Leaderboard

I just spent the last few days driving around Southern California and photographed the Newport Beach Hyatt Regency palms, the South Coast Plaza Mall palms, and the LA Arboretum up in Arcadia, CA! Click here for the complete album with labels Clinostigma savoryanum - Newport Beach Veitchia arecina - Newport Beach Coconut in Long Beach, CA Coconut in Santa Ana, CA Chrysalidocarpus lutescens - they are common, but I love them Flawless Roystonea regia Coccothrinax crinita - LA Arboretum Thrinax radiata LA Arboretum allegedly has some of the tallest Washingtonia robusta in the world Ravenea xerophila Livistona lanuginosa Calamus caryotoides

Wondering around the garden this morning and noticed my Slick Willy/Bef is flowering. This palm is at least 15years old from a 15g pot. Slow in a pot but speed up considerably when planted. worth the wait!

Another thread resurrected from years back. Here’s my Kentiopsis Piersoniorum doing well. Planted out as a 1G plant given to me by @shepcs a few years back. Doing really good in the garden. Let’s see some updates -dale IMG_8247.mov

Hi all, been on a here for a few months now just quietly observing and learning from the wealth of knowledge. Thought I'd make an introduction with my garden and make a bit of a log of progress as I go. I'm based in a southern suburb of Perth, Western Australia which from what I understand has a bit of unique temperate/mediterranean climate of hot/dry summers and cold/wet winters. Frost is possible but very rare in my area really only getting to lows of 2°c/35°f Perth is known to have some of the worst sandy nutrient deficient soils in Australia however we are quite lucky in my area to have a bit of a mix of sandy topsoil and moist clay subsoil. We purchased our modest 900sqm/9687sqf property 8 years ago without a single tree or garden other than a just starting to trunk, Syagrus romanzoffiana. For a few years we didn't have much of a garden other than a few randomly placed frangipani trees and native grasses whilst we focused on renovating inside the house. (I have never been much of green thumb or even cared all much about gardens till recently.) Most of my time and money went on modifying and drift racing cars but all that changed when I inherited a 30 year old severely stunted A. cunninghamiana and asked on the facebook group for identification where @tim_brissy_13 replied that it was infact a native palm to Australia and that peaked my interest (Before then in my eyes all palms were messy cocos/queen or washingtonia palms) It was all downhill from there when I started to hyperfocus and research all about different species of palms and botanical nomenclature which sort of itched something with my autism and love of new knowledge. Fast forward to just over a year back I decided to hand dig out cubic tonnes of sand and grass to create gardens whilst collecting as many palms I could get my hands on. We have quite strict biolaws here and are not able to bring live plants over the border quite easily from the eastern states so its quite limited to seeds only or buying from the limited palm specialist nurseries. I have made a fair few mistakes resulting in sun and wind burnt palms, placing stuff in wrong locations and also over crowding stuff a bit too much but will hopefully all be worth it one day. For now it's just creating the canopy which i'm hoping the mass planted Archontophoenix will provide. Very happy to have criticism or advice with my work in progress. Anyhow my current list of species is as follows: Adonidia merrillii Areca catechu Archontophoenix alexandrae Archontophoenix alexandrae × cunninghamiana Archontophoenix cunninghamiana Archontophoenix maxima Archontophoenix myolensis Archontophoenix purpurea Archontophoenix tuckeri Bismarckia nobilis Carpentaria acuminata Caryota albertii Caryota mitis Chamaedorea atrovirens Chamaedorea elegans Chamaedorea elatior Chamaedorea klotzschiana Chamaedorea radicalis Chamaedorea seifrizii Chamaedorea tepejilote Chamaerops humilis var. cerifera Chambeyronia macrocarpa var. flavopicta Chambeyronia macrocarpa var. hookeri Chrysalidocarpus decaryi Chrysalidocarpus lastelliana Chrysalidocarpus leptocheilos Chrysalidocarpus madagascariensis Chrysalidocarpus pembanus Chrysalidocarpus lutescens Howea forsteriana Hyophorbe lagenicaulis Hyophorbe verschaffeltii Livistona decora Phoenix roebelenii Pinanga coronata var. kuhlii Ptychosperma elegans Ptychosperma nicolai Ptychosperma propinquum var. macarthurii Ravenea rivularis Rhapis excelsa Roystonea regia Syagrus romanzoffiana Trithrinax acanthocoma Wodyetia bifurcata House when we bought it, nothing but dead grass. South facing patio garden, quite shady. Have A. purpurea, A. cunninghamiana, Howea forsteriana, Pinanga kuhlii, Rhapis excelsa, and Chamaedorea sp scattered. Hoping one day the bigger palms will emerge and make the canopy to replace the shade cloth. 3x Wodyetia biffurcata for the newly installed pool area. We are in the middle of winter right now so everything looks a bit ratty. This area has alot squished in here however they are all very young specimens and hard to make out. There is about 20x young Archontophoenix sp planted along the rear fence line to make the canopy one day and a mix of Wodyetia, Carpentaria, C. madagascariensis, lutescens, pembanus, Bismarkia and two Areca catechu. Little garden leading to my wifes veggie area. 3x double planted Archontophoenix sp, Chambeyronia watermelon and a hookeri, C. leptocheilos (Not doing too well) and a Wodyetia to the left. Work in progress area, have some small fish and frogs down here. Just a Chamaedorea elatior and a tepejilote amongst other plants and my small potted seedlings. This side has the Archontophoenix albang hybrids multiplanted, Roystonea regia, Ptychosperma macarthurii, Carpentaria acuminata, Hyophorbe lagenicaulis and verschaffeltii, Chysalidocarpus lastelliana. Other side of the front more Archontophoenix sp multiplanted, Wodyetia biffurcata, Adonidia merrilli, Carpentaria acuminata, Ravenea rivularis, Ptychosperma elegans, Roystonea regia, C. lutescens and a solitary pembanus, Chamaedorea radicalis. Thanks for reading my ramblings. Jayce.

