Leaderboard

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/

Thanks for posting Gunnar, great to see beautiful new species still being found. Also nice seeing the locals getting recognition for their part in the process...I've never seen a species description illustration like this before!

We learn from our mistakes, problem is iam still making mistakes and learning, the amount of palms I have killed would fill a botanical and sum!

Too wet! Next time you’re in the neighbourhood drop in for a week long crash course in palm seedlings!

So, i got a bag of couple hundred Coccothrinax crinata brevicrinus seeds @ Fall CPACS meeting and more than 250 got potted up. I’ve been keeping 3 50cell deep liners in my water heater closet/then sunlight when nice and they are great. I left 2 trays of weaker seedling in smaller cells out in the elements since early December. Didn’t think to protect these actually since ive got so many. I was surprised to find such a strong seedling survive. Granted it was under oak canopy, but still! 23 in the open was probably 26 where these are

The sign of a mature garden: Crysalidiocarpus onilihensis and/or Burretiokentia dumasii; both seeding profusely overhead.

Here are the famous Mules near the San Antonio Zoo, at the Japanese Sunken Gardens. Palms 1 and 4 have some freeze damage to the bottom fronds, the middle two look largely unaffected. Goes to show you what the Butia genes buy in terms of added cold resilience. This is only a mile or two from where I live so I’m unsure if they also received ice, although I would assume so. The trunks are getting freakishly big at this point! Knock on wood, but the temps seem to be in the ideal range for recovery. Would not be good if we were to get a freak arctic front as this forecast will break the dormancy on most trees. Mesquite and Pecan seem to be the smartest in terms of delaying until all threat is past.

Lovely Vanda's. They are a challenge growing outdoors here but a few species can survive and even thrive. Dendrobium speciosum season about to kick off in my garden.

A stack of dypsis onilihanses seeds to give away! Weeping form of course.

I am still here, just stretched in several different directions at the moment! Here's what I have available fresh right now, including Brahea moorei, Sabal uresana (green), S. pumos, S. rosei, S. tamaulipensis, S. palmetto var. bahamensis, and more: xButiagrus nabonnandii $25/10, $110/50, $185/100 Sabal palmetto var. bahamensis $8/10, $12/25, $18/50, $27/100 Sabal pumos $7/10, $11/25, $17/50, $24/100 Sabal uresana (Green Form) $8/10, $12/25, $18/50, $25/100 Sabal rosei $8/10, $13/25, $19/50, $27/100 Sabal bermudana $8/10, $11/25, $15/15, $19/100 Sabal mexicana $6/10, $9/25, $12/50, $15/100 Sabal tamaulipensis $7/10, $11/25, $17/50, $24/100 Sabal etonia $8/10, $12/25, $18/50, $25/100 Sabal minor ‘McCurtain County’ $8/10, $12/25, $18/50, $26/100 Sabal minor ‘Cape Hatteras’ $8/10, $12/25, $18/50, $26/100 Rhapidophyllum hystrix $10/10, $17/25, $25/50, $37/100 Brahea moorei $25/10, $42/25, $75/50, $130/100 Brahea aculeata $12/10, $19/25, $30/50 Brahea armata $8/10, $13/25, $20/50, $28/100 Chamaedorea microspadix $5/10, $9/25, $14/50, $20/100 Washingtonia filifera $5/10, $7/25, $10/50, $13/100 Attalea crassispatha $2/ea Butia yatay $10/10, $15/25, $21/50, $28/100 Butia odorata (FL Champ) $10/10, $15/25, $22/50, $30/100 Hyphaene coriacea $1/ea Thrinax parviflora $8/10, $12/25, $18/50, $25/100 Ptychosperma schefferi $15/10, $25/25, $40/50, $75/100 Rhapis excelsa $7/10, $10/25, $16/50, $24/100 Serenoa repens ‘Cinerea’ $7/10, $11/25, $17/50, $29/100 Musa acumninata ‘Papua Yellow’ $9/10, $14/25, $22/50, $33/100 Musa velutina $5/10, $7/25, $11/50, $16/100 Musa acuminata var. zebrina $5/10, $7/25, $11/50, $16/100 Ensete glaucum (fresh from my plant) $7/10, $11/25, $16/50, $25/100 Araucaria araucana $10/5, $17/25, $34/50, $58/100 This is the beautiful Sabal palmetto var. bahamensis. The seed that this adult grew from was collected on Harbour Island, The Bahamas many years ago. It's quite similar to S. bermudana in many respects, although the inflorescence is different and seed size is smaller. The trunk is self-cleaning and the leaf scars leave nice rings on the trunk. Very cool palm! To my knowledge, seeds have not been available in the past. This is the Butia I am calling "Florida Champ". I've never seen one larger in this or any other state. There's probably none quite like this outside of habitat. It's around 100 years old, according to the owner of the house (and the house has been in his family since it was built over 100 years ago). An interesting side note: While cleaning these seeds, I noticed that a majority of them looked like stones (no endosperm or embryo). It's fairly easy to spot this once you have a few years of experience making Butia hybrids. This is what the whole lot looked like after cleaning: I could tell right away that there were a bunch of bad ones. After carefully picking through them, here's all of the bad seeds, followed by what good seeds I was left with. That's more space than I was planning on dedicating to a Butia, but I think it's a special palm. I really can't say if it's just plain old B. odorata or not, but probably so. I'm calling it "Florida "Champ" because, well... Shipping is $5 in the continental USA. I DO ship internationally!

