my pictures of Lafazamanga and Andersenii. First up are 2 Andersenii, both given to me by @realarch . The slightly larger one was planted maybe a year ago and the smaller one planted just a few months ago. And here are 2 Lafazamanga. Both of these I grew from seed from the parent plant in my previous garden in Hilo. Both of these and the parent split to 6 trunks and then stopped splitting. The larger is loaded with viable seed. It was planted from a 3 gallon pot about 4 years ago. Very fast!

Leaves too short / wide for a Bromelia species.. 2 common-est Bromelia sps seen in cultivation for comparison: B. balansae: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/482839-Bromelia-balansae/browse_photos B. pinguin: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/154798-Bromelia-pinguin/browse_photos

Chamaedorea adscendens I love them!

It doesn’t get any better in my opinion, a very beautiful part of the world. Australia freedom and a clean environment fresh air blue skies, peace on earth! Richard

I'd still like to have a mature Washintonia filifera var. filifera here. Working on it...

Kew accepted this publication for making the change: https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article/196/4/506/6160486 That'll provide the basis for the decision. The taxonomists like to make it look like they're busy. Not long back they shoved Ptychosperma macarthurii into P propinquum.

That's a great part of the world with many interesting parts to explore. The grass in the photo looks like the introduced Setaria sphacelate which can grow very tall. Good for grazing cattle and usually a sign of good soil. I know people who used to live about 3 kms north of Malanda, bought it a good 40 years ago. Their main interest was Amorphophallus and they flowered A. titanium many times. Frosts were common on clear nights during the dry season so the plants had to be protected in a greenhouse. A. titanium is the C. renda of the aroid world, but with more shade than sun. Another couple I know bought 5 acres closer to Yungaburra, near Lakes Eacham and Barrine. Their block is a bit over 900m asl. They regularly get frosts during the dry season and also a lot of fogs. Cyrtostachys renda would have to be protected dry season. My understanding is that Mareeba is colder than Malanda so I doubt Cyrtostachys renda would survive there (Mareeba) unprotected. I knew people who lived near/in Mareeba but never heard any weather comparisons, other than that it was much colder than Cairns. But then, anything up on the Tablelands is much colder than Cairns. If you haven't already seen it the following link is to a chart of weather statistics for Atherton. The weather station closed down there about 2008 (Govt. funding cuts) but it should help with planning: https://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_031193_All.shtml All in all it's a good choice and even though there will be some palms you can't grow, there's so many which will thrive that you'll be flat out trying to find them all. And you only have to look around you to see all the diversity that's already there.

Galveston went from pre-2000 royal palms and queen palm jungle to Myrtle Beach literally overnight after February 2021. It's depressing to think about it 😭. A Cook/Norfolk pine once ubiquitous on the island held the state "official" title for tallest of its kind for many years. The Galveston in my mind and memory (I'm almost embarrassed by the amount of Galveston threads I've made) is still the 13 years in a row zone 10 Galveston 😝. I never paid attention or thought twice about the common queen palm in Houston...until 2021 attacked and put 30 years of growth down the drain. The past six years have just been a brutal nightmare, the angling of all the cold outbreaks just has a curse for this area. It's not a consistent thing because the prior 30 years to 2021 were not like this. I'll keep repeating that to myself when planting more palms haha

I like watching him and max velocity weather they seem to be the some of the best ones on the Internet

Ye like I said models are already uptrending in temp I haven’t checked but should be warmer now. But forecasts have definitely continued to drop into the negatives even though model runs are uptrending away from those.. ridiculous temps.

I only know what a couple of these are… and one photo bombing anthurium with a new flush.

