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I did the SAME thing this evening! I was working in the garden (new garden so everything is small right now) and it was somewhat cloudy, but getting darker, and I thought the colors looked really nice and snapped a quick picture.... And then I saw this thread.

Roystonea oleracea

Slaving away in the garden, look up, and I thought it would make a purty picture. Chrysalidocarpus (Dypsis!) lutescens “Oddball” (my pet name). Show us yours!

Clinostigma samoense (aka warburghii) Kerriodoxa elegans Chrysalidocarpus pauciflora (I think that is the correct name -- aka "Orange Crush") All these photos are a few years old now, palms have grown. Ask me again tomorrow and I'll have 3 different favorites. 😄

Pritchardtia “lanaiensis”

Thought I’d post a couple of recent photos of this Australian palm that’s been in the ground for 14 years. It’s been a steady grow here in East Hawaii and is robust in stature. Might be a few years yet before it starts trunking. Check out the shove for scale. Richard posted photos of his sprouts a few weeks ago, the transition is slow, but well worth it. Tim

A couple of Caryota , Urens to the left , Obtusa to the righ , and a happy Syagrus Romanzoffiana. Most recent fall pic . Brisk , cool , blue sky. Harry

Chrysalidocarpus albofarinosa.

Hello just wanted to follow up this weekend I did get a chance to tackle the project I got a and anodonia merrillii (front) and bentickia nicobarica (back) with some Chinese ground orchids at the bottom

My chamaedoreas are flowering. I have already done the adscendans. I have been observing the Metallicas and have had two male plants that have been ready to collect pollen from. I just cut some male flowers carefully and the white pollen falls in my hand then I just close my hand around the female flowers with the male flowers. I was successfull last year with only about a dozen seeds setting. That’s enough seeds for future generations to be replanted in the garden. See how I go this year. I could use an artist brush that might be more successful but when iam working in the garden I casually observe and if any pollen is ready i collect it there and then. Once the seeds are set I put them in a plastic bag with a few holes cut in the bottom to keep the rats and possums away.

I love these guys... extremely rare in cultivation... a Top End of the Northern Territory, Australian native species - Hydriastele ramsayi

This is a tough question since thee are so many I love. Here’s a few that are at the top of my list. Chambeyronia macrocarpa and hookeri (Flamethrower palm) Chrysalidocarpus decipiens (Manabe palm) Rhopalostylis baueri Howea forsteriana (Kentia palm) and Archontophoenix genus (King palms)

A few low-angle-sunlight photos from the past couple of weeks. Some pre-fall cleaning and some post. Fresno

Ha! The best I could do is snap a quick shot on my way to work today with the morning sun coming up. I’ll see what I can do when I get home.

@OC2Texaspalmlvr @ROBERTICO nota bene, as they say, my two big Buteagrus in the light of afternoon. BIG!

Cleaned up the coconut today removing lots of boots and fruit. Clear trunk now about 9 feet. On to winter we go. 😬

Saw a very nice one today in the colder than typically permitted zone of 8b. Very impressive.

Still sooooo much more to do on this part of the yard, but seeing parts lit up at night is sure rewarding… So far it’s mostly lighting the waterfall, palapa and ferns, but the Hyophorbe indica and Chambeyronia houailou can be seen as well. More palms hopefully going in this Spring. 🤞

Easy answer - Dypsis Chrysalidocarpus (that counts as ONE right?) As much as I love my Licualas, Chambeys, Archies, etc... no one can convince me there's a palm genus with more variety in size, shape, color and cool factor as my beloved Chrysalidocarpus collection. Only one of these is my palm (the mealybug) - and mine might not grow to be *quite* as glorious as these (since I'm in CA not Hawaii). But I still love all of them - especially the colorful ones - and think it's the best genus of them all, when taken as a whole. Palms shown: C. carlsmithii, C. baronii "black stem", C. decipiens, C. mananjarensis ("mealybug"), C. hovomantsina, C. onilahensis ("weepy" type), C. leptocheilos ("teddy"), C. saintelucei, C. paucifolius ("orange crush")

Normanbya normanbyi... the Queensland Black palm. I have one that decided to branch about 5 years ago... no idea why... lol

I think this one fits into the picture well.

Saw a nice tall San Antonio robusta today: I also came across a good use of super-hardy palms in a shady area here: And for all of those zone pushers on here, the San Antonio zoo has a bold landscaper who decided to plant a coconut in this little planter in the water:

Some update photos: First is sun grown High form (red new leaf). Second is mostly shade grown High form (new leaf has a beautiful grey cast). Last is the Mid form which is much more delicate, hence the cage to protect from falling fronds, though the leaves are becoming leathery now and the growth rate is improving. New leaf is green. I only managed to keep one alive. It's surprising to me that these weren't split in the recent review of the genus.