I have a few nice ones in my garden, around 5 feet of stem and looking gorgeous! Richard

You can tell there special, single trunk and a beautiful little palm! Richard

This form may end up another species one day, it was collected by Don Hodel. There is only one seed producing plant in Australia of this unusual form. Don send seed of it to his friend Ian Edwards in Cronulla NSW who has since passed. Regards Colin

Hey! I got a mexican fan palm just today, it's around 180cm tall, eith pot around 2m. I'm planning to plant it in ground on south wall in well draining cacti soil mixed with our native soil.

Yes sir I can relate to that one, used to have that one in a heap of container plants at my old rental house, how did I get rid of it you ask, I seperated from the ex missus and left her with all the container plants that were her container plants, and moved out! Never again I say!

Edit: if your order requires a box and is more than 4 oz., I have to charge $6. Most of you know how shipping has gone up again recently, but yet the service has gone down with USPS. Funny how that works. Frank

With lows in the 50s over the next week, all the potted plants have come out of hiding. Going to be gradually re-acclimating everything in pots to the sun after they were all under a tarp for like 3 weeks or something like that. Looking longer range, models are advertising this warmth to continue, and I find it quite likely it will at least thru the last week of February. Beyond then becomes sketchy at least up here in the Panhandle, the end of February and early part of March could very well be a continuation of the warmth we are getting ready to experience, or it could turn off cold again. I think we are done with the deep freezes, and with each passing day the threat for freezing temperatures is ticking lower, but it wont be zero until mid March. As always I am monitoring closely, but I am definitely starting to get the tingles of spring time. Would also like to point out that the cold snap did not stop the maples from flowering, like at all.

While i have been very.... discriminating.. w/ any watering, even with how dry / warm it has been ( Most of what i'm growing can't be watered this time of year regardless ) i have had to hit some stuff ..just enough.. to be sure those particular things don't suffer root dieback due to a lack of -any- moisture in the soil. ..and to keep some seedling stuff planted alive. Good portion of what spring annuals i have growing out front ..even the stuff that came up at the right time, are all showing signs of throwing in the towel for the year. Looks like the fire ( Bonita, via Watch Duty info. ) is contained at 26.3 acres.. https://app.watchduty.org/i/78721 regardless, was a little surprised to hear of -any- incident on the news tonight..