Congratulations Harry you have a baby boy, get the blue paint out and colour that deck in blue! Richard

Interesting observation, i've been reading about these palms [ and this one has been growing outside since 2009 protected with a mummy wrap but no external heat] an no one has ever mentioned that.... well...... being by the Dark Brick of the building all summer really is a hot microclimate at least for part of the year; even in the winter, if it's sunny out, that brick is hot to the touch from FEB-DECEMBER thanks for your comment, DrZnaturally

Our time will come guys...imagine if you moved to Houston in the early-mid 90s and basked in the glory of a nearly twenty year span of solid 9b sometimes wondering if it was slipping into zone 10 😀. Parts of Florida and the South Atlantic are enjoying that at the moment, with some of the warmest strings of winters ever in modern history. I find it hard to believe we'll be left out indefinitely because reasons lol

I'm not even sure what Im going to do with my palms and tropicals at this point. The models are predicting ANOTHER cold front next week as well. I still have some covered plants from the last cold front here in Houston. Im thinking of just mulching the crp out of all the plants and just let nature do its thing. What sucks is waiting for everything to green up again after these satanic cold fronts. It takes months for everything to bounce back to its full glory. This is why Im not sure Houston is a palm/tropical city anymore. The past six years have been brutal. Very few folks are still stubborn to their palms. Unless they are sabals or natives, or the trachys. I still have about six radicalis seedlings that are puny right now. Maybe they are my only hope.

I'm going to try and wrap and at least get the spears on most of my palms as they are small and unestablished. You don't want ice in the spear. I really only have the Bismarckia that is borderline and I've developed a love/hate thing for that palm. I love it cause its awesome, but I hate it because I know its days are numbered. I'm thinking I'll wrap the spear and if it dies, it dies. Last year I had damage to around 30/36 palms and most of them were hardy ones like Trachycarpus, Rhapidophyllum and Sabals, this is what concerns me. The majority of my plants are zone 7 and 8 hardy but I've been down this path too many times, and know that even they are vulnerable I Just need one winter with normal temps to try and get some size on things. 19F at my house that last two Januarys. 2 nights a year ruins the party, it's going to be 70s all this week and then that. The fact that its going to rain, is just insult to injury considering how dry its been for the last 6 months. Plus whatever temp they predict as the low will be higher than what we will actually see.

Cerotazamia and Zamia looking good!

I prefer the synonym "Pritchardia robusta" myself - it'd be one Pritchardia that I could grow here!

This post is not meant to alarm, only to demonstrate something. Yesterday there was some panic on X because the AIGFS model was showing an epic freeze for peninsular FL. While this was by far the coldest, other models did and still show the possibility of freezes down to Central FL. But if you look closely, this illustrates perfectly what has to happen to get a 1980's type freeze in FL. What needs to occur is the bowl of low pressure that comes down from the north has to dig in and amplify just to the northeast of around Jacksonville, FL so the winds flowing around it inject the cold air directly into the peninsula from the north. The lines around that dark blue area of low pressure are the direction the wind is driven (generally west to east). This is seen in the 500mb map attached below. Now compare to the 12z run of the AIGFS model today. The bowl of low pressure is way up in the northeast and clearly doesn't pull that arctic air down into the peninsula. It's not whether there's enough cold air coming south into the lower 48, It's a question of whether these high and low pressures will orient in a way to transport the cold air at the right angle down into the peninsula. If the bowl of low pressure sits on Alabama or Georgia the cold air blasts the FL Panhandle and then moves over the Gulf before going into the peninsula, and thus it gets moderated over the Gulf. That has been the pattern in recent years. However, lately these troughs of low pressure have oriented a little farther east lately and that is what's causing this recent cold weather in peninsular FL. Still need to watch though, because it's still far enough in time we don't know and on the same token some of the models leave room for the possibility of a digging trough to occur. This potential has been recognized by NOAA and the Climate Prediction Center as seen with the graphics I posted further up in this thread.

Richard, I'm lucky, I live in the suburbs, there's only my brother's house, what a peace to be alone and look at the plants

What a stunning specimen!

Dictyocaryum and C mijoroanus - now we’re talking! I think the C mijoroanus should be an easy grower for you. Dictyocaryum might be more tricky but I think you’ve definitely got the climate to potentially do it if you can nurse it through the really hot days. I think shade and moisture will be the key.

Its about to get downright cold out here. Sunday night - 28F Monday night - 22F Tuesday night - 27F Those numbers are from the NWS. Hopefully it doesnt drop anymore than that. Monitoring closely.

So is Washingtonia filifera var. sonorae in cultivation? How is it different from var. robusta ?

Even more spectacular walking around them!