My tiny little palm collection

[basilios]

Ok guys, as many people use to do in this forum, I'd like to post a few new photos of my (small) palm collection, including old and new stuff together. I'll also re-post some of last year's pictures of certain specimens so that you compare and monitor their growth...

In general, we had a pretty warm summer and a total of maybe 15 days of intense heat (higher than 37C / 99F) that topped at around 41.5C / 106.5F during a couple of days in mid-August... So here it goes - first the new stuff :

Medemia argun, about 3 months old.

Hyphaene coriacea, same age.

Attalea rostrata, 5 months old...very, very slow!

Sabal bermudana.

[basilios]

Sabal guatemalensis.

Butyagrus...for some reason seems unstable. Somewhat slow and with fragile, yellowish leaves. Keeps growing, though.

Euterpe edulis, the last standing of about 7 seedlings from germinated seeds. The other rot quickly or maybe could make it through the heat...any ideas?

Dypsis lanceolata, about 10 months old. Started very slowly, now picking up a bit of speed.

[basilios]

Dictyosperma album, 5 months old. At this stage, definitely slow.

Chambeyronia "watermelon".

Pritchardia hillebrandii, has grown 4 new leaves since May...I don't understand why there are people calling this a slow palm. In my book it's a good and steady grower. Also seems to love the heat.

[basilios]

Chamaerops humilis. Rescued it from my mother's appartment after she passed away this summer.

Pandanus utilis. Not really sure how it's going to react to our long, cool and occasionally quite cold winter...we'll see.

Parajubaea torallyii..

Archonto myolensis

[basilios]

Chamaedorea plumosa.

The ever-present filler "pigmy date palm"...

Roystonea borinquena, looking miserable...probably spent all its life in a greenhouse till it suddenly landed in my place, under full sun, strong heat and high sea winds. But, eventually, it'll get used to it.

[basilios]

Now the older stuff :

Sabal causiarum, Nov. 2009, then 3 years old from seed.

Same plant, Oct. 2010, just produced its first full (palmate) leave.

Ptychosperma elegans, then 2 years old (2009).

Now, 3 years of age... If you ask me, a slow grower.

[basilios]

Phoenix rupicola, 2 years old (2009).

Same plant, 1 year later. Now this guy more than doubled in size! Or trippled?

Livistona decora, last year.

This year : a good grower for sure. All the leaves that the plant holds in this pic were produced this summer.

[basilios]

Wodyetia, last year (2 years old from seed)

This year, 3 years old : a perfect little palm.

Chamaedorea costaricana, about 10 months old (2009)

The plant on the left of the previous pic., 1 year later. Another steady grower. Started flowering already!

Edited October 12, 2010 by basilios

[basilios]

Bismarkia nobilis, about 3 months old.

One of the above plants, last week.

Butia capitata, 2009.

2010.

[basilios]

B. alfredii, 2 years old, last year.

3 years old. A good grower, but I'm having a hard time keeping it green...

Archonto cunninghamiana "illawara", 3 years old from seed. On the right, alagoptera arenaria.

The same archonto, this year. It suddenly started to grow like crazy!

[basilios]

The same alagoptera, 2010. A slow palm, but a tiny bit faster this year...

[basilios]

Sabal mauritiformis, 2009.

2010. Only slightly larger...

In the middle, dypsis decaryii, 2009.

2010. Much, much bigger!

[basilios]

Thrinax radiata, 2009.

2010. Relatively slow but steady.

Chamaedorea radicalis, 2009.

2010.

[basilios]

2009 : Phoenix canariensis and on the right, roystonea regia, 3 years old.

Same roystonea, last week. Definitely the fastest growing palm in my collection, considering that it's just 4 years old, has been grown exclusively in a pot, stays dormant probably 4-5 months every year and it's already about 2 meters tall!

The same roystonea, overlooking the bay:

My second roystonea, same age, a bit smaller.

[basilios]

Miscellaneous :

Syagrus "litoralis"

Adonidias, 15 months old. Fast growers!

Areca triandra, never happy in my climate, nor indoors during winter

CIDPs

[basilios]

Sabal causiarum, older specimen. Probably one of the fastest sabals.

Washingtonia robusta

Dioon spinulosum

Cycas revoluta.

[basilios]

Adonidia as a house plant, performing quite well so far.

And finally, the view from my living room, window #1

and window #2

That's all, I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks!

[peachy]

Your babies are looking good. I bring my euterpes in the house during summer, where they enjoy the airconditing. Pandanus can survive cold winters if they are kept very dry. Pritchardia hillebrandtii grow very very quicky at my place too. However Phoenix rupicola just sit there and do nothing. I bought mine as seedlings 5 years ago and they are yet to put out a pinnate leaf. Areca triandra never looked good for me, had them about 5 years also, in pots and they didnt grow much and always looked awful. Late summer, I planted 2 of them and they have grown from 20cm to 90 in those few months and look great. Now you some Hyophorbes to grow. They always do so well in pots.

Peachy

[_Rich]

From what I recall reading - the B. alfredii like a lot of iron. Give it a try and see if that helps green things up.

Rich

[Trópico]

Very nice collection! Thanks for sharing. Like you, I also enjoy growing from seed. Very lovely Sabal causiarum, CIDP, Areca triandra, and Sabal mauritiformis (regardless of the off-color, but that's understandable). So did you harvest your own Presotea? How long ago? I did too, and mine are 3 years old, about waist high. They enjoy a good watering but excellent draining and no sun.

