Palm Park, Mullumbimby, NSW Australia

[Jonathan Haycock]

Been meaning to check this place out for a while now, so my son and I headed down from the Gold Coast yesterday (1.5 hour drive). I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a number of uncommon palms on a relatively small section of public park. 

First up Beccariophoenix fenestralis. No matter the environment within Queensland, I don’t think I’ve seen an example of this species look anything other than spectacular at this size. 

[Jonathan Haycock]

Plenty of females here and a few males, but no fruit surprisingly ☹️.

Latania verschaffeltii.

My son shocked me as we were admiring the yellow Latan by saying “You don’t have this one do you dad, only the red and the blue”. Firstly I don’t remember telling him that (he must have overheard a conversation I was having with someone else), and secondly I’m impressed he remembered!!! 

[Jonathan Haycock]

 

Scores of Archontophoenix purpurea, this one in particular had the fattest trunk I’ve seen out of habitat. 

My son loved this palm and instinctively looked up for ripe fruit, just like his old man would do 😂.

 

[Jonathan Haycock]

Burretiokentia hapala enjoying full sun. New Caledonian palms really are mind blowing gorgeous.

[Jonathan Haycock]

Green form of Bismarckia nobilis. Just the one female so she was dropping immature fruits. Not as common as the silver form in QLD/Northern NSW.

[Jonathan Haycock]

Lastly what I assume is Sabal causiarum, with a trunk diameter of over 0.5 metre.

That’s it folks, hope you enjoyed the pictures. 

[SeanK]

13 minutes ago, Jonathan Haycock said:

Plenty of females here and a few males, but no fruit surprisingly ☹️.

Latania verschaffeltii.

My son shocked me as we were admiring the yellow Latan by saying “You don’t have this one do you dad, only the red and the blue”. Firstly I don’t remember telling him that (he must have overheard a conversation I was having with someone else), and secondly I’m impressed he remembered!!! 

Only Latania I've seen were small ones about a meter or so in height. They're not common in south Florida as they don't like the cool winters.

[happypalms]

Hi Johnathon it’s a great little park I will race you for burretiokentia hapala seeds had my eye on few for awhile 😁

[Jonathan Haycock]

10 minutes ago, happypalms said:

Hi Johnathon it’s a great little park I will race you for burretiokentia hapala seeds had my eye on few for awhile 😁

No competition from me Richard, they are all yours 😂. I have a few seedlings already that are doing very well. Such a great palm. 

[happypalms]

4 minutes ago, Jonathan Haycock said:

No competition from me Richard, they are all yours 😂. I have a few seedlings already that are doing very well. Such a great palm. 

Get into them I say 🤣

[bubba]

Beautiful park and palms of all varieties! New Caledonian palms are magnificent. Love the green form of Bismarckia, which grow easily in S. Florida compared to the much more prevalent and cold hardy silver form. The Sabal causiarium is the real deal and it would be interesting to know it’s journey.

Latania is all over the place down here ( Sean?). The Florida Department of Transportation plants them all over the place at I-95 interchanges. They are an old school palm that has seemingly lost favor with most growers. Here is a relatively young one at Four Arts:

[KrisKupsch]

4 hours ago, Jonathan Haycock said:

Burretiokentia hapala enjoying full sun. New Caledonian palms really are mind blowing gorgeous.

Ive grown hundreds off this plant 

[ahosey01]

Forgive my ignorance but is it as easy for you Australians to fly to New Caledonia as it is for us to fly to Jamaica?

Trying to determine my level of envy…

[happypalms]

57 minutes ago, ahosey01 said:

Forgive my ignorance but is it as easy for you Australians to fly to New Caledonia as it is for us to fly to Jamaica?

Trying to determine my level of envy…

It certainly is 3 hours drive basically to the international airport park your car and go through customs and in about a 4 plane flight your there most of the South Pacific islands are easy as and you get a driver for the day that will take you pretty well anywhere you want to go cheap as. Or get a local car driver like taxis and for around $2 to $4 they drop in the direction you want to go and you  will have an adventure with the locals along the way in some pretty dodgy rough looking vehicles as well it all adds to the adventure stopping in at the kava bar for a few coconut shells with the driver 🤣

[Jonathan]

8 hours ago, Jonathan Haycock said:

No competition from me Richard, they are all yours 😂. I have a few seedlings already that are doing very well. Such a great palm. 

If one of you guys doesn't harvest some of those purpurea seeds and send some my way, I'll be very sad...Australian palm seeds are stupidly hard to get in Australia, if you don't live right where they are growing. Why is this? Where are the local seed merchants in Qld and NSW, and why do we need to import seeds from Germany? It's a bizarre situation.

