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These three are my only Archontophoenix purpurea and I’m just wondering if the heavy black tomentum on their trunks is unusual or typical. Whichever it is, I like it. These were purchased as seedlings from Floribunda a few years ago.

Definitely not what I would say is unusual; all specimens I’ve seen have a degree of this black tomentum. But I would say yours Jim probably have the most dense covering I’ve seen at that size. Typically they’ll start to look more clean as they get taller. My smaller one has a pretty good coverage but still only has a few rings of trunk. If you zoom in on this photo from last year you can see the first wide growth ring covered. My taller one now only has the 2 most recent growth rings covered.

These photos are only 4 months apart. Ugh. One night of freezing but happened to be 25F. Most sensitive have been treated with copper fungicide and, marking each spear with a sharpie 3 days ago, i confirmed all are moving their spears. This includes adonidia, bottle, foxtail, and coconut. Doesn't mean they're safe yet but at least alive. Got on a ladder to mark a new area of my coconut spear and noticed a new inflorescence pushing that is green (circled in blue). Will be interesting if it continues to push out because my experience is a stressed palm doesn't put it's energy into fruit.

Updated up close photo. Decent coverage, but got nothing on Jim’s.

Good question, and one only you can ultimately answer. For me, the palms here that have survived I'm giving the time to attempt a comeback. They may eventually croak, but that's life. Anything that goes will either just be removed and returned to the yard, or replaced by something bulletproof at 20F. No one would blame any of us for just starting from scratch, though.

Some of the recent winter plantings are loving the summer heat, just add water! Wallichia disticha Carpoxylon macrospermum Dictyosperma album conjugatum Dypsis rosea Areca Laos dwarfChelyocarpus spVariegated lanonia dasyantha Marojejya darinii Nenga banaensisDypsis lantzeana Dypsis basilonga Dypsis spChambeyronia houalouensis Dypsis utilis Dypsis baby red stem Another couple of years and the garden will definitely have that tropical look!

We had wind gusts up to 35 mph. So far nothing fell or broke, but I haven't walked the two acres as it's also been raining. At least I'm saving irrigation money. 20260208_145221.mp4

That's very encouraging news! Hope things continue to push upward!

Sweet looking palm . You have a real winner there. Harry

A nice small dypsis plumosa I can get to quite easily. Super tough palm growing in sandstone rocks, very hot and dry!

My o es have flowered for about 3 seasons in a row now and no seeds as of yet! Richard

Overall PB and inland WPB likely missed a bullet and cancellation of tropical plantings have been placed on hold!

Satakentia

L. grandis, A.vesteria and P. coronado left to right at Four Arts:

This was the worst cold event since 1989 in PB and inland WPB but not as severe as that episode. PBIA registered 31F for two nights but total time under freezing was 3 hours. In PB close to the ocean, a weather underground station recorded back to back nights of 38.3F and 39.3F respectively. Here are some pictures taken yesterday and today:

While I plan on giving the coconuts here time to recover or check out on their own, there's a lot of other stuff I'm considering removing just because I'm tired of looking at it. Plantae-palooza is coming in less than 3 weeks, and that will be my best chance to get plants hardy to 20oF at cost. Then there's the whole pen full of Livistona and Brahea species I ordered from RPS last year that need a spot in the garden and a tray of silver Serenoa repens from @PalmBossTampa. It's tough to put off instant gratification.

Here is my coconut in Jacksonville, it was my first palm, and I made lots of mistakes. it was never very healthy when I got it. The spear has a brown streak but the rest is green, should I replace the big one with a healthier one or just replace it.

Another fix of some exotics for the garden! licuala triphylla var stenophylla with a couple of seeds licuala poonsakiilicuala Yaal Brawl Alpinia pumilla Microsorum whitheadiiZamia nesophillaPhilodendron golden erubescense The usual couple of winters to acclimatise and grow up a bit, then plant out!

I'm sort of new to treatments too. I hired a professional who sprayed copper fungicide and part 2 is 2 weeks later (Feb 20). He told me too much copper could harm a palm. Hope he's right because that seems like a long time between treatments. For the others I use peroxide and apply every other day. My majesty bubbled on Sunday. Today it didnt. Hope your palms recover.

It's painful to toss a plant but the garden should be a source of enjoyment, not despair. If it hurts to look at, just remove it. Otherwise leave it alone until it recovers or a replacement is found.

I was gonna go but out of nowhere I have a weightlifting meet then. I typically have them Wednesday’s but I have one saturday

Our low was 33.6°F - brutal wind. All mature palms appear undamaged.

