Leaderboard

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

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

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!

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.

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

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.

Dypsis louvelli, Geonoma atrovirens.

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.

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.

They are monoecious, having both male and female flowers. So your one lonely palm will set seeds. To help with cross pollination a single tree in a stand, will tend be either male or female, choosing this characteristic to help with cross pollination. But both male and female flowers are present on the same tree. Like a lot of plants if there are no boys hanging around they have a way of setting seeds. I guess the good old hermaphrodite works in wonderful ways.

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.

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

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

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.

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!

This view

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

This post is very interesting for us who live where there aren't many wild palm trees.

Arenga westhoutii.

This view

I’m lucky to have been given a few seedlings of L sp ‘Large Mottled’ Alberto. We’ve had a very mild June so far, so it’s too early too tell how it will go in cool conditions long term but I’d suspect it would be similarly hardy to L dasyantha based on habitat. At the one leaf stage, it looks nearly identical to every other Lanonia I’ve grown from seed.

Tough to see Tracy.. The unfortunate thing to me about the weevils love of canariensis, is that there are so many of them and that they are generally so large. I’m convinced that because of their sheer size they simply become weevil nurseries for months on end. Too big to deal with, especially if they’re on public land. So they just sit and infect everything around them. Pretty discouraging.

Leaf drop on Archontophoenix myolensis revealing some nice crownshaft colour. I still can’t quite capture the colour in photo for A myolensis crownshafts. In person it has a prominent aqua hue.

I was out walking my dog and the monoculture of this home I walk by frequently caught my eye. Someone once got a deal on them or they had a favorite. They used to have some Livistonia chilensis mixed in but removed them a few years back. They do have an ocean and beautiful horizon view, so I understand the preference for low growing palms.

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

Chamaedorea Ernest augustii, an old favourite of mine!

Iguanura wallachiana , dypsis minuta!

Another variety in the collection Taizannishiki. Give it ten years and it should be an interesting conversation point!

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.

I had a Rhapis Excelsia produce an abundant amount of seed once . None of the seeds germinated but it was cool. I have had the plant over 30 years and it only happened once! Harry This palm had quite a few seeds by the time it was done. I planted the seeds in various parts of my garden and a few in pots . Nothing popped up.

I know they are considered ‘functionally dioecious’, but I know of many cases of Livistona sp being monoecious and setting seed without other Livistona sp nearby (or at least very unlikely to have other nearly Livistona sp). Beyond that, I can’t say I’ve dug into it enough to know anything further like what Richard is saying.

Dypsis poiveana and a container grown kerriodoxa elegans with a few nice black petioles.

Current state of affairs and at peak flower opening on this bromeliad from the Andes high elevation. Puya alpestris ssp zoellneri.

Mine has flowered 2 or 3 times now but no seeds yet. The spathe and inflorescence looked somewhat dwarfed. Will see what this year brings. Has a larger one now. Started flowering with 6 feet of clear trunk below the crownshaft last year. Planted out in full sun as a 3 gallon in May of 2016, so now 10 years in the ground. Has much more shade now since the gardens have grown. This picture is from September 2025. Good luck with yours.

Bismarkia and White Triangle