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steve .. thanks for posting yours with the top of the fronds. I imagine you had to really get on top of that palm. I took a pic of mine today below. I think it is finally starting to turn silver on top. hope it looks like yours in another 5 years or so. it is starting to rocket for sure tin

Dark petioles are consistent with the Chambeyronia hookeri that I have too. Jim, perhaps yours is a little darker on its petioles but only s degree of difference. Nice specimen that you have!

This has been a fun palm to watch grow. I planted it in 2012 as a solid dark green 1 gallon. Slowly it became more and more silver on the bottom of the leaves and then started to turn silver on the tops. Now I have to climb on the roof to shoot a pic of the tops of the leaves and they are solid silver only loosing some their color as the leaf ages. Sorry for the Bigfoot quality photo on the first shot.

The old leaf dropped off and you could see where the flower spathe once was. The palm obviously decided it wasn’t going to flower for whatever reasons!

7-8 years ago I did see a rat, once. But the last few years the mature palm forest has brought an ecological balance; Prey, meet predator. This barred owl is so quiet you would not know its there, it likes the tall roosting potential of this royal but there are plenty of roosting spots in or near my yard. I have heard an owl hoot late at night over the years, but this fall with the cool weather I've been watching often near sunset and I have seen it fly in 5 times in the past two weeks. I expect the rats are no shows at dinner, and even squirrels seem to have almost vanished. I sometimes sit and watch the bird for 20 minutes before it moves to another roosting spot in the wooded area behind my place.

I’m really not sure why they lost popularity. Here , in Southern California , they were in every nursery . I got one on clearance for a very good price and planted it down near the bottom of my hill . It was in a 10” pot , that was 28 years ago and it barely has 4’ of trunk but it is huge! I’m glad I didn’t plant it in my garden , the palm is way too large for my garden but looks awesome down on the hill. It has never been fussed over or bothered by my gopher problem . The only negative , other than its size , is the teeth . Mine has not produced any inflorescence to date so I don’t know about seeds , my guess is they are slow to germinate. Harry I think the size and armed petiole kept some folks from enjoying this species . They are care free , but grow very slowly which may also be why they aren’t readily available any more. Sad , because they are beautiful palms , in my humble opinion. Harry

Got about 10 germinating at the moment. Definitely going to keep these in the shade. The parent palm is at it again by the looks.

Happy thanksgiving to everyone. I Hope everyone has a great day! also, here's a random photo. Probably the last flower in the garden for the season

A few more of my peroffskyana are coning. The age of them is about 25 years from seed I collected in the wild. Easy to germinate if you can wait around 12 months. Single plants will set viable seeds, provided you have the weevil that pollinates them. There is usually about 100 seeds per plant and there is about 6 in the garden coning. There even popping up as volunteers in the garden there that easy!

Thanks you too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A few more to put in and with summer just around the corner it’s a great time to be putting seeds in with the hot weather helping germination out. lanonia sp black fruit should be an interesting one to grow. And the rest will be welcomed into the nursery any day. And I had to get some more joeys a 6 months time they will look like a nice box of seedlings just like the one in the picture from the last lot I put in!

Love it, thanks for the intel! Definetely Madagascar is one of the top of mind places, or any place into the less explored high altitude ranges

They sell bananas in every box store here. We also have a local banana collector who sells some (he does not ship).

A bit of hey look at me on this day with temperatures and humidity that would give cairns a run for it’s money, this double header of a licuala ramsayi feeling right at home in the humidity!

How shall I say it that’s as good as it gets, you gotta put some humour into somewhere sooner or later. The whole world needs a laugh now and then. They handle it well in the pots in the mail, I have shipped internationally and the only problem is when they go bare rooted you get a couple of loses. If in containers not a problem ten thousand miles later. Oh I got plenty of content material for posts don’t worry about that!🤣 Richard

That's one seriously cute turd factory. I have two 3 month old Pekingese puppies here if he needs a sibling

Of the several Chambeyronia in the garden, this one originally identified as C. macrocarpa has the yellowish trunk of a hookeri and nearly black petioles. Is this unusual or have any of you seen this characteristic before?

