Leaderboard

Thought I'd share a few pics from my yard after a rather chilly winter - the Central Valley of California had a record-breaking fog event from late November through about the end of 2025. Temps stayed in the 40s for 360+ consecutive hours - no freezing, no frosts, just consistently cold and wet with next to no sunshine for nearly a month. Most palms grew right through it, but a few of the more tropical species really hated this - I rehomed a few to warmer (drier/sunnier) climates down south. Here are a few shots from today - everything in growth mode as we're getting 80s and 90s consistently - racing toward the 100s too! In just a matter of weeks winter will be a far memory as we bake in the 100s until we cool again in October. Archontophoenix tuckeri - grown from seed from @DoomsDave. I'm pretty sure you threw a handful of seeds at me during one of my visits to your place. Trunking archontophoenix cunninghamia in the back. Seed-grown howea forsteriana & allagoptera peeking in behind tuckeri. Syagrus rommanzoffiana - nothing special, but I recently did clean up the trunk, which makes it look 10x nicer. A shot of my front yard - the pink Handroanthus is just about done blooming. Below it I have Brahea Super Silver, Brahea Pimo, and closest to the bottom is a Jubaeopsis affra, recoving from an irrigation mishap in summer of 2024. The irrigation timer went offline mid June while we were out of the country traveling, and this whole area went without water for 2 weeks. Jubaeopsis took that personally. It's been slowly recovering from that 'drought' event. Handroanthus umbellatus was in bloom just a few weeks ago. This is Livistona speciosa. I grew this from seed, and gave the rest to folks in Southern California. Does anyone have any still growing? I think some of them may have gone at palm society auctions. Chamaedorea hooperiana - The ficus roxburghii looks so pretttyyyyy in the back with all that new growth Sabal uresana - looking stretched. This thing is slowwwwwwww This is the view out our back door. Arcontophoenix tuckeri on the left. The red amaryllis is an heirloom passed down from a neighbor before she passed. Phoenix rupicola. You can spot the Brahea Super Silver in the background. The silver-ish palm below it is Chamaerops humilis var. argentea. There's a Cycas deboaensis on the bottom right that will need to find a permanent spot. I have a habit of putting plants in temporary spots, then moving them when I decide on a permanent spot. I feel like plants develop much better in the ground than in pots. They also benefit from regular irrigation being in the ground, and I don't have to worry about forgetting to water them in pots. This little corner area is filling in so nicely, and will become very thick with vegetation as plants keep growing. Beccariophoenix alfredii is in the far back. Ravenea glauca is center toward the left. Sabal mauritiformis is off to the right. Cycas revoluta x deboaensis is front and center. Lastly, a shot of a Clytostoma callistegioides flower, and a Dendrobium chrysotoxum which I have in bloom. The Dendrobium is grown inside a greenhouse. The last photo is of my plumerias waking up after a chilly nap. I had lots of rot to deal with this winter. BONUS - see if you can spot the Chrysalidocarps prestonianus... It went into the ground directly as a 4-inch plant from Floribunda some 5 or 6 years ago. Almost forgot the Chrysalidocarpus decaryi as well. Decaryi doesn't like the prolonged cold/wet conditions, but it grows out of damage fairly quickly - and we don't always get those particularly cold/wet winters. Some years we are dry and sunny like the rest of Southern CA.

Are in other plants included also palms and what extent?

Always love to see your garden. That rupicola is really one of the focal points there. I like that you have a good mix of palms, flowers, and other tropicals.

Livistona drudei right at home in the Australian bush!

Even though planted in way too much shade, my jaboticaba tree manages to produce a small crop every year for a tropical treat in the desert. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Jonathan, You are correct! It was Tassie/Troy! We are very fortunate to have this Forum, allowing all of us internationally to correspond about a mutual interest. We may have not spoken on the phone but we are buds!

An updated damage report spreadsheet is attached. 20260328_TentativeGardenDamageReport.xlsx

Thanks gyuseppe, we both know we are true gardeners in our hearts and would share our gardens with anyone, swapping garden stories!

For those of you who got the onilihanses seeds here’s the parent tree, a nice looking girl if I do say so myself!

There a beautiful palm, look after your one and the rewards of growing is a gorgeous palm!

Two beautiful dypsis species growing nicely!dypsis roseadypsis saintlucei

A few more exotic stock plants this week for the garden! Zamia variegata dypsis CLBSdypsis poiveana Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana Areca species tenom Calyptrocalyx pauciflorus dypsis lantptychococus paradoxusclaviga sp bolbitis sinuosa

I purchased the already germinated seeds, placed them in sterilized boiled sphagnum moss, and placed them in a closed container in the box where I germinate all my palm seeds, where the temperature is around 30 degrees Celsius/86 F. The seedlings emerged without problems, growing until they developed their first split leaf, but then they began to decline; within a few weeks, practically all of them died. Afterward, I thought that perhaps this temperature was too high for those plants, is that true?

