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This palm should be a top choice in SoCal. Fast and jaw-dropping.

Similar to "favorite" palms, it is always changing which is my "favorite" cycad. Over the weekend, I would have picked this hybrid, big green ancient and twisted looking Encephalartos horridus x woodii. While my favorite will likely be different with a new flush, a cone, or maybe just different lighting, this gets the award today. My son, my dog, and his ward (the black lab pup) all give this perspective on how long the leaves are given it's partial horridus parentage, but then again, the woodii is coming through. The mother was a Steytlerville E horridus, which may explain part of the look. I just love those vicious looking leaflets too! So what is your current favorite? Perhaps a colorful flushing Zamia or Ceratozamia, a fuzzy flushing Dioon, or a fork leafed Cycas species? Enough suggestions, post your own favorite.

The solitary one I have in Leucadia is getting more light now that I removed a Guava tree to its west and a little north. The top of the wall is 6 feet high for perspective.

I took a look at the data. Thanks so much for the info, Than. You're in a tough spot, too, really. Yeah, I'd play it safe as well. Yeah, it's really dangerous on a slope. And something really stupid actually happened to me—I got distracted on Monday evening and wanted to fill in some more soil. In any case, my phone probably fell into the mound of dirt and I couldn’t find it anymore. Besides, you shouldn’t be doing things like that late at night. We searched and dug, but nothing happened. Then I wanted to get a new one—or rather, the same model—which was all set to be reserved nearby. But when I stopped by on Tuesday, they didn’t have it; they said there had been a mistake and that particular model was sold out. Then on Wednesday I headed toward Konstanz, and they had it at the discount store there. I bought it, but I still needed a SIM card, so I ordered one, and it’ll be in the mail tomorrow. To top it all off, Sabine was on duty the whole time and she needs her own cell phone, so I’m only getting around to this today—it’s a disaster. I had to postpone two appointments because of this nonsense... somehow it’s really strange—we searched everywhere and found nothing, as if it had just vanished. In the end, we had to laugh anyway—me at my lack of focus and Sabine at me. PS:Sorry for the late reply. The plants are doing well here so far; thanks to the extreme conditions, they’ve grown a lot. I’ll take some pictures once everything is set up again—hopefully tomorrow.

We have several allelopathic trees in this area and kauri can form a nasty podzol layer which may be present in some parts of the garden as it was all forest not so long ago. Many palms thrive so it's a bit of a mystery.

Such a lovely palm, another 5 years and I should have a conversation piece!

Close to all day full sun 1.5 miles from the ocean.

Mine is beginning to look like something 🙂

Mine has been a great grower for me. The colors on the crownshaft and petioles are great. I just recently took a close up photo of the trunk showing the coloration:

I'm glad the Sabal mexicana damage was not from ox beetles.

Have a number of planted out pure parajubaea torallyis that I placed in anticipation of their ridiculous girth. Anybody happen to know if Butia x Parajubaea Torallyis also get that yuuuuugge? Trying to squeeze it into a 40 inch wide space..... E.

I saved my shipped seedlings without a developed leaf yet in a mix of leca, lava, pine bark and a small portion of coir.

Still just a little young one, but showing more and more personality as it grows. It is the Encephalartos (arenarius x horridus) x latifrons hybrid. Did anyone else get one of these from George Sparkman around 2016 or 2017? Mine was actually holding about 5 leaves in 2017, so it was slightly larger than a band size pot when I got it. If so please share what yours looks like.

This Encephalartos eugene-maraisii keeps looking better and better as it matures. I love the insertions of the leaflets on the leaf, it just has a simple and clean appearance!

Great thread, here’s one of my favs

Tracy: Looks like you had a couple of the ArexLat X Lat crosses George made. It's interesting to see others as they begin to get bigger. I ended up with two and one died shortly after planting it (Crown Rot). Here is the one that is still going strong. Only one flush per year....I can't say my plant has the hybrid vigor I see in other hybrids. Nonetheless it's a really nice plant and happy it didn't see the same fate as it's sibling.

Recent new addition to my cycad collection an old Arenarius female. Currently my favorite cycad...

This one has been waiting in a pot for me to create a spot in the garden for it. I expect growth rate in the ground to accelerate. This was one of my favorites before planting and I know it will be a highlight of the garden as it continues to grow. Nice tight stacking on the leaflets, I almost like the look of the underside of the leaflets as much as the topside.

Something one can't grow here in Southern California outside, but is very cool indeed: Zamia pseudoparasitica. This one is growing in the new conservatory at San Diego formerly Quail Botanical Gardens here in Encinitas. You can see it hanging down with the other epiphytes in the basket.

It's always tough to resist something with a colorful new leaf, so no surprise that I was enamored when I saw this graceful Ceratozamia mexicana in the corner.

Green and fluffy Encephalartos turneri: leaflets still hardening off, they continue to hold a lighter green color before maturing to the deep forest green.

Sometimes it is just a little scrawny seedling flushing that gets us excited. That is when you know you have the virus! Protection added to keep my dog from accidentally getting off the walkway and damaging this seedling I planted a couple of years ago which is still only pushing out one leaflet at a time. Patience is rewarded as I remember so many other 2 leaf seedlings my wife asked: When will it be a "real plant" not just a couple of little sticks poking up?

Bowenia serrulata, although I do like B. spectabilis. I actually have a lot more B. spectabilis plants than B. serrulata but they're very small and slow growing. They prefer a wet rainforest climate.

You all have posted some beautiful cycads..... here is one of my current favorite cycads. E. Arenarius.

