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Yes, lots of sun, and lots of water. Here are two alba of the same age, planted same size(3 gallon) about 6 years ago. One in sun(8 feet trunk/ 2.4 meters) one in half day shade (2 feet of trunk/ .6 meter). Growing in clay in Pearland, Texas

Tropical Storm Lala = Not named at this moment , but should be shortly.. End of the week / weekend threat to Hawaii = increasing, Regardless if it attains Cat 1 / 1+ hurricane status when nearing the islands, or not. Stay tuned... Related articles: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/weather/hawaii-braces-for-a-possible-hurricane-named-lala.html https://weather.com/2026/08/12/storms/hurricane/hawaii-tropical-storm-lala-forecast

Yep, but in the greenhouse...won't be planting that one out till it's much, much bigger.

I could imagine the moss in the shade down there, a great big green blanket. It must stay moist your soil in the cool climate. You got the moisture for growing palms, and I have the heat for growing palms. But lack the moisture, so hopefully mulching will give that edge on growing palms. You won’t know the garden once you start on the understory, having a canopy is great. I usually mulch every year as the garden does eat it up. Has the lanonia survived winter?

A humid 94 to 103F / Dew Points in the lower to mid 60s under partly cloudy skies around town at 12:55PM on your Hump Day.. Question for the rest of the afternoon / tonight and into tomorrow: Will the East ..and central.. portions of the valley finally see a good storm?? We shall see.. Despite all the talk on the news in recent days, while the start of the week has technically been active, as you can see, majority of storms that have occurred have left a good chunk of the valley quite thirsty.. Rainfall data since Saturday ( Rainlog.org data ) .. Winners, so far at least = far west end of town / isolated spots near Gold Canyon on this side of the valley. Rest of today / through the morning hours of tomorrow may be our best opportunity for rain until ...a least... the start of / middle of next week, below the mountains / northwest of the borderlands at least. While the watch itself is hoisted mainly for the mountains north and northeast of the valley, if it ends up quite stormy in the valley later on this afternoon / tonight, < Fingers crossed > isolated to scattered flash flooding could be something to watch out for in the usual spots ( Indian Bend Wash, creeks that drain South Mountain, etc. ) Regardless, temps you see today hang around thru ..at least.. Friday or Saturday, before rising again into the yuck range again Sunday - Tuesday ..Per current forecast thinking. Luckily, a return of 109 -112F heat appears to be brief.. While we probably have a few more 110 -110+ days to go before we can send them packing for the rest of the year, further beyond mid - August we get, = likelyhood of 110 /110+ heat starts a notable trend down.. ....Will happen even faster if September starts off / trends as wet as many of the longer range model thinking continues to suggest at this time. For now? ..Lets see if all of us around town who haven't seen much rain, so far, can end the dry / mostly dry streak with a good dumping. For those interested, Dan will have a run of the mill, " what's going on out there atm " Wednesday YT livestream discussion in about 45 minutes..

It’s the final touches on the garden, the garden is self mulching after a few years. It’s just the new garden beds that really need it. I rake up the yard and with all the gum leaves around I put them on the garden, unfortunately or more fortunately the garden is so big and it requires a lot of mulching. It’s a win win situation mulching, and if you want that garden to grow a bit faster and healthier mulch is the go! Richard

Hello and welcome to the forum. Howea like regular watering and can survive indoor environments pretty good with low light. It is good that you are not over watering but be sure it gets enough . The drainage of the pot is kinda critical , especially for house plants . They need to have the water pass through and moisten the soil without stagnating at the bottom of the pot. The other factor is dust and air circulation with adequate humidity in the air. When I had house plants I would always give them a holiday outside , sometimes for a couple of days. A covered patio or shady spot with a light breeze works wonders , Kentia’s love cool nighttime temps of low 60’s. Use a shower setting on a garden hose and gently hose the palm down . If there is dust , wipe it off with a soft rag . If there are any mealy bugs or pests use a mild mixture of soapy water on the rag or in a sprayer. Bugs hate soapy water , palms don’t mind at all. The new growth looks great so I don’t see it being in too bad of trouble. By the length of the petioles it looks like it could use just a bit more light . Good luck with it , growing palms indoors can be tricky but you have one of the most adaptable species so it should be able to be worked out. Harry

Bactris major going pinnate, a new spear is pushing and it's growing extremely fast.

