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Think I planted 3 in 2005 not realizing they were clumping. One clump died some years ago. Growing NICELY here and even some seedlings popping up. Pictures are from 2009 and 2022

Yeah. Never go back to your old property I reckon. It’s torture. On a brighter note by Beccariophoenix alfredii are doing well. They’re a great species for down here. I’ve got plans to plant more. I’ve got some bursting out of 45L pots waiting for me to get the soil levels right in new areas. I hope I can get my Roystonea regia to take. Maybe I’ll put rocks around the base to soak up the summer heat and radiate back at night to try and keep soil temps high.

With the electric companies doing vegetation removal around the powerlines, it was time for a talk to the contractors on getting a bit of mulch from them. With winter almost upon the southern hemisphere it’s time for a winter blanket. This should help keep the roots warm and retain some moisture and give the new palms a bit of a feed. A handful of chicken pellets and a good top dressing of mulch this should help the new plantings get set up for summer.

I germinated some at room temperature, never stratified. They took a long time and germination was sporadic. The seedlings grew incredibly slowly and eventually I ended up with no plants but only started with a very few seeds - less than 10 of which maybe 4 germinated.

8 Zamia inermis seedlings- hand pollinated, completely unarmed, my large plants survived 27F here with no damage. $60 for all 8 plus Shipping, Box, & Spaghum moss.Beachpalms@cfl.rr.com

After trimming some tall fan palms day before yesterday I was greeted with a boom late last night as the rain came down. Its more like w whumpff! One of my mature royals decided to release a leaf with a wet crownshaft. The leaf stem and leaflets were completely dry, but the massive crownshaft was quite wet and heavy. Seeing it there on the ground I was grateful I didn't have to trim that sucker from below! So I went out to see it in the morning and took a pic with Adirondack chair for scale The palm is a fattie for a royal and is approaching full recovery from hurricane Milton in oct 2024. The older these royals get the more I appreciate the self shedding, saves me being on a ladder underneath. These royals cost me $160 each with delivery and 90 for planting (each) with a bobcat. They had 3-4' trunk in late 2011 as delivered. We are aware when a leaf dries out or even looks half dried out and avoid being under them at that time. Credit florida weather and a popup automatic irrigation system for its appearance, I don't really put too much care into them! Its nice to have something bullet proof and low maintenance. Most of the time they dont drop with a heavy wet crownshaft but when they do its like what I imagine a big dinosaur sound like with the heavy footfall. I have two large royals, this is the smaller of the two and they are enough for me. Warning! You should be able to see why you should not have these in a place where you walk (or sit) regularly like a front yard path to the front door. And if you park a car under one like this, expect a big body shop repair bill as it is about 50-60 lbs falling frm 25+ feet.

The local government councils put large cable ties on the ones in public parks and gardens, too avoid any law suits and for public safety.

Tip of the iceberg…

Curse the insurance companies, any new buildings now in Australia in rural zoned areas have to have a certain things done to be up to code for fire ratings. Iam lucky my house was built a long time ago. But the new regulations make it a lot more expensive to build now. A lot of things required for insurance purposes are just unpractical. They said it a while ago that the insurance companies are creating high prices for a lot of things, common sense is no longer a thing that was once used ! Build a giant greenhouse over the whole garden I say that will create a microclimate much needed.

If the wife is onboard that’s the hardest d part done with🤣 Iam sure a weekend of potting up and a good dose of Harry’s love will soon see them being planted in the ground. The new updates are great, palmmod iam sure has enough bombshells of this is not working we’re is this and this is too slow. There doing a great job, iam no computer boffin and what is copy and paste! I know I can grow palms and that’s all need to know for now, the computer world has been forced onto us by governments so they can save money. I appreciate saving a tree from the paper pulp mill, but not everyone has the skills for computers, yes you can learn and everything I do learn about a computer I forget if iam not doing it to remember. We never had computers at school like a lot of us. Richard

First flowering of my previously named Thrinax morrisii. Much slower grower than its radiata cousin. Unfortunately,with our current 118F degree temps,no new seeds will be produced. Still ok though, as I already have a community pot of them growing from seeds I collected in habitat on New Providence island,Bahamas. 😄 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

That would be a pretty easy job, just use ratchet straps. Easy as in ifbit was on the ground. I do bird netting at work at least 6 meters in the air and it’s pretty well much exactly the same as fencing except it’s 6 meters up in the air, dss as me process only in the air. I would get a metal bar about 3 meters long weld 4 brackets with holes in them to attach the ratchet strap hooks. Perhaps 3 straps and get up there and strap the pole to the palm with the aerial attached to it. The only problem I see is getting up there safely, a cherry picker job done in five minutes, a ladder have the ambulance on standby. Best bet would be call up a tree removal company to climb up for you. Good luck.

I got one too. This one is 2 years from germination. I planted it last fall. I collected the seed in Phoenix, AZ in Jan 2024.

Interesting reading about everyone's experiences in different locales, and also the differences between the species. Here in San Diego, I have a couple of borinquenas that are glorious. Although they're big palms, the base's don't seem to get those massive proportions that I've seen on regia. On the other hand my neighbor & I got a couple of princeps from Floribunda years ago because we'd heard that they have more slender proportions. Ah, no; at least assuming that they are the real deal. They're much thicker palms from top to bottom.