So when I opened the first photo file and looked at it zoomed in, the leaflets appear to have a mid-rib. That would immediately rule out Microcycas, so it must be some species of Cycas. I took close ups to clarify what Gene was looking for on the leaflets. First the Microcycas calcoma leaflets pictured followed by a few Cycas (debaoensis, tropophylla x micholitzii, szechuanensis ssp fairylakea, and thouarsii x cupida). No mid-ribs on the Mc leaflets, but all the Cycas have a mid rib in the leaflets visible. Now as to what species of Cycas, Gene or someone else may be able to weigh in. I've actually been known to try to catch someone outside working in their garden to ask about plants but rarely been bold enough to walk up to someone's door to ask. Maybe you are bolder than I am?

Hah, I saw these posts earlier today and went by there this evening. It was overcast so the pictures didn't come out great. I had to overdo the shadows and contrast to get any of the details out of them. Let me know if these work, or if you want a better picture of any part. Unfortunately they had trimmed off all the apparent baby sprouts of something from the trunk, and gave it a serious trim. I'm not sure if the old sprouts on the trunk were baby cycads or some kind of fern-ish thing. It did look like the base of the petioles was smooth, though it's hard to see from the photos.

Flavor of the week...

Cycas debaoensis Carlsbad boy may meet Leucadia girl later this summer. First time for both of them to cone or in the case of the female not really cone but produce megasporophylls. I'm still waiting on my Cycas thouarsii seeds to ripen on the plant as we approach the 2 year mark later this year, so I know it will take patience after the pollination if I can time it right. First time coning always pushes a cycad into the favorite position for awhile! The male plant is only holding one leaf while my female has 7 (3 oldest flush and 4 from most recent flush).

Like everyone else, my favorite cycad changes with every five or so steps that I take in the garden. But this horridus captivates me.

Lovin' my lehmanii. It seems as though of the Eastern Cape blues (E horridus, E lehmanii, E princeps & E trispinosis) that both princeps and lehmannii take longer to mature to coning stage than horridus and trispinosis. This may just be a coincidence in my personal experience but I'm curious if others have observed this. This lehmanii was at least a couple of year's older than my oldest horridus when I got them both about 14 years ago, yet the horridus is on it's second year coning with nothing yet on this lehmannii. I have a trispinsosis that I acquired as a band size that reached coning at about 9 years after acquisition (male). So I'll just have to wait and see but I'm hoping it turns out to be the same as the E horridus cone below... a girl. That would make me happy!

Deep green and lush, love the way the leaflets overlap on this one. It looks like all my garden will get another dousing of natural irrigation over the next few days. I imagine we will see some big flushes when the temps warm and we get further into Spring in the northern hemisphere. I'm looking forward to it during this shutdown. So what are you looking forward to flushing in spring or if you are in the southern hemisphere, are you getting one last fling before winter out of your cycads?

you have some of the hyrbids?

1.5 years from germination

I am really taken with this one zamia nesophila Richard

I love the plumose leaflets on Encephalartos caffer and this little one flushing is just oozing with appeal right now.

Usually my favorite is whichever one that is flushing, but right now it's this giant Encephalartos Hildebrandtii that I bought from PT member ChuckG last weekend. It looks a little rough at the moment with some sunburn from our recent rain-free and brutally hot spring, and a lot of damaged leaves from moving this ~500lb monster in the back of my van. It's utterly dwarfing the somewhat-too-close Sylvester on the left. I'm counting on the Sylvester to outgrow the Encephalartos in a year or two and provide some shade to the East. I'm going to transplant a couple of big Ice Cream Bananas to the West (right) side to give it some afternoon shade, because right now it's getting blasted from 2-5pm.

This still small Encephalartos arenarius x latifrons is showing a bit more character with the newest flush. I have two and this one seems to be the more interesting at this stage.

I was walking by an enclosure for a large iguana or lizard from Cuba when I noticed on the edge of the enclosure an unusual to see cycad from Cuba: Microcycas calcoma.

The colorful collars on this Encephalartos lehmannii really jumped out at me during the rains. The leaf collars with the orange highlights contrast nicely against the lehmannii's silvery blue leaflets. You can see how the waxy substance on the leaflets has worn off the bottom oldest flush. I'm sure I'll see more of that washing effect on all my blue cycads after this winter's rains are done!

This Encephalartos Princeps caught my eye the other day.

Since this one is flushing again, it's made it back to the top of the list. Encephalartos (arenarius x latifrons) x latifrons

As you can see in the photo, there is a little bit of sunscreen showing up on the pinnae to give them a hint of blue. Perhaps there will be more as it gets bigger. It is still young and small. I may have been a little ahead of myself describing it as adolescent. Juvenile might be a better description still.

The latest "twist" to my favorite is this one which is flushing a second flush of the season. Its still small so who knows how it will develop as it goes from this young adolescent state? Encephalartos (arenarius x horridus) x latifrons

My current favorite this female true blue arenarius pup I bought a few years back. By far one of my favorites

At the moment my favorite is my Dioon edule var. 'Queretaro' I found at a local nursery this past spring. It was obviously neglected but was a lovely blue-green. Flash forward nearly 6 months after I repotted and fertilized it. New leaves are twice as long as old ones and it has produced half a dozen offsets. Caudex is nearly 8" diameter. Dioon edule var. 'Queretaro', Cape Coral, FL

Another angle.

The one floats my boat.....

It’s hard to pick a my favorite Cycad because I love all of them. I really like your choice of horridus x woodii. Here are some pictures of mine.

I forgot a pic...