Thank you Eric for those lists. That is pretty much my experience in 9b Northeast FL. My low was 23 degrees last winter. Based on my experience I will add these palms to your " Good hardy palms" Brahea dulcis Brahea nitida Calamus caryotoides ( low 20s in CA and anxious to try in FL) Caryota gigas (under canopy, my hardiest caryota) Chamaedorea radicalis Chrysalidocarpus decipiens (summer is the problem with this one) Chuniophoenix nana Phoenix pusilla Syagrus campylospatha Syagrus (Lytocaryum) hoehnei Trachycarpus fortunei Trachycarpus latisectus Trachycarpus wagnerianus To add to the second category "more cold sensitive palms for protected locations" Allagoptera (Polyandrococcos) caudescens Chamaedorea elegans Chamaedorea cataractarum Chamaedorea klotzschiana Ravanea glauca (R. glauca has shown no damage under canopy in winters with 25 degrees low temp, where R. rivularis has taken a big hit) Pseudophoenix sargentii (my neighbor had one under oak canopy for 10+ years, it died last winter. It was trunking, overall height of 10 feet) My little totally exposed 12 inch tall plant recovered)

I hear you. I wasn’t happy about pulling them since they had just started to take off. I planted them a year or so prior. This picture was right after the freeze. The one on the left was a goner and never really got established. The middle one was nice and fat. It was the only one I was pretty sure would recover. The one on the right was also a “pretty sure”. But after 2 months, there was almost no growth and I started to have doubts. So I just started over rather than wait for the whole summer to see what happens and then try to figure out what to do with the bed. It was a pain in the ass and took a few days to dig out the roots but I don’t regret it at all. Also, my wife wanted a mango and this spot works great for it. The ground plants were coonties (Zamia Integrifolia) and flax lilies (Dianella Tasmanica) that I separated from other beds and were sitting in pots waiting for their time.

A small berm, perhaps?

Has anybody tried transplanting mule palms? If so how root sensitive are they? Thank you! don

Nice palms where you can grow them to some height. A little canopy my be enough to expand it's use there.

As of this spring the Needle Palm at the library is still alive and for it being cut down a few years back it grew fast!

I oversized the hole quite a bit and amended below and around. I have tried different spots. And some of the failed spots have other varieties thriving now. I did not tease the roots at all, generally I try not to disturb the roots if possible.

Did you amend the soil for drainage? I always add compost and expanded shale. If its a plant that I know that needs good drainage I add in a extra expanded shale and mound plant them, raising them up a few inches. I have two W filifera var. filifera planted in clay here in Houston with no issues. They're growing like weeds, I'm surprised at how fast they are, and they do love water. Did you tease out the roots or anything like that when you planted? Have you tried planting them in different areas?

Back to hand watering everyday. What happend to the climate in the state? Why is it so insanely hunid but so dry? In pa if it got this hunid it rained always. Here it's just insane hunid with 0 rain.

I have been attempting to grow Washingtonia Filifera in my area for a number of years. There are several mature healthy specimens in my area that survived the great freeze of 2021. I have had success each year germinating and raising young seedlings. However, each time I attempt to Plant them in ground they die off. I have planted Robusta, Sabals, and Pindo with no issue, only the Filifera die slowly. I currently have a healthy batch of Filifera grown from seed that are now nearly 10 months old. The potted trees are thriving. The one specimen that in put in ground is struggling. Stunted and discolored new fronds. I will include photos of the healthy potted and the struggling in ground tree. My hypothesis is overwatering in our clay soil. I have been watering regularly at the same interval and volume as with the potted Filifera and Sabals. I am worried that i may be creating a water pool rotting the roots in the clay soil beneath the tree. For now, I will cut back watering, but any input or advice is appreciated.

I have a tabebuia and half of it never lost its leafs the other half I thought was dead and I was about to cut it off it was the biggest part of the tree and I was debating editing it then just at the end of August the leafs came out and it looks fine!! What’s the deal with that we have had hellish weather this summer 110 degrees and better and it leafs out!!

This is how to erase premature excitement about ending a drought

Nah, mild-as down here mate! My little forest that I started planting out 5 years ago has almost become self mulching. The wallabies have eaten the grass down to nubs and moss is taking over in the increasing shade of the trees. Getting to the stage now where planting out understory palms is looking promising. I imagine mulch breaks down pretty quickly in your climate Richard?

It makes a big difference in appearance and keeps the soil healthy. In hot weather, like we are experiencing this summer , the ground underneath the mulch stays moist longer . Harry

They are a good looking palm when grown right. Plenty in my hometown but they never set seeds even when planted in groups. They were so popular years ago, like you said as indoor palms now you see them outside of houses where the home grower got sick of them and planted them in the ground thinking they would stay a cute little indoor palm. I guess the only winner in this situation is the palm but gosh knows how many must have been killed indoors. They are a lovely palm and I reckon they look better in the shade than full sun. These one where planted out as tube stocks. Super tough.

Hello everyone ! I am new to this platform and very happy I found it ! Some palm fronds of my beloved kentia palm (howea foresteriana) are slowly turning brown… it had started maybe 4 months ago by the beginning of April. There are also some black parts along some of the plant stems. I already had to cut 3 smaler palm fronds as they had turned entirelly brown/yellow. I always made sure that the palm was never ‘over-hydrated’ and never exposed to full sun. Even though the palm obviously is weakened, it has grown a new healthy palm frond. Does maybe someone of you identity or recognize the main problem causing those symptoms? Perhaps it is a certain desease (fungal pathogens ?) If yes, I’d be so happy if you could give me some advice how to take care of the problem / if you have recommandations concerning products I should use. Thank you all so much. Best regards Livia

The danger in the beauty, and the beauty in the danger ‼️