Pithium or damping off!

A nice bit of red and green getting around in the pots! Chambeyronia macrocapa Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana Johannesteijsmannia Altifrons

Not what you know but who you know, when it comes to palms!

After 5 years of starting up my nursery, iam finally starting to see the results. Both in quality of the stock and growth, also in a few sales, moving a bit here and there with sizeable stock to sell after 5 years. I knew it would take 5 years to start a nursery, and as I also know it’s 10 years before you really get into the good stuff. From there on it’s up and working for the long run. And that’s the plan. Living the dream!

You GO @Josue Diaz!

Lots of activity going on in the gardens.

I had a row of foxtails and with the large recent rain event leached them of nutrients, to a very noticeable yellow. I also had a perfectly green Joey palm I planted next to a spring and within a month it went yellow due to leaching. Phosphorus is about the only real issue if your garden is in the bush with native plants not really wanting a lot of it, a good indicator that our soils in Australia are generally low in it. But apart from that the garden creates its own mulch and withe gum tree mulch from the bark and leaves small amounts of micro and macro nutrients are available enough to sustain good health. Chamaedoreas, New Caledonian and Madagascar palms all do well in my soil and climate. But the irrigation is the key to success for me.

I hate that I live somewhere that the climate changes from hell to Siberia.

Love these neat fruits from Brazil!

That shot of the Plumeria against that stately Royal Palm is exquisite! You guys had a warm winter and we had a cold one! Here is one that caught my eye today:

Kim, here is my contribution from here on Hawaii Island, not far from Leilani Estates as you know. No rain today (yet) and my camera battery is now charged up. Acanthophoenix rubra acquired from Floribunda in Jan 2017, planted out in Oct 2018. Had to clear years of dead leaves. Little older ones had numerous and lengthy spines on the crownshaft. Newer leaves and present crownshafts are completely without thorns. Trimmer and 8x8x16 blocks provide scale. Just for interest, I also photographed my Acanthophoenix roussellii. Also acquired from Floribunda, date not recorded. Planted Jan 2016. Has been flowering profusely for a couple years, but, so far, no fruits at all.

I live in East Tennessee. I have 2 windmill palms and every year when the weather starts turning colder, I winterize them inside a structure wrapped with plastic sheeting and a couple of heat lamps that kick on when the temperature drops below 35. It's always worked out well, but I just started taking the structure down today and noticed this was growing out of one of the palms. From what I can tell, everything looks ok so far, but I'm not sure what this is?? Forgive my ignorance, please. Is this bad? Is it due to something I have done wrong? Can I just cut it off and be OK? The tree is probably 8 years old and I've never seen anything like this. Thanks!

Regarding Elais guineensis: this palm is not cold hardy. Temps below 32F may be lethal especially for juvenile palms. Also, this species has trouble with major hurricanes (cat 3+). I lost two normal palms to Hurricane Ian (cat 4/5) which tore them out of the ground. I won't plant one again and ripped out whatever seedlings survived that storm. My only surviving oil was a whole leaf mutant planted just above our canal. It barely survived Ian and is smaller than normal oils so not as risky. If you do plant one, don't forget they are armed, get huge and should never be planted next to a house or other outbuildings. When they fall they take out any/everything below them (Chrysalodocarpus decaryi anyone?)I really like the "Jurassic Park" look of them but no longer for me.

Hi Bret, I gave up on trying to clean the seeds, it's just too hard. They germinate anyways. Disclaimer that I have never waited it out to see if I actually get a good overall germination rate. I got ~10 germinated seeds from several hundred, and then gave the rest to Len, then he got several and I think tossed them. I thought it was maybe because our climate is not ideal that the seeds were not great, but Jeff Marcus said he has had the same experience, super slow and then very sporadic germination. The seedlings seem pretty easy despite the starting so small. This all applies to A rousselii. My A rubra haven't flowered yet, but I germinated from three different years off of Dennis' plant. One batch gave very high germination rates and the seedlings were very robust - I literally did not lose a single seedling after germination out of maybe 50-60. I just could not kill those plants. The other batches I got either no germination, or low germination and all the seedlings died within a couple months after germinating. I'm generally convinced that conditions during seed development can impact not just germination rate/seed quality, but also the health and robstness of seedlings for at least the early stages of development. Matt

Here is a vendor list Chip Jones Jones Landscaping Nursery Robin Crawford Sunfish Gardens Jeff Searle Rainforest Collection by Jeff Searle Robert Miller Art of Palms Chris & Greg Spencer Jupiter Farms Road Nursery Keith Buttry Neglected Plants Rick Kern (independent seller - no nursery name) Steve Garland (independent seller - no nursery name)

These are the same Neo Cruenta x Vulcan clone, in the yard right now, 10 feet apart. One in all day sun out in the open, the other part sun under canopy. They look like totally different plants.

