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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.

Evening sun hitting this 2 headed Chrysalidocarpus Prestonianus Hybrid

Today it caught my eye how difficult it is to photograph my Mauritia and how easy it is to photograph my Pinanga.

My regular Brahea Armata is very slow growing but getting a very large trunk . It has been silver since it was a small 10” pot size about 25 years ago. The “super silver” that you have has a smaller trunk ( judging by the photo )with more rapid growth. Harry this was last year , I think. Unfortunately not much of the trunk is visible in this pic , but clearly a different palm than you have. Very slow growing like the L. Chinensis behind it. All the palms down here are about the same age. In the upper left hand corner you can see the Brahea Edulis which grows a lot faster , already about 8’ of smooth trunk. Harry

Foxtails survive in cooler climates but never look their best and the slightest of problems kills them. Here they are are so common that I am actually thinking about getting rid of mine for something more unique. Peachy

Wodyetia are a bit sensitive in their roots . It could take more time to recover or it may not recover at all. They can be very hardy or super sensitive , hit or miss . My bet is that it won’t recover , but that is because I have lost two of them for no apparent reason . One was growing like a weed for about ten years , got big , then just started fading . I tried everything to save it but finally had it cut down. Harry

A nice young burretokentia hapala, had the dancing lady orchid to dance with!

Dypsis procera, beautiful smallish palm.

Chrysalidocarpus Lutescens Solitary Form and a dwarf Areca catechu happy with all these recent rain.

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

@flplantguy big oaks and pines are expensive to take down when they get too tall and too close to a house. I could have saved a ton of money if I had realized they were water oaks...and had realized they grow quickly to 80ft tall and then die. I would have taken them all down in one swell foop, instead of piecemeal over several years. I have thought a lot about selling and leaving, especially with all the highway noise from the toll road they just finished. FDOT knows that CFX/Turnpike Authority are violating the FL noise laws, and have so far attempted to reduce the noise with short barriers and a fairly dense planting of trees. It's not working so far. I would probably dig up the rare Cycads (Encephalartos, Cycas, Dioon, etc) and leave almost all the palms. I would try and repot things that are actually tough to replace (BxJ, JxB, Arenga Pinnata, etc) or that I think are fairly tolerant of potting and moving (bamboos, agaves, cacti, etc). Most of the stuff I would just leave, knowing the next owner would probably clearcut and put down sod. I've read other people here say "never go back" because the palm death and destruction you probably just don't want to know about...

That’s not a rat it’s cappabarra by the size of that thing omg! But that’s a rat on mission by the looks of him for sure!

It seems like there are some sort of critters in every corner of the globe that do damage. I guess Donald Duck had the right idea about squirrels poor old Chip and Dale!

Yeah rats live in gangs. You can be rat free, then bang, 30 can just rock up from nowhere and cause trouble. I bait them. I don’t like doing it, but, I’d rather kill a few rats than let them breed and then need to kill 200 of them. When you live in rural properties they are never too far away. They love chicken coops too. So if you have chickens they won’t ever be too far away. They will burrow underground in a chicken coop. Sometimes you will get university trained rats that won’t take a bait and know how to take the bait from a trap. They teach others. If you have that problem you need to get the intelligent first. Simply put poisoned bait on the trap. I had super intelligent rats in my previous garden and if I had a gun I would have sat out in the garden at night with night vision goggles. Anyway the only thing that worked was using poison on the trap. Job done. Rattus rattus is best Rattus deadus.

A second flower has emerged on my queen (first pic), so that's cool. Second pic is the one that emerged in October. Hoping to see this one open up soon. Not sure how long they grow before they open.

Hello, my friend Jonathan! He's adorable! I'd adopt him right away! I don't understand how some people mistreat animals. Fortunately, here, rats and cats don't cause any harm, while my brothers' dogs, who live across the street, have damaged so many of my plants. Hitting them wouldn't do any good; they wouldn't understand. Please, let's love all living creatures, animals and plants, that our creator created.

