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Volusia County coconuts coming back from 23/24°F

Something just dawned on me. I did lose one years ago. Gophers chewed off all of the roots. Do you have gophers?

I collect from several different Jubaea palms around Santa Barbara . Most adult Jubaea have rare or no twins but one tree I collect from has ~ 25% of its seed crop with twins. It is a relatively young Jubaea maybe half its adult size. I will check future seed sets and see if every year it throws twins. Seed size is also small on the young Jubaea compared to the Mission palms or the one at the lawn bowling park.

I’ve had this occur relatively commonly in a few of Juvaea’s relatives (Parajubaea sp, Butia sp, Syagrus sp). I’ve never germinated Jubaea in any great quantity but I’d expect it’s not all that uncommon in Jubaea too based on its closest relatives. Here’s some interesting ones from a recent batch of Syagrus campestris. A twin with 2 seed petioles (middle of the photo of the container), but then also a split twin from one seed petiole which I can’t say I’ve seen before.

In my experience, B. alfredii needs well draining soil. Their requirements are very different than those for Archontophoenix. B. alfredii, in their habitat, are subjected to fairly long seasonal dry periods. Archontophoenix are typically growing in areas that are very wet most of the year. I water my Beccariophoenix well but its soil drains fast.

Nice haul! I notice your pindo seeds have those very defined three spines on the back of it. Mine are lacking those.

I drove by to see the state of these palms. Based on google these must’ve been planted about a year ago. The crown shaft is a little fried and the edges look somewhat cooked. But honestly not bad considering this is the worst heatwave of the year. These definitely look like alexander kings. Im certain the nursery potentially moon valley recommended these instead of the cunninghamianas.

SAPW infestation on my jubaea seems they entered down low as opposed to in the crown /growing point . I’m fighting them with imadacloprid and foggers! IMG_2337.mov IMG_2338.mov

As you say, it’s supply and demand. The only thing I’d add is that to an extent it doesn’t matter what it costs you to buy and grow, if that sets the price too high people won’t buy. Over the course of a couple of years I spent hundreds on rare Syagrus seed from RPS to end up with 1 S harleyi and 1 S cataphracta. That doesn’t mean they are both worth $300-500 on the open market. If I set that price just trying to recover my cost I know no one will buy. On the flip side, as a collector, there’s species that I might be willing to pay a significant amount for and likely much more than cost price because there may not be other alternatives. Again, all comes down to supply and demand.

Considering how hot it has been, 104F at 2:28pm local time ain't too bad. Would've been nice to have more than just sprinkles ..at the house at least... behind another big duster / wind event last night but, ..Is what it is.. Final week of August and Meto. Summer looks ...Yucky.... Both here, and across S. Cal. as an unusually strong ....by late Aug standards.. piece of the 4c ridge straddles the CA / AZ / Mex. border for the next few days. ...That said, ..fingers crossed, it looks like we may ..finally... get out of the furnace by the weekend ahead / start of next week as the first hints of autumn - season, N. Pac. troughiness starts exacting some deg. of influence over the Pac. N.W. and causes the 4c high to back off ..or at least shift it's greatest influence southeast a bit towards Chihuahua / S.W. TX. ..We shall see.. Combined with what could be moisture surges generated by an active stretch in the E. Pac off Mexico, 4c high positioned to our southeast ...and not quite as strong / expansive as it has been, combined with some deg. of troughiness developing off -at least-Cen. and Nor. Cal. to help induce southerly flow over head / grab onto moisture from passing tropical systems and send it north toward AZ and CA., this could send another good surge of moisture back into AZ as August ends / September arrives. On that note, a look at what the EPS is thinking, rainfall -wise, as we enter September / the final stretch of Monsoon Season 2026.. We'll look at where Monsoon- related #'s stand, for August, next Monday. Note that what your seeing is a blend of 51 model outcomes. Idea here is to follow any trend seen within those 51 outcomes, NOT what one, or two, ....or 3 ( .....of 51 ) models think. Because this is the " free " product from WXmodels.com, viewable data lags by 3 days, ....so, What you're seeing on these charts is from the August 20th update, not today's, or what they were thinking yesterday. Not paying $ for a day to day chart either. ...Like all forecast - related things, longer range products especially, while this is not Gospel / a guaranteed outcome ...and should never be taken as such, It is a good way to track trends. How things might shake out as we head thru September.. ...For now at least.... Note both the model mean and spread in the lower section of the chart.. IE: While the suggested avrg. 45 day precip. mean here in Chandler may be near / at 2" at the moment, forecast spread ( lowest and highest possible outcome range ) has us reaching 5" ...potentially.. by the end of next month. How likely is that?, ...or barely reaching the suggested ensemble mean? We'll have to wait and see. Want more rain, particularly up here, around the valley? cross them fingers darker and darker red + shades start replacing the green, blue, and light yellow on the charts as we head into next month. Again, NO guarantees....