After a strangely " hot " day spent running around Tucson Saturday, and actually enjoying a < Warm > SB Sunday, Still 82F at 5:28PM on Monday #2 of the month after reaching 86 around 3.. Honestly feels warmer than that. Warm enough today that i had to water. Some neighborhood level readings around 3:30.. inc. a few 90s on the board today.. Back down to 84F by that time a few blocks from the house in downtown. One ( ?? ) more day in the 80s before temps pull back a little as some unsettled weather returns to the west over the next few days. Slight rebound is currently suggested for the upcoming weekend, before a -potentially- stronger storm may bring a decent cooldown, and rain chances sometime next week.. ..I say " potentially " because, ..eye balling the forecasts over the past few days, while the < brief > pattern shift that has been suggested for the west around mid month is still on the board, majority of the individual storms that may approach / pass through are looking pretty weak / majority of any rain or snow chances they might offer up staying further north than some of the earlier thoughts had suggested.. ..Direction most of the models seem to be pointing in right now. As usual, what is suggested now, can flip tomorrow so, ..We'll see. Regardless, continued confirmation in the longer term model thoughts that ...whatever.. cool shift occurs over the next ~ approx. 10 days across the state / part of the country, it will be gone by the final week of the month / Winter 25 -6 with temps quickly returning to above normal territory. Normal high at Sky Harbor is currently 70. Pretty sure it increases by 2 -4 degs by the end of month, which means ..if we return to the same " 9 to 15degs above normal warmth " at that time, we could be flirting w/ our first " official " 90 / 90s around the start of March.. Broken record repeating itself again, but, we'll see what happens. In a nod to just how dry / warm it has been, there is a wildfire being watched closely near Payson atm.. Monday P.V. check: " Nothing - burger " trend continues? Rando 🤷🏽‍♂️ dilemma for the evening: Who do you go with.. Strong is the loyalty to both teams.. so, Guess the question will come down to: Who showed up ready to play.. Regardless, per - fect night for anyone making the wise choice of watching the game out - side, ..Here at least.

Ray, Once again, I am not a scientist/meteorologist or any expert with specific acumen. I am providing my observation that I have witnessed numerous times over the years. Specifically, when I cross the bridge over the Intracoastal, my car thermometer rises approximately 4°F when I hit the island during cold events. I do agree that this cold event was similar to the December 1989 freeze but far less severe. At PBIA, the temperature was recorded at 42/28F. In this cold event, PBIA recorded 50/31F. I remember the difference! I will attach to this thread, several pictures that I took today, which will demonstrate what temperature must have been experienced on the island. please keep in mind that the ocean temperature today was approximately 76°F, and there were many swimmers and surfers in the ocean. You be the judge as to whether or not these plantings suggest that the island suffered a freeze.

Thay be right dont ask questions you don’t want answers too, or you will be swimming with the fishes I suppose. Must be a pretty big logistics company you have there. A consolidation of corporate operations, well know for dont ask questions. What Iam curious about is whos the CEO of such a corporation? Richard

🤣 so your familiar with our national anthem, Aussie Aussie Aussie oy oy ou!! Very popular with the drunken bogen culture!🤣

Looks like your palm has a nice amount of filifera in it. 😊 There was a member in Montreal who kept one alive for a few years in the ground but of course he had to provide heated protection for it. What do you expect to do during the winter months?

I am also debating on whether to bring shoes with ankle support knowing the space they take up in the carry on baggage I plan to pack. In fact I will need to wear them on the quite lengthy flights from Puerto Rico if I bring them. I do have a pristine pair of the boots I wear on my farm as my old ones need to be retired anyway. I did fine in Peru with lesser shoes but for the Ceroxylon hike we were provided with rubber boots. I will try to find out re shoes and post here in the next few days.

Now that’s a very generous offer, as you say it’s a win win situation. They are actually rare to buy now robellenii. With all the mom and pop nursery’s out of business and the chain stores dont want spikey plants such as robellenii. Even most palm collector growers don’t grow them. The trick is when you prune the old leaves off you have to cut them back beyond the spines, so next time you prune them there’s no deadly dry spines to get you!

