Leaderboard

Many flowers over the years. First time I’ve seen seeds. Will see if they turn out viable. 20’ish years old from a 20 gallon. Dana Point, CA

Macrozamia johnsonii I grew from seed is now coning. 1996-2026. These are large plants with 10ft+ leaves.

I have had received some interest in this elegant Malagasy species that I have been growing, and I'll take a little time to present some pictures and comments. Seeds from RPS were sown in July 2008. Good germination, four plants were planted out in April 2014. Here is a pic of the quartet taken a few days ago: I took another pic (in rare full sun) from a different angle with a lawn chair for scale: The pinnate portions of dead leaves tend to break off, leaving numerous very thick leaf bases that exceed in toughness any other genus I can think of at the moment. Here is the largest one. Smaller palms next to the left are Dypsis (still Dypsis) rivularis. For a while, plants of the two species were of identical height. Two larger palms in the distance are Clinostigma exorrhizums. Inflors are two or more feet long, very straight and vertical, emerging from those tough leaf bases. Three of mine have produced them - I'm not sure which sex they are. Here are two that fell off after dying. This species is among my favorites. They do trunk after sufficient time, as I have seen in published photos. But I am in no hurry for that.

I have two satakentias from ken johnsons farm, planted out in early 2019 with 2-3' trunk. I also have a smaller one I grew from a 4" seedling in 2021 that was planted in early 2025 is now 6-7' overall. They are great palms and the trunks are pretty thick. I will quote ken " ythey are emergent palms so they like shade when young but with size they take the sun well. The trunk at the crownshaft is about 8-9" caliper, definitely more than my archies and all my other crownshafted palms except for the royals. They hate frost with a couple upper leaves burning a couple years ago. They do look a lot more colorful in sunlight after shedding a leaf. Here is one of mine, they trunks/crownshafts glow in the distance in sun. No sign of inflorescences yet. closeup of the same palm to see the crownshaft color a week or so after a new leaf was dropped Easily my prettiest crownshafted palm. I checked the trunk measurements, 8 1/2' clear trunk as of today.

Here’s Jayne Mansfield my big Roystonea oleracea. Makes my heart sing to look at that lovely thing. And my big regia in the background.

Iam lucky enough to live near the habitat of linospadix monostachya. They make a fantastic garden palm, predictable size and growing patterns. They flourish with good water, cool tolerant wet deep shade understory is there perfect habitat. Somewhat similar growth habit to lytocarum weddlianum and similar growing conditions being a little dry tolerant once established. They look amazing in habitat by the hundreds covering the forest floor under the canopy.

Spring is only another 5weeks away, now is the danger time for any of the new plantings, so far so good with only one palm taking a bit of burn.

Some blueberries on the dreadlocks. Also my breakfast raspberry substitute fresh off the guava tree. Yellow.

Hydriastele splendida living up to its name. Tim

A few R. Sapida in SF

Chambeyronia macrocarpa var flavopicta on a rare sunny Melbourne winter day - this show never gets old. It produces exactly 2 new fronds per year for the last few years. Every late July it will open a frond which stays red longer in the cooler weather than the one that opens in summer.

This genus is terribly difficult for me to differentiate between them. Even more than young Pritchardia, and that’s saying something. Nonetheless, here are two that were purchased either as argentea or maybe argentata..they’re similar in speed of growth and having silver backed leaves. Here you go!

Time to weed the lava and misc AM light…

Been growing nicely in deep shade since 2020 Just planted The other day. Iʻm 5ʻ10" tall so itʻs doing just fine.

The mid north coast of Australia a subtropical paradise. With thousands of hectares of rainforest that covers a fair chunk of it. Before settlement it would have been one very unique piece of land. Now it has been fragmented into isolated areas broken up by farmland. Much of it is either state forests or national parks with a lot of special reserves locked up for conservation purposes.

VThe garden is holding up to the usual winter weather not a problem 2 degrees celcius this morning, and iam sure the low lying areas in the valley most certainly would have seen a very white ice blanket on the ground possibly even a minus degree reading somewhere.

A vine that was scrambling along the ground.

The peace and quiet and with a lot of areas inaccessible to the family car there’s always a spot where you won’t see anyone at all except for the animals!

M amicarum seems to be building some momentum…

After over a year of waiting, some Butia lallemantii is showing activity!

I haven’t been watering the garden, trying not too wet the foliage. In the morning would be the best time for waterings, but with plenty of rainfall the garden doesn’t need it.

