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Still going strong, thanks to our mild winter. I'm curious to see how it does above the roof!

Thought I’d ‘bump’ this topic and add a few recent progression photos. This Lemur has really grown in the last few years and is such a magnificent palm. In one of the overall shots there is a shovel with an orange handle for scale. Tim

Out in the scrub again running around. Getting in a swim before winter gets here, and as usual bangalows in the wet areas and creek beds. Such a tough palm, but they do like moisture. Even there native habitat some of the leaves can look a bit tatty. So if your plants need is not perfect fear not even in habitat they can appear a bit tatty.

Allogoptera caudescens opening a new leaf is such an attractive sight.

A few more red fronds , anyone? Finally some blue sky to show off the colors. IMG_5250.mov …and a backlit Chrysalidocarpus ‘Dark Mealybug.’

Just my self indulgent contribution to this thread - I’m pretty proud of this one. Comments above are correct. These are tolerant of cool and even occasional cold nights. Mind in Melb, Aus occasionally has frost settle on the fronds with temps down to -1.5C /29F. Last winter we had about 10 frosts with temps at or below 2C/36F and the monthly average minimum temperature during the coldest month was barely above 5C/41F. Only minor cold spotting as a result. It’s also seen a few days up around 44C / 111F with very low humidity this summer and shown no ill effects to occasional exposure to these conditions. Our night times nearly always cool down significantly which may help. For reference, this one is in an east facing garden. It gets filtered morning sun until about midday. Happy to have this one growing here. There aren’t many palms that can grow here with those huge pinnate leaflets divided at random which just appears so tropical like in many Pinanga and Areca sp.

Hi all, Back in late 2017, myself and some fellow palmtalkers took a trip to the big island of Hawaii. We had a number of people there on the island that graciously showed us their gardens, which also included a trip to Floribunda. I remember one of the regulars that we met at Floribunda mentioning something to the effect, “man, you really got Jeff on his A game today“, which I thought was funny. Anyway, the following day we went over and saw the garden of Bill Austin. He was just a wonderful, funny guy. I remember standing by some beautiful clumping Chrysalidiocarpus, and Bill reached down on the ground, grabbed a fistful of seeds and said “here take these with you“. So I dutifully brought them home, germinated a bunch of them, and they turned out to be largely solitary, with a red growing point. At this point, I thought my memory must be faulty, and I poured through all my pictures and could find nothing that even remotely resembled them. I gave most of them away and kept one for myself. It’s been a slow, steady grower, that split a couple years ago, and is still only shoulder high. Lo and behold, I’m looking in the “for sale“ forum a couple days ago and I see some palms being sold as psamophilla x leptichielos, (being called a Sandy Bear palm) that are identical to the ones that I sprouted. Anyway, here it is in all its relatively diminutive glory…Thanks for looking!

Mine has grown really well throughout our summer despite multiple days of extreme heat. Mine gets filtered light for most of the day; it’s on the south edge of a south facing garden (southern hemisphere) so larger palms in the garden give it a degree of protection but definitely does see at least brief periods of direct sun throughout the day.

Paul, I’d get it in the ground right away. These palms grow continuously here during the coolest part of winter so should do well for you there. Of my twelve flamethrower palms, six of them produced new red fronds between December and February. If your new one has been in sun or partial sun since before your purchase, it should be fine in the spot you’ve chosen. If you want to play it safe, you can drape some shade cloth over the palm while it’s settling in.

Never a dull moment in the garden with a dypsis louvelli and a Chambeyronia hookerii for a touch of colour.

Just planted - 4/3/2024 ~1 year - 3/18/2025 8 AM ~2 years - 3/20/2026 8 AM

Some 🔥 in the garden recently. Dypsis rosea Chambeyronia divaricata

You learn to know you’re garden, and you’re garden knows who you are!

Recently I visited the Botanical garden of Rome and could observe the Nannorhops ritchiana. I thought it would deserve a video (actually two to get the single whole plant). Enjoy

Thanks to all! The deed is done. It was still rocking around on those roots a little more than I'd like so I staked it at the base. It gets pretty windy around here in spring. Let the burn begin!