[KrisKupsch]

19 hours ago, happypalms said:

It certainly is 3 hours drive basically to the international airport park your car and go through customs and in about a 4 plane flight your there most of the South Pacific islands are easy as and you get a driver for the day that will take you pretty well anywhere you want to go cheap as. Or get a local car driver like taxis and for around $2 to $4 they drop in the direction you want to go and you  will have an adventure with the locals along the way in some pretty dodgy rough looking vehicles as well it all adds to the adventure stopping in at the kava bar for a few coconut shells with the driver 🤣

With respect you obviously have not been to New Caledonia. Nothing is that cheap there and kava is not available like in Vanuatu. Its a different vibe. Plus the hire cars are same class as ours in Au. Once the issues there settle, you need to go. 

[KrisKupsch]

13 hours ago, Jonathan said:

If one of you guys doesn't harvest some of those purpurea seeds and send some my way, I'll be very sad...Australian palm seeds are stupidly hard to get in Australia, if you don't live right where they are growing. Why is this? Where are the local seed merchants in Qld and NSW, and why do we need to import seeds from Germany? It's a bizarre situation.

A.purpurea is easy to obtain, there are a dozen or more fruiting trees in far nensw. They don’t appear to cross either. You just have to have a collector thats on the ball. Only need to import whats not already here. 

[Tyrone]

11 minutes ago, KrisKupsch said:

With respect you obviously have not been to New Caledonia. Nothing is that cheap there and kava is not available like in Vanuatu. Its a different vibe. Plus the hire cars are same class as ours in Au. Once the issues there settle, you need to go. 

New Caledonia is very expensive, but worth it. It probably needs to calm down a bit though before I would consider heading back. 

[KrisKupsch]

17 minutes ago, Tyrone said:

New Caledonia is very expensive, but worth it. It probably needs to calm down a bit though before I would consider heading back. 

Its on level 3 of 4 precautionary travel advisory so yes you are right. Its also as expensive as you make it. You can do it on the cheap but best visit in dry season if so ! Camping isn’t so fun in the wet season ! 

[tim_brissy_13]

2 hours ago, KrisKupsch said:

A.purpurea is easy to obtain, there are a dozen or more fruiting trees in far nensw. They don’t appear to cross either. You just have to have a collector thats on the ball. Only need to import whats not already here. 

It’s a bit harder to be on the ball for those of us down south like Jonathan and myself. In my city of 5+ million people there are only a handful or two serious collectors, and the number of rare palm species that have set fruit are very limited. Archontophoenix purpurea for example are around here, but I don’t know of any setting seed and one I grew about 20 years ago from an already trunking size is still not yet mature. 
 

I will say though that it’s a great time to be a palm grower in Aus (perhaps less so if you’re in WA or TAS). There are some awesome palms brought in a generation ago now setting seed in the northern states and some generous people around and I’m grateful for that. But we are a bit isolated down in the temperate regions. 

[happypalms]

9 hours ago, KrisKupsch said:

With respect you obviously have not been to New Caledonia. Nothing is that cheap there and kava is not available like in Vanuatu. Its a different vibe. Plus the hire cars are same class as ours in Au. Once the issues there settle, you need to go. 

Vanuatu Kris Tanna island 

[Jonathan]

7 hours ago, tim_brissy_13 said:

It’s a bit harder to be on the ball for those of us down south like Jonathan and myself. In my city of 5+ million people there are only a handful or two serious collectors, and the number of rare palm species that have set fruit are very limited. Archontophoenix purpurea for example are around here, but I don’t know of any setting seed and one I grew about 20 years ago from an already trunking size is still not yet mature. 
 

I will say though that it’s a great time to be a palm grower in Aus (perhaps less so if you’re in WA or TAS). There are some awesome palms brought in a generation ago now setting seed in the northern states and some generous people around and I’m grateful for that. But we are a bit isolated down in the temperate regions. 

Yes, I think that's the point - the tyranny of distance. I've collected plenty of seeds on various mainland road trips in the past but it's little more than luck if you don't know the right place to be in at the right time. I was a PACSOA member for a while, partially in the hope of access to a seed bank, but that ended up going nowhere. Not anyone's fault, its just not really aimed at Antarctic growers, understandably! 

What would be super useful, would be knowing people in palmy areas who are happy to watch the local fruiting trees and collect and distribute seed to us deprived southerners, on a small commercial basis. We could put together a wish list! Richard @happypalms is kind of doing this already, and I'm busily encouraging him!

No offence to RPS but it would be nice to not have the hassle of customs, etc when we live in a palm stuffed country...

