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BISMARKIA

A nice foggy day most of the day in my area. Had a lot of rain relatively speaking in November and the temperatures really haven’t dropped too much so far, so everything looks pretty darn happy. Dictyosperma album var rubrum, with the standard form and conjugatum at its base.

Plant a 1gal of each suggestion and see which ones win 😊

Looks to be Coccothrinax. The tall "bottle palm" I believe is a survivor Hyophorbe indica. This is Oliver's office, he used to post here.

IMG_4583.mov

The bees really love Syagrus inflorescence as well . I actually love bees in the garden flowers but the inflorescence gets the whole hive a buzzing! Harry

Copernicia sp. , another Copernicia sp. and Hyphaene sp.

I don't know about on SPI, but after lunch at the Brownsville zoo @Fusca and I saw these just down the street at 535 Paredes Line. I'm not familar with them so my guesses at names might be wrong Corypha Arenga Tahina? Attalea & Syagrus schizophylla Trachycarpus princeps Unknown Unknown to me but I think Jon knows it. ...in addition to the Dypsis decaryi, Chamaerops argentea, royals and bismarks. There was also a tall but weak looking bottle and some small Butia archeri-looking palm. There's also a large silverish Nannorhops at the entry to that same address, much bigger than I see on the Google Street View imagery.

Be a trail blazer... I see that Floribunda has Ravenea musicalis on their list. No one else will have that! In 20 years or so, you might be the talk of the town.

An Areca vestaria form and one of the Thrinax parvifolia forms - or at least obtained as such…

A super rare raphis and as variegated raphis palm grower I just love this variety, I got a few seeds a while back and quite happy about having them in the collection. Iam sure it will be a few years before I can really do anything with them in the ways of propagation and planting them in the garden.

Now I know why that spot with the Attalea and Syagrus schizophylla looked so familiar. @5am Did you by any chance see the big Acrocomia mexicana? Is it still there?

Just up the street from that location is an old bank building across from a historic battlefield with more parking lot Royals and what I think is an Adonidia in a protected spot by the front door. There are some interesting palms but you have to keep your eyes open because lush, exotic landscaping doesn't seem to be a high priority. (Pic not from today.)

FYI for everyone on a bit of a tighter budget, T ‘Moc Chau’ is available on RPS from N Vietnam. Images and description similar to T ravenii. There must be so much to discover in that part of the world, new discoveries popping up frequently lately. Looking forward to going with IPS soon!

Chamaedorea cataractarum

Yes Feng! Took this yesterday. I get more bees on my palms than any other flowering plant in the yard. IMG_3161.mov

A few seedlings of a different ptychosperma species, somewhat cool tolerant and an easy growing palm, another great one for that mild Mediterranean climate perhaps, taking temperatures down to 2 degrees Celsius. I don’t have any in the ground yet but would think by the amount of only just a few loses in the seedlings in this batch is a good indicator of tolerance! Another zone push winner. And i think I might appease the gods and make this a thread and therefore document cold tolerance in palms! A handy little thread for all intrested in cold tolerance of new varieties! This should appease the palm gods!

Pintail Duck Gorgeous views on a beautiful day!

I just received a nice pkg of Kentiopsis Oliivformis seeds . Harry

Nice silver on this Bismarck and this Heliconia.

Ha! I got got again. I ordered some "golden banana" seeds and they're the sterile worthless seeds from grocery store bananas. But they threw some lemon cucumber seeds in as a bonus so I guess I got cucumber seeds. And I ate another mango. I hope there's a market for mangos next season cuz I'm gonna have a ton of 1g.

Not a lot of Marojejyas in Utah. Definitely a strong favorite.

Interesting . I had one Excelsia set seed last year . The original pot must have had multiple plants . I planted the seeds in the garden just to see if they would sprout . Now I know what to look for . It seems to stay contained , for the most part . When a new shoot comes out where I don’t want it , I dig it out and put it in a pot . I moved one down in the shade of the Butia on the hill and it is doing well . The other Rhapis is larger , in the courtyard and I let it get a bit wild but just started cutting shoots out of it. Harry Rhapis Excelsia with fruit.

That is the reason I now keep them in pots. They went feral at my old place and it was so much work to keep them under control. Peachy

I have a little grove of Pinanga, mainly P caesia and they are just starting to stretch. Late afternoon sun peeking in.