100%. I actually reached out to the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden up in Olinda last year with the thought to start to introduce some cool climate palms there. Twice the rainfall up there as down here by the bay, and much less severe heat extremes. They only have a single Archontophoenix cunninghamiana and a Livistona australis currently, but both specimens were as good or better than any I’ve seen in metropolitan Melbourne. Everything is very lush up there.

I noticed Mercedez Benz of Valencia has what appears to be an alexander king palm or maxima in full sun. You experts know better than me, the petioles don't look like cunninghamiana. It doesn't look bad. Its the first business I have seen with a king palm in the front.

I would have thought that was the case for the Alfredii but it croaked. Now I have a scare crow on the lawn. Luckily, spooky season is upon us. I absolutely LOVE the look of king palms. They make for an amazing skyline.

Yes it is. We just had a NCPS meeting in Redwood City this past Saturday. And we have a Lakeside Palmetum clean-up party scheduled for Saturday morning, September 12th from 9:30 - 12:30 in Oakland. P.M. me if you want to be added to the email list.

Other than some heavy rain, Moke luckily stayed south of Hawaii as it passed and is now a depression as it continues into the Cen. Pacific. Next storm on the board ( Iselle ) should remain a fish storm, ..though some moisture sheered off of it may pass over CA in the coming days. Expect more storms to follow Iselle as the E. Pac. ( ..and beyond ) really gets cooking as we head into the start of September.. This includes the ..currently... non - zero potential for solid, remnant moisture surge ..or more??? - type of events... getting a bit closer to... ( ...or into?? ) CA and AZ. in the days ahead.

No need to fix drainage problem if you plant Archotophoenix in that spot. They LOVE wet feet. They will grow happily even in stagnant water. I know since some of the fifty Archontophoenix growing in my yard have submerged roots year round.

Wow, that’s very interesting. Thanks for sharing you guys. I wonder what the occurrence rate is.

I'm in Southern California. and have similar weather as you and the heat is not an issue at all. I got one a few years ago, dug it up, took another day to get in the ground and it has never once missed a beat. I have not even trimmed the original leaves because they are still a bit green even though they are 2 years old. It's a very durable palm in my experience. If you could, get it out of the ground, hose off the roots and repot in the backyard in the shade. It might stand a chance of survival.

Hmm , not sure who has any Alexandrae. You might check with Green Thumb in Ventura , call first. Perhaps put a post on the sub forum of Palm Talk classifieds . I’m not sure if @DoomsDave would know of where they could be found , but he is pretty knowledgeable about who has what. It would be worth a drive to get one , especially from one of our private growers . Harry

I guess there is a big difference between living and just barely surviving and eventually after years of torture only ending up on the compost heap. Plus they are to rare, and to kill one is such a great lose. Leave them for the warmer climate!

So here is the tally; Chambeyronia divaricata - 2 specimens 3,5ft, both dead. The 5ft specimen had split near ground level a few years ago and had 3 separate heads Chambeyronia macrocarpa- only 2 survivors, 1-20ft tall and 1-4ft tall, 5 younger specimens 3-6ft all died Chambeyronia macrocarpa (hookeri form), 2 specimens 4-5ft both perished Chambeyronia macrocarpa 'Watermelon' 1 3ft specimen survived, 1 died Chambeyronia magnifica- 2 specimens 4ft tall both died Chambeyronia oliviformis 2 specimens 4ft tall, both survived but slow to grow back Chambeyronia pyriformis- 2 specimens 4ft tall, 1 of 2 survived

There was a random Anthurium as a freebie with my absolute horrible looking Aloalocasia portei. I have no idea what spp it is. It hasn't died yet so that's a plus.

I have clay and I have lost some Encephalartos, but my Beccariophoenix do fine.

Chambeyronia macrocarpa, the only juvenile survivor

Chambeyronia macrocarpa 'Watermelon'