Leaderboard

Here are some of mine. They all look remarkably decent for coming out of winter, though the winter was pretty warm. If I get the order here correct, the first one is the standard form, seed collected from Hawaii, probably seven years ago. The second one is var rubrum, which is really beginning to look pretty darn nice. It’s about head high. The last one is a small conjugatum/furfuraceum which is slower than slow, but pretty darn tough too. Never cold spots. Definitely seems to be the most attractive of an already attractive genus when it gets bigger. Beautiful palms, especially in the tropics.

It’s strange how the market works itself out, in demand one day every one wants them, then a few years later nobody wants them anymore. Foxtail palms when they first hit the black market in Australia many years ago. It was ask pretty well as much as you wanted for the. Now I see thousands of seeds all over the place, not worth 10 cents or even worth picking up!

I wouldn’t add fertilizer but I would keep it well watered. It has been very warm (hot!) in our area too. My wife has been watering every day with a good soaking while I work . Occasionally a King palm can sulk a bit when first planted and the recent high temps certainly aren’t helping . It looks like above average temps are going to continue for a while so keep it well watered and maybe a market umbrella for shade until it shows signs of rebound. I have done that in the past and it helped. Harry

Vanda Saidah Nafisah (Kultana Fragrance x luzonica) Dendrobium aphyllum

I have been observing this palm for 30 years in my home town. Each time I look at it it’s got more seeds than the last time. I germinated some 30 years back. And they are growing well in my garden. Such a pity nobody’s interested in them.

It is the same around here. Many palms of different variety drop seeds and they get ignored , for the most part. The percentage of folks that want to germinate palm seeds is very low , unless the palm is very rare . Even then , the seeds can fall and go untouched. I have been throwing some of my seeds in the bin or letting the squirrels have them . I had a huge amount of Sabal and Brahea seeds at one time but my gardener cut them off before the fruit ripened . Harry

At it again planting more plants.Calpytrocalyx spicatusptychosperma wotoboho rothmania longifoliapandanus sp

A good mix I use is coco coir 60 percent 25 percent good quality potting mix and 15 percent perlite, also a volcanic crushed rock powder a few handfuls to a wheelbarrow load. You can tweak the recipe to your preference, it’s a warm mix for tropical plants in the cool climates. Good luck.

This may sound a bit awkward but you have to change what you’re doing, as you say you can grow other varieties not a problem, this is because you are using the same technique. Look at what your doing, and do it differently too what you normally do. This could mean less water or fertiliser, more air or light, perhaps more shade, even your soil mix . Whatever your doing change it, look at your climatic conditions low humidity high humidity, cool conditions. Also a change is as good as a holiday. Bit without change you’re not going to make difference, only get the same results failure. Think like a plant!

The flowers appear at a distance from this Peruvian orchid's foliage.

A quick and mostly positive update. Hope those who have had their spirits dashed will find some ideas from the short post below for potential paths forward that doesn't involve only planting a dozen species of plants. The pineapples didn't seem to notice we had a freeze since they were near a concrete block wall. They're getting ready to produce fruit this year. : If you're looking for safer options, but don't want to crimp your planting selections too much, branching and clustering palms like Hyphaene coriacea, Ptychosperma macarthurii, and Allagoptera arenaria are good options that give you more than one shot at coming back. There should be Hyphaene seeds available at the 2026 CFPACS Spring Meeting this weekend: Chrysalidocarpus lutescens comes back even when young. This one is coming back and is not long from seed. Coconuts are on the comeback trail, but aren't out of the woods yet as @pj_orlando_z9b mentioned. Even in the better microclimates in our respective cities, they took a major hit. The stores are running out of Copper fungicide here, so probably good to go get a few bottles of it before gas catches up to it in price. You can see some white fungal growth on the dead tissue. Now that the (hopefully) last cool-off is in the rearview mirror, it's probably best for me to just to remove anything damaged so it doesn't provide a breeding ground for fungus and attract white flies and other bugs. There is another frond behind the one partially visible in the photo that has green on it as well. The Maypan is in similar condition.