If you’re baking Colin up that’s a good sign, yet no red leaf sheath I can see, so that one of mine is most likely not a remotifolia or remotiflora and iam ruling out lantzeana, another mystery dypsis like a lot of them out there!

You can rebuild your collection, together we all can help you rebuild!

Oxalis pes-caprae, ... it has covered Sicily, the southern half of Italy, and soon all of coastal California. Incidentally, there is some State of California website that states it is only spread by bulb offsets. I can attest that this is NOT TRUE. I have had volunteer plants growing several feet off the ground in the aluminum framing within my greenhouse !

Olive trees can handle 15F, but it seems olives don't do particularly well in Texas even in the drier regions. I've read how the olive farms have never really produced a crop in Texas. I grew a few varieties of them in Oregon and they were fine with ice storms. Plus there were some small olive farms there, but Oregon is a Mediterranean climate so is ideal for them. Here in Houston there are some olives in my neighborhood and they look good but don't produce fruit. Too hot and humid here that even if they did the fruit would likely be of poor quality. I've only seen Arbequina for sale here, they are a small olive used for eating and seem to be the most common variety in North America.

I have three types of firebush. The standard Hamelia patens, Lime sizzler and the Dwarf firebush. All returned for me last year so I expect better recovery this year. The Arbor gate in Tomball has a dwarf version that is 7 or 8 feet tall and very wide. They are hardy here and supposedly come back bigger each year as they become more established. The two I have are doing well with no damage.

I recorded a high of 83F and low of 53F in the east valley today. I agree that it felt like it was warmer sitting in the sun but might just be because it's winter (lol!). As much as I don't want to see a cool down, I really can't complain with the winter we've had so far. I've definitely had to do more watering than usual for this time of the year. I was not aware of the fire in Payson so I'll have to look into it.

Looks great. Unfortunately I haven't had any luck tracking down a Parson Brown orange in our citrus quarantine zone, nor a Sudachi. I'm sure they're around somewhere.

https://seatemperature.info/february/west-palm-beach-water-temperature.html Saw many folks swimming today! It was nice with good waves. I will post pictures of the Armageddon experienced here in the near future!

It’s always great to have international friends, especially those in high places!

Those are done. I had some that grew from small $10 palms to that size in one year that had had 3x the fronds so they were somewhat established. I protected and they looked better than these after the cold and they died. As far as I'm concerned unless we get 3-4 warm years (ie average) than they aren't worth even trying.

That is what I like about most palm folks . Quite easy to transplant in my experience . @iDesign , that is a nice gesture. Harry

Dave , that is a beauty. I planted one in my courtyard when I move here . It didn’t last the winter here, of course there was no canopy at that time. Harry Edit: they were much more common in nurseries in the 90’s . I got mine at a nursery and kept it in my green house for years until I moved here. It seems they were as common as C. Lutescens back then . I don’t see them at all any more.

I missed lighting for pics but my fully exposed Sabal guatemalensis burned more than expected. Still nothing major but probably 20-30% burn on the tips especially the outer leaves. It burned more this year than last year despite the temp being much higher (23/24F vs 19F). Guess it didn't like being blasted by the north wind. Bismarckia is quite burned especially the outer leaves. Thankfully the teens forecast didn't pan out and it should be just cosmetic damage. Livistona nitida is completely unphased as far as I can tell. Numerous seedling decora are fine or have a bit of tip burn. I have some Chamaedorea radicalis that never burned before with some brown...might be the wind rather than the actual cold? Here's L. nitida without a scratch

Your yard looks great. Everything is filling in and really coming together. Hopefully we get a 5-8 year reprieve after this.