Good point about the Santa Ana conditions. Stacey doesn’t get them as frequent or severe as up here in Ventura County but they are becoming more frequent and more intense in recent years. The humidity drops and the wind is destructive to the more vulnerable species. Even mature palms can be damaged by the stronger gusts of 60mph . I’ve seen 90mph gusts up on our hill. Harry

@Tyrone i hope you have success , they are lovely palms . The R. Regia has proven to be quite resilient here in Southern California . I just didn’t have room at the time . It had to be tough to have your prior collection removed by the new owners. My old house still has a lot of the palms I planted 30 years ago. Every time I pass by on my way home , I get a smile . I was only there 7 years so a lot of my collection was still potted and got planted here . I don’t know if the greenhouse is still in the backyard , I really miss that feature. Harry

I completely agree with you. My Chrysalidocarpus (Dypsis) pembana was given to me last July as a seedling and it has more than quadrupled in size in less than one year! It’s the fatest growing palm in my palm collection.

El Nino hasn't even set in yet.. June = escaping the Spring Unpredictability Barrier. We won't have a solid idea of what lies ahead until Mid July ..at the earliest.. Even then? Winter is still months away. What could happen at that time? = won't come into focus until late September / Early October.. While there are assumed ideas regarding what kinds of patterns a warm ENSO cycle ( = El Nino ) might bring to various parts of the U.S. come winter, First thing anyone who actually wants to understand ENSO needs to understand, right from the start, is: Just because we may experience an El Nino this winter, that DOESN"T always = a wet winter ..be it in CA / the Southwestern U.S. ..OR in FL. / The southeastern U.S. ..Or in both regions during the same cycle.. Many other Wx Pattern factors can change how things are " supposed " to go. Highly suggest looking at 2015 -16 as a perfect example of what doesn't always happen, in CA at least. Better yet, look here... 👇 👇 👇 See / learn how to read the various graphs over the coming months, laid out, here: *** If the link below doesn't work? Go to: The Pacific Forecast section over on Storm Surf, then open the " ENSO Powertool " link, located at the bottom left hand side of that page, below the " SST Anomaly Projections " parahgraph on the PAC. Forecast page. *** https://www.stormsurf.com/page2/links/ensocurr.html Creator of Storm Surf, Mark Sponslor, also does a weekly bi-weekly You tube update on how things are looking. And ..Esp. for those of us in this part of the world, Link below, and the link above, are the only sources to get your info from regarding how things may ..or may not.... develop over the coming months. https://weatherwest.com/ Additionally: https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/76715-enso-la-nina-el-nino-history-forecast/

The crown grows very quick in all direction. Mine is pretty much same height and diameter. The trunk is really getting wide but not focusing on height yet. Try to keep grass/weeds at least a foot from the trunk. Prevents rot and decreases the chance of other diseases .

My Roystonia Oleracae drops its fronds on occasion . I try to cut the fronds from the base prior to it happening to reduce the risk of any damage to my other palms. The Oleracae isn’t nearly as heavy as Regia ( also a bit more tender to grow) . I chose it because it is not as massive as the Regia . The tree is getting to the point of being too tall to reach though. Harry This was a couple of winters ago after a trimming of the Syagrus on the left . I was told that it would not survive in my area so I planted it under the Queen Palm for a bit of protection.

Just plant it in the asap, what’s the best way to grow a palm, plant it in the ground! The loose plant in the container is possibly from over potting over the cultivation process. Mishandling perhaps, it may have pulled out of the container at one stage during been moved around, many factors in play on that one. But dont panic plant your palm and happy gardening!

Bizzy Update - 5/22/26 It's trying. It has pushed out everything from the spear pull, but thats about all so far. Its not moving very quickly, but it is moving. Just gonna let it do its own thing. Ill continue water and probably fish emulsions for now until it gets something other than a stub pushed out.

You’re definitely warmer than my area! Great recovery!

Another casualty in St Augustine. Norfolk Island Pine.

Such a nice palm. Seems underrated in cultivation and has a lot of desirable traits; not too large, neat habit and striking silver abaxial surfaces. I suspect slow growth put off many.

Dypsis cabadae planted 27 years ago in a 1 gallon container. 25 + ft looking down on the 🥭 mango tree 🌳

Mine was a pretty big group before my Silky Saw got involved. I bought it knowing I wanted to cut it up so I had no intention on saving anything besides a couple of the biggest “trunks”. I left a pretty big rootball and just cut the offspring off at the base and left the roots. This likely ensured the ones left had ample roots. If it was just planted, it’ll be able to dig pretty easy. I’ve moved things that were in the ground for nearly 6 months with no ill effect. If you don’t separate, it will continue to clump heavily. That’s not the look I wanted for that location. -dale

@EmarohlI think the leaves are too wide to be Lutescens. It looks like my young Pembana, but could also be Lanceolata. I really don't know how to tell them apart at this size.

I just purchased this dypsis pembana recently and I’m wondering whether that’s what this really is. The petioles on some of them look green like d. pembana but some of them look yellow like d. lutescens. Is it maybe a combination of the two in the same pot?

Dypsis pembana seedling goes outside...

Of the clumping Dypsis species I'm growing, Dypsis pembana has been both the fastest and largest in terms of trunk diameters and in overall height. I have one D onilahensis which has been faster in gaining height, but don't think it will ultimately get as large as tall as the pembanas and definitely has a narrower gauge trunk than any of the pembanas. The only thing that has been slow about the Dypsis pembanas I have grown is their size and age to flower. I have had stunted inflorescence but this year one of my solitary is actually producing flowers after a decade in the ground from a 7 gallon size.

They grow fast here in Florida, here is one of mine (far left). This is a years growth, it would have been even faster but I moved all my palms, including this one from Cape Coral to St Pete last summer so they had some transplant shock.

Yes. Pembana clusters less, gets larger and is much more robust and cold hardier than either cabadae or lanceolata.

Here on O`ahu's dry side planted back in 2005 from one gallon pots. I think I put two potted plants in the ground.