Leaderboard

I bought my 15G Brahea Clara exactly one year ago from Josh @ Fairview Nursery in Vista - https://fairviewnursery.com/plants/palms/ He grows them from his own parent tree, and had a TON of them when I was there, and pricing was very reasonable. By appointment (not always open). Sadly far from you, unless you know someone doing a road trip. Here's mine as of today. I assume any remaining stock would be similar in size.

I fell in love with this palm with my first visit to the gardens and through the years I always look forward to seeing it there. This is a highlight reel of pics since 2018. It doesn’t seem to change much. I’m grateful it has never been given an unnecessary pruning. Second to last pic is a month after Hurricanes Helene and Milton. To the right you can see the heavily wind damaged Corypha (which HAS recovered). The last picture is from earlier this month I do have one of my own growing in a container for now. It’s good to have some things to look forward to down the road

People will find their palms dying for many months after the freezes. I had a Pseudophoenix sargentii keel over dead 18 months after the 2010/11 freeze. Also, my Hydriastele beguinii 'Obi Isle' gave up on life 9 months from the same freeze. Lost all my young coconuts, Euterpe, Wodyetia and many more I can't recall. I'm still losing palms 3-1/2 years after Hurricane Ian. I hate to say this but for many of you the carnage has scarcely begun. You will have to make some hard choices on how much money, treatments, time and work you are willing to invest trying to rehab some of your palms. To be honest and not being snide, pygmy dates are common, cheap and easily replaceable. I'd go that route before I bankrupted and exhausted myself trying to save them.

Man, it’s brutal out there. Clear blazing skies and dry as a bone. Some stuff is OK, while others are just hanging in there, waiting for rain. Some rain is forecast for tomorrow though.

A Red Flag Warning is in effect today until 8 PM EDT due to dangerous Fire Weather Conditions. Minimum relative humidity values will fall into the teens with wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Any fires that start could quickly grow out of control. No expectation for rain this week. Hopefully there is an active hurricane season.

How its going.

Lol anything that enjoys cold wet winters with lots of rain and hot humid summers where it almost rains but won't? Sabal Sabal and more Sabal.

A similar color fade occurring on this Cymbidium. The freshly opened flowers on the newest inflorescence are significantly darker than on the older more mature flower stalk.

I love how nothing I've posted here in months is palm related. I had a yard thread somewhere but whatevs. This is my journey.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/sanchosgreenpaws/3855775357870401742?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=d3Z1ejc1cWtnMHA2 Welp. 2 of my colocasia bulbs went mushy. But I found a white Monstera at Wally World. I dunno when it got delivered, but it's literally never been watered since they put it in that stupid self watering pot, it apparently took a ride in a storm since half the dirt was gone, a few snapped stems, and it'll absolutely piss you off to hear how much I paid for it. You ready to get pissed? Lol yes. I just bought a White Monstera for less than a box of Pop Tarts. It's already in a 1g pot.....

Exactly what I was thinking when I first read it. I was going to offer to send @bruce Steele some rare Syagrus romanzoffiana pollen in exchange for a seedling!

Need to work out logistics for Jubaea x Attalea and Attalea x Jubaea.

That and some of @Bigfish's babies

One day I'm gonna figure out how to keep papaya sprouts alive, but apparently today is not that damn day. Maybe when I can put them outside and let them get established and just overwinter them? I dunno man but this is frustrating. I guess it's just like anything else, palms too - once I get it past "that point" we're cool, but damn. Between Steve and Walmart ain't no telling how many of these things I've dumped in the yard.

Ok guys I'm gonna pause this whole operation for a while. I need to do something I've always wanted to do but never had a chance to do, and try to pursue Jessica Alba.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVAn6WoDTPQ/?igsh=aWgwNHQ4aTJ3a2Y4 Seeeeeeeeds

Planted bulbs. A lot of bulbs. Surprisingly there was very little rot in any of them since I let them just sit there for a minute. And I cut them up into smaller bulbs (with eyes) because I hate myself and the 300 someodd damn pots in here just wasn't enough for me. I also went ahead and sowed some seeds from @Bigfish and I'm gonna try @teddytn's method since I'm already doing that for Butia. I didn't get to all of them, just the Causiarum. Homey even cleaned them before he shipped them. Anyway then I planted some more bulbs and then I planted some more bulbs and then I potted up a sulking agave and a whale fin that's doing good just no room for babies. Hey! She's making a baby. Y'all I'm throwing 💩 on the floor already. I need spring to come on so I can free up space and hopefully make a dollar or two and spend it unwisely. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DU93JzWDX_3/?igsh=MTllY2V3YTVpMjdmbg==

Grow room/what's left in the bedroom. Now I want a bunch of alocasia corms.

