Today we visited another fabulous palm garden, in Chillingham, NSW, just over the QLD border. This is about a 45 minute drive from home, but the area is cooler and much wetter. This property was purchased 25 years ago and the garden created over this period, with a large dam being constructed, along with retaining walls and pathways. The property covers 80 acres, although most is in a natural forest setting. The main garden was converted from grassy ridgetop paddocks into a rainforest by planting native rainforest trees and lots of palms. It was a 5 minute drive along the driveway into the propert, and it was like going to the lost world. The weather here is very wet, and the garden can be in cloud forest for weeks at a time.

This garden has many species of Dypsis growing, along with New Caledonian palms and all of the usual suspects...

A lot were not identified or tagged, and unfortunately the creator of the garden, Rob, was in poor health and could not walk too far with our group. His wife guided us, but was unsure of the names of palms unfortunately.

There are many photos to get included in this thread, so it will take a few days...enjoy!

Here we are, heading down the Numinbah Valley behind the Gold Coast on a nice sunny winter's day.

This is the border crossing into New South Wales...

Once over the border, you get a clear view of the upper Tweed Valley, where the town of Chillingham is located.

This is quite rugged country, with many mountains covered in thick rainforest. Mt Warning is centre stage...

Some more shots of the Tweed Valley...

Mt Warning

The front driveway was a couple of kilometres long (or so it seemed!) Mark Wushcke, the Green Bros. and Brod lead the way.

We were greeted by a magnificent Chambeyronia 'watermelon' in full fruit. This palm is going to be chainsawed soon as it is shading the house too much. The foxtail next to it provides the scale of this monster.

The Ravenea rivularis liked the good rainfall and abundant water...this one had leaves all the way up the trunk.

The Dypsis decipiens were loving the conditions. None of these palms are irrigated and rely on natural rainfall only...

A monster Caryota grows next to Raphia and Arenga, along the edge of the dam.

The dam has a lot of water lillies. In the background are several New Caledonian palms including Chambeyronia macrocarpa, Basellinia gracilis and favieri, which was forming a nice trunk.

Here is Nashie next to a Giant King Fern, Angiopteris evecta

Andy green negotiates 'the plank'

Here are some of our BPACS members, de-leaching themselves whilst Andy reviews his leech photos. Brod took the award for biggest leech, which we found on his neck a couple of hours later.

Mike and Marni next to a large Raphia

This Dypsis was loving the permanent moisture at the water's edge.

Here's a couple of Dypsis to finish off tonight's upload...more tomorrow...

Dypsis crinita

Orange Crush

Pretty...

WOW! Leechs?

Thanks for the pics Daryl.

What sort of temps do they get in winter on average there?

Leaches are a lot of fun. NOT!!!!!

Best regards

Tyrone

Daryl, Great garden and spot. How far from Queensland? Thank you

I am so jealous I missed this outing, looks great, look forward to more, plus photos from everyone else please, why not stretch it out.

I wish I had started planting palms 25 years ago too.

Nice outing. Why did you miss it, Wal? You never missed outings before...

Regards, Ari

Daryl, Great garden and spot. How far from Queensland? Thank you

Bubba, it is about 10km south of the border. To put it in perspective here is a map of our region, with a red circle around yesterday's garden and red Xs where some of us live on the Gold Coast.

You can see by the image how mountainous the area is.

Daryl

Daryl, excellent photos as always! Thanks for the tour.

Thanks Daryl, of course I look forward to the palm pics, but I like the way you show the, 'on the road', pics getting there.

Tim

It was a great day. Nice and clear after a lot of rain. I got home only to find more leaches in my shoes.

Here are a few shots.

Dictyosperma album var. conjugatum

Dypsis sp. 'Laffa'

Kerriodoxa amongst Dypsis laffa and chamby trunks

I forgot what this was

tall clump of laccospadix on the trail to their house

A great Basselinia (Alloschmidia) glabrata

Can't wait till mine gets this size

When given plenty of water Magestics really live up to their name

Licuala elegans

Acanthophoenix rubra

Burretiokentia vieillardii ????

We had lunch with a good view back to where we had a great feast from a great garden

Thanks to both of you for posting..

But Wait! There's more...

Cyphophoenix alba

Actinokentia divaricata

Livistona fulva

Ravenea hildebrandii

Iguanura sp

Marojeyja insignis

Dypsis sp.

Dypsis rivularis

Another small Dypsis

Brod next to a small clustering Dypsis with red petioles

Dypsis...

New leaf opening on Dypsis robusta

Great stuff lads, that Atherton is impressive.

By the way Ari I had a big planned night on Saturday night at my brothers 60th birthday bash where as a member of "Hallorans Hillbillies" I sang and played guitar to the art starved masses of 50 people. I did ask Daryl and others to up the ante on photos, this is to help get us through winter so I hope they spread it out.

Love the pics so far.

If anybody could help to ID some of these Dypsis it would be a great help.

Another mid-size Dypsis in the understory

And another...

Dypsis 'dark mealybug'

Dypsis sp

Another...

Yes...

uh huh...

? Dypsis ? Dypsis ?

They look cool.

A couple of forms of D.baronii

Very tidy mid-sized Dypsis sp. MG thinks D.nodifera?

Obligatory Dypsis 'white petiole'

I'll save more for later...however, this one remains a real mystery...no idea what it is...Does anybody know it? It has nice orange colouration at the base of the petioles and white under the leaves. Couldn't even pick the genus.

Same again...

When given plenty of water Magestics really live up to their name

Brod would you have any idea how old that Majestic would be ?

Peachy

Awesome, Ed

Great pics Daryl and Brod. Really enjoyed seeing all the unamed stuff. Any chance he got most of his palms from Clayton? If so maybe he can help out with some ID's

Peachy, I have no idea how old it is. The owner was in bad health and unable to walk down to the dam. Otherwise we would be firing questions left right and centre.

I think that is a D. laffa next to the majestic.

Brod

Great photos Daryl and Brod.

That one is the nicest Ravenea rivularis I've seen so far. And what a nice Dypsis collection !!

Keep them coming...

I WANT TO MOVE TO AUSTRALIA!! Those are amazing photos of an amazing yard. I have never seen a Ravenea rivularis like that before. It must be growing very fast!!

The climate must be pretty warm there if that foxtail is any indication. Aren't they reputed to be more tender than royals?

Just sensational....thanks for the fantastic photo's.

That Majestic is the best I have ever seen... just WOW.

Regards

Michael