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

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.

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

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

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…

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

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

A vigorous push on one of my Encephalartos ituriensis.

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

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

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 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.

@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.

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.

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 only have one Chambeyronia so I really get excited when a new frond opens. This time it didn’t mess around, the spear showed no signs of opening Sunday when I was watering . Yesterday afternoon it opened . Within 3 days it will be green , it is in full sun. Harry

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!

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 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.

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

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.

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).

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

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.

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!

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" 😂

Agree with Satakentia liukiuensis

A nice young standelyi leaf!

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

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

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!

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

A beautiful little dypsis lantzeana!

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

Obstruction of the sidewalk is not necessary for mindless vandalism. During my tenure as chair of the Lakeside Palmetum I witnessed adolescent "persons" twisting off fronds with their bare hands, a Juania broken off at ground level, and initials carved into the waxy, white coating on Ceroxylon trunks.

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