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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

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.’

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

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.

Reinhardtia latisecta. Tim

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.

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!

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

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.

A vigorous push on one of my Encephalartos ituriensis.

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.

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.

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

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

Some 🔥 in the garden recently. Dypsis rosea Chambeyronia divaricata

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.

Agree with Satakentia liukiuensis

Each new leaf on the dypsis basilonga just gets better and better, followed by y a nice young Dypsis utilis leaf and don’t forget the vonitra Dransfeildii for putting on a nice new leaf for a bit of colour!

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

Phoenicophorium flowers must be somewhat appealing to the bees… IMG_4722.mov

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.

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

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

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.

She is a bit light lime green yellow looking. Most likely at first look nitrogen, but a complete NPK with trace elements should give her a bit more green, could even be in a hot spot but being a syagrus I doubt that. Some good old blood and bone with a good feed of chicken poo should do the trick if you want to go organic!

Indeed he did.

This should be a good time to plant one . I don’t have the experience with them like Jim does but mine grows year round down here. They do burn a bit in full sun but lots of water helps . Mine is in full sun and it can get very warm here , about 20 miles inland . Since being on this forum and learning from the folks who grow them , mine doesn’t burn near as bad as it used to. Harry

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

Home grown chamaedorea metallica seeds, 70 germinated from 70 seeds, the other ten seeds went to @gyuseppe, so waiting to see how many he gets, but so far 100 percent germination in Australia. Fresh is best!

Yep, that's an embryo!

It's really filled out—wonderful! You've got a great specimen there, Feng 🤗

I really have to smile—we should definitely have a Sabal lisa here. First of all, it’s a wonderful palm tree, and second, my twin sister has the same name, so it’s a perfect fit 😁🤗🤭

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.

Very rocky gravel base they are growing in, but moisture underneath is all they need. They withstand great flood events, getting pushed over. Richard

Some garden eye candy, caught my eye today!

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