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These three are my only Archontophoenix purpurea and I’m just wondering if the heavy black tomentum on their trunks is unusual or typical. Whichever it is, I like it. These were purchased as seedlings from Floribunda a few years ago.

L. grandis, A.vesteria and P. coronado left to right at Four Arts:

Definitely not what I would say is unusual; all specimens I’ve seen have a degree of this black tomentum. But I would say yours Jim probably have the most dense covering I’ve seen at that size. Typically they’ll start to look more clean as they get taller. My smaller one has a pretty good coverage but still only has a few rings of trunk. If you zoom in on this photo from last year you can see the first wide growth ring covered. My taller one now only has the 2 most recent growth rings covered.

Welcome back Big fish will DM you.

My o es have flowered for about 3 seasons in a row now and no seeds as of yet! Richard

Our low was 33.6°F - brutal wind. All mature palms appear undamaged.

Another peroffskyana in cone, that’s the third one in cone this season in the garden, hopefully I should get about 300 seeds again!

Overall PB and inland WPB likely missed a bullet and cancellation of tropical plantings have been placed on hold!

We will see how long these Lipsticks keep ticking

Satakentia

Glad to see your head's above water on everything. I'd hate to see Sancho as a Walmart greeter when he's 19 years old.

Whole bunch of stuff:

Neovetchia storkii at AN

This was the worst cold event since 1989 in PB and inland WPB but not as severe as that episode. PBIA registered 31F for two nights but total time under freezing was 3 hours. In PB close to the ocean, a weather underground station recorded back to back nights of 38.3F and 39.3F respectively. Here are some pictures taken yesterday and today:

Phoenix and mule palms happy as a clam though. Probably a good idea to have palms like those as a backbone in Orlando landscaping for when these freezes come through. If you go to hotels that were built in the 70's and 80's, you'll find that most of their landscaping is more zone 9a hardy as back then they were more freezes to make it not worth being daring with more tender stuff.

While I plan on giving the coconuts here time to recover or check out on their own, there's a lot of other stuff I'm considering removing just because I'm tired of looking at it. Plantae-palooza is coming in less than 3 weeks, and that will be my best chance to get plants hardy to 20oF at cost. Then there's the whole pen full of Livistona and Brahea species I ordered from RPS last year that need a spot in the garden and a tray of silver Serenoa repens from @PalmBossTampa. It's tough to put off instant gratification.

here are pictures

That’s the one if bites and stings you we have it, glad iam not living up north with the crocodiles, you learn to live with the critters even when the snakes come inside you just catch and release them, it’s the little scorpions that get in your bed that are a problem! Richard

I think I have male and female palms. Does anyone have any suggestions for getting seed? The one I believe is male is indoors so not sure how realistic this would be.

Here is my coconut in Jacksonville, it was my first palm, and I made lots of mistakes. it was never very healthy when I got it. The spear has a brown streak but the rest is green, should I replace the big one with a healthier one or just replace it.

Enjoy the heat wave!

On tropicals like coconuts, I do it as a preventative regardless of spear color.

Good question, and one only you can ultimately answer. For me, the palms here that have survived I'm giving the time to attempt a comeback. They may eventually croak, but that's life. Anything that goes will either just be removed and returned to the yard, or replaced by something bulletproof at 20F. No one would blame any of us for just starting from scratch, though.

I typically go with daily while it is warm until the fizzing stops. That might be overboard, though.

The fun of seeds, Zamia inermis, Z. pygmae, Z. furfuracea and Z. integrifolia (south Florida)

This is the first time I’ve seen this fine leaf form with pinnate fronds and I have to say it does look very different to typical arenbergiana at similar size (or the similar nationsiana which I can’t really tell apart). My seedlings are a bit behind Richard’s although growing quickly. For reference, here’s my C arenbergiana x nationsiana at a similar size. Only then did the fronds start to split and leaflets were very wide (late 2021, early 2022). They still are (last photo from Jan 2025).

Just saw it posted on the FB group and surprisingly, it wasn't mentioned here, yet. The newly described Attalea taam from the Colombian Amazon 🎉. That is a really cool looking trunk!! Hopefully some seeds will make it to Jeff eventually 🙃. Abstract: https://phytotaxa.mapress.com/pt/article/view/phytotaxa.739.1.5 Full article as PDF with pictures: https://phytotaxa.mapress.com/pt/article/view/phytotaxa.739.1.5/53627 Some more pointers in this FB posting: https://www.facebook.com/Palmsmithy/posts/really-pleased-to-have-been-involved-in-this-paper-providing-the-illustration-of/1679777533474493/

Does anyone have a recommended frequency for the peroxide/fungicide treatment? I’ve defaulted to twice a week, but worried that may not be often enough. I have had the same observations here in East Jacksonville as others have seen. On a positive note my one B. Alfredii did have a cover I put over it, and is doing great. Copernicia prunifera seems to have sailed through, as well as some potted C. prunifera and C. alba. I have a small arenga Engleri volunteer that was uncovered that has shocked me with its resiliency, and my neighbors’ larger one looks good too. I have what I labeled a few years ago as Chrysalidocarpus cabadae that I put heat mats around and threw a cover over that is also doing just fine. It’s been so hardy I question if I have mislabeled it. The royals, foxtails, spindle, arecas, and Pygmy dates are bronze and probably a fight to keep alive. I think the adonidias are in a primo spot and will hopefully be okay. We saw 23, 28, and 31 as our lows.

I am too. Mines look ok and my neightbors do too, he didnt cover. I think their cellular structures can withstand to our lowest we've had so far. Last year when we had 18 I lost one of em. So 20s is really their limit.

You might be right, I have left it to its own devices as it seems to do well left alone but could probably do with a bit more feeding.