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After a miserable drought for most of 2025, rain finally returned to East Hawaii in mid October. All my wilted tropical plants are gradually recovering. No matter how much it rains, I'm always thankful for more. Months of cloudless blue skies is a disaster when you live on a small island, or even a Big Island. Always thankful for my monster Metroxylon amicarum planted 12 years ago from a waist high 5 gallon. Fingers crossed the coconut rhinoceros beetle never attacks.

Acrocomia crispa

This Rhopalostylus got my attention with an opening frond! Harry R. Baueri Cheesemania a fast grower in my climate. There is already the tip of another spear emerging.

I love all my palms and I am thankful they continue to grow. Today my Rhopalostylus Baueri Cheesemania opened another frond , I am thankful it has done so well! Harry ‘This palm is growing very quickly since I planted it about a year and a half ago. Nothing spectacular , just steady growth .

@sonoranfans for sure I do not want any fast growing, large, non-self-cleaning palms. I can deal with somewhat smaller fast ones (Kings, Foxtails) and small trunk diameter clustering types (Lutescens, Mitis). I am sure the 14 Alfredii are going to eventually be a big hassle. I will probably trash one before it gets too big, as I planted it only ~10ft from the house. Around 15-20ft is ok, but ~10ft is not. The three Bismarckia are already irritating due to fan size and fast growth speed. They are just growing out of the remnants of Wilson damage now, even with only ~90mph gusts. @flplantguy I planted a perimeter of Viburnum on the entire SW, S, and SE sides, but they were not that great at absorbing sound. And then they started dying of root rot (probably Armillaria). I am 100% sure the new perimeter of bamboo will become a maintenance hassle (nightmare?), but once the ~15ft tall culms leaf out it should be reasonably quiet back there. If you have space, things like Gracilis, RG Dwarf, and Ladyfinger (20-25ft, 15ft, 10ft) are great dense noise barriers. And they are leaf hardy below 20F so great even in winter!

If I buy a plant from a market stall or nursery that has weeds I hold the plant and tip it upside down and tickle the a little topsoil away hopefully with all the weed seeds as well. Then I quarantine any new plants that come into my nursery monitoring for weeds to germinate. And about 90 percent of the time I get weeds from these places that have weeds in there containers. I cannot stand weeds in my nursery and nursery grower thay has them…….. Richard

Zoo Miami.

You soon learn to spell Johannesteijsmannia, I had too with so many joeys, sometimes you run out of room🤣 But some great seeds in this batch! Richard

That’s a bit better now, hot sun they dislike , I have a few around my garden and the best ones are in shade. A couple of others are in some sun but shaded at different times of the day. And they love water!

I have 2. Hemithrinax and Pseudophoenix. Both species seem to thrive under Arizona desert conditions, and both are small and slow growing palms that are easily managed in smaller yards and gardens. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

On tonight’s show we have some lovely exotics that are straight from a jungle nursery near you! First we see the fabulous packaging from such a fantastic grower of the finest gifts Mother Nature has to offer! Then from the great land of Madagascar we have a lovely little Dypsis just simply known as CLBS. Just looking a picture perfect for this evenings show. Next we have a beautiful little Areca tunku that looks to be a baby! From there we go all the way to the jungles of Panama with a gorgeous zamia nesophila, a lovely understory Zamia. Staying in the understory we have a armorphallus lacourii, followed by a nice anthurium talmancae that’s also perfect for the understory. And to finish of tonight’s show we a lovely Etlingera cornerii aka Siam Rose these would definitely make a wonderful gift for that certain someone in your life! So thank you all for watching tonight’s show and stay tuned for nexts weeks show!

Well, the forecast was all over calling for at most light rain in the 80s during the day….. we just got hammered. It was needed though. Supposed to drop to the high 50s overnight. Happy Thanksgiving!

My Bactris major. It has grown a lot in less than a year.

Hookeri at Fairchild that just flushed a new leaf. Petioles are dark. I think that's normal for most hookeri. var. Flaviopicta (sp?) aka Watermelon that i found at a nursery on east coast...gonna buy it next time I'm there. Hard to find one's with this much pattern on them..

Happy Turkey and Football day! And RIP to John Madden.

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!

The small Hookeri in my above post was procured from @DoomsDave and an offspring. It’s grown great and does look different than the larger one procured from BlueBell Nursery. Super dark maroon leaf. Maybe just infancy traits. -dale

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!

But this one 3 times shorter, on full sun all day, already first flower this spring and now making two heads...

This two rigida planted 2011 as seedlings are getting huge but still no flower...

Few pics...intersting thing, recently find out that one of my rostrata make 2 head without flowering....i thought they do that only after flowering....

Hello, IPS friends and palm enthusiasts all, Here's April 2025's newsletter, attached. April 17, 2025 is International Palm Day! We covered palm evolution on Lord Howe Island, home of the two species of Howea, shared an update and photos from Northern California Chapter member Troy Stephens about the 43-year-old palmetum in Oakland, California, and posted an update from New Caledonia on progress in the Save the Species Campaign for Basselinia vestita. Apr-2025-newsletter.pdf

just few pics from garden, cant wait what will they do in this season after very warm winter

All signed up......and the rumor is true about this meeting, it will sell out!

Hello from Cali, Colombia. It is the evening of the Farewell Dinner, but I will take a few minutes to post some pics from the adventure. Bo (bgl) and I spent a few days in Bogotá in advance of the Biennial. We visited the Jardín Botanico de Bogotá and also went up the teleférico to the top of Montserrate to take in views of the city. The elevation of the city is 8,675 ft. (2,644 m.) and the top of the hill is 10,341 ft. (3,152 m.), a good way to acclimate for hiking at lower levels to see Ceroxylon.

More hot lips and a delicate flounce of fungi Back in our canoe and enjoying a lunch of grilled fish wrapped in banana leaves, we had a view of this spectacular and completely natural vertical garden: We made a detour to take in 2 beautiful waterfalls, one with a pool where a few chose to take a quick dip:

In the density of the jungle it was often a challenge to catch a photo of the palms, especially the really tall Socratea and Iriartea, whose crowns were high above the canopy. Hopefully others will contribute some photos. After hiking in the heat of the day, everyone needed a beer or two when we made landing on Juanchaco dock and made for our sweet little hotel in Ladrilleros. Early morning at the hotel The next morning on the way to the boats again, these hats made from the Manicaria spathe were quite popular souvenirs!

These are from our second, less muddy hike on an island with no trail to follow. We saw Euterpe precatoria and oleracea, various Bactris, Wetting, Genoma, 2 species of Socratea, Iriartea and others. (Not all are pictured here.)

More from my group’s first hike Bromeliads were thick on the ground and in the trees. We got a bit ahead of the guide and realized maybe that wasn’t such a great idea. Tiffany took advantage of the pause to scare up interesting orange-clawed tiny crabs in the leaf litter, among other critters. Some were enraptured by a Mauritiella macroclada, so I snapped a shot ...then realized they were looking UP at this monster Lots of big Manicaria on the trail

It had really cool windows in the juvenile fronds.

I was in the Jungle Adventure group so we spent the night in Bahia Malaga. The hotel was basic but the views were incredible. The next day we were given some additional hikes on the islands. Our guides had cut a small trail through the jungle to show us Chelyocarpus dianeurus. I went a little off trail on the way back because this caught my eye. I think this is Asterogyne martiana Canoe ride back to the village Bactris gasipaes near the village New leaf on an Attalea I believe this was A. cuatrecasana

I'm sorting through all of the pictures I took but here are a few highlights. Valle de cocora One member of the group brought some climbing gear. Lunch on the second day in Valle de Cocora on a ceroxylon trunk Bill disguised as a butterfly at the Quindío Botanical Garden

A few from my group’s first hike in Bahia Malaga... After debarking from the canoe onto the deeply muddy shore we set out with our guide across a tidal area covered with a half inch of water. First significant palm we quickly encountered was a Manicaria sp. with seed Mangroves Some sort of sea snail?

Massive stiltroots from Socratea exorrhiza. Cindy, Bo and Burt during a break from the Jeep exhaust. The largest butyracea I have ever seen.

I love the shot of Jason craning his neck to see the highest canopy!

It was an amazing trip, never to forget.

Cindy Adair waving from the Niña Victoria, one of the four boats we filled. This part of the ride took over an hour, but I lost track of time while admiring the scenery. These little broken islands densely covered with vegetation were a common sight. Once in Bahia Malaga, at La Plata Island we switched to narrow open motorized canoes to better reach the trails where we would hike. L to R below: Debbie and Greg Hamann, Jason Dewees, author of the recent book, Designing with Palms; Larry Klotz in white hat, Larry Noblick in camo hat Our canoe was the Correo la Sierpe, La Sierpe also being a village on one of the islets we would visit.

Photos from our walk in Tochecito, mature Ceroxylon quindiuense among the cattle, who unfortunately munch on any palm sprouts. The only chance for younger palms to survive is in the thickest and steepest groves.

Hanging bridges are always fun for viewing palms from the treetops. Above: Below: The following day we rode in buses to Sendero, then in Jeeps up to Tochecito. We were surprised to see the Ceroxylon fruiting in Sendero, but that was at lower elevation. The Jeep ride was 2 hours of very bumpy road. No complaints! The ride was curtailed when we encountered a rock/mudslide blocking the road.

One of the most enchanting aspects of Colombia is the clouds. I was constantly attracted to the heavy white layers of moisture lying snugly between the mountains or hanging mystically just above the ridges. This first shot is on the way to the Quindio Botanic Garden, which is nothing like most botanic gardens; it is more like a jungle with trails carved along the steep slopes where plants grow prolifically. Euterpe catinga, with the orange crownshaft: I liked a lot of the non-palms here, especially the heliconias... This flower produces a blue seed:

Brugmansia sanguinea, had no clue it could grow to tree size. Having fun with the views... A couple more from the botanic garden (photos not guaranteed to be in perfect order...) More later as time permits.

Larry, I looked at the pic you mentioned, and it looks like Lyle "Chip" Arnold between John and Paul. Bill

Post #1, picture #4 between Jeanne Price and Fernando Roca is Philip Arrowsmith, new IPS Director from Australia.