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Macrozamia johnsonii I grew from seed is now coning. 1996-2026. These are large plants with 10ft+ leaves.

Not sure you can identify the drooping leaves at this age and with all the wind/dry damage. If leaves are prematurely drying out(it is AZ) and falling, small roystonea like that often do not have those below horizontal leaves. Nice fat bulge at the bottom says it does not lack for water. As I remember royals in the desert carry fewer leaves as you might expect and those leaves would be the lowest ones that you are looking for hanging down. CSN, "We palm talkers have all been here before"

A vine that was scrambling along the ground.

The mid north coast of Australia a subtropical paradise. With thousands of hectares of rainforest that covers a fair chunk of it. Before settlement it would have been one very unique piece of land. Now it has been fragmented into isolated areas broken up by farmland. Much of it is either state forests or national parks with a lot of special reserves locked up for conservation purposes.

VThe garden is holding up to the usual winter weather not a problem 2 degrees celcius this morning, and iam sure the low lying areas in the valley most certainly would have seen a very white ice blanket on the ground possibly even a minus degree reading somewhere.

I only started to really notice my garden ten years into it growing, that’s the big picture moment you see your garden forming. Now close to 30 years old my garden you really start to see it with time, and then the fun begins filling up all that understory it’s a whole new garden growing again in a garden, it’s a fantastic feeling watching it grow. The only thing is the older we get the better our palms get!

The peace and quiet and with a lot of areas inaccessible to the family car there’s always a spot where you won’t see anyone at all except for the animals!

With very unique plants that have adapted to cope with all sorts of climatic conditions, and relying on the animals for that symbiotic relationship to survive for a lot of species and visa versa with a lot of animals dependent on that ecosystem for survival.

You can create a microclimate, if the conditions are to harsh its amazing what a canopy will do for that game changer. Microclimate and time are two factors that build a garden. Iam in a very unique position for growing a lot of tropicals and temperate plants. With the temperate stuff iam up against the heat and with the tropicals cold is my enemy. Now with so many great palms available it’s a bit of trial with a bit of error. Yes there are certain tropicals I won’t bother with but iam yet to really get into the temperate palms, as they become available I will try with them, but for now I will leave them up to the refrigerator growers @Jonathan @Tassie_Troy1971 and @tim_brissy_13 they have the real cool tolerant stuff that I can’t grow for now but that’s not going to stop me from trying. Also being realistic is a good approach as well, but as for the rule book it’s thrown out the window in my garden! A great example is I planted a Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana yesterday with 2 degrees celcius this morning, they are from altitude and I know they are cool tolerant and with spring coming up bring it on!

Good luck, and if it doesn't work out we can always try again.

It is a very unique microclimate with sandstone rocks for thermal mass, a little ocean influence from the east, one of those little wet areas that seems to get showers of rainfall. If you tell a local truck courier you live at halfway oh yeah i know that place the highway in that area is frequently wet from passing showers. When the rest of the area is dry. The eastern side of the highway complete paradise, cross the highway to the western side and it’s a completely different microclimate that is the opposite to my area. Ten minutes west as the crow flies and its temperatures down to -2 and frozen with thin ice puddles of water, the very rare black frost does hit the area with two in 25 years that burns the sugar cane fields near Maclean 30 minutes north. The only disadvantage is when the drought is on the gum trees are water pigs drinking and storing all that garden moisture. And the living in the bushfire threat is extremely dangerous at certain times. Would I want to move to North Queensland and grow palms, no way they can have there cyclones and constant heat. It’s only a matter of a few degrees in difference for subtropical conditions that make a huge difference, if you were just that few degrees warmer in winter a complete game changer in what you can grow. A beautiful part of the world to go check out the surf at Angourie. Glad iam born and bred here, iam biased for me it’s the best part of the world 🌎

Last night as the sun dropped low in the sky, I was reminded why the relatively common Encephalartos longifolius is one of my favorite Cycads. The shadows on the leaflets really was emphasizing the insertion and overlapping nature of the leaflets. This is a smaller one that has grown slowly since I transplanted it from one garden to the other several years ago. It had already stalled prior to the transplant due to my neighbors having planted a hedge along the property boundary that completely changed it's sun exposure, starving it of sunshine until I dug it and moved it to Leucadia.

