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6 years between the before and after shots of my larger C oliviformis.

Hi! I visited Orlando this weekend and oh my lord! I found lots of palms it was cool the place I stayed at had lots of palms and natives like Saw palmetto and Sabal Palmetto. There was also some pretty Naturalized Queens that weren’t planted here’s a few of the place I took today! Ima post more including Leu Gardens which is crazy! It has Palms that shouldn’t be in that 10a/9b place in Winter Park. I think the heavy tree cover helps some of those things survive. They also might take other measures.

My Brahea edulis - this is growing really well here: The Brahea armata at Lake Wire:

That’s the one dont give your day job, that’s one reason I still have my job, and one that is working with plants is even better. I just wish there was more hobby growers around, it’s fun going on trip to get plants you don’t have and the joy of not knowing what you will get in a knew plant for the garden. Iam happy having my hobby collection and working just for the man so to speak, I don’t see my hobby stressing me out like the boss at work does over his business. Not only that my hobby doesn’t make me work all day and it’s at my own pace that’s enjoyable. My job pays the bills and as you say puts food on the table, my hobby gives me joy and happiness and I know which one I would prefer, give me pslms any day, a good day plant shopping is better than a good day’s work anytime! Richard

My Brahea decumbens is more than 10 years old. Originally from Phil/JM. Red pruning shears added for scale. I suspect it would be more blue if it got more sun. ☀️

six years later my smallest one, planted as a 3 gallon in 2010(?) It was defoliated to the spear in 28F plsu frost in dec 2010 so yeah a setback. It has seen 3 hurricanes the last 8 years but it is small palm in my yard of ~30 footers so not much damage. The tall ringed poles are two other C. Oliviformis I can get in the two closest taller ones with a 17mm wide angle(cropped frame) lens, the pic is a bit squished but you get the idea. The next pic you can see the little one from the first pic center back. Then if I back off 80 feet I can see the crowns over the house. Sorry about the raindrop on the lens there, we may be getting lucky with rain soon, fingers crossed.

If you look really close at the palms with the sign you can see they actually have some sabal minor and palmetto rare types! I have never seen a variegated Palmetto In person I thought that was so cool! They also had sabal Brazoria and for example things like blountstown dwarf minor. Again what I loved about Leu gardens is how they take advantage of the live oaks to use as a microclimate to grow palms I thought couldn’t grow in this zone! When you get out of the city areas where they only plant date palms palmettos and queens rarely in the town, seeing how many palms can actually grow in Orlando is crazy. (I thought only sugar palms and other things besides the regular would do well there. Also chamaedora or whatever. Could also tell some things did get damaged in winter I know this winter in Orlando was hard. But everything seemed to pull through!

Here’s my youngster.

Kentiopsis Oliviformis opened a new leaf today. Compared to some others on here, it looks to be more stretched out. It has no rings of trunk yet but it’s 10ft+ to the top of the frond. -dale

My (4) Kentiopsis are fruiting for 3-6 years now and some spots under them are wet and shady enough for volunteers. Overall height I estimate at 22-32' tall. They still are a few leaves short(~3-4) of a full crown(10-12 leaves) after Milton stripped them 18 months ago. Some have currently green fruits that will turn red in a couple months if restrictions are lifted and we can get them watered. They are water lovers, maybe its better they have less leaves in a drought. Trouble free palms that add the dark green crownshafts and leaves for a complementary look to the other crownshafts. These do like their Mg, K to stay that darker green color. I dust them along with my cuban copernicias with langbeinite every year and fertilize with florikan palm osmotic release fertilizer. They are so tall, I have to crank my neck to look at the crowns these days. They do provide some good filtered shade for the C. macrocarpas I have under them.

Looking good Richard. They’re pretty fast down here. Maybe there’s not enough warmth for them up there 🤣 Here’s 8 years of growth from a very nearly dead seedling I managed to transplant from a garden before it died. Glad I did.

Here is one of mine with fruits. Just took the pictures. Sorry, it's a bit dark.

I have found a lot of pindo seeds and sabal palmetto seeds, although the palmettos seem like they are not ready to fall yet, so they start to become available later in the fall, in numbers that are baffling. But I was wondering if anyone would want to trade some other types of seeds for them in the near future. RIght now I have about 50 butia capitata seeds that have been cleaned and are ready to germinate and I am germinating about another 60 or so. I'm new to this but I was wondering if anyone wants any of them, maybe to trade for other seeds, and if I should germinate them or send the seeds out as seeds. I definitely don't have room for 50-100 pindo /sabal palmetto palms so would love advice and any thoughts. I would love to grow some other types of palm trees as well.