To all my American brethren, happy Fourth of July! Somehow, my life schedule generally keeps me out of the garden during the morning hours. But I’m lounging around today and even by San Diego standards, the weather is absolutely perfect. Mid 70s, high clouds, couldn’t ask for more. Just a few random shots. Kentiopsis pyriformis starting to look good now that it’s approaching its 10th birthday. An Allagoptera arenaria under an umbrella tree, stretching like crazy, looking for sun. A nice petite Pritchardia perlmanii.

It’s been a long wait for a first inflorescence since planting a tiny strap leaf Syagrus matafome in the ground twenty years ago. Today, this recently popped open one surprised me. Will be interesting if it produces any fruit.

This Thai palm has been in the ground awhile now and the large, attractive,segmented leaves are pliable and relaxed rather than stiff and thick. Well behaved and good scale. Me likes this one. Tim

Here’s an Archontophoenix species, seed collected from McBride Gardens in Kauai as purpurea. It is not, but it is lovely nonetheless. Another store-bought “tropical foliage” palm from years ago at a home center. Just a beautiful example of Archontophoenix, although I don’t know which one. Sabal mauritiformis at the best possible size. Long petioles and 6 foot diameter leaves. Lastly, another Home center purchase from 15 years ago, Crysalidiocarpus lutecsens. Common in the tropics, much less so here. But just such a glorious palm when it is content with life.

Hi there, First of all, Happy 4th of July to all our American members here. Hope you have a safe and wonderful Independence Day! Alright, just a short update of this one - please have a look: A great source of joy! It looks quite happy and I recognized for the first time... ...two new spears at the same time! One more time a full shot... Maybe I got to think seriously about a small pond to be made....🤔 Thank you for following - Lars

Have always liked these medium sized palms and fast growers in my location. Produce seed regularly, providing offspring for other locations in the garden. The pair of taller palms in the one photo are the mother plants for the smaller plants. Tim

After many years in the ground from a strap leaf seedling, my Copernicia rigida is finally starting to impress. Still no trunk, but at least the fronds look good. Closely related to both Copernicia cowellii and macroglossa, all 3 do very well growing up in the Arizona desert. As a side note, be very careful while near all 3 of these as they are lined with saw teeth on the edges of every frond. Yes, they will grab you and cut you. Ask me how I know...🤦 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Hi there, not to waste your time but when I was very young and my parents and I made a trip to subtropical region in the early eighties, we went to a botanical garden. Since I for some reason always liked the tropical plant section of our local zoo, I had my attention radar tuned up a bit at that time when walking around with my parents and the travel group we were a part of. However, one plant - a palm - caught my attention because of the translator's description of the plant - palm - we looked at. He said:"This is a Chilean Elephant Palm". I looked at it and made the "connection" immediately...the trunk! The trunk looked like an elephant's leg! Of course it does, so it made sense to me right away, I kept in mind and moved on. (eleven years old at that time) When we moved down to Okinawa and finally purchased the house and the garden, the first seeds I ordered from rps were - exactly - seeds of Jubea Chilensis "The Elephant palm" It was like a dream coming true. Of course I had educated myself in the meantime about what I am dealing with here, but it didn't matter. After three years of waiting to sprout and a decade in a pot, always checked it liked the holy grail since it was were all of it started, I finally went to action and "unleashed" it a couple of weeks ago. Soon after the rain season started with tremendous amounts of water and soaking the garden more than once for weeks - I was kicking myself myself for the bad timing - but since this fella is now alive for more than ten years and has experienced every possible freak weather in the meantime, it went through it remarkably well. Here we go, this may be one of the very few publicly documented Jubea Chilensis planted out in a private garden in Japan. I would be very happy to learn of any others. Alright, enough of talking... I know, it is a strong statement for such a small garden, but why not? Happy growing, little beauty! Lars

A very unusual way of clumping the rhizomatosa. They just start a vegative shoot and head for the ground and pop up further away from the parent plant. It’s still a rare palm, I have removed small plants and they are quite easy to keep alive. A very unique palm, with its rhizomes.

