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Anyone else growing this? Mine was planted out as a 5 gallon about 3 years ago. It’s been a great grower and starting to fill in nicely.

Beccariophoenix madagascariensis in my desert neglected area.

In this weeks Xmas special we have the final purchases until the new year, as we all know Santa clause is coming to town. This week we have the highly ornamental Geonoma atrovirens from the Amazon foothills of the Andes, so a nice cool tolerant palm forvthe subtropical climate. Then a beautiful Draceana Mozambique a new unknown Draceana and most likely rare in cultivation. The we have a lovely Gardena reginifera a complete unknown to me as well but iam sure it will have a lovely perfumed smelling flower. Then we have beautiful little licuala triphylla that is in flower so they will be a welcome addition to the happypalms collection. Then there is this Pinanga sarawakensis that is kind of lost for its true identity that may be of Thai origin according to the seller. Now we just duck over to the Malay peninsula for a lovely licuala mustapana that has a bit of cool tolerance and that’s a welcome bonus for the southern growers. And we also have a Zamia variegata on tonight’s show that is one for a bit of colour around the garden. But the show stopper is the Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana another beautiful bifid palm from Costa Rica and this form comes from around 1000 metres altitude so again another cool tolerant palm that iam sure those southern growers should consider growing. And finally to finish of tonight’s show a beautiful iguanura sanderiana/paddle leaf type that had it’s original label lost in the notes from the seller, a true collectors palm this one. So Santa clause has been good to happypalms with most of his wish list fulfilled. So a merry Xmas to all from happypalms!

A nice flush of colour with Cerotazamia subrosephylla!

Sitting right outside in the garden at the front door this ayanishiki just caught my eye again as it does almost daily. If it was in Japan it would score a perfect 100. It’s not in Japan so it gets an absolutely perfect score at Halfway creek in Australia.

You must have been quite popular, after that? Harry

You can thank @kinzyjr he’s the genius behind this one, I grow palms and iam far from being a computer genius. And thanks for him doing so I have no idea about computers!

If you're in the Tule fog, your humidity and dewpoints are going to be at saturation, so why would you irrigate? Virtually all of your plants (including palms) are likely to have fully open stomata in these conditions and are surely gorging themselves on the atmospheric moisture in addition to what they can harvest from your soil moisture. And of course your soil-structure/composition is all important in figuring this out in your situation once your humidity and dewpoints decrease. I'm sure your Rhopies would be just fine with irrigation since it's plenty chilly and wet where they come from, but IMHO it would just be a waste of your $$$ to do it, particularly if they're established. I agree with what Tom Blank says above, and will add anecdotally that I lived on Big Pine Key in the hot, hot Florida Keys with very little rainfall for months at a time and brutal tropical sun bearing down, particularly in springtime with few clouds and near-zero rain. On a limestone rock, basically. And very different from Miami and much of mainland Florida, where there is land and convection to make rainfall, the Keys have nothing really to generate any rain on their own. And yet they are covered in vegetation. The Lower Keys have a freshwater lens that plants can tap into (it was about 3' deep at our house) if their roots can reach, but I had many plants--containerized, planted or native--that just survived almost entirely on the perpetually high humidity and the occasional bit of rainfall for all that time. And in the upper Keys (e.g., Islamorada and Key Largo) there isn't any groundwater, and yet plants survive there as well during the dry season. Many parts of the world have similar situations where there isn't much regular rainfall, and yet plants can do just fine using whatever atmospheric or soil-based resources are at hand, through drought and deluge. I now find myself in the Palm Springs area, where it is much, much drier in winter than either Florida or the Central Valley of California where you are, and palms here are generally still growing albeit at a very slow pace, I reduce irrigation markedly for the cool season, but don't turn it off completely. I factor in, additional to simple observation and past experience, the individual needs/metabolism and stress-tolerances of the plant; soil composition/structure (our porous sand and DG/granitic alluvium); sun/shade exposure and positioning; our low atmospheric humidity, in which water transpires out so very quickly; and the level of establishment of the plants (in my garden usually about three years for most plants to establish a far-ranging root-system). I change cool-season distribution of irrigation to one-minute spurts late morning and very early afternoon where solar warmth is still incoming (and always water containerized plants about 10-11am for that reason)...I avoid any late-day irrigation, which will likely deliver quite an unhealthy, wet chill to the roots of any tropical lowland plants. You'll of course have a very different situation where you are in Fresno, but this just to illustrate that I think all of the above factors have to be considered by anyone in delivering the right amount of irrigation, always keeping in mind the often very diverse native climes from which our garden plants originate.

I am in Fresno, but we're under that dreaded tule fog at the moment. Haven't seen the sun since that last rain in November just prior to Thanksgiving. Just fog all day long. My soil is still wet and my palms look good, so I probably won't be irrigating unless we go another month without rain and I notice the soil becomes too dry.

What actually caught my eye today was my marojejya darinii, there are palms and then there are palms! This is one of those palms too me!

