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@Eric in Orlando Roughly the same here. Most of the deaths have been because folks removed stuff like Royals or Coconuts before giving it a shot to come back. @donalt The place looks great! Especially considering what went down in February! @Merlyn Pulling weeds, trunk cutting, and dumping daconil are scheduled events for this year's gardening decathalon. Your training should pay dividends. 😁

Lovely crownshaft of young Chrysalidiocarpus sp. mayotte. Almost looks like it should be in a pastry shop…

My guess is the lighting. Copernicias LOVE lots of full blazing hot sun. Yours looks like its in filtered light.

I finally got the mulch on the entrance garden to the house. Bit by bit makes a big job easy. It certainly does make a difference, easy on the eye water saving and feeding the soil plus a little extra warmth in soil temperature. Only another 30 cubic meters to go for the summer water savings!

@Eric in Orlando I've also noted more Spindle deaths in my yard than Bottles. It might just be random chance, since both seem susceptible to bud rots. Either way, the "conventional wisdom" of Spindles being tougher doesn't seem to be true in my yard. My front porch Licuala Grandis is now showing signs of actual life! About a week ago I carefully trimmed all the dead frond bases down around the crown, trying to find if there are actually any spears. I found a double spear and cut back to expose it, and today I noticed both spears had grown about 0.25" taller and started opening with a hint of green!

They are a good looking palm when grown right. Plenty in my hometown but they never set seeds even when planted in groups. They were so popular years ago, like you said as indoor palms now you see them outside of houses where the home grower got sick of them and planted them in the ground thinking they would stay a cute little indoor palm. I guess the only winner in this situation is the palm but gosh knows how many must have been killed indoors. They are a lovely palm and I reckon they look better in the shade than full sun. These one where planted out as tube stocks. Super tough.

Formerly Peckerwood Garden and Yuccado Nursery. Located in Pine Island, Texas. Brahea dulcis Sabal uresana Brahea berlandieri, Sabal uresana,Nolina nelsonii Serenoa repens Dioon edule, Nolina nelsonii Sabal causiarum Agave ‘Miquihuana Silver’ Brahea berlandieri Brahea berlandieri Brahea moorei Brahea dulcis Agave victoriae-reginae Yucca linearifolia Sabal uresana Nannorhops ritchiana

Dypsis remotifolia and socratea rostrata both loving life in winter.

Those look very healthy there . I would have never thought that Fresno would be home to them. I bet he soaks them very well! Harry

Some observations from around Orlando; Lots of Foxtails growing back, quite a few took awhile . But a majority of thinner younger specimens that were planted just 1-2 years ago perished I've noticed more Bottle Palms recovering than Spindles I'm shocked at how many Coconuts are recovering, in the past they have been killed at higher temps Most Adonidia have perished (not surprising) but I see some that are growing back Most Arecas had tall stems killed but I see some sprouting back, but suckers regrowing good I haven't seen any Ptychosperma elegans growing back but for some reason they weren't widely planted around like Adonidia Royals are growing back great, only deaths I have seen were young juvenile specimens less than 6-7ft I'm going to be at the Landscape Show next week at the convention center on I-Drive. Curious to see how the tropical palms down there fared; big Royals at hotel by Sea World, big Royals at convention center entrance, all the Bottles and Adonidia planted by the CC, the big Coconut at that one restaurant. I can see a couple Coconuts at Volcano Bay from I-4 growing back.

@Phoenikakias here is my Alba today: And this is when I planted it in July 2024: Clearly it's bigger now, and took zero damage at 22.5F (-5.3C) in February. But for sure it's been slow. Part of this is because the bamboo behind it (Gigantochloa Luteostriata) shades it until around 2PM.

Amarcrinum

It makes a big difference in appearance and keeps the soil healthy. In hot weather, like we are experiencing this summer , the ground underneath the mulch stays moist longer . Harry

Being so commonly sold as indoor plants, it's no surprise that so many Ravenea end up outdoors in people's yards in the Fresno area. I see them haphazardly thrown outdoors, usually after a poor performance as an indoor plant. Occasionally, I see them growing happily if they're near a lawn or sprinkler. I've even seen some with a few feet of trunk... but this one takes the prize. This has got to be the biggest pair of Ravenea in Fresno. Wow! You might mistake this for a neighborhood in SoCal, as opposed to the Central Valley. I feel like the anecdotal things about climate change from old-time gardeners in the Fresno area are substantive. I'm seeing lots of plumerias growing happily around town too - at first you notice one. Then the following year you notice more, and each year it seems there are more. Cassia fistula, fruiting mangoes, longan... all of these grown by adventurous gardeners, and somehow happily making it in this harsh climate. The USDA's latest zone update has a small pocket of 10a in the Fresno area to add a bit of weight to the anecdotal chatter too.