Mid winter in Melbourne and it’s the Ceroxylon sp. opening new fronds catching my eye. C echinulatum C alpinum C quindiuense C amazonicum C vogelianum

I cleared a patch of asiatic jasmine near my Chamaedorea radicalis a couple of weeks back and found these self-sown seedlings today. They definitely weren't there at the time and look freshly germinated. The seeds must have been sitting there all through the winter. I have plans for this area but I'll try to leave them in place.

There will be no shortage of them @happypalms in the future!

Putting the new property machine to good use, a recent investment for landscaping my property an excavator. And I should have purchased it years ago. With so many new palms and exotic plants in the collection I have a lot of landscaping to do. Raised beds with good quality soil is the only way to go in my environment. The original garden was done in this landscaping manner. Dig the whole are and remove the rocks, and use them for landscaping. Backfill with soil and plant. Even the kookaburras have worked out that the excavator means disturbed soil and all sorts of critters to eat , iam sure I have a few exotic palms to fill this section up with!

Happy 4th of July! Well, I am really impressed with how well my Mexican Fan palms have recovered from the freezing rain event this past winter. They really did take a beating and there was a bit of spear rot in both crowns. The first several fronds that grew out were damaged and smaller sized, but following 12 or so inches of rain combined for May and June that is just a bad memory. Growth is going full force and the fronds are now well over my head. We’ll see what this forecasted El Nino winter brings to San Antonio, but it would be great if we avoid any freezing precipitation at the very least. We have gotten freezing precip at least once in each of the winters since I’ve been living here.

It appears I have a lot more leaves to grow before my ones look like that beauty in sunny Hawaii!

Axel, Filling in the pool/ koi pond, as seen in these pictures, opened up an area for several more palm species. Archontophoenix, Burretiokentia, Bassalinia, Chambeyronia, Pritchardia, Bentickia, Howea, Syagrus, Rhopalostylis, Geonoma, Dypsis, Chamaedorea, Cyphophoenix, and Pinanga are some of the genus growing in that former pool area. The new area for planting was created three years ago.

Brahea elegans showing the armata portion of its genetics .

I recently acquired this Veitchia arecina x Wodyetia (Lady Fox Palm) and am wondering if anyone else here is growing this reverse hybrid. I have a ten year old Foxy Lady (Wodyetia x Veitchia), as seen in third photo and I’m hoping the Lady Fox is a fast grower and hardy like the Foxy Lady. Wodyetia x Veitchia Foxy Lady

Copernicia cowellii and macroglossa also appearing , just to document their growth progression in a desert environment...🌴 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

One of my Brahea dulcis

A little trip into the gardens today for a spot of planting with the garden team. Rick ackland the garden curator is right behind getting the palms into the garden. And I will say it’s not only palms he is working on with the garden, the major improvements he is implementing are going to change the botanical gardens into something that will be a must see on any botanical gardens list. And if we can get a lot more palms in there even better, all palms that get planted are going into the database Hortis which is linked to Kew botanical gardens. So this project will be a vital link in the chain for palm conservation in the future. And iam in it for the long run as long it’s permissible to do so, and a big thank you to @palmtreesforpleasure Mr Colin Wilson for donating a lot of the palms you see and backing me up. Future generations will have something to look at!

Galveston county earlier this week . There is a large resurgence of queens around the bayside lately. 👀

Update of my B hapala after another year or 2 of growth since the last photo. Really bulking up before producing clean trunk. What’s more noticeable to me now looking at this is how quickly my nearby Cyphophoenix elegans is growing (white trunk and crownshaft to the right).

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DagrwJmtUCE/?igsh=MTZtemU1dmpnZnllbA== Been a while since I've posted any palm content. TL:DR I bought a Bottle Palm. Now story time. I had to take Sancho back to the vet for bloodwork. Welp they changed the times they go to lunch and I didn't wanna find out he needed more pills after I went home, so we went to Laurel and went to Lowes again. Great luck there, found a pink banana there and it's already more than paid for itself selling pups and it's got 3 more on the way. These Bottles had been there for a while, and were still at full price. I figured I'd just do what I normally do and buy the smallest crappiest one and rehab like I do with philodendrons and pothos etc. So I ask about a markdown and I had Sancho on my shoulder. Bless this woman. She pulled out the biggest, nicest one and marked it down to $19. Did it suck getting it in and out of the car? Yep. Did I still have a $240 grocery pickup to squeeze in there? Yep. Tbf $240 feels like it buys 3 days of food now. Anyway the first thing I did when i got it home was basically drown it in neem maxx. I've also been using SNS209 as a soil drench on my indoor plants, and combining that with cutting off any leaves where I see webbing has been pretty damn effective for me. Anyway yeah it's a little crispy and yeah it's got spider mites but a 5 ft 5 gallon bottle palm in this part of the country for less than the clearance price? Aight. Bet.

