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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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!

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

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

Brahea elegans showing the armata portion of its genetics .

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 Chambeyronias throughout the garden are pushing new leaves, a welcome bit of winter colour!

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

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!

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.

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.

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).

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...

A nice wet winter day with the sun coming out in the afternoon.

The utilis a garden favourite of mine, this one is around 26 years old, endured many a dry spell and heat along with seeing temperatures around 2 degrees celcius. It’s proven itself in my garden as a nice exotic palm that’s super tough. Catch them at the right time and they have a glorious colour to their new leaf. There aren’t many palms that split their trunk dichotomous is the word I think. A lovely palm with a few strange traits.

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)

Not entirely true... Over time, I've learned to never say never when it comes to a particular plants survivability. Both the Jubaea and Parajubaea CAN definitely be grown in the hot, dry, desert.They may not look California perfect, but they don't just die, either. Arizona summers are notoriously famous for having over 40 days a year at 110F+, with several nights where the low temperature is still in the 90's F. I have both species planted in my Arizona garden for over 15 years now. The Jubaeas actually do fairly well in Arizona, so much so that our local moon valley nursery has imported and sold dozens of them over about the last 5 years. I started a batch from seed myself in 2016, (last few available are in 15 gallon pots) and have also sold a couple dozen of these trees locally. Growing in full sun, the only thing I notice is that they do yellow up just a bit over summer,but the yellowed fronds actually do green back up over the cooler winter. Parajubaea,on the other hand, while it will survive here, burns considerably over the summer, although producing about 4 new fronds over the winter, so only looks good about half of the year. We have already had several days around 110F this year,and you can see the burn setting in.🤷‍♂️ While I would recommend a Jubaea for my area, I would caution against a Parajubaea, as it will not live up to its potential under our extremely hot summer growing conditions. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

At least there’s plenty of soil moisture in winter!

The garden is loving the cool temperatures, summer is nice, but the change in season brings a different perspective for the garden.

They love there water, as suggested above. Your little palm has been on the dry side of life. In habitat they thrive in wet gullies creek beds, almost cool temperate conditions in dark shaded areas. They break through the canopy and take all the sun they can get, while there root system is in dark forest wet conditions. They dislike drying out.

Thanks. Appreciate that. Here is a picture in 2016 when I initially planted it. You can see the sprouted coconut to the right in a pot. That's the red spicata. Good growth in 10 years. Queens are gone and old man palms died when hurricane Irma broke a small one at the base and the other died of fungal infection...crown rot. Garden has been added to over the years. Behind this there is more....tri bear, Fiji fan, sabal Lisa, bucaneer, a couple Chambeyronia oliviformis...just can't see them in the pic. They were added in 2017.

This spring my Butia yatay has a big crop of seeds developing on more than one blooming spike. The squirrels will be interested!😉