Threw up a couple new IG videos - sanchosgreenpaws. I went to Wally World and they had left all of the tropical stuff outside, so I snagged another Pink Princess Philodendron for $8 - oh but there's 2 - oh but there's also a pup. Nice score. Also a couple pretty damn big banana leaves. https://instagram.com/sanchosgreenpaws

Don't judge me for the hashtag and title. I did that just to see if it got me more views 😂 Burle Marx that I JUST potted up. Jesus, I don't know how big these things get but yikes. More elephant ear pups aka spider mite food. Red Lady papaya #2 into a 5g pot. This leaf is 14"x35". Oh. I forgot I chopped and propped these when I made the YouTube. 2 are spoken for. I guess the last one's for sale once it warms up. Orange/mandarin/fire flash/whatever spider plant. I'm sure it has a scientific Latin name but I'm dumb. I do not want to clean these seeds. They sat in my freezer for weeks. Then I thawed them and soaked them in peroxide and water and skimmed the dead and rotten ones off the top, the water turned black. I might just guerilla plant them around the property. I might just do a few community pots. These things smell like piss and vinegar. I don't particularly want to handle them and the demand for them isn't enough to justify my hands stinking for a couple hours. Found this guy. Unofficial grow room mascot.

My titles alone are amazing.

So after I potted up the one papaya, my Sabal Maratima didn't look so great, and I know I got the bugs off. Water them. Still dry. Then I remembered when @Sabal Kingsent them to me all I had was some garbage garden soil. I don't remember if he sent these to me last year or the year before? They were liners. Welp. They're in 5g pots with some proper coir/perlite and I finally finished off the baggie of the stinky 🐔 💩 Jobes Palm fertilizer I bought 4 years ago. I had them in some 3 gallon pots I literally found in the woods. Watered 'em deep and letting them drain in the buckets. I can't lose these. I've got an Urserena on life support, I bought those bunk Causiarum seeds that ain't Sabal seeds, but I think I got to these in time.

Aforementioned Big Honkin Pot full of hacked up crape myrtle branches. I just used the leftover dirt I had, I just want them to root and then they'll go into 1g grow bags for sales. Threw the hacked up White Princess philo in a 1g and fertilized it. Another dragonfruit (Bien Hoa Red) and a Red Lady papaya got bumped to 5g and fed and watered. Well, this is a before picture. My tissue culture banana I bought off Palmstreet (that app ain't for me) took a detour and spent a few days in New Jersey for some reason. It's very dead. I broke my own rule about not buying plants in winter. I paid for the insulation and heat pack too..it didn't matter. Oh. Potted up one of @Fuscadonated agave a while back. They were in mostly rock. It turns out plants are happier if you give them soil, light, and water. I guess I took the "well draining" thing too seriously with them. I dunno why I didn't take a picture of this but I made a ghetto tent over the tote full of sunrise papaya seeds from @WaianaeCrider too. Got a few to sprout. I took an old curtain rod and just bent it and used the clear plastic that a pillow was shipped in. Using literal trash to grow tropicals. Gotta love it. And I cut down all of the elephant ears due to their size and their apparent deliciousness for the spider mites. They don't care. The only time they've been watered is when I planted them. They don't care. These are the ones from @N8ALLRIGHT Other than the one in the corner, this is maybe 2 days of growth, 3 tops. They dgaf. They're like Bebe's Kids.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTwlgCpjV6p/?igsh=d3pxemxhZDQ0bGc2 Choppin and proppin with UGK

Another @DoomsDave Brahea Edulis sprouted. 4 now. Potted up a couple philos. The caramel Pluto.... Man I did my best. It's in moss and it's packed. Did my best to spread it out but Jesus. Congo Rojo too. Ofc more Sabal minors sprouted, I think I have about a billion of them with 2 more untouched baggies and still have those freezer palmetto seeds. Oh snap need to check the kiwis. And this tote is nothing but sunrise papaya from @WaianaeCrider, took the lid off and wrapped it with some old heavy clear plastic. . a few rainbow sprouts on the other side of the room too. And just for LOLs my shipping department is ready for warm weather. Clearly a professional outfit here.

