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H rheophytica and Bismarkia today

This isn't entirely palm related, but I wouldn't be here without the love and knowledge I've learned from this community so I'm posting it here. I live in a small town, downtown is like old skool buildings, think Mayberry. A lady bought out an old storefront on the main street downtown, and plans to turn it into a plant boutique. Her mom, her aunt, her baby - they showed up with a squad to buy some colocasias from me. She's seen my social media feed and seen my whole operation now. Welp, it's gonna be early next year, but it looks like Sancho's Green Paws plants will be available for purchase in her store. I'm both stoked and terrified at the same time. On one hand, I'm trying to set up a Palmstreet store so I can pay some bills and on the other hand, it's like now I need to hang on to stuff to grow it out, and- I mean, I'd also kinda like to keep some stuff for myself. Y'all, anxiety is not cool.

Two different palms have come in over the years as Dypsis (now Chrysalidocarpus) Sp. Ambanja. The first was a multi trunk palm somewhat like Baronii. The second was a larger solitary palm. Mine has just revealed its first ring of trunk and is a really nice looking palm. Has similar characteristics as Leucomalla (white spear and coloring) and Sp. Dark Mealy Bug with the black flecking. But has a unique look of its own. Anyone else growing this?

Everytime this palm loses a leaf sheath is quite the event. Who needs sun on a rainy day with this in the front yard, It’s really quite the chunk. Tim

Hey y’all, I had a question. I’ve had this palm for probably 12 years. A great grower, looks good all the time, almost no burned leaves ever. A few years ago, it began flowering. A little sporadically at first, but now it’s to the point where every leaf base has a flower spathe underneath. The upshot is that it flowers like crazy, millions of little flowers falling, all throughout the year. But absolutely no fruit has ever developed. Any thoughts is what might be causing this? It just looks and grows so dang good in every other way, it’s hard to believe that it’s missing nutrients. Thanks in advance!

Here is a better shot of the whole palm

Mine has been a great grower for me. The colors on the crownshaft and petioles are great. I just recently took a close up photo of the trunk showing the coloration:

A great palm for SoCal

Her are mine on an East facing wall about 15 miles inland in SOC/NLA County.... Biggest problem near a pool is the many dropping seeds... If your not too close to the pool that may not be a problem... Mine may have out grown your screening needs, but you could always remove the larger palms and just keep the smaller ones... Mine just keep putting out new seedlings because of dropped seeds... Just don't put in a pepper tree like my neighbor did 5-6 years ago, for privacy... He put it about 1' away from the corner of 4 adjacent neighbor... That tree is huge now and will someday take out all 4 block walls... It makes a mess on my and 1 other neighbors patio and pools, and shades the other neighbors veggie garden... I keep the limbs trimmed back that overhang my yard, but the other neighbors don't... It's now getting too big for me to trim any farther.. Hopefully Edison will come out and remove it like they did my foxtail... Butch

Here’s my smallest one just slowly truckin along. Planted as a 1G about 4 yrs ago. Definitely getting more size in the trunk area. Hopefully it’s past the slow infant stage these things experience. -dale

Cool to see commercial property owners using palms other than syargus, phoenix etc. Have any of you carried your hobby into properties other than your home? Here’s my attempt at identifying these near me in the San Gabriel foothills jubaeopsis caffra bismarckia/ roystoneas ravenala madagascariensis Struggling dypsis sp? With caryota mitis in background some sort of cycas?

Close to all day full sun 1.5 miles from the ocean.

Mine is beginning to look like something 🙂

How bout a small ‘BUMP’. So, how are all of the posted specimens doing? Thriving I hope. Here is a photos I took yesterday of a grouping grown from seed back in 2012. The tall palm in the center surrounded by B. condapanna is B. nicobarica. Tim

San Antonio Botanical Garden This last one is Encephalartos inopinus not heenanii

Dale it's seeding like crazy 🤪 now could be in the hundreds if they all stay on the 2 large inflorescence

Encephalartos Trispinosis 2-Leaf flush. Super cool how it starts yellowish / pink, then turns purple and finally blue when it gets its farina or sunscreen. -dale

Iam sure I have a bit colour in the garden somewhere!

🙂

A troop of Licuala grandis at Four Arts:

Even before we opened at 9am, the garden was buzzing with activity. (9 photos) When we finally opened, some familiar faces showed up to fill their wagons with new plants. Dr. Rossi leads the Tour de Freeze, showcasing the palms that performed best and worst during the cold outbreak that dropped the garden to 21.5F. You can't say the Central Florida folks aren't adventurous, with Rhopalostylus planted. The baureri didn't handle the event as well as cheesemanii. A special thanks to @Jeff Searle, @Fishinsteeg234, @howfam, @STLOUISPALMGUY, @CodyM, Clay Porch and Steve Farnsworth for an excellent selection at the sale. Also a special thanks to @PalmJuan, @ChristianStAug, @RiverCityRichard, @flplantguy, @Jblume, @Kekoanui, and all of our new and current members for making the event a success.

Bump...updated photos of #1 and #2 palms. I have a palm acquired from Phil at Jungle Music about a dozen years ago that was labeled as Pritchardia beccariana. I think it most resembles your #2 palm Matty. It has flat, large round leaves with many shallow pleats compared to the deeper pleats on most other Pritchardia I have growing. Steve please share a photo or two of yours as well.

Caught this very large Sausage tree at Four Arts. No sausage yet but the strings are growing from the tree:

Verschaffeltia growing faster the bigger it gets.

