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Did you already know the sex from a prior cone?

A couple days ago I drove through fresh rain puddles 2 miles away and as I approached my place, it was bone dry at my house, nothing. Florida is crazy that way, spotty downpours. The next day the radar said nothing going on late in the day while we had a 5 minute deluge, the kind that soaks you head to toe in 30 seconds. I expect this happens frequently all over florida. Ruskin up the road 11 miles got 3" one day last week but at my place it was 0.4" It seems weather reports are wrong here more than they are right as things are often spotty. I've lived in 6 states, only in Florida did this happen.

You hit on my question Michael. Was the seed from Hawaii but not a native Hawaiian plant or is it a Hawaiian native? We all know how Botanical Gardens are filled with tropical plants from all corners of the globe in Hawaii. Additional photos will probably be helpful. Also, see above.

I buy standard plants at Big box and I don't feel bad about it. Why would I spend $90-$100 when I can get it for $25 or even half that on clearance. I can't justify that differential, I don't have money to burn. Now, about 3/4 of my plants come from local, privately owned nurseries and private sellers. Why? Because they offer species and varieties you can't get elsewhere. Most of my money at the end of the day goes to them. It's ok to shop at both. And when you're first starting out you're less likely to drop big cash on rare plants. These cheap common species are great to get you into gardening.

Thank you guys! I will check with Ron

Hard to tell , and no expert here , just a guess . Livistona Chinensis. Harry This is one I have down the hill. After trimming below.

I recall having a discussion in another thread about Puya blooms and what happens to the plant after they bloom. I was saying that the plant or in this case the particular head that has bloomed will die, while the colony of other heads will continue to thrive. Someone else thought that the head will actually live after blooming. After this most recent bloom, I thought I would document that they behave like other bromeliads with the flowering head dying after blooming. Since my Puya mirabilis are all finishing blooming, I had to snap a shot of one of the last flowers of this season in my garden.

The cones continue to develop on this Encephalartos munchii. It is the first time it has coned, so I was curious about which sex it would be.

I have kept this in its pot where it seems quite content. Unlike some of my other potted Ficus, its roots don't appear to have escaped the container... yet. I settled on calling this Ficus brandegeei a few years ago, since it matches identically with the one labeled as such at nearby San Diego Botanic Garden.

A few R. Sapida in SF

It’s crazy dry here. It rained briefly 2x in June, and with this AM’s shower of 1/4th of an inch, 3x in July. About 10 inches short of average for the last 3 months. Shockingly, this is much better than last year, where we were actually 18 inches below average for this time period. We need some tropical storms to restore balance.

Bad photo of the TV but this palm is in a Hawai’i garden, what palm is this?

Fresh C elegans

Our big boxes have expanded their selections in recent years. Trachycarpus fortunei, Thrinax radiata, Latania lontaroides, and Syagrus schizophylla have made appearances. I'd like to see more of the native species like Acoelorraphe wrightii or Pseudophoenix sargentii for sale. A good portion of my seed grown palms are from locally collected seed. We've been lucky to have a decent selection of native and exotic palm species flowering the last two decades, so offspring from some of our longtime cold survivors make an appearance here in my own garden. The seeds were at the right price and getting to see the entire lifecycle of the palm has been a learning experience.