Finally seeing some early signs of spring blooms on my Handroanthus (aka Tabebuia), both the dark pink heptaphyllus and the lighter pink impetiginosus.) Even my previously shy blooming Bauhinia x blakeana now has clusters of buds on many of its branch tips. Despite what the winter was like on East Coast of the U.S., here in the West we experienced "relatively" mild temps. It's so dry I've had to start handwatering again! Palms in the top image are Parajubaea (l) and Jubaea (R).

Reinhardtia latisecta. Tim

Iam lucky enough to have small plumosa in flower at eye height, making for a few close ups normally done a ladder.

Rolled past these beauties again over the weekend

You say it's a busy sidewalk. If it impedes walkers, maybe they have a point. As far as I know, a sidewalk is normally owned by a city, and is intended for public use. I remember my days as a young mother pushing a stroller trying to make it safely around obstacles. I never would have contemplated cutting anyone's bushes, but it seemed inconsiderate of some homeowners not to maintain a reasonably clear walkway. You might consider your liability if anyone were hurt by a spiny robelenii. I removed two that were leaning way over the sidewalk at my house. I see my thoughts are in the minority here.

A flash of red getting around the place!areca vestria dypsis lantzeana dypsis louvelli

I just noticed a spathe tip poking out from below an old boot on my Burretiokentia koghiensis. The two oldest boots were easily removed and I could see another spathe that was previously hidden beneath a boot. They didn't get an opportunity to fully open since the boots never dropped on their own. These are the first spathes on this specimen.

A vigorous push on one of my Encephalartos ituriensis.

Need some Cold Hardy seedlings after the Freezing weather? My large palms in yard took 27F with ease, no damage. I counted about 37 seedlings in this pot, most have 2 leaves. $30 plus Shipping, Spaghum, Box, etc. Beachpalms@cfl.rr.com

Spring is entering gradually and new growth starts appearing on Bismarckia and Nannorrhops. Which one is more blue in your opinion?

Here is our latest acquisition, a C. macrocarpa brought from SoCal through the efforts of @Darold Petty and Keith Jaeger (thanks to you both!), in roughly its eventual planting location, full sun much of the day. It's our biggest $75 palm ever and I'm super happy with it. Of course I'm eager to plant it, but normally I would acclimate it in part shade for a month or so. But I'm considering planting it out sooner, for these reasons: It's generally healthy, but it looks like a plant that just endured a 400 mile trip in the back of a U-Haul during our hottest March heat wave in history. It's way overgrown for its 5 gallon pot. During transport, a lot of soil spilled out and the top 3" or so of bare root was exposed. I topped it off and have been watering heavily, but as you can see, there is still a lot of exposed root. Absent a heat wave, the sun isn't that scorching here. It's sunny and 65° today, and it's supposed to stay that way for a while. What does the group think? Plant out now or not? Or, perhaps, transfer it to a bigger container? TIA for all advice.

I just found one in my neighborhood and knocked on the door to ask permission to take a picture. I ended up leaving with a huge cutting.

This little Ceroxylon amazonicum endured a lot of stress to get to California eventually! I ordered it in 2025 directly from an Ecuadorian nursery. It ended up in Florida quarantine for weeks, then arrived in California bare-root, half-dead and bone-dry! I tented it in plastic and kept it in standing water for weeks. It's now putting out its second leaf. I've not had much success with this species in the past, but I'm trying again. This palm hates heat waves, so I'll probably keep it indoors in a pot for the future. Eventually it may end up at a Bay Area botanical garden like the C. sasaimae seedlings I grew in the past.

Some orchids are blooming! Even with an extended , unseasonal heat wave they are doing good so far . They have been outdoors , next to the house for a couple of years now . They only get a couple of hours of early morning sun. Harry

Myself personally bottom heating set at 30 degrees, coco coir perlite mix just slightly damp, using etoliation to help things along. If the seed is 5mm in size you bury it 5mm if 10mm you bury 10mm and so on. Oh and patience.