More YouTube Shenanigans. One day I'll get a helper to film me actually doing stuff or something, or just figure out a way to set up the camera to watch my methodology and listen to me talking to the plants. But please, if I ever turn into one of those dorks with a crazy expensive camera and a $200 microphone and an Amazon storefront who says "please like and subscribe" every 3 minutes, I need someone to make the drive to Clarke County and kick me in the junk. I'll send you home with plants.

I'm SICK sick and haven't been out here in a few days so here's some videos. Y'all are missing out. I'm informative and entertaining.

No problem. I enjoy this thread.

https://youtube.com/shorts/-NzpQ1olDOI?si=p031jzp5QpcCFvAi Philodendrons. Thanks @MrTropical for the continued upvotes in this thread while I feel I'm just farting into the void 😂

Not posting a pic of the bokashi because it's disgusting, but I bought a tote and some cheap potting soil and cheap compost to mix it all up. It's in the YouTube though. Ok I just don't wanna open it again. 5 gallon pots showed up. 30 pack..ugh when I put them in my shopping cart they were like $35, they went up to like 50. Another baby mango. This is a Keitt and it's kinda wild how different the initial leaves are on this one from the Tommy Atkins. I guess I need to join PhilodendronTalk because I came home with 2 more today. Golden Crocodile and uhhh Caramel Pluto. One of my bananas is pregnant! Look at the size of this aerial root on my monstera! Humidity is nice in here right now.

Totally in over my head.

Aforementioned Silver Saws, seeds from @Boca Palms that were so fresh I could still smell the flowers when I got them. Oh just a 19 inch leaf on a 4 foot tall Blue Java banana that was literally a tissue culture pup 3 months ago. I had to put it on the floor. Cuban Red Dacca wants to play the Big Leaf game now with the others. A few more mangos grown from fruit that I pooped out. I'm obsessed with these right now and I still can't believe I paid $5 each for them.... White and Pink princess. I'm wondering if they might be the double variegated too, the pink has a little white and the white has a little red.

I'll take pics later, I sprayed for spider mites again so it's like a freaking sauna in there right now - Rainbow papaya seeds - took them out of the coffee filter. Put them in cups, covered with little domes from bakery cakes. Ended up with a total of 10 seeds that didn't squish. The coffee filters suck, kids. Bananas are freaking monsters. At least 2 are gonna have to go on the floor. Got some store credit from Wally World for some terrible customer service, so more lights coming. 5g squat pots already ordered. Princess philedendron (pink and white) look A MAZE ING right now. I still can't decide whether to sell them whole (they're already legit 3g size) or chop and prop. I've got a few more varieties I NEED to chop and prop. 5 more sprouts of the silver saw palmetto potted up. Bought a bunch of Poblano Peppers to make some gringos rellenos.... Gonna sow some seeds. Why not? I've basically created endless summer in here. Still have eleventy kajillion Sabal seeds to go through... Pineapple is rooting, so many more mangos to eat and plant. I just realized I've got a bunch of stalled out palm seeds in the bedroom too, need to move them to the grow room. Good times.

2026 update

I like how they added the red lights at the top of the trunks.

Recently I’ve been to Greece for a nice vacation. It was in Pylos on the western coast of the Peloponnes peninsula. The camping site we went to, was approximately 2km away from the luxury hotel, were Giannis Antetokounmpo had his wedding. I saw them partying and asked myself, why he didn’t invite me… The landscape is beautiful and there are gorgeous beaches and of course many ancient sites. The usual things you get in Greece. As usual, I’m quite disappointed regarding palm plantings. 90% you see only Date palms and Washies. the rest are some Chamaerops, Trachys and recently more often Queen Palms. Although I love to see any kind of palm, I am disappointed that they don’t take advantage of the whole potential the climate has to offer. Having said that, I came across a wonderful garden on the last day of my stay only due to a diversion from the normal route. At first I show you a couple of pictures from that garden and then nice views from the area. a nicely grown Roystonea amongst Queens Bismarckia many Queens and some Sabals, Chrysalidocarpus Lutescens, Archontos and Washies on the other side of the road there were also some plantings: The following one, I cannot identify. Maybe someone can help me. Could it be a chambeyronia macrocarpa?

