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I’ve noticed that many palms with crownshafts come from places that get hurricanes, typhoons or just [EXPLETIVE!!!] destructive tropical storms. Seems to work for royals! Whaddya think?

Pritchardia pacifica opening a new frond

To my knowledge they are protection from animals so they can't climb the palm to get the fruit.

@PalmatierMeg know anything about this?

You can see why they call the cabadae the blue cane palm, very distinctive colour.

That is a very nice looking palm . Just a bit of experience with my Chambeyronia, the first few years of flowering usually don’t produce seed. Mine has been flowering for a few years and has beautiful flowers but that’s it. The first two years the spathe never even opened , it just fell off. Mine has over 6’ of smooth trunk below the crown shaft. My friend a couple blocks away whose palm is much older just got his first batch of seeds. Harry This Chambey infrutescens is about 10’ up in the palm.

@Rtwilson8 it does look a bit splotchy, but that can also happen after a few minutes of air exposure. I just cut down a triple Foxtail last night. It was 100% defoliated in February's record freeze, and just never recovered. Here's a classic Thielaviopsis symptom, rust colored bleeding from the trunk: And a cut section of trunk with random dark splotches around the perimeter. It should be consistent pale off-white, like most of the middle. This one is infected, but it hasn't progressed too far yet. It's still d-e-d, but just not as visually obvious what killed it: The smaller of the three was really bad. This is about 2-3ft above ground level and ~5ft below the top of the crownshaft: And near ground level on the same palm. Normally with a Thielaviopsis infection it'll start looking more clean white near the bottom. This one looks just as bad. It may be that it's just been dead for a couple of months, or that it's actually got a Ganoderma infection. I could take a sample and send it to the local State AG department for analysis, but I'm just going to take out as much of the rootball as possible. I probably will NOT plant another palm in this spot, just in case. Thielaviopsis is floating around in the air all the time, but Ganoderma can stay resident in the soil for decades. I'll probably plant an Encephalartos Whitelockii here, or divide the Bambusa Textilis "Ladyfinger" from next to it. If you decide to take a sample, I think either the Gainesville IFAS/UFL lab tests them, or https://agronomy.ifas.ufl.edu/media/agronomyifasufledu/turfgrass-science/-rtd/rtd-pdfs/UFPDC-Form-Sample-Submission-General.pdf Or halfway down this page the AG department will ID samples: https://www.fdacs.gov/Agriculture-Industry/Pests-and-Diseases/Plant-Pests-and-Diseases/How-to-Submit-a-Sample-for-Identification

This was in December of last year . A spathe finally opened and the flowers were beautiful , but no fruit. Harry

Is that red white and blue and the girls love you Harry! 🤣 Richard

I know those signs, my ones started flowering after about 23 years as well, now five years later after the first one flowered, I have five that flower and no seed set yet.

They are indeed, perfect palms for container production. You’re order comes to $500 plus postage they are a bit heavy atm, plus tax’s $1500 so total $2000 US dollars. 🤣 Richard

Geonoma pycnostachys, I absolutely love this palm!

Licuala fordiana.

Dypsis black stem, not black petiole.

They are indeed a beautiful palm!

They are such a beautiful palm, dry tolerant and will drink as much water you give them. Tolerant of shade and cool conditions. One of my garden favourites!

Winters not going to stop me planting palms so today’s little planting episode is as follows. Masoala Madagascariensis Sabal domingensistrithrinax brasiliensisarchontophoenix tuckeri hypohorbe indica redCycas guizhouensus dypsis baronii black petiole Chamaedorea plumosa

Let me help you out in the nursery business, two approaches one sell seedlings and make money fast with a quick turnaround. But choose your varieties carefully, rare and exotic or landscaping varieties. Landscaping varieties you will need at least 5 years on some of the fast growing ones. Rare and exotic seedlings start selling them asap after they germinate. Next approach a ten year plan with exotic rare stuff, choose super rare and exotic. Expect a large outlay for rare seeds if you can find them. But it sounds like you have another plan for your career, myself I would collect rare seedlings and grow them as a side business and in time you will be glad you choose rare stuff that is slow. Landscaping palms that market is a good one but your up against large corporations who grow mega amounts and have the chain stores market sown up with contracts. Good luck in your decision and your career. As for seeds rare palm seeds is one option choose wisely and you will make good money. Myself iam on a ten year plan with rare and exotic palms to sell!

The first three are Pembana including the creased leaf stems and then the last three are Cabadae.

Ouch! Those were expensive at that size. I do think they can be moved out of the way of the power poles. They haven’t been in the ground that long. It ain’t gonna be cheap though. Harry

My guess is neither, but maybe more likely protection for the developing inflorescence from insects or pathogens. Northern Australia gets hammered by cyclones pretty regularly yet there are probably as many genera without crownshafts: Laccospadix, Oraniopsis, Livistona, Licuala, Arenga, etc, as with crownshafts: Archontophoenix, Ptychosperma, Normanbya, Wodyetia, Carpentaria, etc.

I did but I’m poor and didn’t buy anything I’m waiting for a good deal to come up plus I’m in highschool still and will be gone in three years don’t want to make any huge investments that will die when I leave. Here’s another update plus I gained a palm European fan palm gained three fronds!Protected butia only gained 1.5 but it’s alive sabal minor a little damage nownew addition a needle palm, main stem got spear pull but the pups are alive (got it for free after it got spear pull)And my unprotected butia bearly any growth but there has been growth Should I trim off the dead fronds from the butias and fan palm?

I think crownshaft prevalence correlates better with higher rainfall than with higher winds.

My thoughts align with Alzo. I just imagined that palms in wetter more humid regions would be more likely to get rot if there were more places for the rain to pool. But this is 100% made up and has zero evidence.

Look like dypsis, you say blackie or chrysolidicarpus. But to me they look chamaedorea but the seed doesnt match. Go with dypsis. Richard

This year one Anna's hummingbird has decided to tap the nectar in these flowers. Last year none of them did. Once I planted it out, this has been a very floriferous hybrid for me in my NorCal garden. From Wikipedia: "Erythrina × bidwillii 'Blakei' follows the Erythrina herbacea parent in being a low-growing shrub, dying back to a rootstock each year."

Patience Grasshopper! Soon enough you’ll be up to your eye teeth in seeds. I concur with @Harry’s Palms .

I always had it in my head that it was an adaptation to super high rainfall, but I'm not sure if I read that somewhere or if I just made it up, nor do I understand entirely how it would help.

One thing I can promise: they won’t be ugly! I’d never send anyone ugly palm seeds, or seeds to ugly palms.

Burretikentia hapala peeking in...

That’s a beautiful, big specimen! I’m guessing it will eventually grow to 40 ft or more in California? My friend has a 7 or 8 year old clump of Chrysalidocarpus (Dypsis) pembana in his Fallbrook garden. The clump is probably almost 20 ft tall.

Here’s the bases of the trees above. Conan, The Guardian of the GardenTM provides scale.

Pembanas get big. These were planted about 15 years ago from 1 or 2 gallon pots.

I’d say that’s a pembana, @Cape Garrett ! They kinda sit awhile then EXPLODE in height. Here’s some of mine after about 10-15 years in the ground.

I remember posting this Anthurium awhile back and Marie said it might be A. hookeri and white seeds would confirm the ID. It finally started producing seed and they are white. Yea. Agee other photos as well. Glad to see this topic still going strong. Tim

Thanks!

..Interesting that a " floater " germinated.. You'd think it would've been a dud. Plant now ..with the < root > tip emerging from the seed pointed down. Loose, gritty / sandy soil mix, rather than one that is heavy in clay ..and/or organics like Peat Moss. Keep moist ..but not soaking wet, and in bright, filtered light rather than sun until it is pushing it's 3rd or 4th set of true leaves. After that, you can slowly increase how much sun it receives.

Yea after the hard frost it looked like 1/4 of the sabal palmettos were dead and 1/2 of the butias sadly I didn’t take any photos of the wild trachys they were in bush gardens you could tell which ones were planted and which ones weren’t because there were some way into the forest My favorite sabal and Butia in Va beachin Virginia Beach The boat launch area closest to the island.

I have a lot of royals supposedly all regia but none of them are even close to looking the same the biggest one has fronds probably twice as long as the others and one has a huge base but that is not the one with the longest fronds!!

🌴🌴🌴🗿

Or ugly seeds to ugly growers!🤣

Don't worry, yes, the climate is similar, but luckily I've never seen the red palm weevil in the area, and yet there are lots of palm trees. I assume it's not there, at least for now.

Thank you for the response . I was pretty sure I had the lids right but couldn’t be certain. Learning as I go. Either way I am stoked. Now , if they survive the transition into the pots …… Harry🤞

Time will tell mon Ami!

They were pretty good sized lizards, but the local reptiles all seem small after hanging out at Guantanamo Bay last year:

True Blue Arenarius

Think I planted 3 in 2005 not realizing they were clumping. One clump died some years ago. Growing NICELY here and even some seedlings popping up. Pictures are from 2009 and 2022

Currently planting the last batch of Pseudophoenix sargentii seeds for my lifetime, and have more sprouts than I really need. Now offering some pre sprouted seeds through eBay, in quantities of 20, 40, or 100 as people prefer electronic payments, which I don't have any longer due to hacking issues. Prices start at $13/20 seeds. This is a slow growing species, so consider it a long term project to eventually produce some rare and valuable palms. https://ebay.us/m/9xNcPd aztropic Mesa, Arizona

I was taking photos earlier today and noticed my largest Chambeyronia houailou is opening a new red leaf. A few days ago we trimmed away a tangle of Livistona jenkinsiana storm-damaged fronds that had wrapped themselves around the Chambeyronia's fronds, courtesy of Ian's winds. The Chambeyronia is down to 3 good leaves so I'm glad to see a new one open. Chambeyronia houailou, Cape Coral, FL 2023