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The biggest;

Almost two years after the first germination.

Looking good! Love the new frond coloring next to the silver blue of the older ones. Maybe it is just getting everything it wants or needs. Harry

Yep , one of Dave’s . Looks the same , just starting to show new spear. Very slow grower at this point. Maybe it will pick up speed next year. Harry

Yes sometimes you just gotta start fresh with palms in containers. Drainage and air the main requirements in container growing and nutrients of course. It’s strange you wonder whey a palm or plant is not growing well then it dies. The first thing I do is check out the root system for a diagnosis as to why it died. Most causes are bad soil gone wrong from various cultural methods. Richard

Dooms Dave I presume palm# from New Caledonia do well in my climate. That’s a good example of one you have there. I don’t have any in the ground yet busy planting other palms I will get there. Richard

They are great palms I have 500 of them a real winner. Iam going to be doing a group planting of about 30 in the future. Glad the one got from me is doing well tough as nails the poor man’s MAPU I say growing in the cool climates where MAPU won’t.

An important to gardening is irrigation in my climate, I just simply have to have it if I want to grow rare exotic plants. You can see the difference without in some area# of the garden. It’s basic work thats pretty easy to understand and do and the rewards are definitely there in the different plants you can grow with it. It’s a game changer it’s basically the way of gardening in the modern world without my garden would not be what it is without irrigation the only way to grow exotics. One inch main line gravity fed from a tank that’s filled from the bore I have to a pressure pump at the house. Then reduced down to 19mm low density poly pipe with shifts at each tap i have about 30 taps around the garden all over the place my main goal is to have the whole five acres under irrigation. It’s fun and easy to do playing around with irrigation especially on a hot day. I also do it for a job on the farm i work on 200 acres 100 of berries and 100 of macadamia nuts then it becomes irritation not irrigation on hot day if it’s not working correctly. The climate in my area is just simply to harsh to not have irrigation the wa6 of the future growing well it is for me anyway lucky Hawaii growers.

I’ve had this little distichia for an about 5 years in the collection. Having only one I was reluctant to plant it out in garden in fear of losing it. Growing so well in the greenhouse and in a container I kept on looking at thinking one day I will plant in a nice spot, I finally did today. If iam going to landscape I might as well put the best plants in there a few years I should have a nice little palm to look at in the garden.

My wife has an ability to grow flowers she just simply adores them. So much so she has taken over the vegetable garden (who needs to eat when you have such great flowers) in a big way. So the palm landscaping is slowly becoming flower territory which I don’t mind. The wife is in love with soil and bio fertiliser juicing everything as she calls it.it’s wonderful to have someone who shares the love of gardening as much I do. It brings me great joy seeing the flowers and the garden created by someone special in my life.

With a situation such as those early season cold fronts, whichever areas are nearby buildings/in denser areas of human construction are going to be warmer for longer since they were able to absorb heat better. This effect will be reduced as long as the high temperatures are not able to climb enough to have that much of an effect on heat absorption by the building materials, etc. You'll get a better gauge of the warmer areas if the serious cold fronts hit this region and are able to settle in for a bit. Observe any weather stations in the area at that time.

I really can't tell the difference in the red color between the regular Chambeyronia macrocarpa and the "hookeri". I have two hookeri in part sun in south Florida both doing fairly well. I planted one in a regular planting bed and this one I planted it where the roof rain runs off and dumps all the water near it before all diverted to a pond so it does get very wet feet. Questions for the experts...all of my Chambeyronia have just about 4 leaves max. It's slow growing and by the time a new leaf emerges the forth oldest leaf is half green/brown and become totally brown before the fifth leaf emerges. It seems to be the case regardless whether I planted one in more sun or more shade, even the fully shaded one is like that except the one I have in most shade has leaned to get more sun exposure.

Inflorescence opening up on this semi dwarf Areca Catechu

Quick update on mine before the weather starts to cool off. 4 trunks so far but looks like it might even split into 6. 🫣😳

As a preventative measure? How do they even spread?

Particularly silver Brahea aculeata. Planted this past spring in my backyard. Very solid growth rate for a Brahea, which makes me wonder if it’s 100% aculeata.

2+ years since my previous update. 🌴

Spraying directly in to the crown every month a solution of 2ml imidacloprid/ 1 lt water. If you do it correctly and consistently there will be no palm casualty in the future. This is the preventive dose, not yhe curative one.

I’ll ask again. How do I prevent this? Mine is about this size a bit thicker but will kill me to lose it.

Did you find any living larvae inside the trunk?

Bee County where? Down here in southernmost TX all but the most protected plumerias in the warmest areas were killed to the ground or just plain killed outright. There is an old white cultivar that can handle “ordinary” cold down here (like last January) but it’s not as showy as other varieties.

I'm on solid lava so there is no ground moisture, maps say we get 100" rain here but not been my observation, the ground gets and stays very dry despite almost nightly passing showers. Looked at him today and a new leaf is emerging and all other leaves dead. I'd say the ground is quite dry there but it's next to heliconia, ginger, bamboo, monstera and they are fine.

This pale pink dude today...

I know I'm late to the post... but in my area CIDPs look really healthy to me. Maybe not Cali material but they do naturalize. There's a restaurant that throws their teimmings into the woods and there are CIDPs everywhere. In a place that gets 60" of rain a year and high humidity I was a little shocked to see that.

A palm that is disliked by many on this forum, i have a tendency to appreciate. These palms have always managed to pull through the conditions that can occur in my climate, albeit with a little bit of help. It is the Queen palm. I appreciate queens quite a lot, and the below pics are why: This picture was from March 11th, 2024. Both of my queens were completely defoliated *again* this last winter. This picture was from October 7th, 2024. The amount of growth this thing has put out this year has been phenomenal, I couldn't honestly ask for a better recovery.