We will see how long these Lipsticks keep ticking

Double Coconut still ticking

Whole bunch of stuff:

Neovetchia storkii at AN

More:

Royals royalying:

Coconuts on the island look OK and many places Seagrapes remained green but they often brown without freezing temperatures caused by the wind. Other sporadic shots:

Phoenix and mule palms happy as a clam though. Probably a good idea to have palms like those as a backbone in Orlando landscaping for when these freezes come through. If you go to hotels that were built in the 70's and 80's, you'll find that most of their landscaping is more zone 9a hardy as back then they were more freezes to make it not worth being daring with more tender stuff.

here are pictures

A nice bit of summer heat and sunshine along with a lot of irrigation has the garden holding up pretty fair. All the critters are out waiting to bite or sting or whatever they do, just waiting to get a hold of you!

That’s the one if bites and stings you we have it, glad iam not living up north with the crocodiles, you learn to live with the critters even when the snakes come inside you just catch and release them, it’s the little scorpions that get in your bed that are a problem! Richard

Interesting flowers on the Chambeyronia Macrocarpa . This is the first inflorescence so I’m not sure fruit will happen . Previous spathes would not open at all. Harry By the look of the crown shaft swelling , maybe more on the way.

Get a ziplock plastic bag and tap the male flowers so the pollen falls into it. You can keep it in the fridge until the female flowers are starting to crack open, then use a small paint brush to dust the pollen over them. It's a pretty easy process, I just did this a couple of months ago for the first time, also with tepejilote, and my female looks to have set a good crop. Good luck 👍

On tropicals like coconuts, I do it as a preventative regardless of spear color.

Just saw it posted on the FB group and surprisingly, it wasn't mentioned here, yet. The newly described Attalea taam from the Colombian Amazon 🎉. That is a really cool looking trunk!! Hopefully some seeds will make it to Jeff eventually 🙃. Abstract: https://phytotaxa.mapress.com/pt/article/view/phytotaxa.739.1.5 Full article as PDF with pictures: https://phytotaxa.mapress.com/pt/article/view/phytotaxa.739.1.5/53627 Some more pointers in this FB posting: https://www.facebook.com/Palmsmithy/posts/really-pleased-to-have-been-involved-in-this-paper-providing-the-illustration-of/1679777533474493/

A stack of dypsis onilihanses seeds to give away! Weeping form of course.

They would pay good money for a purp like that here!

Another peroffskyana in cone, that’s the third one in cone this season in the garden, hopefully I should get about 300 seeds again!

The IPS chose late February because it is not the “wettest” season. However, like all rainforest adventures, I would expect wet conditions and mud.

Thanks for posting Gunnar, great to see beautiful new species still being found. Also nice seeing the locals getting recognition for their part in the process...I've never seen a species description illustration like this before!

Does anyone have a recommended frequency for the peroxide/fungicide treatment? I’ve defaulted to twice a week, but worried that may not be often enough. I have had the same observations here in East Jacksonville as others have seen. On a positive note my one B. Alfredii did have a cover I put over it, and is doing great. Copernicia prunifera seems to have sailed through, as well as some potted C. prunifera and C. alba. I have a small arenga Engleri volunteer that was uncovered that has shocked me with its resiliency, and my neighbors’ larger one looks good too. I have what I labeled a few years ago as Chrysalidocarpus cabadae that I put heat mats around and threw a cover over that is also doing just fine. It’s been so hardy I question if I have mislabeled it. The royals, foxtails, spindle, arecas, and Pygmy dates are bronze and probably a fight to keep alive. I think the adonidias are in a primo spot and will hopefully be okay. We saw 23, 28, and 31 as our lows.

Well thankfully most of my current collection fared quite nicely. After the last freeze a couple years ago I decided to move more towards what I knew would survive. Some were still questionable, and the ones I could get in the greenhouse went in there and the others were left to elements with little to no protection. Recorded low was 23F for my location in Jacksonville. Beccariophoenix alfredii inground and potted bronzed Cycas chamaoensis, balansae, petrae and sp. Wiliwiak bronzed Syagrus cearensis (was actually hit when we had 30f a few weeks ago) these were in greenhouse Syagrus schizophylla slightly bronzed. These were covered but no heat. Caryota maxima Himalaya bronzed Butia archerii, both potted and in ground, no damage Syagrus weddellianum no damage, planted under the canopy of a mule Syagrus campylospatha in ground, no damage Mule seedlings no damage Parajubaea torallyii no damage What eas given to me as Arenga Engleri no damage, under canopy of a Queen, mule and some bamboo Syagrus hoehnei no damage