" Exotic Life " Robbin visit's Tasmania

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Last weekend we had the pleasure of hosting one of palmtalks cold hardy growers from Holland Robbin Den Herder

I have always admired Robbins growing success and nice garden in Holland .

Robbin enjoyed having a look around my yard at various palms that i have planted out in the last 7 yrs

Posing with my Parajubaea torallyi

I gave Robbin the job of planting my parajubaea sunkha x Syagrus romanzoffiana AKA Tim Hopper palm seedling scandal palm

Planted !

Robbin with Hedyscepe

[Tassie_Troy1971]

After this we drove for one hr and arrived in the Mt Field wilderness

Robbin was excited to see Dicksonia antarctica tree fern in habitat

[Tassie_Troy1971]

The Waterfalls throughout the national park are amazing

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Robbin said to me do you have big ones ?? I said excuse me mate ! Big Trees - Ah Yes i think we can find a few that are over 300 ft tall

Robbin liked the Richea pandanifolia a giant cordyline plant

[Tassie_Troy1971]

We explored an alpine area

Then it was back to civilization for a BBQ and Beers !

[Tassie_Troy1971]

The very next morning we headed down to Sol Coopers garden "Nomolos " on palmtalk SoL gave us the grand tour of his interesting palm and plant collection .

Parajubaea cocoides

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Sol's Hedyscepe

Torallyi

Jubaea

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Moving on we stopped at my old palm garden in Kingston for a photo

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Ok then we went to Hobart Botanical gardens

Blue Jubaea

Exotic life amongst the palms

Rhopalostylis from Pogobobs seeds

Howea

Robbin loved the Cyathea medullaris treefern

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Then we went to my friends place in Sandy Bay that has started growing palms Micheal Foster.

Talk about an action packed two day of sight seeing and PRA !

[Ben in Norcal]

Scandal palm...I love it

[Gileno Machado]

Nice visit Robbin...and congrats Troy for the great collection. The Jubaea in the Bot Gardens looks amazing too.

[DoomsDave]

Whoo-ee!

Loved the pictures!

Saving my pennies for a trip to Tassie . . .

[Peter G]

Always a great day to be had when Troy takes you around Hobart.

My last trip to Tassie inspired me to plant my first tree fern, Cyathea Medularris.

Micheal Fosters place is slowly becoming a permanent feature on the Hobart PRA scene.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Thanks Dave and you might find this hard to understand but Robbin didn't want to visit MONA ( Museum of old and new art )

[Exotic Life]

Good view from a great period in Tasmania. Once more again, thanks for the short but intensive tasmania tour!

I am definitely want to come back once to explore a bit more of Tasmania. Next time I will give the MONA museum a visit too, so somewhere I have a good excuse to return right?

Give me a sign when you ever be in The Netherlands, happy to take you around as well.

Edited October 2, 2014 by Exotic Life

[Dave-Vero]

In the first picture (Parajubaea), those little blue grasses look like something that's popular in the western US, a little bunchgrass, Festuca idahoensis.

The national park looks amazing. The waterfalls are very different to the ones in coastal Oregon, which are in volcanic terrain, with sturdier lava flows making for the falls. You can walk under some of them and spot the casts left by trees roasted by the lava. Might be something a bit similar in the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee, lots of sandstone, but entirely different-looking forests.

[mfoster]

This is my first post.

I am really just a disciple of Troy who introduced me to palms a year ago. Thanks to generous help from him , and also from Jonathan , our bland front and back yards here in Hobart are turning into a palmy paradise. You all know how it goes - initially my wife had doubts about my mental health but lately I have seen subtle signs that she really approves of our new environment.

I am impressed with the global network which you have established . It is my good fortune to live in the same area as Troy , a "palm icon" , as PeterG described him ,and that he is very generous with his time and his advice.

Soon I will make a thread so that our progress can be followed . Troy has high hopes for us !

[Palm crazy]

WOW what a treat to see all those Tasmanian Gardens. Garden’s looking good Troy and mfoster. The forest looks really cool and moist and green, nice.

[Peter G]

Welcome to PalmTalk Micheal! Glad to see you have made your first post.

Have you planted that Hedyscepe yet?

[mfoster]

Yes Peter its in and basking in the warmth of spring in Hobart .Actually temperatures are mainly still coolish with occasional bursts into the twenties and last week 28 C. but I guess that probably quite OK for the little hedyscepe.