Do you need to have a favourite they all are. But my top three are as follows.vonitra utilis chambeyronia macrocarpa And my absolutely favourite Kerriodoxa elaegans

Hmmm. For starters, for now… Chambeyronia hookeri. Chysalydocarpus leptocheilos aka Teddy Bear

Here’s an understory shot in the front yard.

CIDP in our neighborhood. Thought I'm going to take a picture before the fronds get fried again. Would be nice to have a mild winter again.

Houston queens aren't like sandy Florida queens 😝, must be something about the heavy gumbo clay. They love it! Only place I've seen consistently good queens in Florida is closer to Jacksonville. Queens love the New Orleans swamp too. Not century level bulletproof in any of those places but "zone push" is ridiculous lol. Let's make queens the #1 by a landslide most common pinnate palm in Houston again. But on private property so the other people in this thread don't raise the pitchforks LOL Yes here's your bimonthly dose of luxuriant Houston queens a la broken record😄 . This thread needs more positivity 🌴

Here are 2 that I love looking good this morning

Southern California Joey checking in! Mine has actually been catching my eye a lot lately. So much so that I'm testing it out in a more prominent place in the yard. I bought it in 2021 and initially had it in an extremely sheltered (and mostly hidden) location. But it outgrew its spot recently, and seems to have grown a lot this summer. Here's another shot of it, taken this morning...

Normally I take photos of palms when they are looking their best. Sometimes I take a photo when I am happy to find them alive. Johannesteijsmannia magnifica, first photo July 2023 at time of tree fall, second photo February 2024, still growing There is this situation on my property where trees fall over. Above is a massive branch from a Cecropia that peeled off one day. Amazingly, it is a rare event for the fallen tree to take out a palm, and here you see one such lucky example. I also have a juvenile Johannesteijsmannia altifrons getting a bit too much sun. Still searching for a photo.

I love all Howe Island palms, but specifically Howea Forstriana.

Here’s the approach to my garden in the afternoon.

Spent the afternoon in the garden planting a few palms just for fun. Howea is an old plant that has been in the container for 20 years just sitting around. The lanceolata I germinated about 4 years back. The Areca loaensis I purchased from Plumtree pocket nursery it got planted in a vacant spot in the garden. The dasyatha is from imported seeds. With the weather being perfect for planting get as many palms in the ground as soon as possible. Also an unknown chamaedorea got plantetd just for fun. So a few more palms tucked in the garden the only one that’s new to the collection is the loaensis. The rest are already in the garden but you can never have enough palms planted.

Hedyscepe

Roystonea Regia

Beccariophoenix Alfredii

A Mule with heavy queen genetics looks 10x more tropical/ coconuty than a queen and it’s hardy longterm for HTX

Found it: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Uw5jTRnw6HFbT1n26

Syagrus picrophylla.

@HillizardIf you put it in the ground it will grow much faster. I have 6 of them and I finally planted one, it is easily double if not triple the size of the ones I left in the pots after only 6 months.

I'm lucky to have acquired these 3 uncommon Syagrus from a dear friend who wishes to remain anonymous. They arrived in pretty bad shape after a long trip bare root, but have recovered nicely over summer in my little greenhouse. (Santosii spent nearly 2 months in customs and arrived barely clinging on to life). I'm bringing them indoors to not risk losing any over winter in Central California 🙃 Has anyone had experience with any of these species? I will keep them potted for some time but I would eventually like to put them in the ground if they seem to be hardy enough.

2022 to 2024 for comparison. Can't confirm, but since it's next to the pool i believe it's benefiting from exposure to magnificent triple lindys all summer long!

This is my fifth attempt to grow this palm, and was finally successful under my large Brahea Moorei, which I keep very wet. But now - how to move as it was getting into full sun? I remembered Dwight telling me a technique. Here it is! Patience is absolutely necessary. I dug down on one side of palm and excavated half of root ball area, approximately 6-7” deep, and 3-4” wide (take no prisoners) and packed with very moist spaghum moss. A year later I went deeper by sacrificing any roots another 2” on same side, I used very long trenching shovel, I also dug out in mud areas of that side of rootball that didn’t have any roots and packed same wet peat moss in the pockets in root ball, waited at least six months, maybe a year and then took entire plant out, and put in my palm soil mix. I cut many of the branches, kept in shade, with a little filtered light. Here it is! I live in Contra Costa county and I know Florabunda has seedlings but this is a touchy palm. I hope this help's someone!

A couple of palm seedlings. I germinated the aiphanes and purchased the guppyana as one leaf sprouts. There both doing fine the aiphanes struggled through winter but are looking pretty good now. Thre guppyana have survived one winter so there looking good also as garden candidates.

I did the same 25 years ago and had a lot of children; here one example of my pinnate variants:

Marcus, I got here in 2004 and a lot of queen palms had made it from 2004 -2021, even in New Braunfels. Many recovered from the 2010 and 2011 freezes. These palms were mature in 2004, so they likely had been planted in the 1990’s and lived all the way to 2021. It happened.

Livistona chinensis

Sabals, cycads, and cypress is another good look for shady areas: