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Thought I'd share a few pics from my yard after a rather chilly winter - the Central Valley of California had a record-breaking fog event from late November through about the end of 2025. Temps stayed in the 40s for 360+ consecutive hours - no freezing, no frosts, just consistently cold and wet with next to no sunshine for nearly a month. Most palms grew right through it, but a few of the more tropical species really hated this - I rehomed a few to warmer (drier/sunnier) climates down south. Here are a few shots from today - everything in growth mode as we're getting 80s and 90s consistently - racing toward the 100s too! In just a matter of weeks winter will be a far memory as we bake in the 100s until we cool again in October. Archontophoenix tuckeri - grown from seed from @DoomsDave. I'm pretty sure you threw a handful of seeds at me during one of my visits to your place. Trunking archontophoenix cunninghamia in the back. Seed-grown howea forsteriana & allagoptera peeking in behind tuckeri. Syagrus rommanzoffiana - nothing special, but I recently did clean up the trunk, which makes it look 10x nicer. A shot of my front yard - the pink Handroanthus is just about done blooming. Below it I have Brahea Super Silver, Brahea Pimo, and closest to the bottom is a Jubaeopsis affra, recoving from an irrigation mishap in summer of 2024. The irrigation timer went offline mid June while we were out of the country traveling, and this whole area went without water for 2 weeks. Jubaeopsis took that personally. It's been slowly recovering from that 'drought' event. Handroanthus umbellatus was in bloom just a few weeks ago. This is Livistona speciosa. I grew this from seed, and gave the rest to folks in Southern California. Does anyone have any still growing? I think some of them may have gone at palm society auctions. Chamaedorea hooperiana - The ficus roxburghii looks so pretttyyyyy in the back with all that new growth Sabal uresana - looking stretched. This thing is slowwwwwwww This is the view out our back door. Arcontophoenix tuckeri on the left. The red amaryllis is an heirloom passed down from a neighbor before she passed. Phoenix rupicola. You can spot the Brahea Super Silver in the background. The silver-ish palm below it is Chamaerops humilis var. argentea. There's a Cycas deboaensis on the bottom right that will need to find a permanent spot. I have a habit of putting plants in temporary spots, then moving them when I decide on a permanent spot. I feel like plants develop much better in the ground than in pots. They also benefit from regular irrigation being in the ground, and I don't have to worry about forgetting to water them in pots. This little corner area is filling in so nicely, and will become very thick with vegetation as plants keep growing. Beccariophoenix alfredii is in the far back. Ravenea glauca is center toward the left. Sabal mauritiformis is off to the right. Cycas revoluta x deboaensis is front and center. Lastly, a shot of a Clytostoma callistegioides flower, and a Dendrobium chrysotoxum which I have in bloom. The Dendrobium is grown inside a greenhouse. The last photo is of my plumerias waking up after a chilly nap. I had lots of rot to deal with this winter. BONUS - see if you can spot the Chrysalidocarps prestonianus... It went into the ground directly as a 4-inch plant from Floribunda some 5 or 6 years ago. Almost forgot the Chrysalidocarpus decaryi as well. Decaryi doesn't like the prolonged cold/wet conditions, but it grows out of damage fairly quickly - and we don't always get those particularly cold/wet winters. Some years we are dry and sunny like the rest of Southern CA.

I just got back from a brief road trip to Bahia de Los Angeles to see the northernmost red mangroves on an island in the Gulf of California! It is a tiny coastal village in the middle of nowhere with no cell service and only satellite internet. Nevertheless, I stumbled upon some incredibly rare palms in a random garden! Anyone know any information about this garden? I tried knocking on the doors nearby but nobody was home, but there was a house pipe with wet ground beneath it so it looks like someone is tending to these palms. Click here if you want to see ALL the photos from the road trip First is the trip's purpose: the colony of red mangroves with the second pic being the particular northernmost mangrove in the colony. I'm guessing palms are Medemia argun, Bismarckia nobilis, Copernicia baileyana, Hyphaene coriacea, Cocos nucifera (only one in the village), Sabal riverside, Brahea armata (native), and Chamaerops humilis var. cerifera.

The palm didn’t miss a beat with the move… Seems equally happy in its new location. Both the old and new locations see a lot of sun (the new location slightly more sun than the old). I haven’t tried it in either of my two “worst of the worst” spots for sun, but it seems fairly sun tolerant to me (within reason). Likely similar to lutescens in that regard, but more cold tolerant (as in fewer “fried” looking fronds coming out of winter). Here’s a snap I just took at 9:30am this morning…

And here's a trio, rousselii is the big one, crinita front right, and rubra in back

My biggest Hedyscepe canterburyana that I grew from seed from the beauty in pogobob old garden is finally setting seed. Last summer when Tim from Hawaii was visiting it flowered but the seed aborted.

Acquired from Floribunda and planted January 2019, this palm is looking really lovely at the moment. It has always been a very spiny thing, but yesterday I did a double take -- it's as smooth as a fine suede jacket! And such color! No evidence of the "rubra" (red) for which it is named, but beautiful all the same. Still young, and has only a few spines on one side of the trunk. I'm interested to see yours -- please share photos if you are growing this species.

These three varieties of palms are a must have for any palm collection. All easy to grow and all have that exotic look so desired by gardeners and collectors. So if your climate is good enough these ones are a must have. I should know they are my best selling palms I have, proof enough they are popular! lanonia dasyantha kerriodoxa elegans Johannesteijsmannia altifrons

Walt's wife just posted on the main forum on an Elaeis guineensis post that he passed away in June 2025. I don't know if she is aware of this subforum so figured I would post here. I never met Walt, however, have been following his posts on his garden since approximately 2003. He was one of the first contributors who regularly posted photos in posts, which I always appreciated because I lived in Seattle, WA at the time and loved seeing palm photos. It was fascinating learning about the difference between USDA zones in CA and FL because of him, as he would "famously" grow coconuts in USDA zone 9b! He also would share photos of his trees that would recover from seasonal frosts. Anyways, his posts will be missed!

One element you need to grow a garden is water, and in a palm garden you can never have enough water especially in my climate. If iam to grow the exotic palms I wish to have I must irrigate them. There are pipes in all sorts of directions, with shifts on top of shifts overlapping each other, I have a bore for pretty well much unlimited water. And every chance I get I water, usually 20 minute shifts. So if you want to get your garden growing get onto irrigation it works. I have over 30 taps throughout my garden most with 19mm fittings for the sprinklers. It’s a game changer!

This one is in a prime spot. Trunk is almost a foot across at the base, much more robust than the others, but hard to tell in photos.

I’ve been cleaning up the garden beds recently, and they are packed with bromeliads. Here’s some of my favorites so far this year. They really start to multiply over the years.

Been pleasantly surprised by my one and only to sprout from a small seed batch last year. Hasn’t been fully exposed to the elements yet but has coped with the cool. Suchan interesting and colourful little seedling. Very rewarding from seed.

I will be as soon as I can get these three in the ground, but for now they are quite fast growing and have cool tolerance, another year of growing them and see how I go planting them in the garden.

I am so sorry to hear about Walter! I have been following photos of his garden in Lake Placid since approximately 2003! He taught so many people about growing palms in central Florida. Thank you for letting us know.

crysophilla warscewizianus Johannesteijsmannia Altifrons Chuniophoenix nana All looking rather good! And they catch my eye continually!

@Foggy Paul I have one that is just starting to get rings . Pretty fast grower here , thirsty palm. Harry

Had a quick visit to the gardens yesterday and snapped a few photos. We’ve had a few extreme heat days this summer up around 44C/111F but for the most part there’s not too much damage. Good to see more new plantings and there’s more to come. Geonoma undata. Pretty exciting new addition to a new cleared area where some South American species are being planted. Chamaedorea tepejilote Licuala ramsayi new planting off to a new start. Let’s see how it looks after winter but they are proven to be hardy here just very very slow. Hedyscepe canterburyana Arxhontophoenix maxima with a bit of heat damage to a new frond. Brahea armata in flower. Puts on a great show. The colour on Butia odorata in the background is eye catching too. Both such great palms for here. Parajubaea cocoides loaded with fruit Jubaeopsis afra is really becoming a standout feature specimen now. Beccariophoenix alfredii. Such a beast. Livistona mariae. This is a very old plant. Been about this size since I can remember. The smaller Hedyscepe canterburyana. Appears possible a bit heat damaged with its lower fronds dropping hopefully should recover with our long cool season coming up Chamaedorea woodsoniana still going pretty strong Syagrus schizophylla One of the big old Jubaea chilensis caught my eye with half of its crown shining silver reflecting the light off the fronds’ abaxial surfaces.

