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Wondering around the garden this morning and noticed my Slick Willy/Bef is flowering. This palm is at least 15years old from a 15g pot. Slow in a pot but speed up considerably when planted. worth the wait!

Someone certainly loved palms and went all out with a hedge of engleri. A local suburban house in my hometown, they went for privacy and certainly got it with this lot of palms. So engleri will make a great hedge over time. They even threw in a Bismarckia for good measure.

This Thai palm has been in the ground awhile now and the large, attractive,segmented leaves are pliable and relaxed rather than stiff and thick. Well behaved and good scale. Me likes this one. Tim

Hi there, First of all, Happy 4th of July to all our American members here. Hope you have a safe and wonderful Independence Day! Alright, just a short update of this one - please have a look: A great source of joy! It looks quite happy and I recognized for the first time... ...two new spears at the same time! One more time a full shot... Maybe I got to think seriously about a small pond to be made....🤔 Thank you for following - Lars

I just spent the last few days driving around Southern California and photographed the Newport Beach Hyatt Regency palms, the South Coast Plaza Mall palms, and the LA Arboretum up in Arcadia, CA! Click here for the complete album with labels Clinostigma savoryanum - Newport Beach Veitchia arecina - Newport Beach Coconut in Long Beach, CA Coconut in Santa Ana, CA Chrysalidocarpus lutescens - they are common, but I love them Flawless Roystonea regia Coccothrinax crinita - LA Arboretum Thrinax radiata LA Arboretum allegedly has some of the tallest Washingtonia robusta in the world Ravenea xerophila Livistona lanuginosa Calamus caryotoides

Have always liked these medium sized palms and fast growers in my location. Produce seed regularly, providing offspring for other locations in the garden. The pair of taller palms in the one photo are the mother plants for the smaller plants. Tim

Here’s an Archontophoenix species, seed collected from McBride Gardens in Kauai as purpurea. It is not, but it is lovely nonetheless. Another store-bought “tropical foliage” palm from years ago at a home center. Just a beautiful example of Archontophoenix, although I don’t know which one. Sabal mauritiformis at the best possible size. Long petioles and 6 foot diameter leaves. Lastly, another Home center purchase from 15 years ago, Crysalidiocarpus lutecsens. Common in the tropics, much less so here. But just such a glorious palm when it is content with life.

I finally got around to building (assembling a kit) a small greenhouse for my seedlings. I had so many taking up space between other palms in the garden and also dominating my work bench. I really don’t have much room around the house so it had to be very compact. It took me about a day and a half to put together , including a 4x4 wooden skid to give it height . I finished it today and quickly put all of my babies in there to enjoy the nice , warm environment. I have a few varieties now and more sprouting so it was time for a dedicated space. Harry It is squeezed between two large Syagrus R with enough room for my ladders. A nice vent to keep it from getting too hot . The wet pea gravel will hopefully raise the humidity a bit . I just opened the vent more to allow it to cool down and circulate the air. I plan on adding a solar powered fan at some point. These are very reasonably priced but take a lot of assembly time. There are many sizes to choose from . I chose the 4’ x 6’ . Harry

To all my American brethren, happy Fourth of July! Somehow, my life schedule generally keeps me out of the garden during the morning hours. But I’m lounging around today and even by San Diego standards, the weather is absolutely perfect. Mid 70s, high clouds, couldn’t ask for more. Just a few random shots. Kentiopsis pyriformis starting to look good now that it’s approaching its 10th birthday. An Allagoptera arenaria under an umbrella tree, stretching like crazy, looking for sun. A nice petite Pritchardia perlmanii.