Another great Australian palm. Slow to grow and germinate. Very sporadic germination rates, anywhere from 12 months to 3 years with them germinating in sporadic bursts. And with the added bonus of being cool tolerant!

A few trays full of them should be enough for the domestic market, with a couple left over for the garden!

The recently planted deckeriana palms are doing well, another zone push winner for the garden, you just don’t know until you try, although most chamaedoreas are quite cool tolerant but it’s nice to find another variety for the garden.

First pics were taken june 2021 and the following two today. It isn't slow after forming a trunk.

Bit of an update, it’s still alive and the little spear on the side shoot has jut ever do slightly grown a little bit. See what happens in summer now with this little experiment. The most encouraging sign is it’s not dead yet and that’s a good place to start with!

They stay bifid. I have a few near maturity about 5-6' and they stay that way.

Back in October 2025 I discovered that a huge banana had made a direct hit falling on this Veitchia. No photo as the banana obscured the palm. It was a struggle to cut the giant banana and remove all the rotting fruit and I might have cut down the palm too. However it was far from a ladder and would have been dangerous to attempt without assistance so I let it be. I noticed as the months went by that the upside down leaves remained green and I had planted the palm where I needed something to hold on to along this slope so I figured I’d use the trunk as a hand rail as long as possible. Yet here it is growing again!

A nice advanced tropical palm nursery with some good quality stock for sale. Nothing major in the super rare stuff, but I was told it will be restocked after winter with the rare stuff. The owner knew there palms well and the selection available certainly would give you that instant tropical look, once the wallet was opened. And rightfully so a lot of work and time goes into growing large advanced palms, and they are worth every penny. When you consider how long it takes from a seed to a landscaping palm with instant affect. Any business that is willing to provide such plants deserves what they ask for there stock, as a grower myself I know what’s involved!

And no chance of seeds either, makes them even rarer in Australia. Yes easy to do a division, I have taken one plant so far and there is another smaller one that I can take and would post quite well to a state near you! And as far as I know only one sex, i think female. @palmtreesforpleasure can shed light on this subject in more detail!

I have a rare variegated Heliconia rhizome for sale. The plant is only moderately sized, 5 to 6 feet tall at maturity. The variegation is strong. It is not a cold-tolerant plant, but should be fine in South FL. $60. Plus shipping.

Fishtail new frond

Congrats , Jim! That’s a nice palm . It is interesting to me that as fast as the Syagrus Romanzoffiana grows , that other species in this genera are nice and slow . For me , that is a bonus. 👍 Harry

It recently finally got described as Chrysalidocarpus comptus. Good news for a palm that has been known without a formal name for so long.

Very warm and very dry start to summer. Multiple days over 100F, and long stretches between rain. I fertilized a month or so ago, and been watering a couple times a week. Getting some beautiful green growth. All discoloration was from transplant shock last year, and will probably trim it all off next spring. So far, just been clipping the burnt-ends. It’s putting out its 4th frond of the summer, and all the new ones at over 7ft long. Easily my favorite plant in the yard, and very exotic looking for the area. NC Zone 8a.

And perhaps a few tough cycas species for a bit of ground eye candy. More orchids as well. A

I managed to get a few hapala seeds up, apparently these are red velvet crown shaft that are totally different according to @palmtreesforpleasure who gave me the seeds. But iam pretty happy either way about getting a few hapala going!

The only way is to mulch and hand weed, no chemicals involved which is even better. And another gardening tip is try not to let the weeds in. Once those weeds enter and set seed every year of seed is 7 years of weeds. A canopy also stops the weeds in combination of mulch, in my main ornamental garden there are practically no weeds and the new establishing areas have a few weeds. By creating the canopy over time it builds itself into a living bio sphere of a living ecosystem you created that Mother Nature balances it all together!

Good amount of rain last 2 days. Just that little bit and everything looks more lush.

I planted one in the middle of our hot Perth summer this year so 6 months in the ground has been a rocket, constantly sending out new spears. Even now we are getting smashed with 2°c mornings it doesn't seem to be slowing down. Sand over clay soils, north west facing garden.

Usually when you buy a whole flat of seedlings like I do you will end up with a handfull on the blue side of the spectrum.This one looked so good I decided to keep it for myself.

Arenarius