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EXTREME wind today in Carlsbad (North San Diego county). Okay, I hear laughing from some of you, but it was extreme by SoCal standards! I noticed my husband was laying down palms, so took some video (this isn’t even the windiest moment). My yard is particularly vulnerable due to so many palms still residing in pots. Some like the Licuala sumawongii did amazingly well (confirming I picked a great spot for it). Others needed to be laid down or moved to a spot sheltered from the wind. Anyway, hope you enjoy watching my under construction garden get blown around a bit! Dec-24-2025-1766642514_4973559.mp4

Thanks for the reports! Stacy , that video is amazing . At 7am I checked the rain gage , an additional 1.75” had fallen between 10am yesterday and now. This brings the storm total to 5.8” …..so far. We are getting a reprieve at this time. Harry ‘Looking West , towards the Pacific , from our deck.

In between rain squalls! Moved it here at least 25 years ago. I cut quite a few roots but it survived. Harry The fence is about 6’ tall , the palms had just about a foot or so of trunk. We had a viscous storm last night with howling winds . The trunks are much stronger than they appear. Harry

It sure feels good , it looks like Mother Nature is going to soak our gardens . It has been quite the dry spell here since the deluge in November. I have been holding off on watering the last few days because the weather calls for a lot of rain to fall in our area. The last rain event delivered about 10” of rain over 3-4 days . The palms and flowers looked so happy. Then it turned dry and warm with high pressure dominating our weather. THAT is about to change. In my area it should start late afternoon . Los Angeles and south to San Diego will see rain by evening 🤞. Our Northern California neighbors have had flooding inland , unfortunately , and the burn areas down here may be evacuated . So with a watchful eye , I am embracing the chance of rain. Harry This is what we woke up to ! No rain yet but my sailor instincts ( and old bones) tell me it is imminent. Got me a new rain gage , I retired my hillbilly gage( empty cat food container)😂. Harry

No place like a permanent home they say, good one for all Palm humanity!

As of 10:02 am we had 4.1” . At day break the wind was furious with a bit of thunder and lightening . Blew a frond off my large Queen palm out front and I found it in the street two houses down . It blew a patio heater onto my Arenga but no damage to the palm . It is one tough palm! We are getting a break right now. Harry

Wish you a merry Christmas. Here’s Houailou and Hookeri in the background (two, look closely!) after our rainy Christmas Eve. Maybe share a nice palmy Christmas picture, even if the palms are indoors….

Wishes for a merry Christmas to everyone! Not quite the color exhibited in Dave’s picture, but a wonderful sunny morning in between storms. Couple that with the fact that I’m rarely home in the morning, and it’s pretty nice.

Merry Christmas to all ! Stunning photo and cute Santa @pogobob ! Harry Ernie says “Hey!” Looks like time to repot already.

Might as well get a couple more in the ground, with some good irrigation they will be fine in the house garden. With a little soil amended and a good watering from the grey water septic system they will certainly get a lot moisture and nutrients, Thanks to a bio cycle system, a great way to water palms.

Some non electricity generated color as the …” winter “ holiday season reaches its peak here in the desert. I say winter sparingly because at least so far, weather here hasn’t been anything close to what one might expect during the shortest days of the calendar year … which are starting to lengthen as we speak ( when sunset occurs specifically ) thanks to the generous warm rains at the end of September and in early October, “ …and the “ warm enough “ weather ever since, warm season stuff, that should be done for the year, is still going. same rains also gave the spring flowering stuff I shouldn’t see flowering now a very early head start .. can’t remember the last time I’ve seen flowering things from two distinct parts of a year flowering side by side. …At the same time? Quick burst of rains in November are getting the rest of the spring stuff to come up and going May end up shorter than what the earlier rains helped along if it stays mainly dry over the next 4 to 8 weeks but, plenty of color on the way when we reach the more typical start of the spring season flowering cycle in the yards. all in all, definitely not your typical short days time of the year here this year. “ fall season “ zinnias and late torch glow adding plenty of exotic flair on Xmas eve ….out front? It’s already spring out there …at the end of December Emory rock daisy solanum sp. ….Gotta love this crazy, “ edge of the tropics “ Sonoran Desert climate 👍🏽 ✌🏽

Nice video Stacey! Good idea to lay down the pots before the wind did it for you. Here in Point Loma area the winds were extreme as well, the kind that jerk the car door out of your hand when you open it. Rain in my area was just the leftovers from everywhere else, I guess -- .39 at the tip of Point Loma and .54 at San Diego International Airport as of 11pm Wednesday night -- I am sort of between the two. The ground is wet, but not the heavy soaking I had been led to expect. Supposedly more will be on the way tomorrow. 🤞 Fingers crossed.

That spindle is from a guy up in Germany called palmenmann.de who used to bring in lots of inventory late spring and had some real exotic stuff at very reasonable prices for decent sizes. Now, he has mostly cold hardy palms like most of the Dutch sites have moved towards as well. 20 eur used to buy you something like this:

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope everyone has a great day spending time with family and Celebrating Jesus's birth!

Quite a few palms were available from places like OBI (Prktiker is somehow affiliated with OBI). All Dutch produced. You could buy things like 60cm spindle and triangle palms for 20 eur each - a size ready to go straight in the ground. Now they all seem to have just the Dutch coconut palms that very few can grow and end up in the compost quite quickly. These are the only size spindle palms I know of available in Europe today and they cost 10 eur, sometimes even closer to 20 eur:

A group Trachycarpus fortunei near Grow Room.

Iam sure the buddha statue can rest easy under the pinnatafrons for now. Richard

How dare you plant those palms I was going to buy Peachy

When the light radiates through a palm frond

I'm probably not going to use the correct terminology here, but I take the seed (which typically contains 1-3 "nuts" inside) and hold it on a concrete floor using vice grips with a thin rag over it to stop any projectiles. I then tap with a hammer LIGHTLY until I feel the shell crack. I gently work it open by hand to try to avoid any damage to the nuts inside. I stick them in the baggie/medium like that, I don't try to fully dislodge the nuts from the shell.

Our daughter lives in San Diego . I haven’t heard from her today , I was wondering…. Harry

Looks like cracking the Butia seeds is working for me for anyone else getting impatient!

That sounds really odd unless your winter was also extremely wet and cold. First two photos are my coastal uresana (grey-green) in San Antonio which took minimal foliar damage unprotected during 9°F in February 2021. Last photo is a juvenile coastal form struggling with flooding this past March at my current location. It took more damage from flooding conditions than my other one in SA took from the great freeze.

Chamaedorea tepejilote at the Botanical Garden of Naples It's very familiar to me! A donation of mine from a few years ago.

It’s been raining since yesterday afternoon , the heavy rain started about 11pm last night . I hope all of you in California are ok . We got lots of wind late yesterday . I hope all the palm trees are still upright, especially any flowering Caryotoids. I started cutting down any flowering stems on my C. Mitis after a large trunk fell right on my walkway a few years ago. It luckily didn’t harm anything but it was very heavy for its size. Harry

Here's one (from Google street view) in Hilo, HI, I used to pass on my way to work.

This was our weekend total...lots more to come beginning tonight.

Still reddish trunk on its north-facing side

In the very first photo are Clivia Lilies. Not exactly ground cover though. They love a cool to mild climate and will tolerate an occasional hot spell. Bloom time is early Spring.

Well, I'm only just getting started with my new garden, but here's a few starters. Chrysalidocarpus Baronii - greenish, yellow with a hint of white trunk, juxtaposed with late fall leaves. Chrysalidocarpus Ambositrae Chrysalidocarpus Decipiens

Fabulous pictures Thanks Jim

Will it be protected next week?

He does ship to Greece. I've purchased from him 3 or 4 times. I've bought cheaper palms in Spain but that was before COVID when there were many more options available. There were a couple Spanish suppliers who no longer update their websites and many Dutch ones before as well. These were reasonable sized plants whenn I purchased them:

You're gonna need a small back hoe to unearth and move that. It's going to be an excessive weight to move out of the hole and into the new location. Save your back and also avoid a hernia.

The game plan is to sell the pups! I'm gonna throw most of them in the yard come spring. I've been fertilizing them a lot and they get tons of light and aside from the Ensete they're happy. I'm getting at least a new leaf a week from all of them. Yes they do! I've been rotating between a 4-4-4, Dr Earth's Organic Tropical and Palm fertilizer, and a sample pack of Wellspring Gardens water soluble Banana Fuel at 1/2 strength and they're happy. I keep forgetting I've still got some old fish emulsion and liquid kelp, and some Osmocote too. They're absolute water and fertilizer hogs, I'm feeding them their old leaves as they fall off. They're my babies and they know it. I'm spoiling them rotten. I've got a tissue culture banana on order (variegated golden yellow) and if that goes well, I'll try some more of those. I'm loving them right now since I can watch them grow almost hourly while I wait for the palms to do something. It's such a contrast in growth.

You're not the only one. Guess who started a tote full of potting soil and your elephant ear bulbs already? I only put 12 in there and uh, they're quite happy after like 2 days.

these speed up a bit after trunking but I suspect the mastiff(RIP, all dogs go to heaven) was a major soil remediation (nutrients and moisture retention). My Uresana is 14+ years in the ground from a 5 gallon and has 10'+ of trunk. It was totally exposed in hurricane Milton to the windward max winds in oct 2024 and is recovering. My only complaint is that it still doesn't shed the leaf bases, let alone leaves. It is well watered in half clay, half sand, but I dont fertilize it much at all. I am out of state till 2026, but I will post a pic when I get back. For me it is a bullet proof palm, no special treatment. I remember talking to a board member with his planted in pure sand and it was not growing like mine, it was stuck, unhappy, and barely growing with no supplemental irrigation. Its a slow palm no doubt, but all fast palms lead to a "bunch of poles" landscape. At this point(15 year old garden) I am not wanting fast growers. My Uresana has a nice fat trunk, about 28" with leaf bases intact, its a beast. Its the fattest trunked sabal in my area except for my causiarum.

Then you will need that pick axe! I dug out and moved a Phoenix Roebilini double that was only three feet tall . It took me two hours . It survived and is still growing , 25 years later. Was it worth it ? Probably not , but I have a story to tell . The homeowner was going to cut it down so I brought it home . Harry

That’s a good amount. It is just starting to rain here . A couple of hours ahead of schedule. Harry

And you added some additional color to your garden at the same time! 😆 Hope you get a decent amount of rain for the plants but no mudslides.

I hate to tell you but Phoenix palms have massive root systems ! It can be done , you may need help . They survive transplant well but it is the wrong time of year , at least around here. In theory , the roots reach out equal distant to the size of the crown. That means a large hole with a lot of digging. If done with care , it will survive. I would start at least 2-3’ out from base of trunk , you will probably cut through some roots . Try to keep it minimal. Harry

Hello, I’m sorry for the late reply. The hydrogen peroxide and copper fungicide treatment did work. This past February 2025 my palms suffered freeze damage from the snow that we received. There was a little green left so there was hope for survival. After using the hydrogen peroxide and copper fungicide treatment I started seeing a difference in 6 weeks! It took about 6 months before they were completely green. Remember if there is a little green left there is hope for survival. The pictures I posted are from this past October 2025. Thank you everyone for your advice along the way!

It looks very, very special and beautiful, Jim🤗

Stunning! Everything in your garden is stunning!! Clivias complement palms so well it seems. They grow easily here too. I gotta get myself some

C. Decipens splitting again. Started as a double then split to four trunks below ground level. Two trunks have split at about 50cm above ground. The photo shows a shared fused leaf A new spear has developed on either side of this leaf

No, I sold them all.

This was a small 1 gallon palm I bought from Jeff Searle in 2006. Keeps on moving albeit slowly. 30” of trunk now.

Looks nice. I really like slow growing palms more as I get older. No ladder required for maintenance and crowns at eye level. What’s not to like?

I planted our Caribbean Garden in our north-facing front lot. The palm selection leans heavily on genus Coccothrinax, one of my favorites. It does include a few interlopers such as Phoenix roebelenii and Hyophorbe lagencaulis but is overall true to the Caribbean vibe. My world famous Sabal Row used to be on the east side of our property until the builders of the Early-21st-Century modern unsold monstrosity of a black/White House was built. Fortunately, @C Bigler rescued all the Sabals and took them back to his nursery. Anyway, I have some pretty cool palms in a small space, most, you will note, are palmate. These are tough palms worth growing if you aren't blinded by crown shafted tropical pinnate darlings. Coccothrinax leaves dance in the breeze on warm sunny days. I would not plant any tropical palms on the north side of my house - those W and NW winds howl across the Cape's flat landscape in winter. Caribbean Garden canopy Latania loddigesii Latania lontaroides Sabal miamiensis (R) from a Pine Island Pier and Sabal miamiensis x mexicqnq? from Leu Gardens: Study both palms carefully and you will see the miamiensis x Mexican hybrid has much thinner leaflets than the miamiensis. It also grows faster (germinated 2015 vs. approx. 2008/2009) and its huge seeds ripen late summer vs. fall. Hyophorbe verschaffelrii Native Florida Stopper (Simpson's? red? other?) (center), Silk Floss Tree/Ceibus speciiciosa (rear) Hyophorbe lagencaulis (L), Phoenix roebelenii (C) Hyophorbe lagencaulis Ravenea rivularis Kerriodoxa elegans