To everyone waiting for updates or interested in growing embothreum coccineum (Chilean fire tree) in the humid southeastern U.S., I've got updates and pictures. First, I have to talk about the long journey I've been on learning about this special tree. Everything I've read tells me it will fail anywhere in the U.S. outside of western Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. But, I have high pain tolerance, and I think this is a rare tree that not enough people have attempted to grow here. So maybe I can trail blaze and contribute what I've learned about it. First, over the last 7 or 8 years I've attempted to grow this tree at various stages, from seedling to 3 feet tall and flowering. I've probably killed 8 - 10 trees, but I've currently got 3 growing (two from seed and one 4 foot tall and flowering). I've experimented with soil amendments, different soil moisture levels, and various levels of sun exposure. After all that, and several years of partial success and lots of failure, here's what I've learned. Soil permeability and temperature are the most important aspects of keeping this tree alive. It must have excellent soil porosity. If you're starting with clay soil, remove a few buckets worth of it, and mix in a few bags of coarse sand, gravel, and pine bark nuggets. Do not using potting soil or even compost. It can deal with poor soil just fine. Also be sure the soil stays cool and moist (not overly wet). After you've planted it in the perfect spot, give it bag after bag of mini pine bark nuggets around the area you've planted it in to keep the soil underneath it breathable, well draining, and cool. The 3 foot tall fire tree I planted had all that done, and I replaced its top 6" - 8" of soil as straight pine bark nuggets. That keeps the soil acidic and extremely well draining, as well as cool. Site location: The 3' tree that's stayed alive is now in its second blooming and growing season and was given the best spot it could ask for. It's about 4 - 5 feet away from a brick wall on a slightly downward slope, facing east. It catches full sun until noon, but during the hottest part of the day it stays shaded because of the brick wall. The heat and high humidity of north Georgia still stresses the tree though. In its first growing season it dropped half its leaves, which apparently is a survival mechanism for trees that think they'll lose too much water through transpiration. However, we watered that tree nearly daily the first year, and it rewarded us by staying alive after it bloomed its heart out. A few months ago I got worried because I read something that said if Chilean fire trees ever have a stressful year, they'll forever stop blooming. However, that did not end up being the case. Even though in its first year it was completely covered in flowers, the tree still gave us blooms this spring as well, just far fewer. We had probably 7 or 8 clusters of fiery red blooms, plus a lot of branch and leaf growth. Since these trees only bloom on new growth from the previous year, it may be promising that its grown so many new branches and leaves. However, I wouldn't be surprised if it dropped more than half its leaves again, and put itself into survival mode just to get through the dog days of summer here. That would mean only a few bloom clusters next year as well, but still worth it. I've read it wants night time temperatures below 65 degrees F in order to rest at night. Without that, it stresses. However, if you keep the roots cool and moist, and don't fry the plant with the hottest afternoon temps, it seems to do pretty decently here. Again, it is a protea, so don't fertilize it with any phosphorus. For my part, I just skip fertilizer altogether. They seem to do just fine without any of that. For all the other proteaceaes I grow in my yard (several types of grevilleas and Gevuina avellana), it really helps to put down some other ground covering plant. For example, my Tasmanian mountain peppers and Gevuina avellana were planted in among Asian jasmine vines, which keep the ground underneath cool and moist. It's the only way I've been able to keep those alive, and I'm sure it would help with Chilean fire trees as well if I were to plant new ones. The Chilean fire trees I planted from seed are another story. I have one that's probably 5 years old at this point, and was grown from seeds I purchase from the U.K. The one that's still alive from that batch shot up like a weed its first and second year, but now that its been planted in the ground, it grows very slowly. It's probably 10" tall at this point, however it did not have the benefit of being planted on the east side of my home. It was planted on the west side, which means it gets the brutal afternoon heat. But its saving grace is that it was planted right at the top of a retaining wall, on a slope that receives constant moisture from my AC condensate drip line. It also has the top of its soil covered in several inches of pine bark nuggets. The small hill above it has had many bags of sand mixed into it, and the retaining wall has nothing but gravel behind it. So it has very permeable soil and stays constantly moist, but not wet. This is enough to keep it alive with some small amount of growth each year, but I suspect if I could've planted it on an eastward-facing slope where it only received direct morning sun, it would be doing much better right now. The third fire tree I have is a seedling from the 4 foot tall specimen that has the perfect spot. I took seeds from it last year and got a couple to sprout. This is the last one to have survived. It's in a small plastic pot with its soil a mixture of coarse sand and peat moss. I put oak catkins all over the top of its soil line to make a carpet that would keep its soil cool and prevent it from drying too quickly between waterings. It's only about 1" tall at this point, but you can see its top is already splitting into two crowns. This one will likely be a multi-branched cluster if it survives. But interestingly, now I have fire tree genetics from both the U.K. and an Oregon nursery. I hope this inspires someone out there to give the Chilean fire tree a try (or two... or ten). It's a fickle tree, but to behold it in bloom is indescribable. In my opinion, this is the most beautiful tree in the world when blooming, and still a pretty tree for the other 10 months of the year. One last point, deer seem like the taste of the leaves, so protect it with a chicken wire cage if you have deer in your area. Good luck

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.