They will set seeds in my garden, if the possum’s don’t get them before anything can be done with them. Iam currently digging all my green ones out of the main garden along with a clump of variegated rhapis. Had enough of the great big suckers producing a mass of canes, bring that roundup with you please. Richard

I have never even noticed Rhapis flowering. They multiply so quickly once they are established in the ground, even to the point of being a menace in some situations. This of course doesn't apply to the variegated species, just the common ones sold everywhere. Peachy

There’s always a first time for anything in life, I have a box full of multifida seedlings just little strap seedlings that look like trachycarpus seedlings. Bismark are the ones that amaze me from strap leaf to those giant fan leaves! Richard

A robust anthurium late afternoon.

The first time I’ve seen Rhapis seedlings . I would have not guessed what they are with the narrow strap leaf. Harry

More user friendly Variegated Agave Attenuata. No spines on this one👍

Here servicing palms in FL, but there has never been a reversal of palmetto weevil damage to a palm that I know about. There are preventative trunk injected pesticides which DO offer some protection but at high (thus expensive) doses. I have lost completely healthy palms before when they were typically thought to be drawn to stressed or transplanted specimens. No longer the case. Weevils need a place to mate and the old leaf bases of Canary Island Date palms as well as Bismarckia palms are ideal spots. Fertilizer will help a palm in FL have adequate nutrients to look best, but a healthier palm offers no additional resistance or curative chances. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I want to offset that with good information going forward. If there are a large quantity of CIDP or Bismarck around 1 mile radius, nematodes can be used to control existing larvae. It would take a lot of property owner coordination in some cases. Nematodes are shipped in cooled gel packs and re-animated in water. They are sprayed into the canopy/bud after sundown and the nematodes pierce the larvae. Cool how they’ve figured out how to use nature against nature. The date palm production industry has put a lot of resources into the study of the pheromones and trying to replicate to insects own language to use against it. Let’s say we spray palms with ‘stay away’ pheromone rather than ‘come-on lets mate’ Send me a DM if you want more info

DANG that’s a beautiful palm !

The few New Caledonia palms I have are very slow to start . I’m guessing the seeds will be slow as well. The small Chambeyronia ( Kentiopsis) Pyriformis is very slow , it took almost a year to grow one frond! With seeds , I’m not sure what will sprout . I plant most of my palms in the ground once they are beyond seedling stage . I think they kick in after a few years , my C. Macrocarpa did. Harry

Ι am also considering this species cos apparently it can survive in 9b. Does it grow as slowly as they say in California? My climate is similar to that of Sacramento, but wetter.

Hi everyone ! Since I get precious advices and great pictures from old post I though I should introduce myself. I live in Guadeloupe, French West Indies. I have bought my house 3 years ago with a totally virgin garden, and have been planting since. I am lucky to have nice weather for palm tree, and have been able to have 40+ species. Most of them a young, started from seedling, or even from the seeds. Here are some pictures of my garden, hope you like it.

I will put this one to the palmtalk jury. A simple question should get a simple answer. So is it variegated or not variegated? Lepidozamia peroffskyana and if it is variegated holy cow pats Batman, but I won’t write home to mum about this one just yet! I will see what the jury verdict is!

Great Richard 🤗

Wonderful Harry 🤗

Yeah, spinosa would like the moisture and canopy cover to look A+.

It’s a great way to document all the different varieties that will live and the complete failures, and if it helps with the decision of what palm to try then that’s a bonus. Cold my be a very obvious reason why some palms die in winter, but Ive also had the same variety of palms where only a few died from a certain batch of seedlings, a journal certainly will give a lot of ideas in zone pushing for growers to trial. My winter temps will obviously be a good judge for others to work with. While all zones will also have different variations depending on microclimate, so not exact science proven data but a good place to start. Richard

@JohnAndSancho Lemon cucumbers are very good . I had a friend that grew a bunch many years ago and gifted me some . I had never seen or heard of them . The flavor was very good and the size meant you could eat the whole thing . I asked why they are not commonly sold in stores and I was told they don’t keep as well as the conventional cukes. Harry

75f today and very humid. Started the morning with some dense fog.