IMG_2209.mov

As frustrating as it is, I know of no solution to your plant's behavior. I have a couple of Zamia and Ceratozamia that do this same thing. One of the Ceratozamia is a latifolia ironically. The Zamia species involved are angustifolia and standlyi. Patience is my only tip.

I successfully germinated these in 2023, and they've kind of grown and growing, but this species is not doing so well for me as my other palms. I have a very good track record with full tropical species of palm (Licuala mattanensis, for example, grows without a hitch for me) and most palm species I've tried so far are doing great and seem unkillable. For example, I have no issues with growing Livistona benthamii, Caryota kiriwongensis, Archontophoenix alexandrae, Hyophorbe verschaffeltii, Chrysalidocarpus leptocheilos, Astrocaryum standleyanum -- to name a few, all young palms of 2-5 years of age. But my Bentinckia seedlings just look unsightly. Are they more difficult when young? Do they not want temps above 25ºC (80ºF) for long periods? My growth environment is at 25C/80F and up for 10 months a year. Only drops colder for a couple of months during winter, down to ca 18-20ºC/64-70ºF. Humidity is 60-90%. They're in a shaded position, never having got full sun exposure. They've had plenty of water, I water them pretty much the same as my Chrysalidocarpus leptocheilos. Should I be watering them more like my Archontophoenix alexandrae (I haven't been giving them that much water)? They are in containers. They get fertilized, with additional Fe, Mg supplementation. I really like this species and would love it to get it to grow for me. I know sometimes some seedlings are runts, and there's nothing to do about that. Just thought I'd ask if it strikes people as odd with all the other species I'm successfully growing that these don't do well for me. I'm about to transplant them tonight, and I'll take a few pictures of how bad they look at 3 years of age.

Lots of good stuff in there . You’ve been busy! Harry I JUST LOVE THIS THREAD!

Think the Beccariophoenix looks like B fenestralis rather than B madagascariensis.

after the freezes, we saw many cold nights and 21 ° and 22 ° F lows---palm doesnt look bothered at all

The mix you have them in is wrong, the great germinater Merc psilakis (rip) had all of his seedlings in a mix very similar looking to you’re one, everyone who got his plants had trouble growing them after receiving them. The word was out that if you had his plants repot them!

Hm. I will have to see if I can't find a cooler night spot for them then. My nights are not that cool. Maybe 23ºC/73ºF, not much of a cooldown in their growth environment. I do keep them in a growth house where the temps just don't drop much during the night time. I did research them when I started growing them, but either I missed the fact that they need a night time cooldown, or --more likely-- decided to try regardless of my nights staying hot.

Kind of like Foxtails here (Wodyetia bifurcata) - 25 years ago people were paying $5/seed. Now you can't give away the seeds. That might change to a small degree now that some of them will be dropping out of the gene pool, but the supply is still pretty high.

Some garden eye candy, caught my eye today!

Variegated palms you either like them or you don’t like them. I myself like them, not as uncontrollable like its green cousin. Slow growing, most of these ones are all around 30 years old in my garden. Easy to care for and grow, just add water, perfect for rocky soil helping to bonsai them. Iam slowly removing all my green excelsia varieties and are replacing them with more variegated ones. A great tropical look palm either in the ground or in a container on a balcony!

They seem to handle my climate well. I give them some good soil amendment and they are good to go from a 140mm container.

how is it anchored in the ground? Is it just the post pounded way deep or did they pour concrete around it like a metal fence post? Can you cut it off say 4 to 6" below grade and leave the rest buried?

After the freezes, it looks as though there were more freezes (21 ° and 22 °). What was the one on the chair that looked like it WAS bothered.

