CFPACS December Meeting

[Bob Johnson]

CFPACS will hold our annual Holiday Meeting at Rob Branch's in Sarasota on Saturday, December 13.

Rob has over 700 palm specimens of 350 plus varieties planted in his one-acre garden, along with many aroids, bamboo. bromeliads, cordylines, flowering trees, succulents and other tropicals.

Here is a shot looking over the pond (photo by Rob Branch):

The general meeting and garden tour starts at 10:30 am, with lunch at noon and a plant auction and sale following the meal. We are asking folks to RSVP for the lunch (CFPACS is providing the main course and Rob will prepare it) and to bring a side dish to share. More details on this and directions can be found at the CFPACS web site.

CFPACS members and non-members are welcome, just RSVP so we know in advance how much food to prepare. Hope to see you there!

[Bob Johnson]

Looking into the jungle at Rob's.

[Bob Johnson]

Pritchardia remota

[Bob Johnson]

Variegated Rhapis excelsa

[Bob Johnson]

Kerriodoxa elegans

[Bob Johnson]

We have over 40 RSVPs to date.

If you have not yet sent an RSVP, you are still welcome to attend the meeting!

If you can send me a PM or e-mail, that would be great. If you won't be able to decide until the last minute if you can come, please come anyway - we plan to have extra food, there will be enough for you.

[Eric in Orlando]

And as an enticement, at the auction there will be 2 rare Madagascar gems to bid on;

Satranala decussilvae and Tahina spectabilis, donated by Leu Gardens

[Bob Johnson]

And as an enticement, at the auction there will be 2 rare Madagascar gems to bid on;

Satranala decussilvae and Tahina spectabilis, donated by Leu Gardens

Wow! Thanks Eric. That is an awesome donation from Leu Gardens - very much appreciated.

Those and the other plants that Leu is donating ought to make for a great auction!

[Bob Johnson]

Here is the full list of plants donated by Leu Gardens that will be available for auction at the meeting this Saturday.

Thank you Eric and Leu Gardens!

PALMS

Archontophoenix maxima

Archontophoenix myolensis

Calamus leptospadix

Chamaedorea costaricana

Daemonorops sabut

Licuala peltata var. peltata

Linospadix minor

Livistona carinensis

Nannorrhops ritchiana (Kashmir form)

Oenocarpus distichus

Satranala decussilvae

Tahina spectabilis

OTHER PLANTS

Pandanus gemmiferus

Pandanus whitei

Sterculia alata

Tabebuia heterophylla

In addition to the Leu Gardens donation, there will be more auction plants from other donors - you never know what else might show up!

[ThunderSRQ]

Has a list been compiled of PalmTalk members who are planning on attending? (I'll be there)

Thanks...

Tim

[Mike Evans]

Looking forward to seeing Rob's garden. I will be there w/ auction items.

[JeffreyApolloBeach]

I'll be there, with wife and kid. Hopefully the wife will get hooked and ask for a palm as a Christmas gift!! :-)

Jeffrey

Apollo Beach, FL

[Eric in Orlando]

There will also be a community pot of Chelyocarpus chuco seedlings in the auction.

[Bob Johnson]

Has a list been compiled of PalmTalk members who are planning on attending? (I'll be there)

Thanks...

Tim

I have a list of over 50 who have sent in an RSVP but it is by real names, not PT handles. Here are the PT members that I know of, I have probably missed a few:

cfkingfish

Creekside

JeffreyApolloBeach

Mikein FL

Ray Tampa

SW FL Palms

ThunderSRQ

[Bob Johnson]

There will also be a community pot of Chelyocarpus chuco seedlings in the auction.

Thanks again, Eric for the generous donation from Leu. It was great to see you today - sorry you will not be able to attend the meeting, hopefully next time!

[Bob Johnson]

I will post pics of a few of the auction plants donated by Leu Gardens. (plant descriptions provided by Eric Schmidt)

Tahina spectabilis, Licuala peltata var. peltata, Satranala decussilvae

Tahina spectabilis - rare palm, discovered in 2007 in a remote location in NE Madagascar. The most massive palm native to Madagascar, grows to 60 ft tall with leaves up to 12 ft in diameter. Develops a terminal inflorescence like Corypha, cold hardiness unknown.

Licuala peltata var. peltata - single trunked palm growing to 20-25 ft., large divided leaves, not as common as the undivided form. Likes shade and moist soil, a fairly cold hardy Licuala. Native from NE India to Malaysia, seed collected in India from northern edge of its range.

Satranala decussilvae - rare palm from NE Madagascar, closely related to Bismarckia. Needs moist soil and also shade when young. Can grow to 30-50 ft, slow, green foliage, cold hardiness unknown.