Calyptrocalyx albertisianus popped a new leaf. Blue sky……a rarity lately. Tim

Went to just do a quick heat check and figured I'd check a couple other things while I was in the grow room. The heat index in there is 127°F right now, and I've left the heat mats plugged in but they're not cycling on - they're set at 85 and the thermostat says the soil is 97. Anyway. Y'all think these are ready to come out of the baggie?

It’s amazing the difference a little mulch makes on the garden. A nice winter blanket, weed control, moisture retaining, you feed the soil and it looks good. So a little mulch does go a long way, now all I have to do is spread that mulch around, a couple of wheel barrow loads should do the trick!

Hey there everyone. Its been a while. Had a rough NYC winter this year. Lots of snow and cold wet weather. Windmill Palm took a little beating!! But still thriving! 16ft to top of crown, 12ft to top of trunk. Just gave her a prunning. Unfertlized seeds avaliable.. not sure if you can pollinate them? Good luck to all this winter!! Bobby

Thanks for looking

Brahea clara on the right, grown from seed. About 5 years old.

Lehmannii and whitelockii

Sabal Yapa Palm & sun making art

here is one i grew from seed. vulcano ... seed from portugal. awesome you grow platyceriums too! i just started but grow the rarer forms indoors. i started a platycerium discussion on the other tropical plants thread. you have perfect climate to grow so much. i love pasadena but alas couldnt afford it when it was time to purchase a house. lived there when i went to art center. cheers tin

Not super red today. Has looked better Calyptrocalyx hollrungii This one has looked better.

With very unique plants that have adapted to cope with all sorts of climatic conditions, and relying on the animals for that symbiotic relationship to survive for a lot of species and visa versa with a lot of animals dependent on that ecosystem for survival.

Last night as the sun dropped low in the sky, I was reminded why the relatively common Encephalartos longifolius is one of my favorite Cycads. The shadows on the leaflets really was emphasizing the insertion and overlapping nature of the leaflets. This is a smaller one that has grown slowly since I transplanted it from one garden to the other several years ago. It had already stalled prior to the transplant due to my neighbors having planted a hedge along the property boundary that completely changed it's sun exposure, starving it of sunshine until I dug it and moved it to Leucadia.

E tegulaneus

A nice little Pinanga sarawakensis doing well in winter.

It’s been a bizarre week. 106f yesterday here in Sugar Land. Ridiculously hot, hottest I’ve ever experienced. Today, we have a tropical storm that was supposed to be a nonevent but winded up causing a lot of rain, lightning, and somehow no wind.

Beautiful beautiful rain totals across the western half of the Houston Metro. Could not ask for anything better! Picked up >1.5" at the garden near Katy 😍. Long slow steady soaking rain

I’ve been observing this palm for probably 50 years now. It was planted at Two Harbors Catalina island around 1920-28. Its looking better now than a few years ago due to the drought ending. It gets only rain, no irrigation.

Areca vestiaria new red emergent leaf. When I bought it a few years ago it was solitary, now it seems to be clustering instead. to the left of the Areca vestiaria is a variegated Caryota mitis. it was quite variegated a few months ago, but the newer leaflets are mostly green. I wonder if they will become more variegated later, or this is a sign that the palm as it matures will have less variegation?

Who else is growing this? Seems unfussy in all but full sun but I prefer the less robust shade grown look. of one I planted in the bush with zero aftercare!

Cocothrinax eckmanii, a slow growing palm, 25 years old!

Jonathan, I would strongly advise that you sow the seeds in individual small pots. I was the fortunate recipient of Richnorm's generosity and obtained 12 sprouts in a community germination pot. When I separated the small seedlings to install them into small pots 10 of the 12 died immediately.

Yesterday was god awful here in Manvel 102° at my house. That evening we had a piece of the violent storm that came through the Galveston county area . Today we had more rain from boring Bertha and a high of mid 80s quite the difference….

Hey Rich, I just sowed a few seeds gifted by @tim_brissy_13 via your good self, thank you kindly for organising! Wondering if you've got any advice on germination? I've got them in my normal peat/perlite mix in baggies, at low to mid 20's, does that sound reasonable? Also, do you happen to know anything about the provenance of your plants or where the seed came from?? Cheers, Jonathan

Hard to tell , and no expert here , just a guess . Livistona Chinensis. Harry This is one I have down the hill. After trimming below.

Fresh C elegans

Khou was reporting 105F and 118F with the humidity late in the day. 90F at 11pm. I missed out on the showers that rolled through. I had thunder for well over an hour.

@Xenon Those are the kinds of days that make me realize a few weeds in the garden beds aren't as big a deal as heat stroke.

Back in SF for a visit. Picture/video of The Presidio Parajubeas 7/22/26 IMG_0011.mov IMG_0012.mov