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Spot on I think - most look bad because of neglect and not enough natural rainfall rather than it being too cold. Some of the better ones I’ve seen are out in the outer Eastern suburbs in the foothills of the Dandenongs where it gets pretty chilly but receives more rainfall than near the CBD or around Bayside suburbs. Same goes for Archontophoenix. I will say though, that Ravenea rivularis was susceptible to crown rot for me when young in Spring. It’s grown out of it now, but I suspected it didn’t like cold and wet conditions while it was still establishing. I planted in a cooler area of the garden in mostly shade intentionally based on what I’ve seen with specimens that dry out too much, but I think that’s the opposite risk when you go too shady and cold. The best one in Victoria I’ve seen is the one at Geelong Botanic Gardens. It gets morning sun but is well protected from all sides from wind and looks to stay quite moist in that area. There are a few mature specimens around Melbourne - this one down the street from my place looks pretty good. Doesn’t look like it gets extra attention but I assume the roots have tapped down deep now. The tree to its north must help with preventing it drying out too much too. I planted this one nearly 25 years ago. It’s the only survivor of about 5 originally planted in this garden. Soil is nearly pure beach sand and no irrigation. This is the result 🤣. And here’s an interesting planting - Singapore Botanic Gardens have them as aquatics. They like it in there in the tropical climate, but I’m certain it would be a death sentence in cooler climates.

I only have two in the garden. Both are 30 years old, one is raging along while its cousin is still doesn’t even have a trunk, planted about 3 meters apart. They are tough palms and have done the job that I wanted when planted with a vision. I see them planted around the place in my home town in full sun situations but to me they look better in shade I think. A wonderful tough palms and worth growing!

First pics were taken june 2021 and the following two today. It isn't slow after forming a trunk.

Here’s my little grouping. Excuse the weeds. They go mental when it’s wet. The ground is sloppy and saturated and water runs out of this area all winter. These pictures were taken a couple of mornings ago when it was about 2C. Brrrrrrrrrr

I purchased seedlings from a reputable seller on palmtalk probably 7 years ago of Brahea calcarea ‘blue’. He stated the seeds came from a known specimen in California and differed from ‘Super Silver’. The most obvious difference being this palm is blue from the start. I unfortunately am down to one but the palm has rapidly developed over the past 2 years. Up until the last flush or so the petioles had stayed pretty much “unarmed”. A trait of calcarea. As of this last set of fronds, nubs or small teeth have started to form. The palm has a lot of similarities to Brahea armata except A)it’s fronds are flat and don’t have a crease in the center like armata B) the palm is drastically faster than a neighboring larger armata. The calcarea was probably a 3/5 gallon 2 years ago and the armata a 15 gallon when planted. Likely by the end of the growing season or early next year the calcarea will have caught up in size. I know that’s not definitive but of note. Both survived mid teens (Fahrenheit) with minimal damage. I covered the calcarea and it took no damage unlike Brahea clara that had minor burn, but was also protected similarly. Does anyone know of the origin of Brahea calcarea ‘blue’? Identifying traits? Any other useful information ? If this one is accurate then it appears to be a hybrid likely with armata. Thanks Brahea calcarea ‘ blue’ in front, armata in rear : Brahea calcarea ‘blue’ old petiole New petiole: Brahea armata petiole:crease in Brahea armata frond:Brahea calcarea ‘blue’: Brahea armata:

Here are most of the palms I own

The longest day of the year and gloriously gorgeous. Maybe share thoughts or pictures or both.

That area is semi protected but in a real cold year it may get a mild frost. I haven’t seen below zero since the winter of 2023 thankfully. In open exposed areas I’ve definitely seen below minus 2C. Not good. These guys yellow a little in that situation and sail through. By summer they’re crankin. The sun came out today after a bit of drizzly rain. I thought I’d take a picture of the water flowing through the area. BTW further back in the thread Tim said I’m closer to Sydney weather than Melbourne which is true. I wish I had Sydney winters though. They’re glorious and sunny. Anyway to give my climate an eastern states perspective the closest I can find to my winter temps is Nowra. I may be a tad cooler at night in winter but definitely wetter by about a factor of 50% to 100% more than Nowra. My garden has already seen a min of 0.5C with no damage this year. There’s a lot of winter to go though. Generally though if my lakes fill up, the risk of a hard frost disappears. There could be an exception though but if the rains are late, beware. My lakes filled up on June 15 but it can take until early August to do that in a dry year. The earliest I’ve seen was May 3rd. That was the year the place flooded. No frost that year. I think once the atmosphere gets more moisture in it, the chance of cloud cover increases and the risk of frost decreases.

We've crossed the midpoint of the year. The daylight hours for us in the northern hemisphere are counting backwards now. As everything in the garden that didn't die or get removed begins recovery mode, a photo of the Livistona decora and a small Copernicia alba and then @palmfriend's Okinawa Garden featuring Livistona chinensis and Arenga engleri. Happy Summer!