I went on my first trip to Rome and was surprised just how palmy Italy is. Dates, Chinese fan palms, California and Mexican fan palms were very common in the landscape. As well as the more native Mediterranean fan palms. Some trachycarpus as well! I was also surprised to discover how common Kentia palms were as houseplants since their cultivation in Dutch nurseries has made them much more popular and affordable houseplants in Europe.

Beautiful and here are some of the palms I took in Rome recently

I've passed by this building for decades on Highway 101, but never took the time to stop in. Visiting my relatives in the Bay Area this week and they took me inside to see the unique (and controversial) design by architect Frank Lloyd Wright: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_County_Civic_Center It used to be open to the sky but eventually had a glass roof installed. Lots of renovation ongoing due to aging of the concrete walls and paint. Not sure I'd like working in that environment, but it was great to see up close. The plantings of subtropicals are on four levels.🌴

A few recent walking tours posted on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUPGp_aytTI This one includes the roses that the Central Florida group had asked about. @flplantguy + @EPaul + @Fishinsteeg234 + @D. Morrowii + @donpachino1983 + @RiverCityRichard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4kUH9ICip0 From August 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHrn8WCXhZo Similar tour to above, but from August 2025.

I found Cham costaricana to be relatively short lived for me in our Backyard Jungle above the Isabelle Canal. I don't know if that's normal or unusual. I tried Cham pochutlensis from seeds but never got very far with them. I suspect they prefer a less sweltering climate and cooler winters. Our 6-7 month ferocious summers are just too long and hot for them. Definitely more suited to a NoCal mediterranean climate.

Hey neighbor! I'm in South Carlsbad (La Costa Valley) and have spend hundreds of dollars on rare croton varieties, and almost all of them failed during our relatively cold winters (crotons don't like CAs colder nights). But I have had some success as well! ---- MAMMY The MVP for me is a very common variety called "mammy", which I have sprinkled throughout the yard. This one is relatively bulletproof (for me), and even takes quite a bit of sun! I just now took this shot of one of my mammy clumps... ---- OAK LEAF This one originally struggled (in a mostly sunny location), but is doing much better since I moved it to mostly shade a couple years ago. ---- MAGNIFICENT This is a relatively new one for me, and seems to be a winner so far! This isn't a great photo, but I have high hopes for this one (since it did well over the most recent winter)... ---- EVERYTHING ELSE I'VE TRIED Here is a typical example of what all other crotons end up looking like in my location. This particular variety ("batik") has been in suspended animation between life & death for a few years now... ---- Bringing them inside in the winter didn't work for me either (all the rare ones I tried bringing in last winter dropped their leaves). I recently got some great suggestions in this forum for other varieties I should try, which I plan to follow in the Spring. But if you want a "sure bet" variety for our area, start with "Mammy" (in partial to mostly sun) or "oak leaf" (in mostly shade). Hope that helps!

Also Areca vestiaria

I just visited here today and caught a few rarer things. Licuala grandis Pinanga coronata (kuhlii form)

Happy Halloween at Hollis: A little less scary - Archontophoenix flowering at the entrance:

Cool! I never thought of training one as a standard; their natural habit is sort of a "vining shrub." (The one in the picture looks like it was grafted onto another Bauhinia trunk.) I think you'll find them relatively easy to grow, but remember the thick roots. That will matter as they tend to bust through pots when they get older. One really good thing is they're tough and they'll take quite a bit of drought.

I'm not sure if any of the other palm gardens do this. The city is currently working on the Lake Wire Palm Collection. They have a GIS map of our Flowering Tree Garden at Lake Morton done: https://lakelandflorida.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=064581415a6b41df972a9dcbd9ca9377# @DoomsDave Sent me some Bauhinia galpinii seeds recently. I can remember him asking if we had these here and I wasn't sure. Now I can answer "Yes" definitively as it is #43 on the Flowering Tree app.

@Hurricanepalms Thanks for the ID assistance! @RedRabbit They finished doing the GIS of the garden. https://lakelandflorida.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=ceb70c93127c47239300fa348fc2536b# There is a lot that escapes the eye when you cram all those plants into 1.2 acres apparently. A few that caught my eye paging through: #66 - Euterpe edulis #78 - Artocarpus heterophyllus - Jackfruit #85 - Kigelia africana - Sausage Tree #89 - Linospadix monostachyos - Walking Stick Palm #91 - Neoveitchia brunnea - Devil Palm

Did you happen to run across this one? I think Kerriodoxa elegans

I visited today, this place is great. Lots of palms, very well maintained, and scenic right on the lake. Found a carpoxylon: