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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.

In dry climates irrigation is number 1 issue for many palms(non desert palms). If things are not growing fast for you irrigation is the most likely suspect holding things back. The difference between the dry hot spring and the hot rainy season is quite dramatic, no marking of spears needed just count new leaves per month. When palms are dry they go into stress and that stagnates growth as they try to find water by growing new roots when all they need is to be watered. In high drainage soil this issue is magnified in a big way. When I lived in arizona I saw lots of people kill palms with frequent shallow(short duration) water schedules in clay soil, moisture at depth is not achieved as soil evaporation and runoff(in clay) dominate ground penetration. In our florida drought we are only allowed to irrigate once a week. This years growth could be seriously stunted as drought stress signs are everywhere. Did you know that palms cant feed on nutrients in dry soil? You can throw down plenty of fertilizer and still palms can be nutrient deficient if the soil depth where roots feed is dry. Moisture is required to enable the transport processes of nutrient uptake. If your palms are growing too fast and you want to slow them down, cut watering down in the hot season, it will do the trick.

I hand water everything but my hill . The gardens around the house are manageable but it still takes the better part of an hour to do it right. The hill gets irrigation a few times a week . Harry

Friendswood/SE Pearland today The pre-2021 Bismarckia start appearing here The queens around here are more green than not. Fat Butia

I have finally been able to bring the three main species of Beccariophoenix together in my Oakland CA garden. B. Alfredii has been growing well from 1 gallon and has really picked up speed this past year (prob close to 4 ft or so of frond length. B. fenestralis has been slow but solid from a 1 gallon as well for the past 3 years (hard to see this palm as its protected and covered by other plants). B. madagascariensis has proven to be very hard for me to track down until this past week in San Clemente! I was able to get a masterfully grown 15 gallon and drove it back to Oakland in my car with palm fronds slapping my son in the face in the passenger seat! B. fenestralis with nice windows! 3 years in the ground. B. madagascariensis with Acanthophoenix rubra in the ground for 2 days lol. Looking good with the recent rains! B. alfredii with beautiful purple petioles and fast growth.

Orchid House at ANSG:

And here's a trio, rousselii is the big one, crinita front right, and rubra in back

Richard the water is very good for the plants,d summer I have to water every day,d summer it never rains here,they call it the long Mediterranean summer

@peachy I was not going to let this one pass this time, I regretted not purchasing it last year, well this year it was up for grabs and grab I did! It was even in flower so there may be hope a seed or two if the palm gods are watching!

One element you need to grow a garden is water, and in a palm garden you can never have enough water especially in my climate. If iam to grow the exotic palms I wish to have I must irrigate them. There are pipes in all sorts of directions, with shifts on top of shifts overlapping each other, I have a bore for pretty well much unlimited water. And every chance I get I water, usually 20 minute shifts. So if you want to get your garden growing get onto irrigation it works. I have over 30 taps throughout my garden most with 19mm fittings for the sprinklers. It’s a game changer!

I have sandy soil here in SoCal, so I always amend with compost & a thick layer of mulch. When I water my non desert palms, I set my timer for 45 mins, & let her rip (the drip line that is !). I have a tree soaker ring on my bismarckia, & then 2 other separate drip lines on the other palms that are elsehwhere on my property. If it's in the 90's (which we had a VERY hot spell a couple weeks back, I would do this every day). However now it's about 1-2 times a week. Here in SoCal, it NEVER rains. Last year, we went 9 months without rain !! I have a section of the garden that are understory palms, so trying to imitate rainforest conditions with faking humidity.

Really like this one ! Probably hard to find stateside. Harry

It looks like Spring is very welcome in your garden. Amazing plants and palms . Thank you for sharing. Harry

Some Vandas I got to take care of recently while I was in Florida.

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!

Thanks, from what I can gather they love water and the slightest sign of no water they die. Good luck finding them they are rare!!!!

I’ve been cleaning up the garden beds recently, and they are packed with bromeliads. Here’s some of my favorites so far this year. They really start to multiply over the years.

It's quite amazing really, but makes it very difficult to ID species or varieties if they're unknown! I can't think of another group of plants, off hand, that respond so dramatically to growing conditions?