I planted these Veitchia joannis as small 4" pots last year and they are rockets in our cool montane tropical conditions growing next to our coast redwood trees.

2026 update

One could say that the coronata is a lot of bang for a little buck! Super easy to grow and germinate. A good old landscaper’s favourite palm. It may be common and not as great looking as some other Pinanga palms , but its good enough to stand next to them in the garden and look just as spectacular!

Two palms that have surprisingly taken the cool weather quiet. The Calyptrocalyx was the biggest surprise as they are quite fussy, and the dypsis was a surprise as well for such a tropical looking palm. Either way both have lived through my winters in the ground with temperatures dropping down to 2 degrees celcius.

Good photos to illustrate the difference. I think the only thing I can add is that if it is armed, even slightly, then it cannot be pure B calcarea. Brahea sp can be prone to hybridising and I think there’s still a bit of confusion in general within the genus so I can’t give any more insight.

I’ve had this Syagrus Schizophylla sitting by my front door for a while now . It is pushing a new spear and roots out the drain holes of a very deep nursery pot . What does a “ palm dad “ want to do for Father’s Day? PLANT A PALM. Perfect weather and you know it’s gonna be a great day when you can dig a deep hole in good soil without hitting a rock. When I picked out the spot , I chose a place with full morning sun and afternoon shade . There were a couple of seedlings sprouting ( I have a habit of pushing seeds in the ground in random places about the yard.) I easily dug them up to place in pots , the soil was very easy to dig so I didn’t disturb them too much. One of the seedlings is a C. Radicalis , they are everywhere. The other looked like a Chamaedorea until I got the dirt away from the plant ….attached was a C. Decipiens seed! Yay. So I guess one of the many seeds I had planted , germinated , a very special surprise. The planting of the S. Schizophylla went well and I was done in about an hour . This after a lovely ride to Ventura on my bicycle. I hope the rest of you are having a great day. Harry My special surprise! Chrysalidiocarpus Decipiens It sprouted right next to this C. Radicalis on the right. A very deep pot means a very deep hole! The “birth certificate was buried in the container . Nice info to have I know….my Sketchers are no match for @DoomsDave red Converse!😂 The new spear is just recent , since I acquired the palm. I think it will be happy here , sharing space with a young Archontophoenix C. that is growing rapidly. Harry

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

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!

First flowers on our indoor Rhapis multifida

A natural JxS hybrid I grew from seed. Grows about 4 times as fast as its standard Jubaea brethren. I had 2 of these hybrids come up from a batch of seeds I collected from the 1 blue Jubaea at mission beach. Gotta love it's very upright growth pattern when planted in close quarters.🌴 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

3 years from 3g pots. This turned out to be a nice palm for next to a walkway. The upright fronds stay out of the way. One annoyance is that when fronds age out, they drop all of their individual leaflets one by one, and leave behind a dry brown spike to cut off. I’ve found it’s best to just cut the oldest fronds early. Overall a pretty easy palm and moderate grower here. Hard to see… but bases are quite huge actually. These hold 3, sometimes 4 fronds, so pretty sparse looking alone. A grouping seems to be the best bet, if unaccompanied.

It will probably be fine. There were pictures of wildfire that past through Vina Del Mar in Chile. All the Jubaea trunks and fronds were charred, then within a year pretty much all of them came back to life and flushed

Bp x pjc hitting its stride.

A nice little tray of bells, collected the seeds through a door knock, in my local area. Time is all you need for these to germinate a year or more depending on how cool the conditions are. They are a beautiful palm indeed!

Wallichia disticha leaf.

Here is a young Encephalartos equatorialis that is starting to push out bigger flushes.

Looking great Richard. I tried some in shade and they just slowly declined in my climate. Not enough summer heat. However I saved most of the shade declining ones by digging them up and putting them into full sun in a perpetually wet spot with white clay below the surface and they just took off. I’ve got I think 15 planted in the same spot at varying stages of growth but when they all start to trunk it’s going to be great to walk underneath the canopy they will create. In winter, like right now, the area is literally oozing water from the ground. Mine have started growing pneumatophore roots like a Raphia or a mangrove. I’m hoping they will set seed one day, however they are not that popular any more and most WA soils are crappy gutless sand which they just hate unless you constantly feed them with fertiliser and leave the hose running on them 24/7. They are tough. In the middle of January (summer here) I took some 30cm high seedlings out of the shadehouse and whacked them in the ground in full sun but in heavy wet soil and a week later we had a 42.5C day and I expected them to just be fried. No, they didn’t even fade. As long as they are wet they will take tons of sun, and they can take light frost in winter. Heavier frost creates damage but they are so quick to regrow it doesn’t cause lasting harm. One of my tallest trunking ones took a direct hit from a dead pine tree I cut down that fell the wrong way. I was devastated and thought the growing point may have been shattered. No. Some leaves were damaged but two years later you wouldn’t even know. I love them. They are a real feature in the garden. A totally under rated and under utilised palm in my area.