[comic097]

Looks like you guys had a great time, thanks for posting Troy

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Ah good to see you posting Micheal ~ !

[Walter John]

Great to see Palm people mixing. Well done Troy and Robbin, nice to see you on board Michael.

[Kennybenjamin]

Nice photos Troy, those tree ferns and the water fall look fantastic!! I look forward to getting the royal Tassie Troy tour one day!

I'm sure Robbin felt a bit more at home there than in QLD?

Welcome to PT Micheal, great avatar too!!

[JT in Japan]

Some great pictures, for sure. In addition to the palms, I love the Richea pandanifolia ("a giant cordyline plant"). I'll look that up, but doubt that I could find it in Japan. That would be a great accent to any garden! Thanks for the tour.

Cheers,
JT

[Peter Pacific]

Great pictures! It's always a pleasure to see those cooler climate palms. The tree ferns and waterfalls are beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

Peter

[Al in Kona]

Thanks for sharing. I got to see palms, plants and scenes different from what we have here. Troy, how about a stop in Hawaii on your next trip heading east to N. America? Glad to show you some Big Island gardens.

[NApalm]

Wow, tassie is taking off! Great job and thanks for the story

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Thanks for sharing. I got to see palms, plants and scenes different from what we have here. Troy, how about a stop in Hawaii on your next trip heading east to N. America? Glad to show you some Big Island gardens.

Sounds great AL !

[Kim]

Nothing better than seeing PalmTalkers on international PRAs together! Wonderful photo coverage, thanks for sharing!

And welcome to MFoster, glad to see you join in the discussions.

[Exotic Life]

Nice photos Troy, those tree ferns and the water fall look fantastic!! I look forward to getting the royal Tassie Troy tour one day!

I'm sure Robbin felt a bit more at home there than in QLD?

Welcome to PT Micheal, great avatar too!!

Yep. Tasmania feels a lot more like home but then with way more mountains. I think our climates are quite similar to eachother with a big difference that Troy stay much warmer in winter why he can grow a Kentia outside for example. Looks like that mine summers, and then specially the nights are a bit warmer then in Tassie.

Tassie is a really nice place to visit, but if I had to choose, I prefer your Brisbane climate.

[KennyRE317]

how much sun does your Hedyscepe get? mine's growing pretty well in an area that's mostly shade year round but sometimes i wonder if it would prefer more sun and yours looks like it's planted right out with no canopy

[_Keith]

Great PRA story. This is after all what it is all about.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Kenny My Hedyscepe is in all day sun - They will burn a bit for the first 2 yrs then adjust !

[KennyRE317]

Kenny My Hedyscepe is in all day sun - They will burn a bit for the first 2 yrs then adjust !

should have given mine more sun, makes me consider digging it out and putting it in another spot but it's so happy that i'm going to leave it as is. i do need to pull it over a bit more away from my Archontophoenix alex since it's pretty close but i planted it angled so it's at least easy to stake

[Exotic Life]

Finally had some time to sort out some of my pictures as the last few weeks have been strange and busy. Needed almost 2 weeks to acclimatize again and had 2 funerals in the last 10 days. Looking at the pictures I took made me smiling again, so I though would be nice to share some with you from my Tasmania visit.

You can reach Tasmania by boat from Melbourne but because I went back to Sydney I took a plane from there.

My hostel was located in the innercity of Hobart and did some walking in the first days to explore this city.

Old Hobart Gas Company

Tassie Bridge

[Exotic Life]

I came in early spring so lots of bushes and trees were flowering. This was sort of weird because I had seen them flowering a few months earlier back home. My second spring in one year.

[Exotic Life]

Then I had the pleasure to meet Troy which showed me as he said earlier some nice stuff around. I was really pleased to see Dicksonia growing in natural habitat. Specially the drive up the mountain with walls of Dicksonia were amazing.

Of course this waterfall which has been the best during my whole 5 months australia adventure.

Some very tall trees as well....

[Exotic Life]

Tasmania is very hilly which give you this amazing view driving up the mountain.

Up the mountain...

My tourguide and host Troy itself

Some shots of his nice garden with some palms that I would love to grow. Based on the BOM website (http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/annual/tas/summary.shtml) my year average should be warmer then Tasmania or at least Hobart. There is one big difference, the winters over there are not that frosty as here why Troy can grow some palms which I can't. The frostfree winter of 2013/2014 I had was more a Tasmania winter.

Butyagrus