I am 51. No big deal. you could just probably google me and my bday pops up. Like many on here, caught the bug when I purchased my home and said no way I want my yard looking like all these boring ones around me. In any case, that was during the days when HOA were more laxed. My new neighbor next door got a HOA citation for planting one lonely bush in the front of his barren yard while next to his house is a jungle LOL. I must say I was fortunate to ride the Palm Wave through my brother. Met so many awesome and gracious people (through my brother) and visited so many gardens only to realize later that palm gardening is not a sprint but a 15+ year marathon. You just have to visualize your garden in the future and be very patient. I also realized that for every beautifully grown palm in mine or someone else's garden, there were probably many other palms that were sacrificed in that garden as a means of learning to achieve said palm. More importantly, you may have the most rare and beautiful grown plant in the world but if you have no one to share it with, to talk and reciprocate your love of plants, then it mine as well be a "weed". Just some things I wanted to impart from my experience. I have also witnessed some amazing friendships evolve through the palm community. Palms were the catalyst just like any other niche interest but the sharing of this knowledge and see it expand and manifest has been priceless for me. I wish I had the palm bug earlier in age but seeing a nice baseline in the survey in the 30s trending is amazing to see. Cheers Tin

One of my Washingtonia filibusta caught my eye

A nice dypsis remotifolia and a very nice licuala triphylla var stenophylla. Loving the heat of 39 degrees Celsius today.

Here's a Corypha sp. at Kopsick loaded with fruits with lots of seeds to be collected later and a big removal to come as well!

My 1.5yr old Borneo Giant has flowered! Never really found any of the Alocasia flowers impressive imo.

L weddelianum today.

Skippy the bush kangaroo in amongst the palms.

A nice bit of red today around the garden with a Areca vestria red form, and a nice little dypsis lantzeana.

Mine is about 8-10 years behind I guess but I already love it. It’s nearly finished its green-silver transformation. All the different hues it goes through during transformation are nice but it’s good to see it approaching nearly full silver now.

I've always been interested in plants and weather since I was about ten. However, that interest faded for a while, until a few years ago when I moved from the desert-like climate of the Middle East to the California Bay Area. The weather here is nice most of the year, and my interest in plants suddenly came back—stronger than ever. I fell in love with Kentia palms at first sight and started buying them, planting them all over my property. Some got burned by frost or too much sun, which led me to start planting hardier palm varieties as canopy to protect them! The story continues, but my plan from the beginning was to not get addicted and start collecting all kinds. It's hard, though. I spend most of my free time calling nurseries and people to ask about this or that variety! I've traveled over a thousand miles, driven semi-trucks (without a CDL), and taken risks just to get more and more palms! I can't pass up a good deal. I hope I'm not truly addicted, but it's hard to tell. The urge to buy plants in the spring and fall is very strong. I just turned 39 and have started to wonder if I'm patient enough to build a full canopy, like the legendary ones I see around here. I met some great people in the San Diego/LA area who patiently grew very slow-growing palm varieties from seed. All respect to everyone who has that strong love, care, and patience. A truly legendary focus around here! I think not only are the collectors I've met and purchased from dedicated to finding rare palms, but they are rare individuals themselves! Indeed.

Incredible color on this palm! I love mine, but it's nowhere near the size of yours

I decided that, after some more reading, they probably won't make it in my 8a climate (effectively). I donated a specimen to JFGardens and gave Craig at Mercer BG a few as well (its about 5-10F warmer). Not sure if they will survive but I'll keep you posted if any of them do. One thing I learned is that they do not like being transplanted into different pots and their roots grow down like crazy. I had made the mistake of growing them as a group in a large pot and they were hard to detangle and separate without damage.

A few mapu to put in the collection. Five in total that will remain in there container in the collection in the greenhouse.

Beautiful little mapu!

I only fertilise with liquid fish emulsion or liquid kelp. Usually 2 ferts one water then two waters one fert. But if you’re plant is healthy and in good health from the organic matter in the potting mix just a little liquid feed occasionally will do wonders.

(Butia X Jubea) X Jubea in Dallas 5 years in ground.

A year ago my palm was blown over as far as 45 degrees. Obviously failed to plant deep enough. I staked it and used a mixture of cactus soil and native so cal. soil around the roots raising the height of soil by 6 inches. Palm has failed to sprout new roots and still unstable so anything else I can try?