This is a Specimen acquired as possibly a Pritchardia hillebrandii. As it grew I don't think that was fulfilled. I don't have Don Hodel's book on Pritchardia to key this out. Given the prevalence of hybrid Pritchardia in the trade here in California, I might not be able to key it to a single species anyway. I don't recall it ever pushing out a successful inflorescence that resulted in flowers let alone fruit. Thoughts on it's id are welcome.

Just snapped these pics just now. Seeding for the first time. Definitely faster in sun than shade. She gets sun all day now.

Latania loddigesii at Four Arts:

'Tis the season in the Northern Hemisphere. Progress on a little Encephalartos arenarius and the two single lesf pups on a seedling Encephalartos horridus × woodii backcrossed with another identical hybrid.

Some of the many Brahea brandegeei blooming in old palm canyon in the western edition of Balboa Park. I believe this old palm canyon is over 100 years old.

Veitchia arecina or Veitchia joannis:

Maybe technically, but it’s really not the cold that does damage to roots generally, it’s the combination of cold and wet that promotes rot. Free draining mixes are very important in temperate climates I’ve found. For what it’s worth I kept 5 of my 11 sprouted seeds I mentioned earlier in this thread after gifting a few. All planted in the ground but now I’ve dug one to donate to the Melbourne Botajic Gardens soon. They’ve been slow but reliable and trouble free growers with some variability in colour and growth rate. They are now around 7.5 years from germination.

Listen to @Butch , NO PEPPER TREE ! They will take over. I had one on my hill that kept blocking my view ( all of it ) . I had it trimmed once a year but after a while grew faster . It was the same cost to cut it down as trimming , so…. Yea it’s gone now . I had to drill holes in the stump and fill with rock salt to stop it from growing back. Harry

As was said , the best fairly tall “screen palms “ are the C. Lutescens but may not look their best in Santa Clarita . They would , if you decide to use them, require copious amounts of water. Several would be required , depending the length you require. I would go about 4’ on center max between clumps . Mine , here in Santa Paula look great but don’t get super wide like they do in more humid climates. My climate is not THAT different than yours. Harry The early morning highlights the golden colour of these palms.

Nice one, I have been planting a few around the garden!

A couple of good collecter palmscocothrinax eckmanii dypsis proceralicuala fordiana

Chambeyronia hookeri

I have Ceroxylon alpinum, quindiuence, and amazonicum doing well for years. No trunks yet but hopefully soon.

I suspect that if I lived in the tropics, I would be bored to tears with this particular palm, but they are an unusual, elegant addition to a Southern California garden. Here are a couple growing in mine and my next-door neighbors yard.

Tracy, yours looks 100% like beccariana to me. Great looking palm..

The base and crown of mine. The crown has a diameter at least 4 meters; it’s a big boy!

Since you're in a hot, dry interior area of SoCal, your options for fast-growing palm screens are probably quite limited in a full-sun situation (what it looks like you have there). Where I am in the Palm Springs area, we primarily rely on Ficus microcarpa/retusa hedges (and who doesn't out here) for privacy but you may be reticent to use those right next to your wall, plus their general negatives in maintenance to keep them as a hedge and the possible proximity issues with roots next to your pool. I think if I were in your shoes I would use a few quick-growing trees for fast-acting screening, preferably something like Bauhinia x Blakeana (I use this, also Thevetia peruviana). You can leg-up the Bauhinia so the crown starts just above the wall and it will get up there fast in your summer heat. Then plant something like Chrysalidocarpus lutescens or C. cabadae between (and under the developing canopy of) the Bauhinia trees. As the palms grow, you can continue to leg up the Bauhinia specimens to give you a combination of quick screen from your neighbors' prying cameras/eyes, plus a protective canopy for not only frost protection but to avoid sunburn for the Chrysalidocarpus. There are quite a number of other choices but the principle is the same: A pattern of attractive dicot trees with palms planted under/between them. This will give you an attractive overall look and functionally fulfill your needs faster than any species of palm alone would ever give you in your location. After a few years the palms will finally be up to the top of your wall and can add to the density of the screen, and you can continue to leg-up the trees as necessary. If you're dead-set on using all palms, I guess you could use something like queens as the canopy with the denser clustering palms under/between them, but I think you're not going to have anywhere near the screening benefit given by a lush crown of large leaves like you will find on the Bauhinia.

sometimes it helps to climb up there and sniff the flowers. If they smell like Cheetos and Pepsi then that might be the problem. Please let us know what you discover.

Kerriodoxa elegans

Ptychosperma schefferi

Dave, I’ve always been a “plant them even when they’re tiny” kind of guy. Many of my big honking palms were planted as 2 or 3 inch seedlings directly to the ground. Here are just a few of them…

yeah rain is the biggest factor here for growth rate. Dry soil means the palm cannot feed normally. Nutrient uptake requires moisture, osmotic effects come to a standstill in dry soil. SO when your soil dries out after watering, feeding drops off. I measure growth by spear height changes, I dont mark spears. RIght now its been dry here so the spears are not moving much. My teddy's have been the easiest to see the difference over the past 2 years, they have added about 6' of height before the water restrictions hit. Everything in my yard has come to a crawl with very little rain and once a week watering. If you have clay soil, you're lucky to have it these days. I will put down another ton of turface MVP after this drought is over. It seems to make plants and palms more drought resistant.

It will grow a lot faster in the ground . It will be tough not to have it overhang the fence once it gets big , and at that size will happen fast. To me , the Alexandrea is a much more robust looking palm than the standard King and the fronds are larger . Harry ‘The bamboo fence is 6’ and this was planted as a very small palm in a 10” pot . It clearly overhangs the property line but I have an understanding with neighbors that I will trim what ever gets in their way. It helped to get them interested in palms . If you look closely to the right and behind the Alexandrea is a triple Howea Foresteriana that I gifted the neighbor. Harry