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Obscenities screamed!!!’ Hadda cut one of mine down, damn, hard assed wood.

Another warm day in the east valley of AZ...high of 83F and low of 57F.

Here’s a teddy bear going into rocket mode. It’s gonna gain a lot of height fast after this.

Generally it was about as hardy as my other two Ficus Auriculata. Unfortunately it died sometimes last spring or summer. I had a leaky irrigation valve that was basically dripping on it 24/7. I suspect it was leaking over the winter too. Either way, it got a root rot and died.

I missed lighting for pics but my fully exposed Sabal guatemalensis burned more than expected. Still nothing major but probably 20-30% burn on the tips especially the outer leaves. It burned more this year than last year despite the temp being much higher (23/24F vs 19F). Guess it didn't like being blasted by the north wind. Bismarckia is quite burned especially the outer leaves. Thankfully the teens forecast didn't pan out and it should be just cosmetic damage. Livistona nitida is completely unphased as far as I can tell. Numerous seedling decora are fine or have a bit of tip burn. I have some Chamaedorea radicalis that never burned before with some brown...might be the wind rather than the actual cold? Here's L. nitida without a scratch

Joseph, that's great to hear !!!! Are you collecting/selling those seeds ??? I think this might be a good contender for my increasingly harsh climate ! Thanks in advance for any reply !

Your yard looks great. Everything is filling in and really coming together. Hopefully we get a 5-8 year reprieve after this.

Any updates on this one?

This is the first cold event that I haven't covered it. I think from now on down to about 20 I'll let it ride, under that I'll still try to cover with some heat. It's just gotten too big to protect easily. It defoliated when we had 15 with no power in '21 even with a cover. Took forever to grow back.

Thanks, there's a bit more green than the pic shows, particularly on the crownshafts and the rachis. But it's very disheartening to step outside and see so much brown. I applied hydrogen peroxide on everything that I could reach. The buccaneer bubbled a little bit but most didn't. Most spears looked good. I'm cautiously optimistic. The only real issue I'm seeing is with the macrocarpas since they only give me a couple fronds a year. The buccaneer has bronzed a fair bit over the last few days so I'm not really sure. That's also a really slow grower so this could stunt growth pretty hard. The pembanas all look like they'll push through. Olivformis doesn't look as good as the pembanas but they are pretty quick growing and the spears still look good. The coconut looks to have stabilized. Still hanging on to all the green. I haven't marked the spears yet but will do later this week and will start tracking any growth or lack thereof. Honestly I'm very pleasantly surprised about the coconut not being totally fried. This event was brutal with the winds and the cold, and I think there's a legit chance it'll pull through.

I came to that conclusion too; from size and shape of seeds and configuration of leaves. Thanks mate!

The old saying never trust a farmer with a chainsaw, you gotta do what you gotta do!

McArthur palm. An Aussie native abroad!

Out walking Sancho and I peek under the cedar tree And there's a little Sabal. I'm guessing a bird planted this one. I think it's been there for a minute. I can't get much closer with the camera because I've got to move back a bunch of other branches. I guess I need to clear out around it.

Hilarious and tragic that the documented sighting in Sherman Oaks includes this note: "saved it from drowning"

Not a particularly exciting freeze update. After several winters with hard freezes there aren't many surprises and I've generally shifted towards adding duplicates/new colours of whatever is doing well for the various tropical perennials. Palms - Winners: Cham. radicalis (acaulescent form): ~20 plants, no damage, some of the more protected ones look to have kept their fruit too. Cham. microspadix: ~20 plants, no damage, under high canopy. My one large plant that I bought with several ~1 m tall canes and have complained about after the previous freezes seems to have finally toughened up. I think all the original canes have died and the new growth from the base is better adapted to the conditions. Rhapis excelsa: the most exposed leaves are fried, but otherwise fine. Palms - Neutral/Losers Cham cataractum (neutral): covered and protected with Xmas lights. Had to be severely pruned due to its size and now looks ugly. The only damage is what I did to it. Arenga sp. (loser?): ~10 plants. They made it through last winter without losing any leaves and finally put on some size this year, and one made its first offset. However, they were now too large to get buckets over them. I doubt any will die, but they are going to lose all their leaves which is a pain because they are slow. Tropical Perennials - Winners Justicia rizzinii: might have finally found a tropical plant which can shrug off a hard freeze and continue flowering. Going to be propagating a lot of this one. Callistemon phoeniceus: freeze didn't even damage the tender new growth, these have definitely toughened up. Tropical Perennials - Neutral/Losers Lobelia sp. 'Candy Corn' (loser): from Northern Mexico, was hoping this wouldn't get torched by the freeze. I assume it will regrow. Halleria lucida (loser): was in flower and just isn't getting the chance to form any solid wood with the annual freezes. Calamondin (loser): now have two of these and both sustained heavy damage. Everything else gets a 'neutral' rating: I expected them all to freeze back to the roots and I assume they will regrow in the spring. The various firebushes (Hamelia patens) are being watched. Several are going through their first winter and I have found these harder to overwinter than expected, especially the smaller ones. I regularly saw these in Austin pre-2021 (not sure whether they are still around) and they returned fine after normal winters there. Cham. radicalis. North facing and had to deal with all the wind. Cham. micrspadix. All the surrounding tropicals are completely torched. Arenga sp. The ones over the back with a bit more overhead canopy might keep some leaves. Justicia rizzinii. Have several in various locations and all are undamaged. They have had mild damage in previous years. Callistemon phoeniceus. Didn't even lose the new growth. Still no flowers though. I don't think they get enough sun.

Came across this Sabal today and questioned it. I’m thinking like a xbrazoria or ‘Alabama’? the fronds seem too small to be this large of a minor. But not sure. Also some damage from the cold, it seems. There’s an old flower stalk that comes out just as long as the fronds. Based on Google Maps, it’s about 22-25 years old. https://maps.app.goo.gl/2USkge883mKP2TW87

Huge inflorescence on an Arenga micrantha ready to pop at the SF Botanical Garden. Everyone else was there for the magnolias

So maybe genetically these specific couple are more cold hardy...🤔

I dunno you all think we eat our national emblem, kangaroos and emus. Actually the Roos go to pet food, and emus well you don’t see that for sale in the shopping centre. We are sort of civilised ( note the word sort of) 🤣

It is well said that Syagrus are very variable in a lot of characteristics.

Weird. I responded to a previous message thread we had. Mainly interested in the Pinanga. Guess I'll wait until you post those.

Very nice! I saw the one in Singapore but I can't remember what the label called it. Definitely an African oil palm but I can't remember what they called that leaf form. You can see a coconut with similar leaves in Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia. It doesn't look as nice as the Elaeis but still interesting.

And so does that!!