I have two satakentias from ken johnsons farm, planted out in early 2019 with 2-3' trunk. I also have a smaller one I grew from a 4" seedling in 2021 that was planted in early 2025 is now 6-7' overall. They are great palms and the trunks are pretty thick. I will quote ken " ythey are emergent palms so they like shade when young but with size they take the sun well. The trunk at the crownshaft is about 8-9" caliper, definitely more than my archies and all my other crownshafted palms except for the royals. They hate frost with a couple upper leaves burning a couple years ago. They do look a lot more colorful in sunlight after shedding a leaf. Here is one of mine, they trunks/crownshafts glow in the distance in sun. No sign of inflorescences yet. closeup of the same palm to see the crownshaft color a week or so after a new leaf was dropped Easily my prettiest crownshafted palm. I checked the trunk measurements, 8 1/2' clear trunk as of today.

M amicarum seems to be building some momentum…

Spring is only another 5weeks away, now is the danger time for any of the new plantings, so far so good with only one palm taking a bit of burn.

Hi everyone! I’m a newer palm grower in Southern California, and I’ve recently fallen in love with Chamaerops humilis. One of my favorite things about the species is how variable it can be. I recently found a beautiful var. cerifera with small, star-like fronds, as well as a wispy form with a completely different look. It’s been a lot of fun searching for unusual specimens. I’d love to see what everyone else is growing! If you have an interesting Chamaerops—silver, weeping, long-petioled, compact, or anything else—please share some photos. I’m always on the lookout for unique forms.

Where to buy seeds or palms. The only site i found was rarepamlseeds.com, among us only and 19 year old out of business companies. I'm looking for some variations of Trachycarpus, butia and maybe a butiagrus.

These are very nice, trouble free palms. I may be wrong, but it seems like the more water they get the longer the petioles will be, which is a nice look. And for whatever reason, some have very white leaf undersides, some don’t.

Bodes well that G orbignyana might be a bit hardier. I was hoping that. I have 2 surviving G weberbaueri (G undata subsp undata) from a batch about 2 years ago that keep coming back from the dead each winter. They are both around the size of a fingernail 🤣. Not sure they have much hope here long term but I’m kind of attached to the poor little things after the effort they’ve given to stay alive.

They’re everywhere here on the south coast of WA which suits them. A few alexandrae too. Howea also look beautiful down here. A nice grove of bangalows are sweet.

Gorgeous photos. I’m looking forward to seeing scenes like that very soon. Archontophoenix cunninghamiana is the building block, canopy plant of much of my landscape. It’s common, but a well grown one is beautiful. A landscape full of healthy ones is stunning.

Microclimate and time is correct. It takes time to create a microclimate, as well as grow the garden. I’ve been here 12 years and I feel like I’m just starting. However 12 years ago, the place was so open that I could see the neighbours and when it was cold everything was in the firing line. Not now. The microclimate is growing.

Those melt in summer here and my garden has never seen 30c!

Actually plant size is a bit deceiving, because it is disproportional to root size (smaller root size, larger aerial parts). You do not need special experience to imagine, what would happen, if you plugged the plant directly in to the ground in such condition. Whatever intial advantage relates to seemingly lower price, is canceled through the horrific transport fees. Long story short no need for us to beg for a deal with this enterprise.

I just sent you a PM private message.