The danger in the beauty, and the beauty in the danger ‼️

Yep it just needs another ten years! How’s life in the freezer, anyone knock off your firewood yet!

I like the thought that has gone into that garden and it has a bit of age about it as well!

We had a decent 2 weeks but now everything recently shut off again also. Clear sky’s and no rains again. Exposed grass is dying despite irrigation. It’s just too hot and dry out in the open. Even after early morning irrigation, things are browning up that are exposed. I went out tonight to soak all the crotons which are wilting by early afternoon now. This will be the 3rd year in a row without a wet season to speak of. August looks to be a hot, dry bust. Hope now seems to lie with tropical systems as we approach peak hurricane months.

Here’s an Encephalartos chimanimaniensis pushing out a flush in a crowded location, And here is a young Encephalartos laurentianus pushing out a tall flush. It was hard to get a good photo of it.

A few more unidentified Encephalartos flushing,

A few Encephalartos Longifolious flushing.

this Chamaedorea radicalis, almost 11 years old from seed, courtesy of @doomsdave

They are real winner, iam surprised they take the cool weather well.

Plumeria in our neighborhood bloomed early this year and have been loaded with flowers ever since that early start. Here are a few in our yard which havd followed the neighborhood trend. It was a mild winter and spring and much hotter than normal along the coast of San Diego County this summer. How are the Plumeria doing in your garden or neighborhood this summer?

I started some I got from big fish.They were not fresh, but not old. Sat in a baggie w/ moist vermiculite for at least 6 months. Nothing. I then stratified them in the crisper of my beer fridge in baggies. 2mos,then into a community pot in March with fluctuating temps. Saw sprouts in July or so. So it may be inconclusive to say that they need stratifying but my results indicated it was helpful. Reminds me I have a decent size bag of my own needle seeds I need to start Good luck

And in the middle of all the above, I spent a solid 6 days doing nothing but pulling weeds. It's for sure my least favorite task, especially with this new weed...er...hardy imported perennial. I've figured out how to deal with Artillery Fern (hand removal and 2,4-D), and most other weeds don't like to grow with a thick layer of mulch. Some pop up in March and die by April. Big ones like thistles or pokeweed or even potato vine are easy targets for hand pulling. However, this one popped up this year and is INCREDIBLY annoying. I'm not sure if it's Sida Acuta, Hyptis Verticillata, or something completely different. It has small white flowers and the bees love it, and it makes little green round seeds that seem to have a 500% strike rate. If you see this stuff, do NOT let it get started. The biggest problem is that it'll grow in thick mulch and loves to grow right up against the trunks of palms and cycads. So I'll miss one and then end up with 50 small seedlings growing in the middle of a spiky Dioon Edule cluster, and get stabbed many...many times trying to pull them all. The only good thing is that it doesn't seem to grow in the lawn. I guess the grass roots choke it out. I pulled 3 yard waste bags full of these beasties out of the NW corner:

@Harry’s Palms I've been doing the reciprocating saw thing for a while, but mostly for cutting up bamboos or old oak stumps. I had a "blinding flash of the obvious" this morning when prepping to move the Chamaerops. I'd used the saw to cut around the above Butia for trashing it, but it didn't occur to me that it might actually work better than just the shovel. When I sliced around the Chamaerops the slightly-damp sand stuck in place to the roots. So not only was it easy to move, but the root ball held in place instead of having all the sand fall off. If you are in dense clay and rock then a carbide-tipped blade is probably a good idea. I've been using the Diablo pruning 3tpi ones for all the stumps and bamboos. They stay sharp in sand for so many cuts that the eventual failure is snapping off at the tang instead of getting dull. I wish they weren't $10 each... I used an old Bosch RS7 for years on stumps until I finally destroyed it. I then made the mistake of buying a "counter weighted" Milwaukee saw, which was super smooth in regular cutting...until the blade gets stuck. Then the extra counterweight means extra super strong rip your arms from the sockets vibration. It was so bad that I went and bought a Bosch RS325 and tossed the Milwaukee in a cabinet as a "in case of emergencies only" saw.

Here’s how it’s looking. Documenting this because who knows maybe someone will be in a similar spot as I am today. Spear is firm.