Hey Matt, Do you try to clean the fruit off of the seed itself, or just sow them as is? As you correctly note, these things are small & the fruit is pretty thin (& persistent) when trying to clean. Good to hear from you.. Bret

Update from Oviedo. All 400 clumps of areca’s are gone. Undergrowth is coming in strong but 10-15ft stalks breaking off dead. 😢. Bismarck burned but ok. 12or so fronds dead. 3 3 headed clusters of Christmas likely dead. A couple heads pushing green but don’t work without the others so no good. Bottle got burned inside garage. One coconut gone. 3 royals, 2 pushing green for now but one not moving. Most underlying gone. Aboricolas are coming back slowly even cut to dang near ground level. Crotons, ginger, ti, gone. Worst part of it all, knowing this would happen eventually, is I moved my nursery back out last weekend. Bottles, Bismarcks, kings, mangos, and the dang squirrels tore out and ate all the kings, ate the spear on the bottles, and generally ruined my appetite to continue on with this.

This one is in a prime spot. Trunk is almost a foot across at the base, much more robust than the others, but hard to tell in photos.

I will be as soon as I can get these three in the ground, but for now they are quite fast growing and have cool tolerance, another year of growing them and see how I go planting them in the garden.

Iam now amending soil, never did in the past. Now simply just to give them a head a start otherwise the established garden eats them up, and even then I have to maintain new plantings, just to much competition from the mature garden. Interesting you noticed the nutrient factors. I dont fertilise my garden just let the garden mulch itself, I guess I could be doing more but wait for those big wet events and use irrigation as my main helping hand!

… you end up finding one more spot 🤣 Old man palm. Perfect for small areas.

Yes chrysaslidocarpus Pauleenemsis var cali Harry?

Nice collection you have there. I think that the types that are super happy vary from climate to climate. You see consistent variations on the local collectors pages from region to region. Luckily there are so many different types to fit most conditions. I have a good feel for what does well in my yard at this point.

Looking great @Looking Glass...I'm only just getting started with broms really, but they're dangerously addictive! My climate is less benign than yours, so they’re mostly under cover at the moment until I can get enough pups to see who can survive outside here. A few Tills and various others in the laboratory:

I reckon it was that other infamous Taswegian @Tassie_Troy1971 who you spoke to, he did a trip to California, maybe around 2010? I haven't been to Cali since I was a kid in 1979...unfortunately my interest in palms hadn't developed at that stage! The good old days of the Ratpack (rip Wal) and airline stewardesses smuggling palm seeds in their make up bags feel like a distant memory! Looking back through this old thread, I feel like we've been particularly lucky with this forum over the last 20 years...so many good people just quietly enjoying their hobby, very little conflict and a lot of community spirit...a rare respite from the madness of today's on-line 'expert' influenza ego-circus!

~5 years since planting update..... The Satakentias have not enjoyed the past year of drought, and are looking a little anemic at this time. They are getting taller though, and also harder to photograph. I expanded and connected the garden beds a bit recently, in my slow quest to minimize the grass footprint. Neoveitchia are gorgeous palms, and very Satakentia-like. People do grow them quite successfully around here, but I think they appreciate a bit more shade then I can provide, and are more finicky than Satakentia when it comes to care.

*sigh* Again. I've got some colocasia bulbs on tour. Things usually go to Memphis then Jackson then here. These bulbs went to Memphis then to like 3 different cities in Georgia then Atlanta and now they're touring the eastern seaboard. They should have been here Monday. And I've got a box of live alocasia that made it to Jackson and went back to Memphis for some reason. Shoulda been here yesterday. Those were shipped Priority Express, not the mystery "let's just throw a dart at a map and send your package there" shipping.

I wish I could say this in a little classier more eloquent way, but they've really gone to shit the last few years. It just... It is what it is. UPS via Pirateship is cheaper and faster and more reliable. Pirateship does USPS too and it's more expensive than UPS 99% of the time unless you use the absolute cheapest we're gonna send your package all over the country option. Priority Express seems to work fine, fwiw. But I think that has a 3 day guarantee.

*sigh* 2 more packs of Colocasia bulbs from California. Both were due to arrive today. One is currently in Milwaukee, one is again in New Jersey. At least there's no blizzard this time.

Great value for money well spent, varietys of plants available nowhere else!

Live plants difficult and expensive, possible but they are not encouraging home growers to do it that’s for sure. Seeds are easy if you understand the system and their process!

That’s the one acclimate them, the odd one or two may remain in containers until i have spare stock after i propagate them. That’s one of my goals collecting as much stock plants as possible even if I have 3 of the same species and they grow well I wish to have more as seed stock. Also for palm seed stock plants you need at least 5 in a group planting. Someone in the future will have one heck of a palm collection I know that much. Richard