Yeah I don’t think there is any purely perfect place to grow palms. In the tropics you could grow anything but with cyclones you are always trying to rebuild. Too far south it can get cold but then the high heat that effects cool loving stuff is avoided. The trick is to work your microclimates where ever you are to bend the climate zone to what you are growing. You can only go so far though. Then it comes down to just being content with what you can grow well. Then visit a place that can grow everything you can’t when you go on holidays. Your area is a pretty good mix and you can grow many good things.

Here’s enough breakfast blueberry’s to last a lifetime and more. 100 acres should keep you going with a bit of all bran breakfast cereal!

Hope the damage isn’t too bad Tyrone. P schattaueri is a special palm so I hope it pulls through ok. For what it’s worth, my now deceased P hillebrandii and my P maideniana pulled through -1.4C with solid ice settling on fronds with only minor spotting so I’m hoping the P schattaueri can handle lower than what you got. Years ago I lost a small P hillebrandii that wasn’t established in a freeze at my old garden. I didn’t record temp and there’s no weather station close to there, but I suspect it got down to about -3C that morning. Chrysalidocarpus baronii, ambositrae and Hedyscepe were killed outright. Ravenea glauca only just pulled through. I think that’s probably the limit for most Hawaiian Pritchardias. You’re 100% right about canopy. I only get radiative freezes and it’s the best protection. Never had ice settle on anything under significant canopy. Going to start filling my understory with some more marginals soon like Kerriodoxa and I suspect they’ll be fine (although maybe very slow).

Here is a blue and silver tinted Brahea dulcis in front of a nice, almost white cenizo in bloom. I couldn't remove the cage without knocking off a bunch of flowers.

After spending the last 30 years growing palms and cycads, I have settled in with a greater fascination for cycads. They are quite diverse in color shape and form and have proven to be mostly adaptable to my given space, soil and climate. Among the many beautiful and interesting genera among these plants, none seem to quite possess the magnificence of the Macrozamia giants. This M mooreii sits close to the pool so therefor it receives a high and tight haircut each Spring.

When is the best time to plant a palm 20 years ago, time for that sancona to go in the ground!

I haven’t been watering the garden, trying not too wet the foliage. In the morning would be the best time for waterings, but with plenty of rainfall the garden doesn’t need it.

If you are after young seedlings, I have bought several times from palms.de and also babypalms.eu and I am very happy with the plants that I received.

Also, yucca-palm in Spain ships all over the EU, as does coldpalm.nl. There is also a site called garden palms or something similar. Sometimes the box stores ie B&Q in Ireland ship canaries to Irish addresses.

www.achat-vente-palmiers.com/en/ French shop with a good selection. There's also a Spanish site palmseedlings.com that has a good selection of seedlings and seeds

Onszaden.com ships from The Netherlands, it has a few of cold hardy palms there but mostly out of stock. Trachycarpus Fortunei is the only available seeds for now

Amazing! Yes, my whispy leafed chamaerops is also single stem. Do you think single stem chamaerops grow faster than multi trunked chamaerops? I’d assume so.

My 3 Coconuts continue to recover. Probably time to hit them again with some food. The place still looks like a mess with other recovering species. Going to be another season or two without a freeze to get her back to her splendor. The 2 in the middle are Coconuts. Left side is one of my 2 Royals and on the far right my V. joannis. You can also see the tippy top of my Triangle just below and left of the joannis.... My 3rd Coconut out by the corner of my front......

Not entirely true your conclusion. Length of petioles may depend also on genetics. For example the cultivar vulcano has short petioles regardless the water it receives. This here is a specimen in my garden I callit wannabe vulcano. Seed originates from vulcano, but the offspring has longer petioles than in an ideal vulcano and therefore crown spreads more horizontally than remaining upright. Otherwise it is a very appealing dwarf specimen, which receives perhaps the least water quantity here, when it does not rain.

Is it plumose? I was under the impression they weren’t so if I’m wrong with that assessment then disregard.

