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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.

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.

So when we do that, the flowers open within about 48 hours and then begin getting some pollination for seeds. Crazy, this is the only species that this is a problem with. Weird. First picture is today’s surgery. The second & third has some surgery that we did about six weeks ago.

Let me introduce you to the Tau Kiani Botanical Garden on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile. I think I’ll have to contribute some exotic palm trees; they have something interesting going on there on the island.

The bismarck palm is a very fast grower and a good trouble free choice for beginners. This one has 6 new spears at the ready, and will replace the entire existing crown over the next 2 months. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Hey all, here’s something I can’t quite figure out. My neighbor and I have a couple of this species and they throw out flower spathes regularly. But they simply never open on their own. So… We’ve taken to performing surgery to free up the flowers.. The thickness of the spathe is just crazy thick. We have found that if we simply allow them to sit, eventually the contents of the spathe will just get moldy-and yet never open. We are generally perplexed at why this is happening, but it is what it is. It actually requires a combination of a sawzall, a vibrating saw, and some clippers deftly used to remove the woody section without damaging the flowers excessively. The walls are thicker than my thumb is wide.

If you want a palm that’s easy to grow and fit into any reasonable small space, the feather palm, wedding palm or the lytocarum weddlianum is the one. Easy to grow and germinate, single plants will set viable seeds. Quite cool and dry tolerant. Perfect understory or bright light palm. An absolute beauty of a great palm that’s gives a lot of effect for little work!

This is a big boy. Thick, heavy trunk 25 feet from the soil line to the top of the tallest branches. Dead knock off for a cocos, if it wasn’t so thick at the trunk!

I wax walking up the front entrance to my home and noticed the boot was ready to drop off my Chrysalidocarpus decipiens. Here it is after removing the old boot.

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.

@Meangreen94z the Pearland palms are nuts, great work. Amazed by the majesty palm, very jealous of the A. totai. My yard is neglected and much less palmy these days, but a few things are chugging along: Sabal uresana from Barton Springs Nursery. Not as silvery as the John Fairey palms but still pretty nice. I am not sure what this one is. Also bought from Barton Springs Nursery in a 1 gallon pot years ago. I remember the pots and signage had different labels, some said Sabal bermudana, others Sabal domingensis. It has grown nearly as fast as my Sabal causiarum and looks very similar. The causarium is unfortunately dead... a transplant casualty during our yard remodel.

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

Calyptrocalyx pachystachys

A bit of winter colour in the garden today.A couple of Chambeyronia hookeri and a nice Japanese variegated rhapis kannonchikushima

Freshly drizzled Pinanga & K elegans.

Just a few midsummer yard shots from today: Starting with the biggest and the fastest...my filifera continues to grow larger by the day: Next, we will see the smallest and slowest growers I have in the ground, a couple of Trachycarpus fortunei x waggies: Both are growing fine...just quite slowly. They sit on the east side of my home and I am planning to remove the grass in this entire area in the fall to create a nice bed. Right next to the back porch I have a corner with 3 C. radicalis in it. One mature non-trunking form, a juvenile trunking form, and second year from seed non-trunking form: The rest of that same bed is occupied by my Rajapuri bananas and some dypsis lutescens that I grew from seed my daughter collected on a past vacation: My Sabal mexicanas that both spear pulled last winter after 20F and freezing rain (had to trunk cut the second one) : My Butia that also had to be trunk cut after the freezing rain: Silver Chamaerops, P. sylvestris, and second year mule seedling: From left to right C. radicalis seedlings, BxJ, and S. mexicana community pot. And the mule that replaced my Butia in the ground after the spear pull and trunk cutting: I know it should be less hardy than the Butia, but it is definitely getting established quicker. Fingers crossed for a winter or two of zonal average lows and no freezing precipitation so it can really get going strong.

Some color…

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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?

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

The classic Joey palm, so desired for that tropical look. Many a grower has wanted one or two in there collection. But due to price and the talk of how difficult they are to grow, alas many a grower has forgone the opportunity of having one. They are yes temperamental to some extent, but not as tricky as you would think. Good drainage, lots of water and they like a feed. You can sit them in a tray of water in the greenhouse, if in the garden they will drink as much water as you give them. Cool tolerant but the more temperate the slower they will be, not a frost tolerant palm but will take temperatures down to 2 degrees celcius. The ones in the ground are about 4 years old in a subtropical climate. If you’re after a tropical looking palm that’s highly ornamental get a trio of joeys!

Boy, Mike, you’re not kidding, those things are beauties! I got a couple as seedlings, probably 10 to 12 years ago, and they are definitely slower in my part of the world. But they’re green, about waist high. My fervent hope is that they speed up somewhat now that they’re reasonably established. This is just another one of those species where seeds become available on over a course of a few months, and then just absolutely dry up never to be seen again. Ravenea in particular, due to the male/female thing. Krociana, giant, robustior, julietae, all MIA after a brief availability. I guess the lesson is, grab them while you can! Great looking palms, thanks again for sharing!

Encephalartos eugene-maraisii female cone emerging. The cone has a guest, protecting it from any undesirable bugs.