Curiosity got the best of me. Let's see if either sets seeds. I'll try to go up on my roof a few times each week to continue crossing pollinating while nicolai is in bloom

I have two that I planted in pretty much full day sun as 1 gallons. It is going to burn, especially coming out of a greenhouse. Despite generally cool temperatures and decent humidity, the UV index gets pretty high here. Mine have been in the ground for close to three years and grow at a decent pace, but the leaves still eventually burn, though each new leaf is holding staying green longer than the last so it's getting closer to being fully sun-hardened I think. As Jim said, mine open new leaves at any time of year and in winter the red stays around for a few weeks which is nice.

While we are on the subject of alogoptrea caudescens, here’s a couple floating around the garden!

A couple of weeks later and it is really starting to look like a flush as opposed to a few little pale green nubs.

An amazing palm . I didn’t know anything about them until I saw one in the glass house at The Huntington in Pasadena , California. Yours is splendid! Harry

Nice, I am trying to germinate seeds of the yellow type. Saw this tree the other day in Harlingen, Texas.

They get huge and do trunk here down south. Growth that takes decades in the wild shady forest can be achieved in years in gardens with full sun, irrigation, and no root competition. And males often tend to put all energy into one trunk. Still I would not skin their trunk—it’s just not right

Today the good old phoenix robellenii got my attention, fitting in so well as a landscape plant. They may be common but they have that tropical landscape feel about them!

That definitely doesn’t have fused leaflets, like Sabal ‘Lisa’ does. As for any variegation, I only see necrotic leaf tissue, and no variegation. Not sure if it’s just my phone or if I’m missing something here, but I see no yellow/white sections in the leaves at all. Can you please point exactly to what you’re looking at?

Some garden eye candy, caught my eye today!

Agree with Satakentia liukiuensis

Not Carpoxylon. I’d stop short of saying this is a 100% positive ID since the lighting makes it a bit difficult, but looks like Satakentia liukiuensis to me.

I’m thinking you should plant Calamus radicalis along your front entrance. If he tries to go near it you will find him in the morning tangled up in it. A palm that fights back.

That’s the idea of it, you’re only going to upset the apple cart, just to keep the peace and whole idea of community living, I suggest we stick with the idea of a utopian society where palms are everywhere and the temperature never drops below 18 degrees Celsius. In other words peace love and happiness and we can all get groovy! Richard

Customs and border security took the fun out palm seed sharing, we where not doing anything wrong in sharing a rare palm seed!

Microcarpa stay green and are ripe when they naturally drop off the tree Cocoides turn a purple plum colour and are ripe when they drop

I would go so far as to replace the word "relatively " with "extremely " when describing how mild this winter was in the far west and south of the US. Deespite a few major storms delivering snow to the southern Sierra Nevada range, there have been extended periods of warmer than normal weather between them. My son lives in the Eastern Sierra town of Mammoth Lakes and advised they are expecting temps to rise to 75 in town on Monday, which is crazy warm for this time of year there. The storms that delivered rain to San Diego this winter were mostly accompanied by warmer temperatures this winter too, with heat waves between storms. I have posted about plants blooming earlier than usual since late Autumn beginning with winter blooming Laelia orchids. I am not alone in noticing this as a recent post from Phoenix about early Plumeria flowering pointed out. All through winter my wetsuit selection has been confirming the warm Pacific ocean temperatures. I only wore my thickest wetsuit a couple of days this winter because the coastal ocean temps only dropped below 60 degrees here for short periods instead of several weeks. As winter ended, several records for highest high and highest low temperature were broken for the month of March in places like Palm Springs and in some cities in San Diego & Riverside county mountains and and inland valleys. Bottom line, I think saying it was an extremely mild winter in the southwest is justified. Spring is starting with over 20 record highs broken on March 20th from Santa Ana to Big Bear and down to Palm Springs, and from Chula Vista up to Alpine and over to Borrego Springs further south. So we begin with extreme weather if record breaking conditions qualify as extreme.

I know you like your bangalows Jim, when you see acres upon acres of them in habitat there quite impressive!

Here's a Texas version:

Yesterday was a great day, PRA with Justin, Jason, and Billeb. Toured Jason’s and my garden which gave me a photo op opportunity with Jason for an update. Powering on! Tim