It never ends when you’re a collector of plants. There’s always a new palm I discover that I forgot I had! Cyphophoenix elegans chamaedorea tenella dypsis species Crysophilla guagra chamaedorea arenbergiana hypohorbe indica

My money's on, no.

Crazy for sure... Longest spring - season heat - streak that immediately comes to mind would be the first half of April 2021 when we saw 90 /90+ for 13 or 14 days in a row.. This will probably blow that out of the water, if we stay at / above 90 thru the 31st.. ( would = 20 days ) 9 day streak of at / above 100 highs?, if we stay in that range thru next Thursday, will be unprecedented. Can't imagine what would beat that.. IMO but ..pretty similar set up to the '23 and 24 set ups.. As was pointed out a couple days ago, sun angle right now is what it is keeping this event from getting as hot ....if not hotter, esp the overnights. Yep, Weak or total Non - Soon this year?? = 😬 Some record reports..

They don't like hot night temps, their native range is higher elevation in the Western Ghat's and is more subtropical in temperatures than tropical. They struggle in Florida most of the time due to this. I have seedlings that are doing well with cool weather for now but summer will be hard on them, however they arrived from Hawaii in August during a heatwave and survived so they are not hugely wimpy.

I wonder if this setup is at all similar to July 2023 when it seemed like it was 115F+ every other day. Early fall 2024 when we had all those record highs in a row broken is another long peak and duration heat wave that I previously mentioned. The fact that it's supposed to stay well into the 90s to around 100F well into next week for this time of the year really is something. Just get it out of our system now so the monsoon can take over in the summer.

You reckon I been duped, you haven’t got the bill yet !🤣

About as well as your Lepidorrachis in Hilo Mr Realarch! I'll take some pics after I've dug it out of the snow...

The Post Office in Bokeelia has a nice one:

Despite what some folks believe, W. filifera can do very well in humid areas. These in the Harlingen, Texas Lowe's parking lot aren't getting a ton of rain but it's usually extremely humid. There are several in the area although the majority are the robusta variant.

My thoughts were that the tap root is supposed to go deep, so a pot is always limited. True. The only reason for growing seedlings in pots is convenience. No plant prefers a pot over the ground, unless the soil is no good. A seed that germinates in the ground will most likely do better than one that was transplanted into the same spot.

Very healthy 15g with a new spear and grown in full sun coastal SD. Ready for pickup and have lots of other palms (dypsis, burretiokentia, king varieties, carryota, etc..) available this weekend and $200 for the teddy bear

Heres a good list of hardy and semi hardy palms for that area. I didn't include any Trachycarpus since they are so nematode sensitive on our poor sandy soil. If you have better soil in partial or light shade you could try them with evenly moist soil. Hardy; Acoelorrhaphe wrightii Acrocomia totai Arenga ryukyuensis Brahea armata Brahea brandegeei Brahea clara Brahea decumbens Brahea moorei Butia eriospatha Butia odorata (capitata) Butia paraguayensis Butia purpurescens Butia yatay X Butyagrus nabonnandii Chamaedorea microspadix Chamaedorea radicalis Chamaerops humilis Chamaerops humilis var. argentea Copernicia alba Livistona australis Livistona chinensis Livistona decora Livistona mariae Livistona nitida Livistona saribus Phoenix canariensis Phoenix dactylifera Phoenix loureiroi Phoenix reclinata (hybrids) Phoenix sylvestris Phoenix theophrastii Rhapidophyllum hystrix Rhapis excelsa Rhapis humilis Sabal bermudana Sabal x brazoriensis Sabal causiarum Sabal domingensis Sabal etonia Sabal maritima Sabal mexicana Sabal miamiensis Sabal minor Sabal palmetto Sabal palmetto Sabal rosei Sabal tamaulipensis Sabal uresana Serenoa repens Syagrus romanzoffiana (the robust southern Brazil/Uruguay form) Washingtonia filifera Washingtonia robusta Semi Tender; Acrocomia aculeata Acrocomia mexicana Allagoptera arenaria Arenga caudata Arenga engleri Beccariophoenix alfredii Bismarckia nobilis Caryota monostachya Chuniophoenix hainanensis Chuniophoenix nana Lanonia dasyantha Licuala fordiana Livistona drudei Livistona fulva Livistona jenkinsiana Livistona lanuginosa Livistona nasmophila Livistona rigida Livistona speciosa Phoenix reclinata (pure form) Phoenix roebelenii Phoenix rupicola Rhapis multifida Wallichia oblongifolia (densiflora)