Maybe it knows the fetal position is the best way to go out after succumbing to the torture of the cultivation of Sanchos green paws death camp and is getting in early preparation for the inevitable doom to come 🤣

Very intriguing little death machine you have, I like it but somehow I don’t think the rats like it. What particular bait do you use? How much does it cost? And thirdly where can I get one? I need this thing they call the A24! I wish they only eat Howea sp but unfortunately the rats in Australia only eat rare and expensive imported seeds and seedlings, they have had there fair share of Howea sp. I haven’t put baits out for a long time for the reason you mentioned I couldn’t bring myself to killing a powerful owl just for a palm tree the environment is more important to me!

I was actually surprised you saw as much burn as you did after a brief low. Augusta is probably right on the fringe - where good/bad genetics will make or break them. Are there many Washingtonias around that area?

It’s practising. Next time.

I've had this Super Silver growing for well over 10 years. Super slow growing for me in sandy soil on a steep slope in a hot environment. Always looks good, loves as much summer water as you want to give it, just has been incredibly slow

Great explanation Darold! Precisely why I bought a couple of these. Out here we have bobcats, coyotes, weasels, hawks, owls and more scavengers and we respect them. But the rats and mice have done some expensive damage to our vehicles wireing in the past and our plants. Another cool feature is the trap has a digital counter that keeps score, so some times I notice no dead critters but the numbers tell me that something came by and enjoyed a snack.

Just received my L yannanensis seeds from Charway. Well shipped/packed, no floaters, very happy. Great communication and quick shipping as well. Will update here about germination... Matt

This is mine. Super nice palm 🌴 breahea pimo to its left in the second photo

Butia x Jubea in Dallas zone 8b back in the day. This seedling grown palm lived eventually for 21 years unprotected

John , I can’t say but I’ve seen it in other strap leaf seedlings in my garden( Phoenix , Syagrus) . I haven’t seen any real explanation as to why , at least when they are outside in my garden . My Livistona that are in the ground were a bit older than that when I got them . Harry

Both planted 2015 as small palms..not even close to Stevetoad brahea..probably climate, shade and to much competition...

Tyrone, a rat entered my cousin's house, who lived on the 3rd floor, my cousin the one who died 2 weeks ago. If you remember, I told you in a PM. We had put some sachets with poison in them. We put gloves on it so the rat wouldn't smell anything human. The rat took all the sachets of poison and threw them off the balcony. I wonder how it knew it was poison? Then we put some rat glue on a piece of wood and caught it!

Thank you Not right now as I have been swamped running my coffee shops. It took all my time. Writing was a full time job. Plus, I would never want to use new tools like ChatGPT - which so many bloggers now do.

This is truly frustrating . I haven’t had too much trouble in my garden but down on the hill…..GOPHERS !! They have eaten so many palms it has , at times , infuriated me. The latest was a really nice Sabal Mauritiformis. I thought it was safe as they have ignored the Sabal Riverside for 28 years . They haven’t messed with the Butia , either Brahea , Phoenix Reclinata, Trachycarpus, Washingtonia or either Livistona. They have eaten several trunking Howea , a nice Bizmarkia, Syagrus Schizophylla, Syagrus Romanzoffiana. We have trapped several of the nasty little vermin but they just keep coming from other properties that don’t trap. We have neighborhood cats , snakes , Hawks and Eagles , yet they persist . O K , rant over . Thank you for listening! Harry