It is interesting how we can create or alter a given climate in subtle ways . I have noticed a difference in our garden over the last 25 years. We bought our home new and there was nothing to help the younger or understory palms along. I lost quite a few palms that came from our old house because they didn’t have a canopy . I’m sure they would be fine now . That and climate change has allowed me to grow borderline species. We started , 29 years ago , in 9b . Now we are a solid 10a with my little slice of the hill about 10b ! We can’t fight Mother Nature but we can work with her to bend the rules a bit. Harry This side of the house is West and was just hot sun every afternoon during most months. Now it is just perfect for most young palms . Once they get overhead they will start getting more sun . The wee ones won’t burn here!

The reason it’s stretched out is because the owner id giving it lots of water (and fertilizer) and it’s growing fast.

It’s R.Regia it’s just young. It has plumose leaves whereas Oleracea leaves are on a fixed plane like Archontophoenix. Oleracea does not do well at all where it gets below 35 on average in winter out west. Closer to the coast in SoCal (OC for example) they do better.

We’ve made good use of these palms in our landscape here in the States. I started with good ole Queens(Syagrus Romanzoffiana) but came to like the Archie’s better. Unfortunately , I like the Syagrus so I’m stuck with the mess they create. The Archontophoenix aren’t near as messy . My Alexandrae has only flowered once in 25 years . My Cunninghamiana produce viable seed about every other year. I would much rather deal with the little red fruit than the mess from the Queen Palms every year . For a care free , self cleaning common palm , the Bungalow is hard to beat. It’s very nice to see them in habitat. Harry

Pioneer palms Cunninghamiana palms, the first palms I planted on my property. There’s plenty of them to see around this side of Australia. They look there best when group plantings are done I reckon. A single specimen is a sight to see, but a grove is even better. Winter photography is different than summer photography, in winter you capture more detail of the season, summer is different but the season details you capture in winter set the scene better.

Wow, that must have been cold to knock out baronii and ambositrae. Years back I had things freeze under canopy when the canopy wasn’t as thick and the plants were more sparse. My Hedyscepe did burn which was surprising. My baronii wasn’t touched. My Pritchardia hillebrandii and maideniana looked awful but grew back. Since things have grown I’ve not had such damage again. I do use lots of hardy gingers in the garden to be the sacrificial plant when things get bad. They grow back so quick. If they look ugly in spring cut them to the ground, chuck good soil or rotted chicken manure on them and water well and a few months later they’re all perfect.

i Its neighbor to the left is quite something itself!! 😎👍🏻 -dale

Butch, would love to hear more about your time there. The history of these grounds is vast. We stay at the inn a The PResidio which was the officers quarters at one time. I am sure y9ou are aware of it. 1968 in SF must have been a heck of a time! Thank you for sharing.

Had the coldest morning in 3 years today. -1.2C at a weather station about a km away. White lawn, crunchy ice in the bird bath. The forecast was 4C so was expecting a 0C. Albany got down to 2C. On Thursday night I’d put layers of frost cloth over parts of my nursery area just in case we went below zero. I was busy all Friday and went out this morning to check how the frost cloth had worked and to my horror, the previous days wind had blown it all over the place and it had all come undone and it did nothing. I was worried about my Pritchardia schattaueri so covered them. Well they had ice on them. Damage always shows up later but they don’t look any different so maybe they can handle frost. It was amazing though to check out what got frozen and what didn’t. You can really see how well the canopy protects things. Canopy is your biggest security from frost. Water bodies like lakes are not as much of a protection from a radiative freeze. Choose canopy all the time for frost protection. Under canopy everything was snug and dry. The next few days will show up any damage but today everything looked ok. Such is the issue with growing palms in an area that sometimes turns into an ice box, where the crisper in your fridge is actually warmer than your garden.

Chambeyronia macrocarpa var flavopicta on a rare sunny Melbourne winter day - this show never gets old. It produces exactly 2 new fronds per year for the last few years. Every late July it will open a frond which stays red longer in the cooler weather than the one that opens in summer.