[basilios]

Very nice collection! Thanks for sharing. Like you, I also enjoy growing from seed. Very lovely Sabal causiarum, CIDP, Areca triandra, and Sabal mauritiformis (regardless of the off-color, but that's understandable). So did you harvest your own Presotea? How long ago? I did too, and mine are 3 years old, about waist high. They enjoy a good watering but excellent draining and no sun.

Thanks! If you're talking about the prestoea seedling that appears in the first part of the thread (2009), it's long gone... Someday I'll try prestoea again but the first attempt didn't end well - all seedlings eventually died. As for the seeds, I purchase all of them from internet, mainly rarepalmseeds.com.

[sur4z]

I missed this thread the first time around...thanks for posting the "now" photos. Your collection is terrific, but what I find most interesting about this threat are the responses from literally around the world. I've never seen so many countries represented in one thread before.

[Gileno Machado]

Very nice Basilios. Do you have any plans for the future in the ground of all these palms and cyacds?

[basilios]

I missed this thread the first time around...thanks for posting the "now" photos. Your collection is terrific, but what I find most interesting about this threat are the responses from literally around the world. I've never seen so many countries represented in one thread before.

Thanks - I didn't realise that!

Very nice Basilios. Do you have any plans for the future in the ground of all these palms and cyacds?

Gileno, the truth is my collection, as tiny as it may be, is gradually growing too big for my limited space. For now I live in an appartment but there is a slight chance that I move to another country (with a far better climate) in the near future. If / when this happens, I'll start a new thread about the development of my garden

[DoomsDave]

Basilios!

WOW!

You sure have an awesome container ranch.

SIX BALCONIES? That's a lot! I've never seen a place with that many, but it looks like you'll use them all.

How do you say "PRA" in Greek?

dave

[kokonut]

Great collection of palms ! I've got a balcony of 12 square metres but I can keep my plants out there only on the few warm summer days.

[hanapalms]

Not a small feat to gather those palms into a collection such as yours. Beautiful! Welcome to PalmTalk.

[basilios]

It's been about a year since the last time I posted photos of my tiny palm collection, so I thought it would be nice to update it with new photos of what older seedlings remain alive, plus some new stuff. So here it goes.

A bunch of palms with a roystonea regia standing taller in the middle.

The same roystonea, five years old from seed, with me for scale. So fat, it has survived in good shape our last 3 winters.

Archontophoenix myolensis.

[basilios]

Dypsis decaryi (triangle palm), a fast and robust grower in our climate.

Thrinax radiata, so far suprisingly hardy, surviving two winters without even brown tipping.

Syagrus litoralis, fast and steady.

[basilios]

A couple of CIDPs.

A small brahea armata, purchased it last June and it hasn't moved one bit since then...seems VERY slow.

Chamaedorea radicalis, very trouble-free and hardy.

Chamaedorea costaricana, almost three years old from seed.

[basilios]

Chamaedorea plumosa, not the best candidate for my coastal climate...

Butia capitata, keeps growing into a very nice looking palm.

Sabal causiarum, 5 years old from seed, a bulletproof palm for me.

Another sabal causiarum. I have 7 of them...

[basilios]

Phoenix sylvestris, seems a good grower.

Chamaerops humilis.

Dioon spinulosum.

Archontophoenix cunninghamiana "illawara", 5 years old from seed. This summer it literally doubled in size!

[Kostas]

Awesome Basilios!Well done,especially considering you are growing them all in pots at your balconies! I really like your Thrinax radiata and Roystonea!

I hope you find a nice piece of land for all those beauties and your family!

[basilios]

Another shot of my archonto "Illawara", so far a great palm for our climate!

Livistona chinensis.

A second roystonea regia, 5 years old from seed, seems to grow a little wimpier than the other one, no idea why...

Beccariophoenix alfredii, 4 years old from seed, still in the "windows" phase.

[basilios]

Allagoptera caudescens, this year's purchase. A lovely specimen, let's see how it will score during winter...

The largest of my foxtails, 4 years old from seed and a strong grower in my coastal climate.

Thrinax parviflora, purchased it a few months ago. I hope it'll turn out as hardy as my thrinax radiata...

[basilios]

My only surviving bismarkia, 2 years old from seed and obviously still in shock from last years cold weather. I can't say I'm very optimistic it will make it through winter....

Raphia australis, a gorgeous and super-fast palm (4 new leaves in 3 months, despite re-potting!) that remains to be seen how cool-hardy it is...I'm crossing fingers!

Dypsis decipiens, slow, steady and hardy.

Pritchardia arecina, about 6 months old from seed. It seems like a fast grower.

[basilios]

Allagoptera arenaria. S L O W.....

A trio of roystonea borinquenas a few months old from seed, growing at a really fast pace.

Champeyronia "watermelon". No red leaves yet...

Attalea rostrata, about 16 months from seed... S L O W......

Edited October 25, 2011 by basilios

[basilios]

Syagrus amara. This particular seedling seems a little on the weak side.

Sabal guatemalensis. I think it's called s. mexicana now, or not?

X Butyagrus, this summer started to really take off!

Copernicia baleyana. No idea if it can handle our winter but I thought it worth a try...

[basilios]

Sabal bermudana.

Adonidia merillii, 2 years old from seed. Fast!

Dictyosperma album, 16 months from seed. Rather slow...

Euterpe precatoria, a couple of months old...

[basilios]

Chamaedorea woodsoniana, a couple of months old...

Pritchardia hillebrandii, so far a perfect palm for me.

Parajubaea torallyi, another great palm for our climate.

Phoenix rupicola, 4 years old from seed. Not fast, but hardy and pretty...