Great palms; like Steve says, even better in semi shade. The white leaf undersides are are an added bonus..

A couple of the more common New Caledonia palms, but still very eye catching: cyphophoenix elegans: Kentiopsis Oliviformis:

Same old Pinanga demanding attention at leaf drop.

Latania & butterfly

Socratea stilt roots. Tim

Clinostigma samoense in a light drizzle. One of the world’s most beautiful palms. Tim

First flower on Chrysalidocarpus “Orange Crush”:

I have bought from Florida. I had planned to send some to a colleague of mine in India and get them from him in Amsterdam. His wife's father passed away and they're staying in India longer than originally planned. So it will have to be next year. When I bought coconuts from Florida it was through Etsy. The seller didn't fill the form out correctly and I had to pay Elta about 30 euros for the VAT and Etsy refunded what I paid the seller. If the seller is registered for VAT (eg. Temu collects the VAT and provides VAT info on the declaration), the package spends a couple hours in customs and there's no charge when you receive it. Otherwise, it's a couple of days and you pay when you receve the package. From Florida to my house took exactly 10 days including Athens to here which took 4.

As I have been palm deprived for so long, I put in a bid on a palm on ebay. Of course at the very last minute somebody bid $1 more ! I should hate you for that lovely haul but very grudgingly I am admiring your choices in gorgeous plants. Peachy

Richard, in a few years your big garden will have all the species you can grow ! To be honest, I'm a little jealous (in the good sense, you know how much I love you), because you can grow many more species than me.

Over here, the little sister of var. torallyi is also a great grower 😁. Late May 2023 (~1 m/ 3.3 ft to leaf tip): Late October 2025 (~3.4 m / 11 ft to leaf tip): Sadly, I had to trim many of the lower fronds, hence the more upright appearance.

Surprise, surprise Than! https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/26259-varieties-of-phoenix-canariensis/

Trying to push the cold tolerance to another level with my mesocarpa it has survived two winters in a protected hothouse so far not sure if it will ever be planted out might be one that lives in the hothouse permanently time will tell any information about cold tolerance of this palm is greatly appreciated 2 degrees Celsius temperatures a lot of palms from Vanuatu and New Caledonia do well in my area I even have a tag saying cold protect just so I don’t forget the two older leaves that are not looking good are from tropical growth prior to my purchase the fresh one is subtropical growth I have noticed the tropical grown purchased palms almost sulk until they get new subtropical leaves even in the summer season not just the cold some palms sulk no matter what when you plant them out tropical or subtropical they just need to get acclimated

Dang i thought i had a new species to learn about ! I see the sign now BTW, didn’t bother to look at it before. Clever joke Johnny 😎

I thought it may have been grower mistake, I get a batch of seeds that need cool temperatures to germinate, and i ask the cold climate growers, you learn as you grow, licuala seeds like scarification, licuala triphylla love constant high temperatures, Howea not so around 22 degrees Celsius for those ones. It’s alll a learning curve and the great thing about this forum we all learn from other growers! Richard

A nice bit of rain and some high temperatures has the Sabal moving along looking rather good. A nice easy palm to grow tolerant of a lot cool weather and heat like most palms just add water and good drainage!

Some of my bamboo is around 4 years planted and beginning to look more mature, these recently caught my eye.

I have one growing in full sun and I love it. It is perhaps my favorite Sabal in the garden, because it looks quite different from the rest. Unfortunately not very resistant to wind but even so it retains an interesting figure. In a worrying incident during past warm season it had its youngest fully developed frond dried out almost up to half the length of its petiole and further growth stalled. This has signaled a loud alarm in my mind, because it could be a symptom of rhizoctonia, which had killed many other smaller Sabal specimens around with similar initial symptoms. So I had to resort to very radical measures, I had nothing to lose anyway. I drenched the soil around the plant with 10 lt water containing 400 gr tolclofos-methyl. This is a horrific amount of fungicide. But no other young frond has died ever since and plant was growing all summer long at snail's pace but it was growing nonetheless! As weather has progressively cooled up and rainfalls started, plant has taken off and a huge new leaf has unfolded.

Here’s the one I have in the shade, super stretchy petioles.

My favorite Sabal as well. Unfortunately the gophers liked “Marty” enough to make a meal of it. 🙁 Harry

With a bit of luck a few Ravenea glauca seeds have set after many years of flowering.

white nerine bowdenii, which bloom here in winter, and a South African bulbous plant

Acoelorrhaphe wrightii at dusk in flower.

Just checking in on the hand pollinated Chuniophoenix nana, and it looks like we have lift off! 🌱

Tim, my experience is similar. Cyphophoenix nucele is steady but not speedy. This was probably planted in 2016 and was in a 7 gallon pot. It has a few rings of trunk and ring spacing is about 2 1/2" to maybe 3". Cyphophoenix elegans seems a tad bit faster for me.

