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There are different varieties of these circulating around here. There is a fat-leaflet one, and a clearly different whispy thin leaflet one, in addition to the various subspecies from around the Carribean. These traits were evident when young. The fat leaflet kind grows faster and more robust for me. The thin leaflet kind seems a little slower. PS ssp saonae is the slowest for me…. It was supposed to be a faster growing ssp. It was planted at the same time but much older, now blown away by its younger partners who have quickly surpassed it. PS….. it’s 83 F (28.3 Celsius) out right now at midnight.

It's flowering time again for Arizona sargentii's.They seem to put a lot of energy into reproduction, as those flower stalks literally push out inches per day once they get going. Pretty chartreuse yellow green colored flowers always attract lots of bees, then give way to tons of bright red cherry like fruits if pollination is successful - hence the common name 'cherry palm'. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Don’t know what this is, but it certainly is beautiful.

Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana, dypsis pembana, sabinara magnifica, three great palms.

Encephalartos altensteinii and natalensis share many characteristics. I know there are also several variations of natalensis too, so I won't weigh in. This Encephalartos natalensis × arenarius has significantly wider leaflets than natalensis or altensteinii due to the arenarius. It has a chunky caudex too with no pups.

I planted this green Encephalartos at my bosses house as an unknown species. It has grown very fast and now has a beach ball sized caudex and is throwing a nice flush. I am not an expert on green encephalartos so not sure on the ID🤔I was thinking maybe Altensteinii🤔What say ye experts? It is a very nice looking Cycad and I have it planted in filtered light so it is very stretched out.

They are true water lovers!

Dypsis poiveana.

Some welcome rain is a good start to winter as far as I can see, said the blind man who couldn’t see at all!

An old favourite that’s been around for a while. A real classic chamaedorea, perfect for container production, a true landscaping palm that’s very predictable in growth. A great indoor plant, patio or a bright shaded spot in the garden. And best of all super easy to grow!

Heres that monster! Richard

Beautiful picture, and with some luck you may have some seeds. Definitely the climate for growing in your area!

Wow now that’s cracking the combination to growing them, you definitely have it worked out, the heat is not a problem in summer for me. The winter may be a different story for me. Top picture in habitat thanks!

Thank you, the recipe you have provided sounds like the key to success with this palm. Very detailed description of what I should be doing with this palm. And the varietie I have is navassana, so that one problem solved. Thanks again.

It’s crazy. They grow those nubbins out, and then…. Bam! They explode open and the flowers grow super fast. Whatever sweet nectar they produce, it must be great. First tons of honey bees come, then tons of other little bees and fly-like things and ants for a long time. Looks like soil they would like. Bet they would like a lot of water and fertilizer during the hot months in that calcareous mix. Mine actually need a lot of potassium and boron, in addition to enjoying regular high end palm fertilizer, and my soil is much better than this, but still very sandy. Mine are on the very edge of the irrigation zones, and get hit 3x per week, but it’s a little light. I’ll soak them with a hose once a week when it gets dry. They can survive terrible dryness and bad soil, but still enjoy some TLC to speed them up.

Royal cleaning herself

Everything special starts small. In this case it is starting small and fuzzy. I am looking forward to seeing what emerges from the fuzz this time and watching it continue growing.

Not so sure. Everything else about it seems about right for C seifrizii. The clear indicator would be red vs black ripe fruit. I know the old C ‘erumpens’ which is now a synonym of S seifrizii was originally separated based on wider leaflets. I’ve got the ‘Florida form’ which is supposedly a ‘hybrid’ between C seifrizii standard form and C ‘erumpens’ - it appears to have slightly wider leaflets than typical. Perhaps Richard has the ‘erumpens’ form?

For f see one information on bonsai palms have a look at the Japanese variegated rhapis palms, they have been growing them as bonsai for centuries!

I am trying to get a few plants of Chamaerops humilis to accept a life as a bonsai. I have put them in a small shallow pot by cutting the big circeland growing roots. I am experimenting with the normal humilis, with vulcano and with cerifera. So far, so good. Photo 1 shows a vulcano, photo 2 a cerifera and photo 3 shows three palms in the gutter, also in shallow bonsai pots, with in the middle a variety named duplicifolia.

Here in Southern California it seems every nursery had lots of them about 20 years ago. Now , I rarely see them . I have a couple of clumps and the one in the shady side of the house is huge and dark green , planted in the ground. It has to be tied in a bundle to keep from being destroyed by the wind we get . The other is in a more sunny location and still in a pot . It is a lighter green and only about 6’ tall , including the pot. I have had them for many years , even before this house. They were originally house plants at our old house. In the shade they do very well and thrive . Yours look very happy there . Cool tolerant and can handle a bit of wind if bundled up and tied. Mine have seen over 60mph gusts without losing a frond . Harry We love looking out our kitchen window and seeing the “jungle effect” . The line that holds it up is tied to a single trunk C. Tepejelote to the right and a C. Lutescens to the left.

Hello everyone, I purchased this palm about 2 months ago and Just planted it. I was told from the nursery I bought it from "golden gate palms" in richmond ca that this was a hybrid wine pindo palm. I purchased the one on the right but was told they are both the same. Mine has unarmed petioles. I am not that experienced in telling the differneces between them at this juvenile stage. I have added my pictures. Please tell me your opinion, is this a pure jubaea or a jubaea hybrid ? I know forsure its not a pure butia as the petioles are unarmed. Thank you everyone.