@Harry’s Palms , @Jdash , @kinzyjr and @Chester B thanks for the kind words and encouragement! The last month has been a lesson in humility, i.e. "you are no longer 25 years old." 🤣 I was out in the sauna all day every day for 7 days straight. I disassembled the old agave bed and collected...by hand...all the red lava rock and salt-and-pepper granite and moved it into the new smaller areas. I'd collect 7 gallon pots of rock, move and dump, go back and collect more, rinse and repeat. 30 minutes in the blazing sun, 30 minutes in the A/C in front of a fan, grab a new tshirt and go sweat some more. The washing machine got as much of a workout as I did. After about 5 days straight my hands and forearms and shoulders were so worn out that just doing simple things (like getting a glass of water or brushing my teeth) was difficult and achy. The last straw was picking up the concrete blocks and carrying them two at a time across the yard to redo the center bed's rear arc border: You can see a tall 7g of granite on the left, ready to slooooowly distribute by hand across the front. I also moved most of the white/pink quartz as cosmetic filler. It took 2 full days to redistribute all the rocks. I also had to dig out the front border at the grass, because the blocks had been slowly sinking 2-3 inches down into the sand. It now looks like this with a fresh layer of mulch around it: The original big agave bed on the left got the same treatment, and I now have a big new open area in front of the Bismarck. The ladder is up against a Pygmy Date that has just refused to push new fronds. There's a missing block at the front because I was moving a pair of Chamaerops from the deep shade just to the right of the ladder. You can see the weeds already trying to take over near the Bismarck....grrrrrrrrr..... These two Chamaerops went into the ground back in 2019 and 2020, and were promptly in deep shade from the overhanging Arenga Engleri and Bismarck. So I moved them over to the SE corner: They are super stretched out and scraggly from too much shade. I tried a new tactic on moving them that seems to work. I pulled out the reciprocating saw and a 12" wood-and-nails blade, and just cut a slightly inward-angled circle/oval/oblongish route all the way around them. Then I could just stick the shovel into the cut line and pop them out of the ground in one fell swoop! It took a little bit more setup (extension cord and saw) but the actual dig took only 2-3 minutes and was super easy...in relative terms.

Triple hybrid. They say it was developed for better edible shoot production. I haven't tried it yet. It does have beautiful coloring for a few years before it fades. Dendrocalamus validus...one of my favorites. 5 inch culms and nearly 50 feet tall!!!

all the following palms in my yard recovered from the February freeze: royal, foxtail, coconut, adonidia, alfredii, hyophorbe lagenicaulis (bottle), pseudophoenix sargentii (buccaneer). foxtail and adonidia took the longest; royal, coconut, bottle and buccaneers showed life 6-8 weeks post freeze. other plants (mango, copperleaf, croton) recovered as well.

at Naples Botanic Garden.

Copernicia are all pretty slow in my yard. I have an Alba a bit smaller than yours, and it also only grows a couple of small fronds per year. It is probably similar to Gigas, Bailey and Fallaensis when they are small. Very slow...maybe not "painfully slow" but definitely slow.

One of the holy grail oaks of Mexico. Quercus tarahumara. Two specimen at John Fairey Garden.

Yep. Painful experience makes a person cautious...last year I started the southern hemisphere summer thread about 2 months to early...not touching that one again. Fully expecting that September will be the coldest on record.

Be weary if you have just had your mildest winter in terms of extreme min, and the the next one starts really mild also. It turns out you don't need a long lead in of gradually escalating cold or below average sea temperatures to break an all time cold record - just one super inopportune synoptic setup will do it. 🫣

this one wasnt covered but was under canopy in my rainforest ---- also it was in a pot ---- I think I got down to 20 F° or so here ---- it was pretty brutal -- then the bad drought after wards

Encephalartos Longifolious

Dypsis mirabilis with strings of pop beads. Tim

I was never able to keep a palm consistently happy unless I knew the watering depth. If the soil has some clay, watering depth is determined by time, not flowrate. Excess flowrate that isn't spread around the root zone can run off, evaporate, or channel in the soil. Faster flowrates tend to cause more channeling. Irrigation drippers can be used to great effect in dry areas. You get perhaps 10 degrees more heat there than in Alfredii's native habitat. To me it looks like classic desiccation in the hot season by underwatering. If you went away and watering was not automatic in your absence in the heat, there is the likely culprit. I would water for at least 1 1/2 hrs at low flowrates of 6 gph((3) 2 gallon drippers spaced around the root zone every 3rd day in the heat, less frequent when the high temps drop below 75. You can buy timers and drippers that can be attached to a hose. I have killed plenty of palms by just hand watering, automatic watering is needed and drippers tell you what the flowrate is so you can calculate the total water in gallons. Your palm does not have an established root system, they don't come that way. IF you want it to be happy, you will have to make sure its getting the right amount of water and wet a good root zone area for the first two years. When established they are a low maintenance palm aside consistent watering like most palms. Once roots are established it will carry a full crown like this. I've seen these grown in the arizona desert and all over socal so it can be done. I don't recommend getting the tallest one as its roots have been bound for a long time in a pot. 15 gallons would be fine. I started with a 3 gallon and the above pic is the end of the 3rd full growing season. Here is the 3 gallon 6 months after planting Today its 30 foot tall, and just as wide with a 34-36" thick trunk

Sabal Yapa & Brahea (when blue meets silver)

Ok quality check - in - on the Almaden area B. edulis while back home...