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".......The best shot to see some rain for the west coast will be on Friday as the upper level flow switches more southeasterly for one day. However, this is short lived as winds shift southwesterly once again for the weekend."

Almost 100% it’s not C. costaricana. Neither the fronds nor the main stem resemble that species. I don’t think it would have been completely unscathed by 24°F with high winds either. Those you have are very consistent with C. radicalis tree form however and I’d be willing to bet that’s what they are. They are very cold hardy.

My fastest is C. alpinum. This one being approximately fifteen years old from seed. Still no trunk though.

Coming along nicely Tim...sheesh, it's a jungle in there! My Vogelianums were also meant to be parvifrons, but from an earlier batch, so it looks like RPS were getting it consistently wrong, lol. Hopefully we're on the right track with this latest batch. Like you, after the initial disappointment, I'm now really enjoying this species, they're super scruffy and quite adorable, bit like a wet dog!

C vogelianum also my fastest mate. I suspect it’s genetics - its growth habit seems to be more ‘reach for the sky’ than ‘fronds erupting from ground level for decades’ like the really big species. My larger of 2 C vogelianum specimens in the garden is now as tall or taller than all of my other Ceroxylon. It’s from seed from 2018, compared to similar sized C alpinum from 2007 seed. Kind of hard to get a good photo but the C vogelianum is around 2m/7’ tall and it’s starting to look nice and plumose. Was from C ‘parvifrons’ seed from RPS - the initial disappointment of not having parvifrons has worn off seeing this develop, especially now having hopefully true C parvifrons seedlings.

Looking good though Jim, even if slow. Mine are both crawling along, although one seems a bit quicker than the other. The fastest Ceroxylon I have is a vogelianum, which is absolutely flying now, and leaving its three siblings for dead. I've got no idea why that particular palm is so happy, maybe just genetics, who knows?

I only have the generic R. Rivularis , my friend has Glauca . It is much more compact than the huge trunk on my old “Rivie” . They are truly Madagascar’s gems. Years ago the Palm Society did a great expose on this palm . More to it than I thought….. Harry

Here’s mine a year later. Some growth but pretty slow still. I hope it speeds up a bit with time.

Lovely orchid! Makes me think of underwater creatures. I don't know my orchid names very well, but this type always brings to mind the X-wing fighters from Star Wars.

I love the look of bamboo, and you have so many beautiful species! However... I don't grow any, at all. I know I can't manage it properly, but I admire that others do. The looks of photos #7 and #13 are especially appealing.

Nice new D minor ‘Amoenus’ shoot…

I haven't had measurable rain in 4 weeks. Before that 15 minute shower, it's another 2 months to the previous rain. By this Thursday or next, the drought map will show my area in the burgundy shade. The pattern we're in resembles summer of 2023. You would think it can't get much worse but reality is it probably will.

I agree with you palms will take on a different appearance with the climate. Coming from Oregon the CIDP's were behemoths, and the Trachys could be very large trees. In Houston CIDP's here are hit and miss, the Trachys are pathetic little sticks. The two green uresana I have are descendants of the Merrill Wilcox tree. I planted one last fall and it is now starting to put fan shaped fronds but it is a small palm maybe 2 foot overall height, but is growing quickly. I planted the second one this spring and it seems to be faster than a similar sized domingensis I planted at the same time about 20 feet apart. I am finding that they attract scale insects where the blue ones do not. I was under the impression that green uresana were very large palms. As far as watering, I only hand water when needed. The annual average rainfall for my area is 50" and with the clay soils once established they shouldn't require additional watering unless we're in a drought like last year. I am fertilizing with Palmgain to optimize growth. The further you dig the worse the clay looks, it is extremely dense. Most places its a primer gray color, other spots a little rusty colored. I will post photos of the largest green one when I get an chance. We're getting heavy rain the next few days from a tropical system.

yeah had it rain a couple time 4-5 days ago, nothing since and its HOT. 1 time a week irrigation restrictions are causing burns for the more sun exposed water lovers. Glad I put down a ton(2000lbs) of turface MVP a few years back now. Most definitely helps in water retention in sandy soil.

Thought I'd bump this thread as there are some real gems in this genus & never enough information about them. Please post away..