I've done 5 or 6 orders from Floribunda. Typical overnight UPS charges have been $50-75 to Florida. There's also a flat packing charge, the last order it was $30. For example, the last order I did 5 gallon sized, a bunch of seedlings and 4x 4" pots. The shipping was $54 in a moderate sized box, maybe 3' x 1.5' x 1'. Jeff's palms are all HUGE for the size of pot. If you distribute the S&H charges over the number of palms it's fairly low. Springtime is a good time for a "bulk order"!!!

Hope that none of the others succumb to whatever it is. My own thoughts are Lethal Bronzing. We've lost thousands of Phoenix species. The typical choice for replacement is Livistona decora locally. Out of all of the Phoenix species, the Phoenix reclinata hybrids in the area seem to have the least issues, followed closely by Phoenix roebelenii. All of my Phoenix have started to flower at the same time, so who knows what kinds of mutts will be produced.

Another flower forming on the dypsis saintlucei!

I'm going to try chrysalidocarpus onilahensis if I get some in my next order. Titan has done very well even small so that's another possibility. Mine took 24 and multiple freezes this year well and opened a new spear right after like nothing happened. It's still bifid too. Lanceolata is the next closest I have but not a solid 9b palm. Most of my stuff is "mistakes" lol

Curious to see how your palms are doing now since the spring is here and the damage is basically done by now this year?

Welp It was 80 yesterday, 35 when I woke up, and now it's 50. Once again snow went to the north (literally 9 miles north) of us and to the south of us and we just got cold and wind again. Oh. And rain. More rain. I keep trying to gauge how long it'll take for water to drain out of this Muck Hole® I dug in my backyard, and it's rained every other day since so I'm just assuming it's a lake now and will never drain.

No blooms at the moment, but still cool... I've been looking for a specimen of this for about a year. All I could find were very small plants for a very large price. I was at a Master Gardener's sale in Ocala yesterday and found this one, about 15" long, really full. Great price. This is one of the 'ghost' orchids...Microcoelia cornuta

Another afternoon gardening, planting away. Some more garden eye candy! licuala triphyllajapanesese rhapis hakusetsuntakhara anthurium hookerii Ernest augustii Pinanga sarawakensis cycas deboensis x multipinata Calyptrocalyx yummutumune

Unless hellbent on total removal ( i personally wouldn't ) If it is producing growth at the base, let that grow out, then reduce ..whatever.. amount of new growth it produces, down to a single stem, ..or two if preferred.. and train that like you would any other seedling / sapling -sized tree.. Good to know these can come back from pretty serious cold since they can tolerate our heat. Be nice to see more of these in local landscapes. Bottle Tree looks

Old and ugly near Hobby

I kept some seeds and decided to germinate them myself. I had a nice, sunny, warm New Years Day to pot up 86 newly germinated seeds. About 8-9 of them are doubles, and there was one triple. Nice way to start the new year! I will probably be selling seedlings later this year, if anyone is interested in them.

Boy, how time flies! It’s almost been a year since scouting around Rick Kelley’s garden and took this photo of his Sabinaria. Nice looking specimen and growing in quite a bit of sun which I think has contributed to its growth. I asked Rick to stand next to the palm and ‘loosen up’ a bit……this is all I got. 😎 Tim

Ah, ok. It looked a bit like frozem flowers of a Yucca. 🤣 Greetings to Lake constance Eckhard