Cool. I don’t know what those spines are. The fruit in these pindo seeds was impressive. They are everywhere in every apartment complex here in Charleston. Also my friend just gave me way too many Washingtonia seeds.

They look great!!! I have some Copernicia Baileyana, Livistona Alfredii, Cuban Hat Palm, Hyphaene Thebaica, Hyphaene Coriacea, Phoenix Reclinata and some Brahea Armada popping up!! I will post some pics shortly!! Your yard looks fantastic!!

We have thousands planted in municipal parks, near highways in medians and shoulders, and throughout nature preserves. Within weeks of maturing, the plants will be stripped bare of every berry by poachers. A few of us that have mature specimens on our property have had to chase poachers off private property.

While I've probably spent a small fortune on various species of palms, my favorite thing to do is grow seeds from local palms that have survived the various freezes in our history. The palms that have survived January 2008, January 2010, December 2010, January 2018, January 2022, December 2022, and February 2026 are at the top of my list. It saves money and you get to see the entire lifecycle of the plant. You also know for sure at least one of the parents. Sometimes just taking a handful of seeds and doing a direct sow no an "X marks the spot" on your landscape map yields some interesting results at no cost and with no stress.

That’s a pretty grow show you got going there. Being held back by certain rules and regulations regarding imports in live plant material just takes the fun out your hobby. And it also dictates the market a lot with what is locally sourced seeds for palm production. With low germination rates of imported seeds in some cases for rare and hard to obtain varieties it’s even more frustrating as a hoobby grower, not being commercial it’s the hobby grower who will obtain such rare varieties and make them available to the general public. Yet they still insist on what will grow and is proven from the commercial grower market with the chain stores dictating what is available. It’s your hobby that’s saving rare palm species by making them available and getting them into gardens, ensuring that palms survival in cultivation at least once extinct in the wild. And with you offering up these varieties at pretty well much a lose in the true value of the palm variety you’re selling. It’s only your passion for palms and that hobby that matters in a sense to palm enthusiasts who grow rare and exotic palms. Ps love the no weeds in your stock, a quality grower who knows there stuff good to see!

Good old Alice Springs has a pretty good wildlife, and we are not talking about the wildlife centre either. They are pretty wild in the Alice!

All that for a few palm seeds, they would go crazy in Tassie with all them apples and poppys to steal!

I seem to have a pretty good crop of them this year on my silver saw palms. The fruit tastes absolutely horrible in case anyone was wondering...😄 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Here’s my Brahea super silver and my son with a less than thrilled look on his face. Still no inflorescence or even an attempt.

Just plug in " Saw Palmetto supplements" into a search ..... Also they are a major component in the diet of Black Bears , fattening up for the Winter ..

Seeds have a long history use in legal / black market " Saw Palmetto " Herbal supplements.. Here's another recent " Saw Palmetto thief " story: https://www.fox13news.com/news/polk-county-sheriffs-deputies-crack-down-berry-bandits-during-palmetto-harvesting-season

Yep. In Florida, it is illegal to harvest saw palmetto seeds without a permit and the signed landowners permission in your possession. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Brahea armata

The hobby growers here can move palms and sales are up and down . I don’t have the space or time for it but I would be happy doing occasional sales on “home grown” palms . I am in a great area for it , plenty of potential , but only as a side line. I love going down to my favorite jungle for a palm quest . Quite the drive but well worth it , from what I hear , others feel the same way ! Dave has the perfect personality and very good knowledge with a great selection . I never know what I will end up coming home with. I don’t want to discourage folks from pursuing their dream , that is not my intent. I certainly would’ve been better off staying in a job with benefits but I built my wee shop and stuck it out. My wife supported me and we have done ok . A house on the hill , food on the table , and I love what I do. It don’t get no better than that. Harry……..OH!! And a nice palm collection.🌴😄 Sunrise over beautiful Santa Paula , California!