Nah, I don’t think that’s Macro. The coloring of the trunk looks way more on the Hookeri side than anything. Although it is more lime green than yellow. Most Hookeri I’ve seen around to include my own definitely have brown petioles. Yours does look to be more of a black hue than brown which is super cool. Never seen that before. Im wondering if this trait is simply sun exposure, fertilizer application or something weird like that and temporary? Has it always been like that? Everything besides the unique colors looks to be dead on Chambeyronia tho so it’s not likely a hybrid. The only palm I’ve seen in person with black in it is Cyphosperma Balansae. Here’s my two Hookeri planted side by side and 3yrs apart in growth. Little guy has more brown petioles than the large one -dale

Hey Jim, I thought there was an earlier discussion on PT about C, houailou having dark green, almost brownish petioles as opposed to the medium green of C. hookeri. Been awhile, but a one filament light bulb went off. 😳 Tim

Here’s what you can look forward too! How’s your little ones going?

I've been growing one of these trees in Arizona for a couple years now, mainly for it's beautiful foliage. Today,I noticed for the first time its tiny flowers. As small as they are,they have a strong smell of nutmeg.Since this was just its first flowering, I decided to play queen bee and see if anything develops...🤞 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Thank you I will look into it. Cheap in comparison to the damage they can do, and if they work as good they say I will get two!

If it makes you feel any better I have a dead one in my attic starting to stink the place up. His days of eating my palm seeds are done!

Bulbophyllum longissimum

@pogobob, I had a problem with a trunked Howea, the rat would chew through the top of the petiole, just below the frond blade. This would happen one frond each night. I tried spring traps, glue traps, metal band around the trunk, nothing helped. In desperation I purchased this very expensive trap. It worked, the corpse had dried blood out the earholes the next morning, very satisfying !! For those unfamiliar with this trap, it was invented in New Zealand. It is a most clever design, forcing the rodent to stand on its hind legs to investigate the bait within the top of the black section. When this occurs, the rodent trips the trigger, causing a horizontal bolt (inline with the A24 printing) to strike the rodents skull. Then the rodent falls away. It is powered by a CO2 cartridge, and automatically resets for the next victim. My favorite detail is that this is a mechanical kill, and there is no risk of poisoning a non-target animal that might scavenge the carcass. (the reason I do not use poison)

Here is the image gallery of Len Geiger's spectacular, extraordinary garden in Vista, California, in full Pandovision(tm). Pictures were taken yesterday during a Hibiscus Society tour when a few Palmtalkers were able to sneak in as well. Special thanks to Len @LJG for opening up his amazing property and allowing me to post the images here for all of us to enjoy. If you prefer (or if you're using a mobile phone), you can browse the entire album HERE (http://imgur.com/a/HPoN8)

Some red on new leave with Archon. Alexandrae here. Sometimes, even with Cunninghamianas too.

Guillermo, though I am not in the age range, nor do I live in your area, that is an excellent expedition you are seeking to do. Years ago I found some books in a used book store that recounted very similar expeditions from the early 1900s. Many were to Madagascar, where so many new, rare and exotic palms were discovered. Explorers brought home seeds and today, many palms around the world have their origins from Madagascar. A more recent discovery was the foxtail palm (Australia) that was nowhere in Florida USA until maybe 40 years ago. Now they are everywhere. Do that trip!

Advice- find a couple slow growing species that you like and start them now. Having something to look forward to is great for our longevity. I wish i started some species in my 30’s , but next best time is today 😎

Anyone in the range 18-40 or in very good shape in Spain if possible, interested in assembling risky palm expeditions, feel free to reach out; have some interesting trips in mind that shouldn´t be done alone 😅

According to your weather forecast you don't have to do literally nothing. Fronds will burn in the low 20s. Temperatures in the low teens is more of a concern. That's where Robusta hybrids really show how cold hardy they are.

I just sow individually into 2” tubes

Sorry for 3 comments in a row but, being that I am fairly new to PT and don't know the history of Len's gardening adventures, it'd be amazing to see/read a book of all that went into this garden from the very beginning. The ups, the downs, the construction. I wouldn't be able to put the book down!