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With all the rain we’ve had and the long summer days, this palm dropped another leaf and is now showing another ring of trunk.

I grew this one from seed and finally got it in the ground last year. It just put out this new flush. Encephalartos bubalinus This one I also grew from seed however it’s been in the ground for about 10 years now. Cycas megacarpa

Harry I think the consensus is that this one is Ceroxylon ventricosum which is a little different to C amazonicum with its plumose fronds rather than arranged in a single plane. I will say I’ve always thought the Sullivan Ventura Ceroxylon could be C quindiuense - it just seems to have that slightly plumose look rather than very obviously plumose like C ventricosum I’ve seen.

Any updates? We're putting more palms in the ground this week (especially the "big boys"), and I kept going back and forth on the placement of my julietiae (from the Sparkman group). Despite trying it in several "prime" spots, it never looked quite right in any of the placements I was considering. Here was the original placement I was leaning towards (but am no longer doing)... Today I tried moving it to an equally prominent place next to the palapa. And I like this placement a lot better! It looks like a feather on a fancy lady's hat to me, and all but one of the fronds are already clearing the palapa top (ignore the lean... I'll fix that during planting)... Sadly, the updated placement does mean the poor palm will need to stay in its pot just a *little* longer... as we're making a rock "planter" on the left side of the palapa . At least I know what will go in that planter now! That spot has an ideal balance of sun/shade, and relatively good wind protection. So I'm ready to declare this the plant's new home (unless anyone sees an issue with it). Curious how are everyone else's R. julietiae are doing.

Looks just like the C. Radicalis I have growing around my garden. Some have very relaxed leaflets , others vary a bit . All of mine end up as tree form. Harry This is more upright This pair has more of a relaxed leaflets habit Growing up through a neighboring Pritchardia These are all on the shady section of the garden . I also have some in full sun. Very cool hardy and sun tolerant .

I’ve lived in Northern Virginia for almost 40 years. This last winter was the worst, long duration a.m. p.m. cold I’ve experienced. I truly thought my 12-year in-ground Trachy was going to die. Don’t have the stats but it was at least 2-weeks of continuous sub freezing F. temps. Along with about 8” of snow and ice that lasted that whole time as well. Maybe the only saving grace was sunny days after the precip. fell? I removed about 6 of the most damaged lower fronds mid spring. Haven’t fertilized yet but it is pumping out nice new firm fronds, maybe 6 or 7 as of today. I’ll clean it up again this fall, after it’s had a chance to fully recover and replace the canopy. Even though it’s messy, it still looks great! It’s about 13’ of trunk so winter protection consisted of 200 Christmas lights in two loose balls laid up at the crown covered loosely in a layer of burlap…very unprofessional but it’s too tall now. I also wrapped a 3’ tall band of black landscaping cloth around the base of the trunk. This catches a fair amount of the sun’s radiated heat several hours each winter day. Of course, it flowered like crazy in early spring. I’ll cut those remnants off as well this fall. Anyway, I’ll send out status reports soon. I was shocked at how poorly my sunny Needle did.

Adonidia merrillii

Don't compare to the big box stores. Half of them never water any plants once the nursery delivers them. Two weeks later, they're dead.

Try letting them dry out a little. They are quite tough, and if that fails get it in the ground, that’s the best way to grow a palm. My ones got planted at a young age. They are slow as seedlings but once established they move pretty good.

Great to see this post revived . I knew nothing about these until I saw one in Ventura at Terry and Sevin Sullivan’s place . It towers over the garden with a dominance like royalty . I didn’t know it was heat sensitive but it seems to like the coastal Ventura climate. Harry

Nope , not growing that one . It is a good looking palm though. Harry

2023 - 2026, extremely fast. Never affected by freezes but appears to have a phytoplasma disease from which it seems to be healing. There's 2 new spears coming up fast.

I have two Zamia sp Jamaican Giant gifted from CB Lisa. I was lucky to get a male and a female.

Some photos of the garden over the past week…

@Harry’s Palms has it right he’s on the money with this one, i would acclimatise the palm over one winter and then plant it in the ground. If it lives that one winter then it stands a fair chance in the ground.

Might as well plant a tray of chamaedorea adscendens and a couple of others for the garden! Dypsis baronii black petiole Rhopalostylis baueri Cyphophoenix nucele chamaedorea adscendens Normanbya NormanbyiDykia Burgundy hill brom

They seem pretty easy to germinate, bottom heating 30 degrees celcius coco peat perlite mix. I even had some germinate under the palm as volunteers. Not sure on the seed viability, but if they come up in the ground next to the mother palm one would think they have a good 4 months viability possibility longer. Good luck!