I agree this is a hybrid. Doesn't look like either parent species, but has traits of both. But do you know if this is BxJ or JxB? The latter is a more finicky palm when small.

this is what I have seen. My sister had 2 installed 12 years ago that were just starting to trunk at the shore here in FL. They planted one in sand near the road edge in what looked like mostly beach sand(the lot was 200' to the gulf water) and one in the garden with rich amended soil. The one in the garden died within 2 years., the one on the road edge has survived 100mph plus winds and 5' of salt water in hurricane MIlton and a couple feet of water in hurricane IAN three years before. It did a lot better than her house which had to be removed after MIlton. I saw it earlier this spring, Its a navissana sargentii and it has 5' trunk ~12 years after install. It has had no irrigation since Milton hit in Oct 2024, just whatever rain fell. Almost all of her garden was killed by the water or lack of irrigation. It was fruiting so I grabbed a few seeds. Read palmpedia, they report palms hate slow drainage and rich soil, seems to be what I saw. I find palms in pots are harder to keep happy in general, they tend to cook in sun and naturally dont drain as well due to the small holes in the bottom compared with open soil. My little sargentii's are in 30% perlite combined with a potting mix, I will be monitoring the soil through he bottom holes.. They are slow, very slow. In a dry climate I would probably try to look at the dry cycle closely in those pots and half day sun. In humid climates they take sun pretty well. But in a dry/hot season leaf transpiration losses will be greater for sure. @AZtropic grows these in arizona desert just about as well as any I've seen in Florida. Watering in a dry climate might be a bit tricky without monitoring the soil moisture. They also like alkaline soils according to palmpedia. I bought some dolomite aquarium gravel for my little ones.

Succes!

It gets some water from neighbors sprinklers but it is definitely more on the dry side. I never give supplemental water and it’s on a slope so most would run off anyway. Full sun from very young. I did nothing to protect it last winter. It sustained severe freeze damage on all fronds except the spear and is now growing again. Producing inflorescences as well. The bees definitely love them here too. I’m always amazed at the numbers I get. I do give it some 0-0-20 and a light dose of Florikan once it starts raining reliably. Which I am still waiting for…

We all have that one garden nemesis that keeps us busy!

Latania

Same as my one tied up to keep it in check. I have another clump In the garden that’s a monster, they can get large that’s for sure. It’s surprising how tough this palm is and a good cool tolerance helps gor those in the cooler areas! Richard

Lepidozamia peroffskyana cone, the biggest one I have seen in a while!

Would you say a dry arid conditions with as much sun as possible for growing this palm. I can provide that but i havent been game enough to plant pslms in that area of my property. Good drainage is not a problem in my garden, or would a spot with some microclimate be best suited. Thanks

That’s warm for midnight, no wonder your palms look so good. Beautiful pictures thanks!

Yep. One is in the compost bin and one got cut down to the soil.

I have a pup that sprouted on mine about a year or so ago that has wide leaflets . It looks completely different than the others . It sounds like this species can be variable. Harry

My last connections , other than @DoomsDave was in the early nineties . The Sullivans , Karl Doebler , and John Talman , all of Ventura. John has passed on , Karl retired , and the Sullivans are no longer active. Harry

Bizzy Update - 6/10/26 Making more progress as the days get hotter and stay that way. Frond is emerging at a slow pace, albeit much faster than a couple weeks ago. Already starting to see a little bit of silver coloration on it as well. I did cut back some more of the dead petioles to expose more of the living tissue to sunlight. Gonna go ahead with a light dose of fertilizer on this and see how it responds.

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.

There are 4 pups and 2 more about to come up from last year! 👀

Looking at habitat is always a good start. They occur on dune sand or limestone. I’d say a good starting point would be a very well drained mix with pH above neutral. Maybe add some dolomite lime? Full sun also seems to be the way to go for these based on what I’ve seen, but I’ve never tried growing one myself.

Bismarkia

To the flower tips, these are surely 10 feet.

Not only is the growth impressive for 4 or 5 years, but also it looks to have grown at least 2 pups! Nice job and what a statement it must make in Michigan!

Thanks, but it’s those lucky Hawaii growers, and a lot of other peoples gardens that have beauty off their own. One thing I do know is we all share the love of palms, some of us a little more crazy about them than others. I myself are one of those crazy palm lovers who just love gardening. Every gardening has his or her own style of gardening!

Nice to have the photo proof, looks great

Was cleaning up some stuff that was overgrowing my Chamaedorea cataractum and found a good amount of seedling underneath. I've only managed to germinate three intentionally despite trying each year, so just leaving it alone and transplanting the seedlings will be the plan going forward. There is already a new crop of seeds developing. Definitely an underused species in Houston, especially given how cheap and widely available they are.

Looks great! Good job man!

Hmmm, are you sure that's a Jubaea? The arching leaves suggest Butia to me.

..

I read on the few threads and posts online about this palm that it doesn't get attacked by the insects and borers that affect other butia palms because of its thick endocarp, but upon cracking open 50 seeds from RPS I found 5 of these little grubs in place of seeds. Grub example: Still, due to it's propensity to produce a triplet of seeds in one nut, and despite a losses to grubs, damage from cracking and a many non viable seeds, I ended up with 54(woohoo!) seeds from just 50 nuts showing a healthy button after delidding. Not a bad result🥳 especially considering they've been listed on RPS for quite some time Healthy seeds:

I haven't seen an inflourescence on mine yet. I'll check it again when I go see if the coconut I threw in the woods last summer has sprouted yet 😂