Leaderboard

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!

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.

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!

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.

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

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

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

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!

It was actually the first flower it had after 25 years, not yet was the thought! I now have about 5 more flowering stronger and stronger each season so hopefully in a few years I will manage to get some seeds for WA !

A beautiful Australian plant, easy to germinate but seeds are rare in my area. They love water and if allowed to dry out they just disappear and return years later when they get big rain events. A nice understory plant with that fern like look, I would say cool tolerant and a bit of morning sun is ok. Once used in the cut flower industry as a filler with wild plants being harvested, I most certainly don’t think that would be happening today that’s for sure. But a nice plant well worth growing in a container or in the understory.

I haven’t 😁 I’m not sure as I’m pretty sure they weren’t the one who germinated it. Here is what it’s looking like now

That's a beauty! Well done! I was not aware they would change from deep green to silver blue.

Steve, that silver is super! 😄

If I remember correctly from the movies and the commercials that came out around that time, gophers love to party and drink root beer. Maybe throw on your tackiest golf pants and see if you can't bait them out.

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

Light these candles to summon the spirit of Carl Spackler to deter gophers

Get a cat. Not a spoiled sleepy Persian or anything. Get an active stray one. Mine kills at least one mouse per week.

Y'all, I have the solution to your problems. Come to Mississippi and get cats from me. I've never seen a rat or a mouse around here, but I did see one's tail being used as a kitten toy.

Looks typical of Chambeyronia macrocarpa var hookeri to me Jim. They often have dark petioles. Every other feature including that vivid red new frond matches. Great palm!

I try not to let the old lady in, but the chart at the top of the page is pushing on the door.

Didn't read all the posts, but I just might be the "old man" of the crew at 82 1/2. Born in May of '43. My self description: Born in the Bronx, Raised in Brooklyn Matured in Waiʻanae (got here at age 20) I wonʻt be held responsible for anything I say or do because of the above facts. LOL I weigh in at 160 lbs, 5ʻ 10". I use to be 6ʻ but w/time bone joints compress. I have Mitral valve prolapse, (is a heart condition where the mitral valve flaps bulge backward into the left atrium when the heart contracts, which may cause the valve to leak. While often asymptomatic, it can cause symptoms like palpitations, chest pain, shortness of breath, and fatigue) I have none of those problems. I can still do a 8 mile round trip hike gaining at least 1000ʻ in elevation w/little problems with a 15lb pack on my back. My only real problem is I canʻt lift much over 30 lbs because of a minor hernia. Been doing palms since 1998. I have about 100 in the ground from some 27 year old big ones to some 1ʻ tall newbeʻs planted just 2 years ago. Not gonna buy new ones until we get this CRB creature under control.

I’ve been on Palmtalk for 23 years and according to the poll results so far there are no members in a younger group. Need the next generation coming through to pass on the passion.

Latania

Prestoea acuminata inflorescence opened pure white, then turned red. Very three dimensional, so difficult to get everything in focus.

I just sow individually into 2” tubes

Yeah, get them all. Even the iffy ones. The spaghnum perlite mix will work. Once they’ve sprouted pot them up individually or you’ll have a mass of tangled roots. That’s my thoughts anyway.

My friend and fellow palm enthusiast lives about 2-3 blocks from me . He has a few mature Purpurae and Maxima that drop many seeds. The ground around the palms look like grass! They germinate so freely, he scooped the seedlings up and formed a community pot for me . Now they are about 10-12” high and forming pinnate fronds in the ground. I’d guess they are only a few years old. We are in a solid 10a climate zone so no heat required , although @happypalms method is fast and works best. Good luck ! Harry

Nice little haul. As a mad scientist germinater myself @happypalms it’s easy to germinate them. Bottom heating 28 degrees Celsius coco coir perlite mixture just slightly moist (squeeze a handful of your mix if drops of water come out it’s too wet). Use a container of your preference and cover it so you have complete darkness (etoliation process) or a styrofoam box with a lid. Just cover your seeds with a medium not too deep. All the seeds in the pictures were covered. Then just sit back and wait.

So this palm had some discussion a few months back. After discussing with a few Dypsis nerds and reading over Palms of Madagascar, I am pretty sure the palm in question is Dypsis tokoravina. It was acquired from Mardy Darian as an unknown in the OCWS group.

Since traveling last month I am still catching up on PalmTalk so am delighted to find this topic tonight! I know I will be returning to this topic in the future too. Pando's photography and Len's botanical garden together are a magical combination! Some have amazing plants and others have stunning design and Len has both!

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!