[Bob Johnson]

Calamus leptospadix, Linospadix minor, Oenocarpus distichus

Calamus leptospadix - supposedly a dwarf, non-climbing species that is not as heavily armed as other Calamus, native from eastern Nepal to Assam at up to 4500 ft., should have some cold hardiness.

Linospadix minor - dwarf, clustering palm growing 3-10 ft tall with thin stems. Needs shade and moist soil. Native to NE Queensland, Australia.

Oenocarpus distichus - solitary palm growing 40-60 ft, plumose leaves are arranged in a distichous crown similar to Wallichia disticha. Native from NE Brazil to NE Bolivia, needs moist soil, tender, but exact cold hardiness unknown.

[Bob Johnson]

A few non-palms: Pandanus whitei, Sterculia alata, Pandanus gemmiferus

Pandanus whitei - suckering Screw Pine, grows to 10-20 ft, bluish green leaves. Native to NE Queensland, Australia, cold hardiness unknown.

Sterculia alata - a tall, erect tree reaching up to 100 ft, often develops a buttress, bears pale greenish flowers in the spring followed by large, edible seeds. Native from India to Hainan, China. Tree is called Buddha’s Coconut, botanical name has recently been changed to Pterygota alata. Seed from a cultivated tree in India.

Pandanus gemmiferus - suckering Screw Pine, grows to 20-30 ft. Native to NE Queensland, Australia, cold hardiness unknown.

[Bob Johnson]

Looking forward to seeing Rob's garden. I will be there w/ auction items.

Thanks, Mike - you always bring some great auction plants. Can't wait to see what you have. I ended up going home with a Coccothrinax miriguama that you donated to the auction last December.

[SubTropicRay]

It was a great meeting Bob. I can't wait to see the photos.

[Mike Evans]

I will add a few pics, since no one else has. Yes, this was a very good palm group meeting, w/ excellent food. Thanks for having the group over, Rob & Susan, you have a very attractive garden! Junglegalfla & friends group pic.

[Mike Evans]

Christian & Phil auctioning off the large variety of palms.

Rob & Tom looking over the limited edition cycad print that was auctioned.

[SubTropicRay]

Gina's scarf is making me cold again.

[Jeff Searle]

I sincerly hope there's more pictures folks. It looks like a very beautiful garden and a great turn-out of people.

Jeff

[JeffreyApolloBeach]

Hello,

Here are a couple of pictures I took from the event. Rob and Susan have a tag on every palm with its scientific name, but I made the mistake of not taking notes of those as I was taking the pictures. I'm defenitily a newbie!

Archontophoenix maxima

[JeffreyApolloBeach]

Here are more, one picture per post....

Pseudophoenix sargentii

[JeffreyApolloBeach]

This was labeled as a Dypsis hybrid, cabadae x ??? (the tag had the other species, but I forgot). The next post will have the crown of this palm.

[JeffreyApolloBeach]

The crown of the Dypsis hybrid

[JeffreyApolloBeach]

Dypsis lanceolata

There was a Dypsis cabadae as well, very beautiful. I was too busy explaining to my wife where in our garden I have one planted that I forgot to take a picture of it.

[JeffreyApolloBeach]

Now this was the palm that got my attention! I have never seen it, even in photos. Definitely now on my must get list. This palm was tall too, with a good 6 feet of trunk or so...

Chemaedorea alternans

[JeffreyApolloBeach]

One more pics of the Chemaedorea alternan

[SubTropicRay]

Hello Jeffrey,

That Chamaedorea looked like C. tepejilote.

I didn't see you at the meeting.

Ray

[JeffreyApolloBeach]

Hi Ray,

I've read that C. alternans and C. tepijilote are very similar. Great looking palm!

I was there only on the morning section of the meeting. Left before lunch.

[SubTropicRay]

I've got some 8-10" tall seedlings if you are interested.

[surgeon83]

Good thing I didn't hear about this one in advance, because I was at work all day anyway, and this way I didn't know what I was missing. Looks like an awesome garden though!

[SubTropicRay]

You did miss a great meeting. Rob Branch's garden is a work of art.

Brian, are you a local chapter member yet?

[Moose]

I want to thank the Central Florida Palm and Cycad Society for letting me "crash" their December event. I had an awesome time and met alot of new palm friends and re-aquainted myself with old ones. It was great to see Rob's garden and how he has "pushed the envelope" on so many species with success.

It was my fortune to win three Livinstona carinensis at the auction donated by Leu Gardens. I have been looking for this species for a long time. They were available about 10 plus years ago and then became scarce. One I gifted to another collector for X-mas which was well recieved.

Bob Johnson and the CFPACS are doing a great job!

Best regards to you all!

Ron.

[Jeff Searle]

Ron,

Lol!! Did you just wake up??

Jeff