I planted these Veitchia joannis as small 4" pots last year and they are rockets in our cool montane tropical conditions growing next to our coast redwood trees.

Got a couple hundred of them in tubes, they seem quite tough and easy to grow so far, already taking 5 degrees celcius this winter. No special protection just sitting outside. And showing good mottling at a young age!

Chamaedorea Ernest augustii, an old favourite of mine!

Iguanura wallachiana , dypsis minuta!

This view

Red spicata is great!! Almost fluorescent orange colors. This picture is from last year. Planted as a sprout in May 2016, so about 9 years in the picture. A bit bigger now.

It's a blank slate!

After a few years of only receiving small amounts of Pelago mesocarpa seeds, (and sprouting them to sell as seedlings), I’m happy to have received a large amount of fresh seeds this morning. $6 each (minimum 5 seeds). Plus shipping. Beachpalms@cfl.rr.comZelle or PayPal(only if No Fees on my end), Checks or Cash.

I was in downtown Clovis, New Mexico today, scouting out places a potential palm tree could be (as one does), and stumbled across a Mexican Fan Palm! Keep in mind Clovis is Zone 7A for hardiness, home to an extremely dry climate and frigid winters.

I've been collecting palms for 23 years and have never had a flowering Chambeyronia. Looks like this C. hookeri in my yard could be my first! 🤞Can't wait to get seed from my favorite palm species!

This species of Coccothrinax, native to a small beach in N. Cuba, is definitely one of my favorites. Similar in looks to the old man palm, (Coccothrinax crinita) but apparently much hardier. Great palm to grow in the desert, even in full blasting sun. Unfortunately, like many others in the genus, it is a rather slow grower. 5 gallon pot grown from seed in Arizona is already 10 years old! 🤯 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Small queen palm showing some nice colour.

A nice old green Chambeyronia macrocarpa, no flash red leaf on this one.

Atbb VB it again getting a spring batch of seeds in, bottom heating 30 degrees celcius. Although it’s going to get a bit cool at night now so I think k the ambient temperature will most likely be around 25 degrees celcius. A stack of licuala varieties, along with some cycad seeds. Even a batch of Zamia inermis from Nature girl in the good US, they shall be treasured little babies when they germinate. Some good varieties rare and exotic for all tastes! Time will tell how successful this little batch of seeds are.

I got some seeds sold as Encephalartos turneri about 12 years ago. One is flushing right now that is planted in deep shade. It’s still fairly small and has only been in the ground for about a year. These two photos were taken about a week apart. I have another one that’s bigger, it’s in full sun and has a more interesting leaf form. It’s not flushing at the moment but here are two photos of the plant. I’ll also upload photos next time it flushes, which should be soon.

Many years ago I got seeds of this hardy north anerican palm and it thrives well in my subtropical climate with cold winters and humidity year round and with fresh/warm summers because of the aktitude : 1030 m (= 3379 feet)

Blue latania

Just looking awfully photogenic this morning. Tim

I am happy to report that my 40+ foot tall Royal Palm is pushing out new growth. I was very concerned because it is so close to the house. If it had succumbed to the cold, I would have had to call in someone with a crane to get it out of here. I couldn't take a chance it would fall on the house... But, it is growing. So, a mature Royal palm can survive brief cold down to 24 or 25F.

Metroxylon amicarum gaining size while the feral hogs mine the adjacent landscape.

Dypsis louvelli, Geonoma atrovirens.

I have to say it was beyond disappointing when I worked and prepared 14 years towards finally moving to Hilo, HI, and had everything set up to establish myself there, only to be met with a housing crisis, living out of my car/hotel, and subsequently having to emergently find a new job, which just happened to be in El Centro, CA. If I had moved to Hilo, HI only 6 months earlier, none of this would have happened 😔 Now I have my eyes on Mexico in 5 years to finally have my permanent garden, as it looks like Hawaii and coastal southern California are no longer realistic options for a large palm garden. Either way, though, it's been fun experimenting with palms in the desert and seeing which ones can take the heat. Many palm trees have pleasantly surprised me!

I have always loved chatting about palms/cycads and plants in general with Maria. I've known her and her sons for the better part of 10 years, and she has always been so kind. Maria was the owner of Sago Rey Palms in Fresno, where she continued the business after the passing of her husband Thomas Wash. I was very saddened to hear of a horrible incident at the nursery over Easter weekend, and further saddened to learn of her passing. She will live on in the memory of many of us here in the area (and out of the immediate area) who have crossed paths with her. My garden is full of plants she cared for and nurtured. If any of you got those really blue Sabal uresana seedlings, they came from Maria. A few photos from her obituary: https://kmph.com/news/local/nursery-owner-dies-after-easter-machete-attack-nephew-faces-murder-charge