Now in their third summer from 4” containers, the Burretiokentia kogiensis, and B. dumasii, and second summer B. vieillardii have proven to be winners in my Northern CA garden. Partial shade and lots of water seem to be the trick not to mention good soil. I had imagined much slower growth with these but they’ve sailed along. Not pictured are my two B. hapala. Would love to see examples in other members gardens! Burretiokentia vieillardii B. kogiensis B. dumasii

Mid winter in Melbourne and it’s the Ceroxylon sp. opening new fronds catching my eye. C echinulatum C alpinum C quindiuense C amazonicum C vogelianum

A very unusual way of clumping the rhizomatosa. They just start a vegative shoot and head for the ground and pop up further away from the parent plant. It’s still a rare palm, I have removed small plants and they are quite easy to keep alive. A very unique palm, with its rhizomes.

It’s been a long wait for a first inflorescence since planting a tiny strap leaf Syagrus matafome in the ground twenty years ago. Today, this recently popped open one surprised me. Will be interesting if it produces any fruit.

Putting the new property machine to good use, a recent investment for landscaping my property an excavator. And I should have purchased it years ago. With so many new palms and exotic plants in the collection I have a lot of landscaping to do. Raised beds with good quality soil is the only way to go in my environment. The original garden was done in this landscaping manner. Dig the whole are and remove the rocks, and use them for landscaping. Backfill with soil and plant. Even the kookaburras have worked out that the excavator means disturbed soil and all sorts of critters to eat , iam sure I have a few exotic palms to fill this section up with!

Happy 4th of July! Well, I am really impressed with how well my Mexican Fan palms have recovered from the freezing rain event this past winter. They really did take a beating and there was a bit of spear rot in both crowns. The first several fronds that grew out were damaged and smaller sized, but following 12 or so inches of rain combined for May and June that is just a bad memory. Growth is going full force and the fronds are now well over my head. We’ll see what this forecasted El Nino winter brings to San Antonio, but it would be great if we avoid any freezing precipitation at the very least. We have gotten freezing precip at least once in each of the winters since I’ve been living here.

It appears I have a lot more leaves to grow before my ones look like that beauty in sunny Hawaii!

I've been over to Indonesia a few times in the last couple of years. Always interesting to see the sights...beaches, rainforest, volcanoes and all the local culture etc...so very different to home in Darwin! Suprisingly not as hot as I thought it would be. But all that volcanic soil, good rainfall and tropical temps makes for a very lush landscape...Have seen quite a few native palm species growing in natural habitat, plus the milions of coconut palms everywhre (although the Rhino Beetle is doing a fair bit of damage unfortunately) Fortunately it is only a two and a half hour flight to Bali from Darwin, and reasonably priced. Internal fights are super cheap. Over the top of Kilingking beach So many volcanoes on the flights from Darwin to Bali and from Bali to Java Rural life Plenty of bamboo forests Rural villages everywhere in Java Pinanga javana Caryota rumphiana Calamus sp Corypha utan Areca catechu Caryota rumphiana Plenty more if you'd like to see...

Axel, Filling in the pool/ koi pond, as seen in these pictures, opened up an area for several more palm species. Archontophoenix, Burretiokentia, Bassalinia, Chambeyronia, Pritchardia, Bentickia, Howea, Syagrus, Rhopalostylis, Geonoma, Dypsis, Chamaedorea, Cyphophoenix, and Pinanga are some of the genus growing in that former pool area. The new area for planting was created three years ago.

Brahea elegans showing the armata portion of its genetics .

Getting a bit of trunk these days, looking good today. Tim

I started out with two little greenhouses and a small hothouse, the addiction grew along with more greenhouses, the pictures below are where it all started. Soon you will be building another one. It’s a great hobby that’s for sure and your setup is perfect! Richard

Hedyscepe canterburyana dropped an old frond and the freshly exposed crownshaft is looking great!

Borassus flabellifer were looking good at sunup this morning...