[happypalms]

7 minutes ago, Jonathan said:

Yes, I think that's the point - the tyranny of distance. I've collected plenty of seeds on various mainland road trips in the past but it's little more than luck if you don't know the right place to be in at the right time. I was a PACSOA member for a while, partially in the hope of access to a seed bank, but that ended up going nowhere. Not anyone's fault, its just not really aimed at Antarctic growers, understandably! 

What would be super useful, would be knowing people in palmy areas who are happy to watch the local fruiting trees and collect and distribute seed to us deprived southerners, on a small commercial basis. We could put together a wish list! Richard @happypalms is kind of doing this already, and I'm busily encouraging him!

No offence to RPS but it would be nice to not have the hassle of customs, etc when we live in a palm stuffed country...

It’s not what you know with palms but who you know and I have a lot more knowing to do before I get ahead of the palm mafia gang in North Queensland I still door knock for seeds in gardens I see around when I ask the first question i get asked by the plant owner is what are they worth I usually say how many do want to buy from me there response is none then I tell them there not worth a lot then are they now most people say take them and I offer some plants in return when they a ready I have had some good scores this way but i think it will be a long time before I start selling sabinara seeds soon it has to a cold in hell before that happens I know that much there are a lot of common palm seeds around my area and some unusual ones if you look in the right places chambeyronia macrocarpa Howea bellmoreana lepidozamia perrofskyana macrozamia communis and as Kris said archontophoenix purpurea they are standard seeds wanted in the industry still recognised as exotic plants with demand some more than others but if you want super rare exotic palm seeds import them or have great contacts and a big cheque book there there you just have to find them if your looking and lucky what one person calls rare is common to another  person I bet Johannesteijsmannia in Asia you couldn’t not quite give them away in other countries a different story palm growers want a certain seed or palm once acquired they move onto another palm seed plant obsession i myself am such that collector I guess that’s what a collector does otherwise we wouldn’t be collectors in a true sense it’s an addiction that can only be cured by more new seeds or plants and I don’t won’t to be cured of that addiction.🌱

[KrisKupsch]

23 hours ago, Jonathan said:

Yes, I think that's the point - the tyranny of distance. I've collected plenty of seeds on various mainland road trips in the past but it's little more than luck if you don't know the right place to be in at the right time. I was a PACSOA member for a while, partially in the hope of access to a seed bank, but that ended up going nowhere. Not anyone's fault, its just not really aimed at Antarctic growers, understandably! 

What would be super useful, would be knowing people in palmy areas who are happy to watch the local fruiting trees and collect and distribute seed to us deprived southerners, on a small commercial basis. We could put together a wish list! Richard @happypalms is kind of doing this already, and I'm busily encouraging him!

No offence to RPS but it would be nice to not have the hassle of customs, etc when we live in a palm stuffed country...

I’ve shown Richard a clump of purpurea that is a reliable source. Currently has one large infructescence about to ripen. 

[Jonathan]

Just now, KrisKupsch said:

I’ve shown Richard a clump of purpurea that is a reliable source. Currently has one large infructescence about to ripen. 

Nice one, thanks Kris. Hopefully he can get there in a timely manner!

[happypalms]

40 minutes ago, KrisKupsch said:

I’ve shown Richard a clump of purpurea that is a reliable source. Currently has one large infructescence about to ripen. 

All I got to do now is climb that tree like a possum would or like a rat up a drain pipe as they say🤣

[Jonathan]

2 hours ago, happypalms said:

All I got to do now is climb that tree like a possum would or like a rat up a drain pipe as they say🤣

Up you go Ratty, I'll hold the bucket!

[happypalms]

8 hours ago, Jonathan said:

Up you go Ratty, I'll hold the bucket!

What is they say in golf oh yeah I remembered FOUR!!

[KrisKupsch]

1 hour ago, happypalms said:

What is they say in golf oh yeah I remembered FOUR!!

Once one ripens, you can cut the bunch. Leave them intact on the spadix to ripen and fall off themselves. Stick end in water. 

[tim_brissy_13]

32 minutes ago, KrisKupsch said:

Once one ripens, you can cut the bunch. Leave them intact on the spadix to ripen and fall off themselves. Stick end in water. 

I didn’t know that! That’s good handy info for many I’m sure. 

[Jonathan]

9 hours ago, KrisKupsch said:

Once one ripens, you can cut the bunch. Leave them intact on the spadix to ripen and fall off themselves. Stick end in water. 

That's very interesting, like a bunch of bananas (apparently...!).  So the spadix retains enough sugars etc to ripen the fruits? Do you think that's common to most palms Kris??