It gets a small trunk at the base, but most of the trunk is subterranean. The PalmPedia link has a lot of good photos from Leu, Frank Glavin, Meg Price, Ed, Christian Faulkner, etc. The 2009 photo from Leu shows roughly what I have as far as trunk, and Meg's photos of the berries are what I get come late summer/early fall. To my knowledge, the plants at Leu were from Meg and my plants were from Leu. So mine are effective progeny from Meg's plants by way of Leu Gardens.

Does this Sabal trunk??

I hope it makes it . I tried a snapped off Tepejelote and it didn’t work but I have heard of others that have had success. The beauty of having so many palms is there are others to admire , it softens the blow of losing one. I lost a Howea earlier this year , a nice big one . It happens but only the second one I lost in over 30 years ( not counting the half dozen the gophers ate ). It was sad to see that Kentia go but right next to it is a thriving mate that just opened a new frond. One door closes ….another opens…. Harry😄

Would be great to see both forms of uresana side by side in your climate. One of the Florida legends of palmtalk, Merril Wilcox(RIP) had a huge green uresana up in northern FL. The leaves looked very large, in his pic standing next to it. I have found that having the right climate for you palm can lead to a bigger more healthy palm. When I lived in arizona, all the desert palms, FIliferas, dactyliferas etc were larger and more impressive than in florida. CIDP in California are massive, they make Floridas CIDP look smallish by comparison. Bismarckia is well adapted to florida, they grow close to 2x faster here than the ones I grew in Arizona. My sabal causiarum, a carribean native, grows very fast after trunking, over 2' of trunk a year. Beccariophoenix Alfredii are from a little lower elevation than Bismarckia in Madagascar, they grow relatively quickly here in Florida. Uresanas habitat isnt too far from Texas, I wouldnt be surprised if they grew faster in Texas. There are variables in every grow climate. In florida dry hot spring, drip irrigation is a NO for me in my soil. that is how you kill many small palms in the ground. I had to learn to adjust from arizona clay soils and drip irrigation. I use 7-14 gph microsprayers and the pop ups sprinklers from the lawn system. I came from arizona where drip irrigation was king, it just outperformed sprinklers due to evaporation, andsprinkler runoff that result from low drainage in a dry climate. I used to run (3-4) 2gph drippers for each palm(planted in clusters w/ shared drippers) and let it run for 4-5 hrs 3x a week in the heat. 4-5 hrs got to 4'+ of depth in the heavily ammended soil(half clay or more). The watering depth you wet to there is a function of time, not flowrate. My results are what they are: Growth rate in Florida climate in part clay on top but in high drainage soil. Our lots have some clay brought in to support the roads and houses, but under it is grey/white sand. When you dig to 3', you get mostly sand, but you have clayish soil on top near the hardscape. Away from the house there is a lot if sandy soil, its native soil. RIght now in our 9-10 month drought, I see straw colored sabal palmettos on the unirrigated larger lots, they are dead.

For the west coast of Florida, this drought is unbreakable.

A couple of Golden Malay Dwarfs from around Darwin...easy to spot with their slender trunks and leaf form

They do grow down this way at arrawarra and Woolgoolga on the coast, 15 minutes drive away. Iam just on that edge on the corindi range at 130m elevation. Close but no cigar for me on the coconuts, I had to try, I avoided them for years knowing they won’t grow then the wife decided they make a good birthday present. The coconuts are long gone but iam with the wife still! And I guess the renters never had any interest in gardening, could have been worse marojejya darinii drying up.

Yep Harry, the dwarfs are much more manageable 😊

It certainly looks like a Chamaedorea to me, and the growth habit seems pretty consistent with C. costaricana. The clustering stems and arching fronds are a good sign. That said, with open pollination at Redland, there's always a chance it's a hybrid or has some mixed genetics. Whatever it is, it looks healthy and clearly isn't reading the reports that costaricana hates Florida! If it's been growing well for two summers, I'd just keep doing what you're doing. You could try uploading clear photos to the Palm Tree Identifier at https://botanapp.com/identifier/palms to put your doubts to rest.

Maybe just a tad cool down your way Richard. I had a nice one growing in the Gold Coast Hinterland. They re definitley more tender than regular varieties. I found that an elevated position in all day sun worked well. After I sold up, the renters never watered and it died from dryness.