Hi all, been on a here for a few months now just quietly observing and learning from the wealth of knowledge. Thought I'd make an introduction with my garden and make a bit of a log of progress as I go. I'm based in a southern suburb of Perth, Western Australia which from what I understand has a bit of unique temperate/mediterranean climate of hot/dry summers and cold/wet winters. Frost is possible but very rare in my area really only getting to lows of 2°c/35°f Perth is known to have some of the worst sandy nutrient deficient soils in Australia however we are quite lucky in my area to have a bit of a mix of sandy topsoil and moist clay subsoil. We purchased our modest 900sqm/9687sqf property 8 years ago without a single tree or garden other than a just starting to trunk, Syagrus romanzoffiana. For a few years we didn't have much of a garden other than a few randomly placed frangipani trees and native grasses whilst we focused on renovating inside the house. (I have never been much of green thumb or even cared all much about gardens till recently.) Most of my time and money went on modifying and drift racing cars but all that changed when I inherited a 30 year old severely stunted A. cunninghamiana and asked on the facebook group for identification where @tim_brissy_13 replied that it was infact a native palm to Australia and that peaked my interest (Before then in my eyes all palms were messy cocos/queen or washingtonia palms) It was all downhill from there when I started to hyperfocus and research all about different species of palms and botanical nomenclature which sort of itched something with my autism and love of new knowledge. Fast forward to just over a year back I decided to hand dig out cubic tonnes of sand and grass to create gardens whilst collecting as many palms I could get my hands on. We have quite strict biolaws here and are not able to bring live plants over the border quite easily from the eastern states so its quite limited to seeds only or buying from the limited palm specialist nurseries. I have made a fair few mistakes resulting in sun and wind burnt palms, placing stuff in wrong locations and also over crowding stuff a bit too much but will hopefully all be worth it one day. For now it's just creating the canopy which i'm hoping the mass planted Archontophoenix will provide. Very happy to have criticism or advice with my work in progress. Anyhow my current list of species is as follows: Adonidia merrillii Areca catechu Archontophoenix alexandrae Archontophoenix alexandrae × cunninghamiana Archontophoenix cunninghamiana Archontophoenix maxima Archontophoenix myolensis Archontophoenix purpurea Archontophoenix tuckeri Bismarckia nobilis Carpentaria acuminata Caryota albertii Caryota mitis Chamaedorea atrovirens Chamaedorea elegans Chamaedorea elatior Chamaedorea klotzschiana Chamaedorea radicalis Chamaedorea seifrizii Chamaedorea tepejilote Chamaerops humilis var. cerifera Chambeyronia macrocarpa var. flavopicta Chambeyronia macrocarpa var. hookeri Chrysalidocarpus decaryi Chrysalidocarpus lastelliana Chrysalidocarpus leptocheilos Chrysalidocarpus madagascariensis Chrysalidocarpus pembanus Chrysalidocarpus lutescens Howea forsteriana Hyophorbe lagenicaulis Hyophorbe verschaffeltii Livistona decora Phoenix roebelenii Pinanga coronata var. kuhlii Ptychosperma elegans Ptychosperma nicolai Ptychosperma propinquum var. macarthurii Ravenea rivularis Rhapis excelsa Roystonea regia Syagrus romanzoffiana Trithrinax acanthocoma Wodyetia bifurcata House when we bought it, nothing but dead grass. South facing patio garden, quite shady. Have A. purpurea, A. cunninghamiana, Howea forsteriana, Pinanga kuhlii, Rhapis excelsa, and Chamaedorea sp scattered. Hoping one day the bigger palms will emerge and make the canopy to replace the shade cloth. 3x Wodyetia biffurcata for the newly installed pool area. We are in the middle of winter right now so everything looks a bit ratty. This area has alot squished in here however they are all very young specimens and hard to make out. There is about 20x young Archontophoenix sp planted along the rear fence line to make the canopy one day and a mix of Wodyetia, Carpentaria, C. madagascariensis, lutescens, pembanus, Bismarkia and two Areca catechu. Little garden leading to my wifes veggie area. 3x double planted Archontophoenix sp, Chambeyronia watermelon and a hookeri, C. leptocheilos (Not doing too well) and a Wodyetia to the left. Work in progress area, have some small fish and frogs down here. Just a Chamaedorea elatior and a tepejilote amongst other plants and my small potted seedlings. This side has the Archontophoenix albang hybrids multiplanted, Roystonea regia, Ptychosperma macarthurii, Carpentaria acuminata, Hyophorbe lagenicaulis and verschaffeltii, Chysalidocarpus lastelliana. Other side of the front more Archontophoenix sp multiplanted, Wodyetia biffurcata, Adonidia merrilli, Carpentaria acuminata, Ravenea rivularis, Ptychosperma elegans, Roystonea regia, C. lutescens and a solitary pembanus, Chamaedorea radicalis. Thanks for reading my ramblings. Jayce.

A little trip into the gardens today for a spot of planting with the garden team. Rick ackland the garden curator is right behind getting the palms into the garden. And I will say it’s not only palms he is working on with the garden, the major improvements he is implementing are going to change the botanical gardens into something that will be a must see on any botanical gardens list. And if we can get a lot more palms in there even better, all palms that get planted are going into the database Hortis which is linked to Kew botanical gardens. So this project will be a vital link in the chain for palm conservation in the future. And iam in it for the long run as long it’s permissible to do so, and a big thank you to @palmtreesforpleasure Mr Colin Wilson for donating a lot of the palms you see and backing me up. Future generations will have something to look at!

Galveston county earlier this week . There is a large resurgence of queens around the bayside lately. 👀

Hi there, not to waste your time but when I was very young and my parents and I made a trip to subtropical region in the early eighties, we went to a botanical garden. Since I for some reason always liked the tropical plant section of our local zoo, I had my attention radar tuned up a bit at that time when walking around with my parents and the travel group we were a part of. However, one plant - a palm - caught my attention because of the translator's description of the plant - palm - we looked at. He said:"This is a Chilean Elephant Palm". I looked at it and made the "connection" immediately...the trunk! The trunk looked like an elephant's leg! Of course it does, so it made sense to me right away, I kept in mind and moved on. (eleven years old at that time) When we moved down to Okinawa and finally purchased the house and the garden, the first seeds I ordered from rps were - exactly - seeds of Jubea Chilensis "The Elephant palm" It was like a dream coming true. Of course I had educated myself in the meantime about what I am dealing with here, but it didn't matter. After three years of waiting to sprout and a decade in a pot, always checked it liked the holy grail since it was were all of it started, I finally went to action and "unleashed" it a couple of weeks ago. Soon after the rain season started with tremendous amounts of water and soaking the garden more than once for weeks - I was kicking myself myself for the bad timing - but since this fella is now alive for more than ten years and has experienced every possible freak weather in the meantime, it went through it remarkably well. Here we go, this may be one of the very few publicly documented Jubea Chilensis planted out in a private garden in Japan. I would be very happy to learn of any others. Alright, enough of talking... I know, it is a strong statement for such a small garden, but why not? Happy growing, little beauty! Lars

Update of my B hapala after another year or 2 of growth since the last photo. Really bulking up before producing clean trunk. What’s more noticeable to me now looking at this is how quickly my nearby Cyphophoenix elegans is growing (white trunk and crownshaft to the right).

Hi there. One of my Satakentias, a bit hard to make out... But with a nice color after shaking off a boot... Hallelujah!🥹 Lars

I’d say that looks about as good as you could hope for given the conditions. Well grown!

Fresh Pinanga caesia

Areca vestaria

Royal

Another great little chamaedorea for the understory the genoformis. Easy to grow like most chamaedorea varieties. Easy to propagate and very predictable growth patterns making for an excellent palm wherever you can find a spot in the garden. Excellent container palm for the patio or indoors for a couple of months. A great palm all round palm for any collection.

A few colorful flushes around the yard today.

The only way is to mulch and hand weed, no chemicals involved which is even better. And another gardening tip is try not to let the weeds in. Once those weeds enter and set seed every year of seed is 7 years of weeds. A canopy also stops the weeds in combination of mulch, in my main ornamental garden there are practically no weeds and the new establishing areas have a few weeds. By creating the canopy over time it builds itself into a living bio sphere of a living ecosystem you created that Mother Nature balances it all together!

Guys, honestly… is this palm ratty, normal or about the best you can expect for the conditions it grows in? Realistically, is there more I can do to increase its health/vigor? I dont expect perfect or tropical/Florida like appearance and growth. After all, this is grown outdoors in California in the Central Valley (low humidity, little to no clouds, hot temperatures) and goes indoors for several months of the year. The palm was strapped leaf when bought in 2024. None were starting to split. I estimate the palm was about 6-10 months old. If that estimate is true, then it’s about 2.5-3 years old in real years now. No green house, no humidifier. Occasionally is misted though. It does need some afternoon shade. Currently I’m too busy to apply shade without shading longer than I want. So there is some sunburn despite my attempt at slow acclimation to increasing sunlight when I wasn’t as busy. Its a green Malayan dwarf. The trunk at the thickest is 9 inches around, the middle section is 7 inches, the thinnest is about 6 inches. The trunk is decently thick. The canopy is approximately 67 inches (5.58feet) long. The palm is approximately 57 inches (4.75feet) tall. It grows slowly in winter (indoors) so it doesn’t truly stop growing. The last 3 fronds, when they were still spears, before they began to open I can already see a 2nd spear several inches tall.

Arenarius

Clinostigma after a night of heavy rainfall. Tim

Here’s a better picture of the leaf pattern on the Blue Arenarius and also a few of my Green Arenarius. The green is not in full sun like the Blue and you can tell how “thin” the leaflets look in comparison. Blue has better form as it’s much more compact looking. -dale Blue Arenarius Green Arenarius

You are doing well with that one . They usually don’t do well out of their preferred environment . It looks fine , to me. Harry

Pure strain Arenarius

Erecting this thread from years back. I think Encephalartos Arenarius is way under used in gardens. Let’s see your “poor mans Latifrons” out there. No hybrids. -dale Blue Arenarius

Looks good overall. Yeah, there is excess drying of the fronds. I would watch the sun travel overhead and set it on the east side of something that gives afternoon shade.

I understand your frustration . I think , for now , my desire to import seeds or plants has diminished as fees everywhere rise . Here , costs are going up disproportionately to affordability. I understand the idea of biosafety and all , but the cost is driving some into smuggling mode. I have an idea of what it takes to germinate palm seeds and it is a lot of time and a bit of work. I get my seeds for free but still spend on soil and containers . I admire your dedication to the palms , I can only imagine the amount of effort and $$ required. Harry

Plenty of seed coming on this one...

I definitely agree that trachycarpus usually looked better in cooler summer climates like the Pacific Northwest and maritime climates of northern Europe. I do see some here in Texas that look good sometimes. They are usually in half a day or more of shade though. This particular windmill did look better on Saturday than in the Google maps image above, even if it won't win any beauty contest. I kinda like the smooth look though, since it reminds me a little of the cocothrinax that were all over when I was at Guantanamo Bay:

As a young fern they like dappled light and water, but as soon as they get a metre or two sized leaves they take a lot of sun. I use them as canopy trees in harsh areas around my garden. Great pioneer plants for establishing a garden. And once they get a couple of metres of trunk full sun not a problem. They do like a drink but once established they are tough plants. Just plant as many as you can anywhere you will be surprised how many live, you may lose one or two out of 20 or so, once they get growing they are rocket ships.

*geonomiformis - alluding to the similarity to Geonoma species in terms of growth form. Agree it’s a great little palm.

They look great Jim! I’m learning that these don’t have high heat requirements. I killed a B vieillardii decades ago before I really knew what I was doing and just assumed at the time that they weren’t suitable for my climate. More recently I’ve grown B hapala and B koghiensis without issue so probably should give B vieillardii another go. I haven’t yet got my hands on B dumasii or B grandiflora. B hapala (I need to take an updated photo, this is a bit old)