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My second order this season from Floribunda arrived this afternoon and all are new trials for me. They all are BIG in their respective containers as is usual from this excellent vender. Pritchardia aylmer-robinsonii Chamaedorea arenbergiana Chrysalidocarpus ‘Baby Red Stems’ Pinanga ‘Maroon Crown Shaft’ Anyone with personal experience with any of these, please comment.

Livistona rigida, thanks @Jonathan👍🎁

lilium yellow bruse

Obscenities screamed loudly.

Last post was in October when it opened a leaf and it just opened another yesterday. It does seem to be getting faster as the last leaf took a whole year. It’s a super slow palm for me but it’s not dead so I’m stoked. The leaves holding look perfect too so that’s good. Not too impressive tho. -dale

I would like to see the poster's location on my phone and tablet without going into the profile. Location is visible on a desktop with the post.

Chamaedorea elaitor

When my large Wodyetia failed , I waited and it was tough to watch such a beautiful palm go through that. No identifiable reason for the failure . No frost , well draining soil , and 7-8 years of solid growth . Other palms in that area of the garden were fine . The Foxtail just decided to die , about 7’ of smooth trunk plus the crown. It looked pathetic for the last year but I thought I could save it. I tried different treatments over a 12 month period , nothing helped. By the time it was cut down , I was so frustrated . A few blocks away , a friend has a huge one is his front yard producing copious amounts of fruit with viable seeds. Nice palms , but finicky here. Harry

An absolute perfect chamaedorea adscendans. They don’t get any better than this beauty!

Some decent rain after a dry spell is always welcome. You can water all day long with a hose, but the difference good rain makes you just can’t beat!

Yes our government still puts chemicals in our drinking water. I do remember some 34 years ago in high school learning about acid rain in Europe, with the Black Forest dying due to it. I have tank water I drink at my home, so iam quite spoilt for water quality.

Here’s a cross from Kevin Weaver I’ve never seen before. Should be pretty cool when older. Encephalartos Natalensis x Middelburgensis -dale

Get your mate who’s in Japan to get you two of them for you. Unfortunately no seeds will be available with this variety of palm. Richard

All will be good growers, the only one I have not grown is the pritchardia. And as for the rest they all have seen temperatures at 2 degrees celcius, so the zone pushing has been tested on all but the pritchardia. I have lost so many palms to cold weather over the years I have been pushing the boundaries in relation to cool weather, don’t look at as a experiment but as a win for your garden!

None whatsoever on those. They are very nice looking palms and I’m sure , with your expertise , have a very good chance. You have the perfect environment in your garden . Now that my garden has matured a bit , I am venturing out as well. When my friend gets back from Japan , I will be getting my first FB order in . We are going in together on an order. Harry

Licuala pelata var sumowongii, super sun tolerant! Richard

To me all the hose does is keep them alive, but the nitrogen in the rainwater is the best fertigate system one can have. Richard

I got out the tape measure to see how long the inflorescence is. It was 54" long with only a few buds open.

Moving towards heavy:

Yellow Poinciana starting after looking like a stick tree:

Lagerstroemia speciosa or Queen's Crepe Myrtle:

Pseudophoenix vinifera at Mounts:

Thought I’d throw in a couple of updated photos. Looking good as ever. They are now all over the garden. Tim

LOL I am currently watching a neighbor who had a broken irrigation system in sand. 4 royals are wasteing away even with our (NOT THIS YEARS) rains. They shrivel up from the grow point down. It takes a few years for them to come down. If you think aobut it and use Google AI's estimate of 63-64% water from an oil palm, it means 2/3rds of the weight can be lost in dessication. And it occurs from the top down so the tendency to topple shrinks with dessication/time. Ive also seen abandoned field nurseries where some royals waste away. The guy up the street has 3of 4 where the crownshafts are gone and the trunk is continuing to dry up and dissappear top down. I walk my dog by there everyday. As the thing dries out and loses height there will be less of a damage risk dropping it. I have thought about this a lot as I do have a fat royal with 25' of clear trunk. Its not a coke bottle so much. I'd say 28 in ch minimum trunk diameter with a max probably 5" more than that. A simple calculation on water weight is using water alone based on 64lb ft3 says that tree is 8000 lbs of water in the trunk with one third of that wood which is not counted in the weight. I would estimate 10,000 lbs for the trunk overall if wood is 0.8 the density of water and 33% the volume of the trunk. Who wants to chop down such a tree and then have to carry those 5 tons of wet trunk away? It could easily be 1/3rd of that weight and if you let it dry out and crumble you have mulch you can spread, and not have to carry away at all. Im still thinking about it for the day if it comes in my lifetime.

Looking at the outer edge of the garden, in there is a whole world of joy

Chamaedorea adscendens.

As one would be aware of I just can’t get enough of this palm. An absolutely gorgeous palm. If I see one for sale, the dollars are thrown at it!

Why not let volunteer orchids grow

Thanks, JLM, that’s good info. I see you are in Pace outside of Pensacola. Several years ago, really like more than a decade ago, a guy on this forum sent me seeds from Canary Island Day Palms h said we’re growing around the courthouse in Pensacola. He said the trees were probably about 100 years old. The seeds all sprouted beautifully, but I could not get long-term survival for CIPD here in Dallas, TX. When I visited Mobile and the Gulf Coast last year to see the SS United States, we drove over to Pensacola, but I did not see any CIPD around the courthouse. Did those trees just live out their years or did they freeze?

So nice! I will find one someday. Harry

Update May 2026..

Juvenile but my favorite palm:

The Howea belmoreana presents well from the street outside my garden now too. It is above the wall with its foliage, visible in the center behind the two trunks of Chrysalidocarpus pembanus in this photo. The 5 gallon bucket from the big orange box provides perspective. I need to borrow Tim's shovel for future garden shoots.

Ravenea rivularis put them in a tropical garden and they are next level.

Two very nice palms for the garden. The Radicalis can take sun but the Microspadix wants nice cool shade . I get a lot of seeds from both of these species. Just push them in the ground and …more palms! Harry Chamaedorea Microspadix fruit Chamaedorea Radicalis Tree Form , Palm is about 8’ tall (out of picture) fruit is hanging at eye level.

This palm should be a top choice in SoCal. Fast and jaw-dropping.

Baronii and Ambositrae growing in such kind of medium

Here we go again the last lot before winter, it’s just not worth the risk getting plants from a tropical climate, the plants just go into shock to much. So a couple of good ones this week. iguanura species broad leafgeonoma atrovirens gardenia resiniferaareca rabaulcalyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana and another Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana

A change in the season has seen the garden go into a relax mode, with the dry weather a lot of leaves have fallen. Fortunately we have had some good rainfall to push the garden back. And the summer root activity has gone into new leaves and spears.

Up the back yard near the propagating hothouse is the sancona, it endures many a tough time and is in need of a good feed. But finally after 26 years we have a trunk forming. Some palms in my climate just want water, this one is in a dry spot without irrigation donuts done quite well considering the circumstances it grows under, basically in the bush!

The good old foxtail palm.

My single-trunked 9 ft (2.7 m) tall Chrysalidocarpus (Dypsis) lutescens.

Nice one, I have been planting a few around the garden!

some of my ALSTROEMERIA in bloom, called lily of the Andes of Peru

They get rather tall at least 5 meters on this one and still growing!