This particular one is madagascariensis, although I have the same issue with fenestralis. Funny, a couple hours after I posted this, I got a call from Jeff Markus of Floribunda palms regarding an order I'd placed. So, I asked him about it & he told me that he had the same issue for the first few years with his as well, but to be patient and they'll grow out of it. I'll take Dr. Jeff's word for it. In the meantime, we'll keep helping them along. We are getting some near mature seeds developing, so that's good. I'll take an updated picture of the tree tonight.

More lost time stuff. Crape myrtles are blooming and I'm honestly a little disappointed that my Colocasia Redemption doesn't match. Every woman I've ever dated is like a croton. When all is right, they're happy. One thing goes wrong and they go psycho. Decapitated Golden Crocodile.. I thought i took pics of my alocasia Dark Star and Yellow Dragon. I guess not. Here's a regal shield.

Areca vestiaria "Maroon" seedling

Thanks for looking!

Pinanga insignis on a rainy day. Tim

I have a seed bank at the house and some of the seeds have been here a while in some cases ten years or close. Including Nanorrhops among others that include Braheas, Jubaea. Gonna plant some and see how it goes! Anyone have experiences to share? Give ‘em to me bay bay as Rick James would have said….

Hello, My 2nd generation Inga Hoffman cunninghamia has produced a new crop of seeds. My last crop was in late 2024 and '25 was a dud year. This year was gangbusters so I have lots of seeds. Inga Hoffman lived in San Leandro, CA and ran the IPS seed bank for many years. she sourced seed from and had (still there as far as I know) a beautiful cunninghamia at her property. The parent seed was sought out and collected by her when she was on a trip to Australia, collecting seed, and she saw a cunninghamia growing up high, higher- and more importantly colder- than where a cunninghamia should be growing. They ventured up to the location and collected seeds. The resulting offspring is the tree that she grew at her home in San Leandro, and its cold hardiness was tested and proven in the '89 freeze. It survived. I'm not sure of the damage but I do remember scarring down low- only a few feet up-on the trunk from that year. I don't know how cold it got in Castro valley but it was definitely the low twenties. I was 1 hour east and I can say that it got into the teens. It was a very cold winter. Anyways, these seeds are from an offspring of that tree at Inga's place. I'd like to get like 5-10 cents per seed. I'd prefer US only but I am willing to do international. I've had an experience where the guy that bought seeds never got them and they showed up at my house 6 months later after travelling all over the world, apparently; and I had to make several calls to the customs office in that city to answer a bunch of questions to no avail. Hours of time wasted to try to help a guy out.. Very disappointing for both parties. The biggest thing is I'd like to be covered for shipping. I have 5x7" padded envelopes and shipping is going to be like $10 in the US so I'd like at least that. I'll give the seeds away within in reason; I'd like to be able to distribute these seeds around a little bit. Seeds have been cleaned and soaked in hydrogen peroxide. I have probably 700 seeds so PM me, I'll get back to you and first come first served. Thanks for your consideration! I can do Paypal or Zelle or if you want to mail me cash or check that works to, but that's like 14 seeds for the cost of a stamp!

Please look at the attached image. These Coconut palms have been growing at the corner of South Orange Ave. and Kaley Street in Orlando for a number of years. As I am sure everyone know, Orlando had not had a freeze of any kind in a number of years. This past February, that all came to an end as much of the area fell into the upper 20's briefly. The outlying areas fell into the lower 20's. My Winter Springs location, Northeast of Orlando hit 24F. These Coconut palms completely defoliated and the coconuts hanging on the larger trees fell to the ground. Well as you can see from the image, these trees survived the event and are well on their way to re-growing their crowns. So, not only will they survive, it looks like they will continue to thrive. There are also a couple of Coconut palms planted on the other side of Colonial Drive from Orlando Fashion Square Mall. I didn't get a picture but, these trees are also pushing out new growth and obviously survived the cold event. So, it's good news for Coconut palms in Orlando, Florida...

I ended up planting the E. munchii and the E. Horridus x Arenarus.

Here is my fiji currently after 100% defoliation.

I recently visited Isola di Brissago and I spotted your palm on my way to the ferry. Brissago_1567156.MP4

Bizmarkia= gopher candy! Ask me how I know . They are the roots to mine right to the trunk. Harry

This view

Fresh Pnanga caesia again today…

This plant I acquired as Encephalartos arenarius × woodii has been a vigorous grower. I planted it in late 2010 from a 15 gallon. The id might be incorrect as it could be arenarius × natalensis but I still find it's glossy dark green leaflets attractive. It is different than an Encephalartos natalensis × arenarius I planted a little before this one, which is growing in my Carlsbad property. This is the first flush on it this summer. I expect all the other pups and main caudex growth point to follow soon. I removed a few leaves today to allow this flush space to push up.

Another one of my Sabal uresanas . This one sourced from NTCHP right before they went out of business

Gaussia palms are actually quite showy when old boots are trimmed off. Here's some of mine... I've sold about 2 dozen of these to fellow Arizonans - just based on their unique looks. aztropic Mesa, Arizona