Hmm I doubt it. Ceroxylons grow like weeds in NZ and they’ve got volcanic soil. I can’t really think of a reason why some of the lower elevation Ceroxylon sp like C amazonicum and C ravenii wouldn’t do well. I know the high elevation Ceroxylon are known to dislike high temps and high humidity in combination so I’d say that’s the limiting factor in most cases.

Couple of mitis in the garden. You either like or dislike them. They tend to get quite large and a bit messy looking with a bit of age. But each to their own. Still a good palm for a large screening plant, relatively medium paced growing in good conditions. Very tough and will take some sun and shade, the more sun they get the more yellow looking they get. They were very popular many years ago in Australia.

Wow , that’s a beauty! I would get that in a bigger pot for sure . My experience with Butia is that they are tough palms . Mine is in the ground and has been in full sun since it was quite young . I think yours will want as much sun as it can get . It may slow down a bit in winter but should be fine with a bit of protection. You may already know this but drainage is key for potted plants . They can handle frequent watering as long as the drainage is good . I put small 1-2” pebbles in the bottom of the pot , then a good sandy loam soil mixed with a bit of perlite or orchid mix, just enough to keep the soil from coagulating. Harry

This. It may also well be, that in certain regions and/or nurseries the use of this term has been standardized and is applied only on a certain form of Sabal. But to the rest of us, who do not live around, the term is not useful for description.

I also grow mine in pots. They seem to be pretty low maintenance palms trees for me. They spend their time mostly outside once temperatures climb above freezing. I've had no issues keeping them outside in the upper 30s at night. Good drainage is the key to success . They love the water.

It’s not valid. Kew lists it as a synonym of Sabal palmetto. I will say though that S ‘blackburniana’ I’ve seen appear larger and different to S palmetto. I suspect S blackburniana as described was found to be the same as S palmetto so it was synonym used, but since then the name has been erroneously applied to different plants. As above, Sabal are difficult to ID at this size. I’m far from able to provide a positive ID, but to me it looks like it might be one of the very large group ones like S uresana, domingensis, causiarum or maritima.

Harry, always a BIG wow! Just amazing. Tim

A few more in the garden, they are very tough palms and easy to grow.

New frond on A. vestiaria a few days ago. It needs more sun i think to get better color.

Areca vestaria, looks like it might be the red form.

Super unique looking! Looks like it has a tendency to grow upright like Oliviformis. I see what you mean about the Dark Mealy look too. She’s purdy though, whatever it is!! -dale

Well, I’m growing sp. ambanja, but it’s definitely not that palm! Sorta kinda like baronii, but it’s got its own look. Yours looks great whatever it is Jason.

My Acrocomia has grown pretty fast this year I hope it gets a thicker base and plumose leaves next year. How fast have Acrocomias fared for you this year? Share them please. First of all, this is my palm when it arrived on january, it didn't start growing until spring was close, which is when I planted it. The palm comes from the state of Tabasco in southern Mexico. April 2nd 2023, My spring or "Semana Santa" vacations started and I decided to start planting palms. The first one was obviously my Acrocomia. Yesterday. It's still growing pretty fast even though it's fall.

This particular queen in Galveston is sooooo green 🤩.