Well just adding to my blog here. I had my first in person customer today. Sweet lady, home health care nurse. She and her daughter showed up looking for the elephant ears I have on FB marketplace, and they were just kind of in awe of all the stuff I've got growing _out here_. She told me she keeps killing her houseplants, I showed her how to mix coco coir and perlite and stop using potting soil, her daughter was fascinated with the kittens. Sancho didn't make an appearance, and she killed a bee that flew in after I told her I was allergic so I basically gave her the plants for half price and gave her a philodendron. I think she'll be back once more stuff sprouts up. I've got dozens more bulbs to sprout. And then there was a bunch of "ohhhh yeah that's not for sale" 😂

Asterogyne martiana is apparently an easy grower for me, this one has done outstanding this last 6 months despite a chilly winter, even in the greenhouse. There are others that look good but this one I really noticed recently after moving it.

I have finally been able to bring the three main species of Beccariophoenix together in my Oakland CA garden. B. Alfredii has been growing well from 1 gallon and has really picked up speed this past year (prob close to 4 ft or so of frond length. B. fenestralis has been slow but solid from a 1 gallon as well for the past 3 years (hard to see this palm as its protected and covered by other plants). B. madagascariensis has proven to be very hard for me to track down until this past week in San Clemente! I was able to get a masterfully grown 15 gallon and drove it back to Oakland in my car with palm fronds slapping my son in the face in the passenger seat! B. fenestralis with nice windows! 3 years in the ground. B. madagascariensis with Acanthophoenix rubra in the ground for 2 days lol. Looking good with the recent rains! B. alfredii with beautiful purple petioles and fast growth.

I have been overseas for a bit so here is mine. Hard to get a good shot of it as I tend to plant everything too close.

Just thought I would share photos of this Mexican fan palm that I have been tracking for a couple years. Self seeded right up in the rocks along a bayou here in Northwestern Florida. Very tough palm, has survived some flooding and a rare Florida snow with a few inches.

A couple of common palms got a bit of attention this afternoon! Dypsis lutescens Howea fosteriana rhapis loaensis wodyetia bifurcata dypsis plumosa

Came out true...I just had one seed I left sprouted to see if it would come true and it did. Picture attached...

A gift from a palm talk member @Harry’s Palms sent me some decipens seeds. They have germinated quite well and apparently they came from a well know palm growers collection. Which makes them even more special to me. I put some seeds in and the rest got disturbed to a few other fellow palm talk members in Australia. And it seems none of there ones have germinated yet, so if those couple of growers need a lesson on germinater palm seeds iam running a online course just for those couple of members 🤣 so they can’t blame the seeds! But jokes aside thank you Harry for the lovely gift of seeds, they have become rather special now! Richard

Lc. Irene Finney ' Springs Best' AM/AOS; 1964 (Lc. Bruno Alberts x Catt. J.A. Carbone). I love this variety, so reliable blooming every spring and not fussy at all in care. The most regal of my catts. And cattleyas taking over my kitchen table, can’t wait to kick them all outdoors when our night time temps finally get above 50 degrees F in May….

These are awesome looking. Used to be my holy grail palm. but South Florida was not k8nd to these. Not sure why more people don’t grow these… maybe those spines when young. I picked up a couple of babies from Floribunda a few years back. At first they grew like crazy, then (like so many tropicals) when the summer nighttime heat really picked up, they got miserable. They went back and forth like this for a couple of years, then I decided to it was cruel and unusual punishment. They looked terrible. I took the loss. They kind of have thin, soft leaflets, like teddies, or a R rivularis.

some of my ALSTROEMERIA in bloom, called lily of the Andes of Peru

Here are a couple of pics from the garden and the parent to your babies! Harry One of two that produce copious amounts of fruit . This is the smaller one of the two. A Ceroxyline ( spelling?) at the Sullivan garden. Hedyscape that is doing quite well in Ventura at their apartment building by Ventura College. Looking up at the SECOND STORY of the building ( to give scale).

@BayAndroid's thread inspired this, but I thought it was worth expanding a bit. One of my pet terms is the Palm Water Need Spectrum, ranging from Desert Denizens, through Drought resistant, Drink and be Merry, Thirsty devils, [ethnic] Fish and Swamp Things. Swamp Things are those palms or other plants that will literally grow in standing water. In CA, those include Archontophoenix tuckeri, cunninghamiana (but not purpurea), and Ravenea rivularis. Anyone know others? Where you are. I don't have the blessing/curse of an actual swamp but I'm sure others of us do. Introduce us to your Swamp Things.

Here’s a picture of Sabal palmetto along the St. John’s River in central florida. Roots can grow in air and in standing water. The river edges get flooded from each hurricane and thats what probably eroded away the shoreline overtime. I thought this picture clearly shows how resilient and impressive this species is.

Hydriastele gibbsiana is very high up on my wishlist. Never seen seed available or even really spoken about anywhere in cultivation. Still never grown Ptychococcus lepidotus but would like to try. Other than that, there’s a few highland Calamus species that would likely grow well in our climates, but still not too many others from >2000m. Palms of New Guinea is a good resource which has a nice summary I’ve attached. The Heterospathe sp are interesting.

Chamaedorea microspadix and a slow growing cocothrinax eckmanii standing the test of time.

Update: the first spear has opened with a nice salmon color. I expect future leaves will look better, not having been stressed in the weeks prior to opening.

Chamaedorea plumosa doing its best impression of a crownshafted palm, with very little encouragement from me. I’m sure this has something to do with our recent heat wave and continued warm weather.

How its going.

In dry climates irrigation is number 1 issue for many palms(non desert palms). If things are not growing fast for you irrigation is the most likely suspect holding things back. The difference between the dry hot spring and the hot rainy season is quite dramatic, no marking of spears needed just count new leaves per month. When palms are dry they go into stress and that stagnates growth as they try to find water by growing new roots when all they need is to be watered. In high drainage soil this issue is magnified in a big way. When I lived in arizona I saw lots of people kill palms with frequent shallow(short duration) water schedules in clay soil, moisture at depth is not achieved as soil evaporation and runoff(in clay) dominate ground penetration. In our florida drought we are only allowed to irrigate once a week. This years growth could be seriously stunted as drought stress signs are everywhere. Did you know that palms cant feed on nutrients in dry soil? You can throw down plenty of fertilizer and still palms can be nutrient deficient if the soil depth where roots feed is dry. Moisture is required to enable the transport processes of nutrient uptake. If your palms are growing too fast and you want to slow them down, cut watering down in the hot season, it will do the trick.

Richard the water is very good for the plants,d summer I have to water every day,d summer it never rains here,they call it the long Mediterranean summer

Iam finally getting back to the greenhouse, with a change in the season it’s time to get on with the property projects. So time to get the welder out put it to good use. So far total cost 2 rolls of welding wire and labour the rest of the materials from leftovers at work, the boss even gave me the two roll of shade cloth. About time as well after 24 years of working for them! My sister works for a trucking company so the plastic pallets were freighted up from Sydney. Not what you know but who you know in the palm growing game!

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.

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

Selling 2 Archontophoenix Myolensis I have that are outgrowing some 5gal pots and would love to be planted in the ground. These are the last of a group that I started from seed of the mature specimens that I have in my yard. Asking $30 ea. Local pick up in Huntington Beach, Ca. only. Direct message me if you are interested in purchasing either one of them.

Even though planted in way too much shade, my jaboticaba tree manages to produce a small crop every year for a tropical treat in the desert. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Not a palm tree, but our loquat. While the surrounding Cfb zones by the sea are still in their early spring dormancy, my loquat tree began a massive growth spurt around March 15. As you can see in the photo, the velvety, bronze-colored new leaves are already several centimeters long and are sprouting with incredible vigor. This early start (about four weeks ahead of the regional average) fits perfectly with my nectarine blossoms, which also burst into bloom around March 11 or 12.

Looking good! C plumosa is a crownshafted palm, right?

This is my favorite thread. So many beauties! Here’s one that needs no introduction:

Also in my transitional from BSh to BSk climate (Köppen classification), artificial irrigation is absolutely necessary. Look what happened to a potted Livistona of mine during mid March , while irrigation still remained shut off.

I had an area of my yard that was constantly wet . We had just bought the house ( new ) and the builder installed another French drain but it was still wet ….mosquito wet. I bought a 24” box Syagrus Romanzoffiana for $25 that was on death’s door , dug into the mud , and planted it . It took off like a rocket , problem solved . No more mud over there and we provided shade for my neighbor! Harry

Agree with Satakentia liukiuensis