I think brother @DoomsDave sent me these seeds about 2 years ago. At least I'm pretty sure they came from him because there's an absolute *expletive deleted* ton of them, and that's his style. If you've ever received seeds from Dave, you know when he sends seeds HE SENDS SEEDS. I'll be honest, I let them sit in a box for a while, then I did what I normally do and soaked them, put them in coir on a mat. And they languished and did nothing. Eventually, I pulled them out, soaked them again, and put them in another baggie about 6 months ago and put them back on a heat mat, this time with a thermostat (set to 87.5 if it matters). So this morning I start cleaning stuff out and finding stuff I'm giving up on - there's some seeds I KNOW have dried out, there's some stuff in pots I KNOW isn't going to sprout, and I lift up this baggie and I see green! I pulled these 2 out, there's another one that I'm gonna let marinate for another week or so, and a few more showing eyes. So that's cool! If I had known I was gonna find these, I would have recorded the video of me squealing profanities. I'm guessing these are gonna be in pots here and should be fun since the Google machine says they don't like constant humidity and don't like anything below 20°F but any care tips are appreciated and I'll be digging around the interwebs later.

Thank you Harry. And yes, this Brahea is regularly watered year round. There are several mature B. edulis around town that likey receive much less water and look decent but could look even better. That spot in my backyard is where I “hang out” for a while right out of bed in the morning pretty much year round and often at dusk as in these photos.

i bought this alexander palm in 1st of november and surprisingly in its small pot for its size it has shoot out a huge new spear in under 2 months while being indoors most of the time and grought out only when temps went above 15 in the sun, So it spent 80% of the time in the position in the photo indoors with a stable temp of 20c and little sunlight and im very surprised to not see any browning on the fronds or any sort of damage since buying it and it having such rapid growth on the spear.Im thinking of repoting when spring comes because right now i dont want to disturb its growth its thriving in these not optimal conditions

A very under-rated Sabal species. Very cold hardy and fast growing too, cases of Sabal yapa dying easily in cold snaps are actually cases of mislabeled Sabal mauritiiformis. Germinated these in 2023, brought seeds from the Yucatan peninsula. Already saw very low temps, unprotected and with no damage. Post yours! Here are the 2 biggest ones out of the 5 I have. Garden Sidewalk

Harry, you never know until you try...Pauleen Sullivan was a true adventuress and was unafraid to try unusual species, and she enjoyed marked success, as many of us know...and John Tallman was the first I'm aware of in the Ventura area to systematically trial and record and publish his results with every species he could try. He did us all a great service and it's sad that so many of his accomplishments were dispersed to the highest bidder by the college that had previously enjoyed the notoriety of his efforts. I still have one of his detailed reports from back in the day and I find it to be a very interesting and useful reference. I've lived in several different climates and always try pretty much everything that I can get my hands on, even sometimes if they are initially unappealing to me (since palms can grow on us!). I've tried some seemingly ridiculous things out here in the low desert and had some successes, but I planted Cyphophoenix elegans a few years ago thinking it might have the best chance in its genus...and my largest one just slowed down (from "slow" to "extra slow") and then just collapsed on me this year. I have no idea what mechanism was at work, and I still have one or two small ones doing okay for now (still frustratingly slow). Meanwhile I had a bad experience with C. nucele in the Florida Keys, it literally just sat there and barely grew for a couple of years, then was physically wiped out by Hurricane Irma. Just on a lark I planted a very small one here in the desert in the same bed with my C. elegans specimens, and lo and behold, it has grown very well! So I ordered a couple more from Jeff Marcus and they are awaiting a spot in the ground. The main issue out here, aside from the obvious one of irrigation, is sun-exposure during the hot season, and the long leaves (the main thing I love about the species) are a concern for me if they succeed in clearing the roof or the shelter-belt of canopy-trees I've been developing. So time will tell, but the long and the short of it is that it's worth trying things, and multiple times in multiple exposures/conditions, if you love the plant enough, to see if it can adapt to your particular situation. We wouldn't have the beautiful bottle palms in San Diego or the Sonoran desert today if everyone had listened to prevailing ideas for decades that they were just impossible outside the tropics or near-tropics.

This one is Zamia nesophilia. The photos don’t do justice to the size of the leaflets so I put my hand in one of the photos for size comparison. New flush hardening off. The color of the leafs are very nice Here you can see how big the leaflets are.

Last pic of my Latifrons this year… I promise lol🤣. Just super stoked because its my favorite plant and the biggest most flawless flush it has thrown to date. Not sure why everybody says they are so slow🤔 All of my Latifrons have flushed every year and multiple times as seedlings. I bought this plant about 15 years ago and it has passed up Cycads that I have had 20+ years! The outer leaves of the flush are about half way hardened of. Caudex is really blowing up🤙