When I first moved to Florida, I planted a Bismarckia in mid2010 and a sabal uresana in summer 2011. Uresanas are often mentioned as alternatives to bismarckia in 9a. These palms have stood next to each other over the years making for an easy growth comparison. Bismarckias are generally regarded as fast growers and uresanas are said to be slow. First, Bismarckia several months after planting a 5 gallon bought at a big box store. Everything but the spear had heavy mold spots so I kind of treated it as a rescue. It seems to have that purplish hue after winter that is often associalted with a whiter leaf. It adapted fast to sun after being tortured inside the box store with palms stacked in a pile around it. It put 5-6 new leaves out the first year. late july 2010 bismarckia then about a year later I planted a sabal uresana "icy blue" I bought from tejas tropicals in texas. It was a strap leafer and I put it in a pot. About 6 months later it was ready to go into the ground as the pot was root bound. A little over 2 years later in sept 2013 both had grown well. IN this pic the uresana looks a bit bigger than it was (relatively) since it was closer to the observer. It had turned darker with less "icy blue" color but was clearly not just a green sabal. The uresana was about 6' overall and the Bismarckia was closer to 10' in this pic At this point the bismarckia was trunking and growth was accelerating and here is the pic from june 2015. The uresana not trunking was putting more leaves for a bigger crown About 4 years later the uresana had lengthened it leaves and had gone into trunking mode. It went skyward chasing the bismarckia but still 6-7 feet over all behind the biz in height Last week I took another pic and noticed about a 10' gap even though the uresana had sped up and grown to about 25' tall. compared with 35' for the bismarckia I thought it was interesting that the growth burst of each happened at trunking, as we are often told by the literature. Yes even sabal uresana grows well after trunking. I also though it is interesting to note that Sabal Uresana has a wider crown, that was a surprise. I had always thought Bismarckia would be wider as it throws more shade but its a couple fee less in width of the crown. The Uresana crown is more open though, and it took a lot less damage than the Bismarckia in hurricane Milton(oct2024). Part of the lesser damage suffered by uresana could be due to less wind damage as there are higher wind velocities at height, but also part might be the Uresana having an open crown with smaller leaves that have less wind drag. I do think Uresanas will have more blue than mine in a drier hot climate. Bismarckias are very versatile, they don't need much fertilizer and mostly they are self shedding. Just keep them happy and the weevils wont come to dinner(I had a sick one attacked by weevils and killed). I treated the Uresana same as Bismarckia, limited fertilizer compared with my other palms The Uresana has persistent leaf bases which are still strongly attached near the ground. Since I do the trimming, I am happy that Uresana is a slower grower, as the Bismarckia is now too tall for me to trim from the ground. And the Bismarckia(female) is a mess, dropping 150-200 lbs of seed a year. I just got done raking up half a trash can full of Bismarckia fruits, and there is at least that much still hanging on the tree. Uresana has not fruited yet at 15 yrs. Sabals are notorious for liking heat to grow fast and they both had plenty of Florida heat. For those thinking about Sabal Uresana, its not Bismarckia fast but its more of a medium grower for me after trunking.

Variegated rhapis, iguanura wallachiana and Pinanga purple crownshaft.

Agree with C radicalis. Looks typical in every way to me including the inflorescence.

Aloe Plicatilis, Butia Capitata, Cereus Repandus and Dudleya Brittonii all gone! Flipped them for… you guessed it Cycads lol. Lehmannii, Trispinosus and Horridus I will eventually be selling.

So the deed is done. It was almost like having to put down the family dog... I will probably wait a couple months before planting one, two, or possibly 3 smaller palms, I'm liking the flamethrower... They even left me a souvenir

Different light gives different results, a nice chamaedorea klotzshciana certainly looks good in a bit of different lighting.

A nice bit of colour on the archontophoenix new leaf

Why not a palm seed thread, we all love our palm seeds, and with so many of us harvesting our seeds from our gardens, or purchasing them. It’s a great way to get seed identification for those who may have there doubts about did I get the real deal. Chamaedorea tenella Mother plant And the rats had been stealing them so harvest time!

Flood that area. It needs it bad. The cannas would probably appreciate it too haha

Bismarckia was a 5 or 7 gallon and planted May 2024. That September 2024 I planted the Sabal uresana - I'm thinking this is a 15 gallon pot. I've included a photo of the Bismarckia at that time to show its growth. Today there is 1-2' foot overall height differential between the two with the Bismarckia displaying a trunk and being the taller of the two. The Sabal uresana has no real sign of a trunk yet, but is growing at a decent pace.

A nice Chambeyronia and the Geonoma atrovirens seems to ok in cold wet conditions (for now) still not freezing conditions to kill palms yet, but they will come sooner than later those 2 degrees celcius mornings.

A spathe standing at attention on a Burretiokentia hapala.

Another group in Houston.

Local Sabal uresana. Some or all of mine came from these trees.

A few germination successes for some rare species caught my eye: Syagrus harleyi Syagrus campestris Syagrus cataphracta Pritchardia waialealeana

I have a causiarum and the width of the crown is very similar to the uresana. The uresana has longer petioles and smaller leaves. I am surprised how much less shade it throws than causiarum which is also much less than bismarckia. The view up on my uresana appears most sparse of the three but it is wide, ~ 25' I think. biz crown Uresana crown lighter shade. Being closer to the uresana my lens cant get any wider(17-55mm cannon EFS crop frame). The uresana also has a thick trunk with leaf based on, similar to my Biz with a smooth trunk. The pavers are 9" on one side 11" on the other. I see 3 of them on the 11" side is about the thickness of the trunk base.

Pure Jubaea has stiffer, stubbier leaflets and is much more compact. I have seen quite a few but of course I could be wrong as growing conditions and variation can deceive.

A few more years and it’s going to be looking pretty good!

My little one is gaining size. Tim, did you add one to add to your garden yet?