I have a nice white bismarckia 30-35 footer than I got from a big box store in 2010, one of the whitest I have seen. It was moldy with just a clean spear. I also have a livistona chinensis multi, dypsis lutecens, and a Livistona decora that are now mature that I purchased from big box stores. However, the selection is typically limited and sometimes not climate appropriate at these stores. I have about 60 palms purchased form palm specialty nurseries. Every other yard in my area looks like a big box store selection(s), terribly boring like the same selections yard after yard. They don't even carry silver saw palmettos, a native bluish silver palm. I have also received palms that obviously had better quality care from the palm specialty nurseries. Box stores let palms go into decline and if they don't sell fast enough they write them off. These days the smaller nurseries have been seriously thinned out unless I drive 3-4 hrs and the big box stores sell prices that make me very happy that I planted out when I did. These days palms are more in general but if I want anything outside the 7-8 palm species stocked at the big box, I order small palms from redlands nursery. https://www.redlandnursery.com/availability-list/ B. Alfredii 3 gallons are $25 today and look great, happy as potted palms, and copernicia baileyana one gallon tall pots are $25. I paid the same for the 3 gallon alfredii in 2011, $25, its now ~30'+ overall. A 25 gallon bailey is $600, it makes no sense to buy that size. I had a 3 gallon bailey grow to double the size of that 25 gallon bailey in 4 years. I had two bismarckias one a 15 gallon and the second that moldy 5 gallon. The 5 gallon blew by the 15 gallon one in height in 7 years. Planting a big palm is over rated by most people, and also more expensive. When I look at my growing(6' max height) copernicia hospita triple which cost $20 each (by mail) from redlands and consider the largest would sell for $800-$1000, or when I look at my 20' copernicia baileyana and consider I paid $40 for a 3 gallon in 2011 and it would cost 10k to replace it, I feel like I made some great decisions going small. I still don't see a reason to buy at the big box stores now, I guess I am lucky to be in Florida but also to be aware of what can be grown. The awareness comes from palmtalkers. I highly recommend anyone new to palms to lurk, read, and ask questions for a while before buying palms. My yard would be a boring garden without the knowledge I have gained from palmtalkers.

Progress, eh? Ain't it grand.

A chilly weekend ahead for you Phil, looks like we're sharing love. In conditions like this I'm always thankful that we're separated from Antarctica by 2500km of water, not land.

I will have to agree with @happypalms . I had one of those in my old greenhouse and it grew beautifully , and got quite large . When we moved , I had no greenhouse so I tried to grow it in a spare bedroom and it slowly faded away , they will not survive outdoors here . I have not had much luck with indoor palms . Some can make it with proper attention and regular outdoor time in a covered porch or patio. My Licuala Grandis was just too sensitive for my skill level. Harry

Harry, the Green Thumb nursery on S. Victoria Avenue in Ventura often has small, rare palms. During my annual SoCal road trip I always stop there.

It always amazes me how well palms grow over on the islands . Those are beauties and would probably take a lifetime to grow from seed , even here in Southern California . My high school friend retired and built a home on Kauai. I went over to see his new home and he had just planted some waist high Roystonia . A few years later , I went back to visit and they were large , trunking specimens! Those photos are great . In particular , the shot with the white plastic chair . I can see many times , sitting with an iced beverage , admiring the scenery. My kind of place! Harry

Well said , @happypalms . It is a completely different market and the average “house beautiful” gardener that wants a few flowers and a manicured lawn will probably go to big box nurseries for price and a place where they can buy house stuff all in one stop. Us “Tarzan , jungle “ types are looking for something different. Some of us will capture a good deal on the clearance rack or sale just because we need “filler” . The reason I will keep the Ravenea Rivularis in pots is in case I run into a more rare palm to permanently replace the potted ones. I really do miss the mom and pop nurseries we had around here . The times I had visited , I always came home with a smile. The benefit was usually expertise in plant selection and knowledge . I learned so much from them and I always took my regional Sunset Garden Book with me to look up certain plants . Since joining Palm Talk , I now know the secret underground places to find my unobtainable species! If you were here , you would not be rid of me very easily! In the early nineties there were collectors that would sell through a local nursery . I could get bands with rare seedlings and bump into other collectors in the area . It was so cool , like a network of special folks . Alas , the manager retired and the network moved on . The nursery is still there and you can get some cool palms and cycads there . I was able to replace my Syagrus Schizophylla there. Harry

That was a fun discovery. Southern Oklahoma is one of the few parts of the state where mature Sabal palmetto can sometimes do well, especially in sheltered urban locations with good drainage and a bit of extra warmth from buildings. The casinos also have the budget to replace any losses, so they're more willing to experiment with large landscape specimens than most homeowners. The Trachycarpus doesn't surprise me at all since they're generally more cold-tolerant. The Sabal palmetto is definitely the more interesting one. I'd be curious to know how they looked after some of the colder winters we've had since this thread was posted, as that would say a lot about their long-term hardiness in that area.

Well I'm still not sure about that since I've saw lots of coconuts here in Indonesia that has smaller frond length. But I don't know the truth though, perhaps it could be done by pruning or just another variety that we don't know🤷