As I dip my toe into the germination pond I have relied on others here as well….like you . I was told not to heat the Decipiens seeds , just let them be . I am still waiting after over 2 months but that is normal according to Terry Sullivan . I got impatient so last weekend I did the baggie on top of the water heater trick with another batch to see if that will speed things up a bit . I have three different batches right now as well as many sown throughout the garden. Dave has given me a few different species of seeds as well , all in community pots in the garage . Harry

Never heard of this species ⬆️ my guess would be thebiaca or compressa depending upon trunk diameter. Compressa more stout from what I’ve seen/learned

Hyphaene coolstarii

If you have a Praktiker near you, the ones they sell are Malayan dwarfs. They don't seem to fit the bill. - especially in terms of sun tolerance. In India, the West Coast Tall (also refered to as Tiptur Tall) is not only considered the most cold-hardy but also puts up with drought and low humidity. Dwarfs are likely the least cold sensitive. I'm guessing all talls are similar in cold tolerance. The West Coast Tall is said to be more tolerant of varied conditions than other Indian Talls. The Maypans (F1 hybrid Jamaican Tall x Malayan dwarf) have proven to be more cold tolerant than a plain Jamaican tall. As the talls and dwarfs all likely originated in Malaysia an F1 hybrid from India would likely compare with an F1 hybrid from Jamaica. For now, I'm pleased to have pure talls as they seem to hold far more promise in my climate. The photo I showed was taken 10 days ago. We're approaching mid-December and they still look flawless and have never left full afternoon sun - ensuring the warmest winter possible. My earliest attempts with dwarfs never made it to Christmas. If I can now get a dwarf though the entire winter, these talls should be dead simple. My year-round temps have definitely gone up in the last 23 years. Each dead cocos has contributed to my knowledge as well. Of course, many thanks for @Axel Amsterdam for steering me towards the talls.

Agreed. Most Sabals look really good in shade as they get really stretched and tropical looking. Im sure it slows them down some but in thing the trade off is worth it.

Paul, I have irrigated 12 months per year for many years, sometimes for dryness, and sometimes as a political statement. I would urge all California growers to read a book called "Cadillac Desert".

I got some Butia catarinensis × Syagrus romanzoffiana sprouting, 105 days in .

NICE CROP !

So i was wondering what the experiences were with this species since i have a 3gal I’d love to plant in the ground one day. I am glad I’m encouraged by success stories rather than discouraged by multiple failures by experienced folks. I took these pictures today at Leu Gardens in Orlando. Anyone know how long these have been there? There’s also naboutinense and trichospadix planted to the sides but they are about 1/3 the trunk height of the balansae (which is 4’ clear trunk). I cleaned the leaf litter and moss for better pics

A Dorset Canary… 🇬🇧 A fat old trunk on that specimen…

I agree you should try. Give green a shot first since it has more chlorophyll They are native here and ive grown 10’s of thousands for nursery production. When growing for nursery production we use 18-6-8 360 day fert and change pots each year (step-up). A full 1gal can go right into a 7gal, then a full 7gal right into a 25. When ive had runts of batches they were ones where the soil had begun to ‘muck’ and root circulation suffered. Not a bad idea to repot every year to avoid this even if it goes back into same container. BTW my soil mix is 50% pine bark, 40% FL peat, 10%hardwood Side note- I’m trying a green form hydroponically hanging in an aquarium indoors. It appears to be growing some new root tips. Fun to experiment

Not surprisingly that the trade in illegally poached or stolen seeds goes on. If it’s in demand and especially for medicinal reason that only increases demand. The black market trade steps in criminal organised gangs do the rest. Animals have become extinct or on the verge of extinction for such a trade. So yes it’s not quite a free world anymore I guess when money is involved in such a commodity. I guess growing an elephant indoors is not such a grand idea after all. I will stick with a few indoor plants for now but not serenoa palms.

From the time I first got into palms dypsis onilahensis weepy form has always been one of my favorites. I remember it taking me a while to find one but after buying a few that ended up being the upright form I finally got one. Not a rocket ship by any stretch especially compared to the upright form. I’ve had this one for about 8 years from a one gallon. Always a solid plant. Never been fed hasn’t cared if it was in full sun or shaded. 118f no problem, 26f no damage. Show em if you got em.

So I did end up getting 6x 4 inchers of each in last years Floribunda order. I didn’t really baby either one too much. Here’s how they made out after a year in Florida. Dypsis/Chrysalidocarpus Saintleucii These grew slower, but seemed more happy under the conditions here. All survived, with one weakling barely hanging on, one big guy, and the rest in the middle. They are a bit wobbly, but grow pretty happily in the heat and part-day sun protection from other trees. More tolerant of sun than the other. May 2022… June 2023… Dypsis/Chrysalidocarpus Basilongus These all survived, and all look about the same. They are a little more robust and well rooted, and less wobbly, but beat up by bugs, the sun, the heat here. Definitely not as happy, even under a lot of shade. I have them tucked all over the place in shady spots. they all look kind of unhappy and a little ragged. May 2022… June 2023… Saintleucii is happier and doing better for me here, so far.

Nice photos everyone. Here are some more in various stages of growth. Tim