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One of my favorite palms after seeing it at Fairchild Gardens and then on an IPS trip in 2015. Not easy to find in Puerto Rico but due to the generosity of Mike Harris (Caribbean Palms) he parted with two seedlings a few years back. My experience with my own seed started C. baileyanas led me to get the C. fallaensis in the ground right away, full sun. Sorry about the weeds! Too much on my plate to clean up this one today.

I feel sure the real reason for the bans is a view that native = good, non-native = bad. But even native trees like Pohutakawa are considered weeds by some if they stray out of their natural distribution of the past few thousand years. I'm just grateful to have a fascination for plants which has brought me lifelong pleasure and try to ignore the joyless extremists.

Pinanga coronata “Kuhlii” Kerriodoxa elegans. I use these to block the view of our power transformer. Some type of Rhapis but I don’t remember which one. Another unknown. Ptychosperma Something? Here’a a Pinanga dicksonii. I got knocked over in a summer storm but seems to be recovering well. Here is another one that hard to capture in photos. Hydriastele microcarpa

I got my weddelliana from JM today. I got permission from the boss to splurge on a 15g since they are so slow 😁 Here it is in its approximate eventual location next spring. I have another tiny one from Jeff Marcus which I’ll plant alongside it…hopefully neither one croaks.

So are these species growing like weeds and invading hill sides and filling fields with millions of out of control volunteers messing up farms and the ecology??????? That is the most ridiculous load of garbage I’ve ever seen. What is the reason they want to ban these palms. Without a reason how do they justify imposing a ban. Is it just a situation of, “Well it’s not native - ban it”. That means all the botanic gardens will just have to shut down, or become grassy areas that just sell coffee and cake. It’s not like NZ is some sort of untouched by humans pristine ecological area. Don’t get me wrong NZ is a beautiful place that I really want to visit and see it’s natural beauty but the reality is it has already been massively modified and degraded by human activity. So NZ is essentially into making arbitrary rules that have no scientific basis or basis on reason. You should have freedom to grow what you want unless it of course has a strong reason not to be grown.

I really enjoyed reading all the replies and the survey is interesting too. Thanks BayAndroid for getting this going. At 68 I continue to start all kinds of plants from seed knowing some are more for the next owner of my farm to see mature. The journey is what matters. Lots of interesting people on this forum! Thanks to all who frequent PalmTalk but especially those who post!

🌿 Our 2025 Save the Species Palm: Ravenea louvelii 🌿 We’re thrilled to announce that our Save the Species palm for 2025 is the magnificent Ravenea louvelii! 💚 Recognized by the Global Palm Specialist Group as critically endangered, this rare beauty is found only in Madagascar — where just 10 mature palms and a few seedlings have been discovered in the wild. 🌍 With the support of our Save the Species Campaign, local botanists can expand their search, collect precious seeds, and begin nurturing new life in a dedicated conservation nursery. 🌱Together, we can help protect this incredible species from disappearing forever. 💪✨ Follow the link to donate: https://members.palms.org/2025-save-the-species/

https://members.palms.org/2025-save-the-species/

That's literally what it's becoming. And I know I've said this hundreds of times, but by the time I get finished with everything inside, it'll be time to put the plants all outside and then I'll get a full time job fighting cats and fire ants but hopefully becoming really good friends with the UPS man and hopefully my grant proposals and my SSDI go through.

I just made my annual donation. I don’t have deep pockets, but feel this is a worthy cause. The donation link seamlessly took my money and immediately sent me a thank you email and tax receipt. Every dollar counts.

I present to you my 3rd annual edition of "WTF is wrong with my Lisa". After some time of it being potted with no improvement I planted it back into the ground. It is in a slightly wetter spot than before with full sun after 11am in the summer. It is irrigated regularly and fertilized every 3-4 months with Palmgain or Carl Pool. I've hit it with copper fungicide twice now with no change. There has been virtually no change in the growth pattern where new leaves appear normal and gradually brown out, never keeping more than 2-3 healthy leaves. I don't remove dead leaves because it helps me keep track of how many leaves it's losing per season. There is a S. Minor planted 2' away and it's growing perfectly normal. There is a C. Alba planted in the Lisa's previous location and it has absolutely taken off, picking up 3-4' of overall height this season alone. No other palms in my yard have any issues. Putting this out there to see if anyone has any new thoughts!

I'm dealing with an outbreak too, which is super cool because my grow room is big, there's A LOT of plants in there, and it's a dusty room that sat empty for 17 years. I'm buying a pump sprayer and the heavy duty neem concentrate when I go to town this week. Btw if nobody's told you yet, neem oil stinks like hell. Your house is gonna smell like diabetes feet for a few days.

I’m 65 and hoping to work a few more years before being put out to pasture. I’ve loved plants all my life but never expected to have a house, or a garden, in expensive SF until meeting my wife in 2012. We got married in 2014, bought the house in 2016 and planted out the back garden in 2018. So the oldest plants have been in the ground 7 years. I’m sure it will be another 7 before I start to see trunk on most of them. Thank heavens for the fast growers we do have (Chamaedorea, Trachycarpus, Archontophoenix).

If I eat enough turkey, I might be asleep until it's time to go to the meeting 🦃 On a serious note, looking forward to this as we close out one of the more memorable years in our chapter's history.