Different Ravenea species but also should be considered for the future

Adding a photo tends to bring a lot more suggestions, as it’s easier to visualize the space. This gif is a little harsh, but I’ve seen it popup here sometimes when people try to verbally describe a spot without including photos… I personally didn’t comment because I’m not as familiar with non-palm trees as others on the forum might be. I do like “tulip trees” in our area (despite them being somewhat common). I also know the “Brazilian Tree Fern” is amazing as a canopy/shade tree, though it can be messy when older. I personally have a burgundy ficus elastica for color contrast in my yard… but FAR from the house since the roots are aggressive. Also tried growing fiddle leaf fig in tree form, but sadly killed it. Was inspired by a huge outdoor one I saw, but that one had good protection from the elements (mine got leaf burn in the winter). That’s all I’ve got on the “non-palm” but tropical tree subject (but would love to hear more from others).

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.

A stack of cash 💰 my dear possum! Richard

@sonoranfans when I was living up North in the frozen tundra, a 5 acre lot was probably not a big deal to maintain. I had a double lot (about 1.25 acres), and I mowed it once a month. The only real maintenance pain was blowing leaves from the 100ft tall red and white oaks. In FL I have about 0.75 acres and it was TOUGH to mow it all the time. Even with full water oak canopy I really needed a tractor to keep up with it. I converted the majority of the grass areas to mulched beds, so I can mow with a push mower in about an hour with edging and blowing. I can't imagine mowing a 5 acre lot of plain grass every single week. The biggest maintenance task at the moment is just weeds. Areas with really thick mulch did pretty well, but any area with a recent planting (any area planted in 2025) was just packed with nonstop weeds. I am hoping next year will be a little easier. I know what you mean about dead plant material. Every single week I fill at least 4 big 45 gallon trash cans with either weeds or palm or cycad fronds. Chopping and cleaning up in Nov-April is easy, but August...not so easy. Now that everything is planted out (just over 1000 individual plantings) I am leaving spots open when things die. I lost a Pseudophoenix and a Cyphophoenix and a couple of others, so I just plug the drippers and fill the spot with dirt and cover it with mulch. As the BIG stuff gets huge I may end up "editing" ruthlessly, like I did with 8 tall Queens last fall. Things I decide I don't like just get yanked, especially things that take a lot of maintenance or are dangerously thorny (like Phoenix).

The common and exotic, both have a role in the garden to do!

A view from my new garden. I moved in April.

A coconut palm doing well in my 9b suburb of Orlando:

Great thread …. Inspired me to write AVerse I am nearly 70 And some call me a grumpy old man I see I see I and Us and them I see politics and war and religion and war I see humanity I see a planet overwhelmed I wonder Am I fatalist or nihilist Its not my job to have hope I grow palm trees

2025 CFPACS Holiday Meeting LOCATION: Rob Branch’s Private Garden, 1315 38th St., Sarasota, FL 34234 DATE: Saturday, December 6th, 2025 TIME: 10:00AM - 4:00PM NOTE: The main dish for lunch will be provided. We'll have lunch onsite. Plan on bringing: A side, salad, or desert to share A plant for the auction (Palms, Cycads, Companion plants) A chair for your own personal enjoyment! Please RSVP to cfpacs.membership@gmail.com so we can provide an accurate head count for our lunch order. For your enjoyment: Our meeting right before the pandemic stay-at-home orders: Central Florida Palm & Cycad Society - Spring Meeting - Sat. 03/07/2020

A nice Chambeyronia pyriformis looking good.

Today I noticed my 3 Brassiophoenix drymophloeoides

Like Harry, I was drawn to the site of a rainbow 🌈 visible from my walkway, looking west. Unfortunately, to get to the end of this rainbow, I would need to dawn my wetsuits and paddle out to find it. After all the pollution runoff, I will wait a couple of days before returning to the ocean. The palms lining my walkway were also a draw for my eyes.

Cindy, it is exciting to see one of the Ravenea species being selected. The question is: Do you have a link for donating to this campaign yet? The call to action step.

Archontophoenix purpurea …

There are a couple of iguanura that tolerate the cool weather, at first I had them in the hothouse thinking that was what they needed to survive in my climate and all that did was give me dried leaf edges due to lack of humidity. Iam still reluctant to plant them in the ground. I will wait gor them to have survived about 4 winters, which will give a bit more confidence in them surviving winters in the ground and hopefully they will be a bit bigger.

This is what my Medemia argun seedlings look like today in the Fall. They haven't been watered since I transferred them (in their original soil with minimal root disturbance) to these tree pots. The leaves elongated and turned blue, and a new one is emerging on each seedling. They seemed to really enjoy our NorCal heatwaves this summer!! The trick will be getting them through the winter here!😉