I want irrigation for my palms so bad, hand watering sucks because it takes so long to make sure each palm is getting what it needs. I would to encourage more growth especially before winter to make sure they have a lot of leaves ready to go

lol we haven't had a long stretch like that in a while! Usually we'll get a few days of fog before it burns up and things dry up. Long stretches of it cause havoc with a lot of stuff - the tropical stuff stops growing/begin to die off, cacti (which have no issue with the temps) start to have fungal issues and rot. I had a couple of astrophytums just melt - despite being in bone-dry soil. They developed rot and it spread almost immediately throughout the plant. Same thing happened to a big Lophocereus. Luckily I caught it in time and was able to salvage a small piece which I'm now going to root. The whole inside became a stinky, gelatinous mess.

Not sure what this is. Located at ANSG without a tag!

Good, I guessed right. 👍

I have been overseas for a bit so here is mine. Hard to get a good shot of it as I tend to plant everything too close.

The emergence of these new spears during this stage of development would normally not be subjected to direct sunlight. I'd be inclined to provide an overhead cover/sun filter. This serves two purposes. Keeps rain/moisture out and filters the direct sun. A double layer of 6 mil poly would be one such item to achieve these goals. Just my thoughts. Regards.

Could be palms compete, especially if your watering is not even over a large area/ volume. Irrigation wet spots will create more competition by increased root density with multiple palms in proximity. A well developed palm has high root density, palms starting out are going to compete for nutrients in the wet volume of shared soil. If the wet volume is large, less competition then if it is "spotty". I think drought resistant species will outcompete wet loving species if water is constrained. If you overwater, the dry loving species they will likely get some rot and the wet lovers will have an edge. Palms may be just fine competing to a point, they will probably grow more slowly as they share water and nutrients in a shared soil volume. The nutrients per soil volume is limited by root burn potential of fertilizer added. More roots means greater nutrient uptake so recent plantings will be root disadvantaged in nutrient uptake with well established root systems already there. You can dig bigger holes and cut out competitive roots. If I find root density high when I dig, I double the hole size for a new planting to help mitigate competition. Again if speed of growth is not of high interest, the bigger hole is not necessary. In some cases like oak tree roots I have dug even bigger holes and used a removable barrier to give the new planting a better head start.

This Epidendrum lacustre hasn't opened the flowers quite yet but I enjoy the colorful leaflets on this variety from Panama. The other varieties apparently have green leaflets, but all have fragrant blossoms.

Yeah, the rupicola is a favorite of mine. I wish I had kept the handful of seedlings I had about 10 years ago. I sold and gave them all away thinking I didn't have the space for them all. I could've managed to squeeze them in somewhere lol

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

Two beautiful dypsis species growing nicely!dypsis roseadypsis saintlucei

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

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!

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.

Livistona drudei right at home in the Australian bush!

I just noticed this on my other palm tree. Same thing?

This is in the coldest and most exposed part of my garden

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'm giving them and A. crinita a try in my greenhouse for now, but understand that they are not long term (maybe the crinita if it handles summer🤞). The rubra are very spiny and red now, but are only 4 inch pots still and I have had them less than a week lol. No idea how they will do, but who knows🤷?

the difference is soil is massive in terms of growth. I have adjusted my soil with top mulch every 18 months or so and I also added 2 tons of turface MVP for water retention. The turface is more recent(started 4 years ago) they use it here on golf courses to limit drought damage. I have palms that had their soil ammended with 10-15% turface in the planting hole. Those plants initially had some deficiencies as the calcium pores absorbed Mg, but after about a year they reacted well. RTurface is sintered clay with massiv esurface area/lb and microbes dont eat it like they do organics. Palms that do better in the hot and dry for me have either genetics that do well in such conditions or they have moist soil due to ammendments and also shade to slow evaporation from leaves and soils.

Also in my transitional from BSh to BSk climate (Köppen classification), artificial irrigation is absolutely necessary. Look what happened to a potted Livistona of mine during mid March , while irrigation still remained shut off.

I missed out last year and kicked myself for not buying it, not this time the wallet came out immediately. I think $600 was a great deal and in flower, I know what it takes in years and time to grow such a beautiful plant. A good investment I don’t think it will go in the ground as of yet, I have another 3 of them so will try one of those a bit later and see how it goes, not the cold but water issue not wanting to kill it in a drought! Richard

Greetings do you have an update on your atrovirens. Thanks

Butia X Jubaea in Riffle and Craft's book somewhere in Cowboy Land in Central Florida:

Very interesting documentation！ Thank you very much！ best regards from Okinawa - Lars