I always read with interest your posts on what you are growing in your shade house and the lengths you go as a hobbyist to obtain different varieties. I sometimes wish I lived on the East coast so I could have access to the many palms that are more freely available. Here in Perth the selection of varieties is very limited, but when I first started collecting in the 1980's there were many collectors like you Richard, and the quarantine rules were not as strict as they are now in Western Australia. In the last few years I have tried to obtain seed as this seems to be the only way to get new species here in the West as Jayce from Perth has indicated. As a long standing member of the Western Australian Palm and Cycad Society I have tried to grow palms from seed and make available some different varieties that I sell at the societies annual events. Because of the lack of varieties available through retail providers, I have the same issues regarding what is a fair price considering the effort and time required to grow different specimens because buyers are unaware of the rarity of the palms I have and what is a reasonable price. While my offerings are very small in comparison to your operation Richard, I have a limited, but wide selection of about 40 palm species for sale that are not found in Perth nurseries. The attached photos show my shade house where I raise many of my seedlings and my heating beds for germinating seeds using mainly the "baggy" method. I sell my seedlings from between $5 and $20 and more mature plants for various prices. Many of these are cheap by most standards but palms are not as popular in Perth as they were and the price needs to be realistic for newbies to take a chance on growing them. I have some satisfaction in growing these other species, especially "zone pushing" more tropical species and making them available to our members and the general public, as well as providing extra funds for the palm society through a selling commission. It will never cover my costs but the reason for doing it comes down to a hobby I enjoy and wanting to share with others. Russell

Tracy, this can be such a proficient tool, but beware! Once you make your first kill, so to speak, you get that ‘Freddy Krueger’ look in your eyes and wander the garden for what to cut down next. Or maybe that was just me. 👹 Tim

Transwood is my favorite Woodii cross followed by Arewood. The Trans cross @Brian and I have is Trans x Lat. Agree though completely on the characteristic conundrum. Who knows. I’d imagine it has to do with both maturity and lineage. @Brian , here’s a few pics of my infant. I’d say it looks a bit stretched but it’s in blazing sun in the hottest part of my yard close to my stucco wall so I know it’s not that. Super cupped leaflets, significant shine on the top, flat colored and ribbed on the bottom. Grows very upright à la Trans. -dale

Agree looks like L mariae to me. I was going to say re what’s wrong that there’s a dead stump of another in the back right so it looks like this group isn’t healthy and the one in focus might be the on the way out too.

i wouldn't be surprised if one of the three died being that close together. if they all do survive, they are going to have some beautiful curving trunks!, keep us updated on this progress!

It may change to green/greener as it gets older, at least this had happened to my onwn specimen. On the other hand it nay also have some genes from Brahea armata.

From Palm Island in Vacaville CA a few years ago. Was there today, they didn’t have any.

Well I have two survivors, one Syagrus weddellianum and one Syagrus hoehnei. Guess it pays to never give up too early. Mind you I lost at least six to eight mature specimens.

Of my three, this one’s the first to recently show a trunk ring.

They are more sun tough and cold hardy than (4) archontophoenix sp I have in my yard. The waxy leaf suggests they would be better in dry heat than Archies but that is just an hypothesis that is consistent for observations on other palms. Wax protects against sun and water loss. Mine have been in full summer sun(over the house to the northwest) for ~7 years. The do like to drink as much as my archies to look their best.

Volusia County coconuts coming back from 23/24°F

Once it gets to trunking it definitely picks up speed. You'll see.

I have one nice one in the garden and a recent purchase from pacsoa. Slow growing I know that much.

18-20' from the house if you dont want root shingle damage in wind. Ultimately it will grow up over the house, sooner for a 1 story fo course, but I would separate it at least 30' from the trunk of another non dwarf palm. Its going to take a long time, not nearly as fast as Beccariophoenix alfredii which grew an extra 7-8 feet in height in the time I had it 7 years. Theyt start out real slow 2-3 leaves a year for me till the trunk establishes itself, then they are a 10 leaf a year palm after 5 years or so, like alfredii. ANother thought is Aethiopum is more a steppe or desert type palm, most easily drought tolerant of all my palms. They shoot a massive sinker root down and if you damage that root when taking it out of a pot, its a goner. It also means you want high drainage soil, not mucky wet soil. Borassus Flabellifer, a related palm is a jingle palm and is dark vs the pale green of flabellifer. Here is my BA and Borassus Aethiopum fighting for space.