Not a particularly exciting freeze update. After several winters with hard freezes there aren't many surprises and I've generally shifted towards adding duplicates/new colours of whatever is doing well for the various tropical perennials. Palms - Winners: Cham. radicalis (acaulescent form): ~20 plants, no damage, some of the more protected ones look to have kept their fruit too. Cham. microspadix: ~20 plants, no damage, under high canopy. My one large plant that I bought with several ~1 m tall canes and have complained about after the previous freezes seems to have finally toughened up. I think all the original canes have died and the new growth from the base is better adapted to the conditions. Rhapis excelsa: the most exposed leaves are fried, but otherwise fine. Palms - Neutral/Losers Cham cataractum (neutral): covered and protected with Xmas lights. Had to be severely pruned due to its size and now looks ugly. The only damage is what I did to it. Arenga sp. (loser?): ~10 plants. They made it through last winter without losing any leaves and finally put on some size this year, and one made its first offset. However, they were now too large to get buckets over them. I doubt any will die, but they are going to lose all their leaves which is a pain because they are slow. Tropical Perennials - Winners Justicia rizzinii: might have finally found a tropical plant which can shrug off a hard freeze and continue flowering. Going to be propagating a lot of this one. Callistemon phoeniceus: freeze didn't even damage the tender new growth, these have definitely toughened up. Tropical Perennials - Neutral/Losers Lobelia sp. 'Candy Corn' (loser): from Northern Mexico, was hoping this wouldn't get torched by the freeze. I assume it will regrow. Halleria lucida (loser): was in flower and just isn't getting the chance to form any solid wood with the annual freezes. Calamondin (loser): now have two of these and both sustained heavy damage. Everything else gets a 'neutral' rating: I expected them all to freeze back to the roots and I assume they will regrow in the spring. The various firebushes (Hamelia patens) are being watched. Several are going through their first winter and I have found these harder to overwinter than expected, especially the smaller ones. I regularly saw these in Austin pre-2021 (not sure whether they are still around) and they returned fine after normal winters there. Cham. radicalis. North facing and had to deal with all the wind. Cham. micrspadix. All the surrounding tropicals are completely torched. Arenga sp. The ones over the back with a bit more overhead canopy might keep some leaves. Justicia rizzinii. Have several in various locations and all are undamaged. They have had mild damage in previous years. Callistemon phoeniceus. Didn't even lose the new growth. Still no flowers though. I don't think they get enough sun.

Nice ones, cuttings 4 nodes, dont cut the leaves, teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda in a dish of water soak the cuttings. Get your stock material from around the new forming flowers, that is when they are in bud mode you will notice new shoots around the flower bud, we call it budding the proteas and remove that new growth so you get a better flower, perfect stock material for cuttings. And clonex purple gel dip your cuttings. Just standard propagation medium. My wife worked on a protea farm and learned all the tips. Let me know how you go, expect a few loses new pots if you can and new medium clean clean clean is the go, don’t overwater just occasionally mist depending on your humidity and kiwi land you should be right for moist air!

I think it should be alright, besides of course the sustained damage during the previous cold spell.

Jonathan, these little guys aren’t uncommon in local gardens, but still you don’t see a lot of them. They seed regularly and are easy to germinate. Tim

Maybe I made a mistake because I put them in the garden when they were still too small?

Yes, it has more of a Butia look because it is several generations removed from the original plant. That being said, many doubted that what was sold is a hybrid, but when it flowered the stamen count on many was 10-12, whereas pure Butia will always only have 6.

Jungle Music has the silver form listed off and on in their discount special. If you scroll down to the Monday list they have it for $170 plus shipping for a 15 gallon . https://www.junglemusic.net/Discounted_Plants/Discounted_Palm_Trees_and_Cycads.html

If youre ok with seeds check out @MobileBayGarden's posts on the sale forum. "Super Silver" may be of interest. His latest sales post https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/90658-rare-butia-syagrus-seeds-–-limited-supply/#comment-1225526

yep when well watered and fed these get thick trunks. My largest is 14 years int he ground from a 3 gallon.