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watering every day for 30 mins could well be a problem. When I was in Gilbert arizona we always planted in the fall so root development could proceed without the great 110-115F heat. I also used 4, 2gph emitters and watered 9-10 pm at night(minimizes evaporation) for 4 or 5 hrs every 2-3 days. Maybe your drainage is faster so 3 hrs could work. I have friends in PHX that watered hours longer than I with 1gph drippers, but those clog easily so you have to make sure they are delivering 1gph. So lower flowrates for longer periods of time and not every day. Remember the depth of watering in clay soil depends on time not flowrate even with berms. Supplemental water at the end of the day on the super hot/dry days once or 2x a week for 10-15 mins manually by rainbird broadcast sprinkler cools whole the yard off at but doesn't make the soil soggy. Deep watering of phoenix species in the desert is recommended, and its also true for the true dates(dactylifera) though they are more tolerant. I would definitely not water every day, roots need oxygen too(soil microbes need oxygen). Am assuming your soil is clay and doesn't drain very fast. 30 mins or even 45 mins doesnt go deep. ANd an shallow depth dries out faster int he heat. what is going on at 2-3' depth is critical. You should get good moisture and a dryout. In the super not summers in phoenix, 115F or more, I watered 3x a week for established palms. Google AI on the canaries AI Overview No, established Canary Island date palms cannot take everyday watering. Daily shallow watering suffocates the roots, leading to root rot and fungal disease. Instead, they need deep, infrequent soaking once the soil dries out a bit. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] Watering Needs in Nevada Established trees: Water deeply 1 to 2 times a week during peak summer heat, and every 2 to 3 weeks in winter. [1, 2] New transplants: Brand-new palms need frequent moisture to establish roots, but even then, a daily soaking is only common for the first very few days before transitioning to a few times a week. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] Soil type: Nevada’s desert soil must drain well; daily irrigation combined with heavy or compacted clay will trap water and destroy the root system. [1, 2] My phoenix yard which saw 122F once, 117F a couple times, 115F at least half a dozen times in 6 years, and 30 days a year of 110F or over was typical. Even the queen palms do well with deep watering.

Next year, those lower fronds will clear the fence. The year after, you’ll be walking under the fronds.

I knew i wasn't crazy..

Chelated iron does more than supplying missing iron. It is a pivotal element for absorption of NPK and other minors. So getting nice flushes around the application of iron is a result completing the missing key to other trapped elements.

The BA is clearly a winner, and not a messy palm as it will take many years to fruit and you could cut off inflorescences. Dypsis decipiens will not like it here. Looks like you need some full sun palms for now. ANd dont hestitate to create a grove with 20' spacing. These do get very large crowns here with 20' leaves down to the horizontal. Once they grow in a bit you could plant more shade sensitive species under them. THe copernicia alba is a winter, with the blue ones being particularly attractive and they do handle the hurricanes to 110mph. They are more cold hardy(20-22F) than alfredii and they are easy care. Your zone should also be good for Copernicia Fallaensis, Copernicia Baileyana, Copernicia Hospita and Copernicia macroglossa. All are good for cold 9B and very attractive palms that self shed to smooth trunks. Have you considered a bismarckia nobillis good cold 9B palm that throws some good shade and is self shedding in florida? Sabal uresana (blue variety) good to the low teens at least, would be an eye catcher. You might have to get that one small by mail from perhaps texas, but they also love sun and are bulletproof. Similar to yours, my yard was a blank slate, all full sun at first. As time goes by the more tender shade lovers can be added.

Its been so long! Im glad to see everything is doing well down there. I think about your yard from time to time and have been wondering how things have been, so its great to see an update. I actually regret cutting down my backyard Queen, I don't feel as bad for the other one. The backyard queen was so robust, I should've just left it alone. I replaced it with a mule though, so once that grows in (its establishing well), I'll feel better about the whole thing. I do have two other queens planted, but they're not in important locations for some kind of statement, so if they get taken out by cold it won't be the worst thing ever. Your palms look very happy! I love that droopy mule too, that thing looks amazing!

Yeah. Right now it is holding 16 green leaves. It's definitely a great look. Just wish she would gain a bit of height now. Just to get those leaves out of my way. I do have quite a few rarer palms vs the usual suspects planted all over. This is a favorite.

Richard, I have 6 that have just germinated, damn we are far away, otherwise I would have gladly given you 3.

That "Jungle Music argentata" is certainly not argentata. I used to live in a forest of them on Big Pine Key and we had large specimens on our property. C. argentata doesn't have those beautiful, neat, light-colored mummy-wrappings you show here, Tracy, and what fiber argentata does have doesn't extend down that far below the crown; and the leaves have a different form, they have a bit of a wave and the tips droop, it's not one of the "stiff" Coccothrinax. Also, I think you'd never see C. argentata attain the sizes you have here, when grown in coastal SoCal, in any reasonable time-span. It is slow even in a tropical climate. But these also don't look at all like the C. barbadensis/C. alta I know, which, as Bret notes above, doesn't have a blade fully encircling the hastula (mine here only cover a little over a half-circle). Though it's the species I always expect to see growing near the coast, since it may be the fastest-growing. This is why it's the one you really find in the trade in Florida on any sort of scale (often sold there as C. alta), it's maybe the only profitable one to grow. I have quite a few of them here in Palm Springs and have acquired them both from Phil and from Florida sources...and they match, so I think what Phil has sold (at least recently) as that species, does seem to be accurately labeled. I remember several decades ago, it seemed the most common one you'd see in SoCal was C. miraguama, and I have a feeling that may be what this is. The mummy-wrappings in particular on your beautiful specimen. I planted a miraguama at my old apartment-building in West Hollywood in the mid-90s (probably bought from Phil), and this looks somewhat similar in my memory, I remember how beautiful the wrappings were...unfortunately that one was removed at some point in the intervening years so I am relying on old memories. Some of the photos of miraguama on Palmpedia really resemble yours, though of course you have to assume that their pictures are accurate as well. But you might want to try to key it out in that direction (and note there are three subspecies with differences in the fibers...see Paul Craft's book on the Palms of Cuba). Phil has also carried C. montana in the past...I bought a "Coccothrinax sp." from him a year or so ago and spoke to Ricardo at the nursery about it, he said in his recollection they had carried C. montana in the fairly recent past, and I am inclined to believe what I bought there as "sp." may be that one, but it's very stiff, definitely looks different to me from what you're all showing here. Hopefully someone with some good Cocco-chops from Florida will chime in here with a more authoritative idea. This genus is a really underused one, in my opinion, just the right size for home gardens, especially courtyards, and I wish there wasn't so much confusion with all the species (and that more species were readily available)...also I wish they grew a little faster, but at least there are a couple of them that grow well in a variety of climates. The nice thing is that they're very ornamental from youth, so there's no reason to decide against planting them and enjoying them, at any size.

I originally bought this copernicia alba from Ken Johnson. It had 3'+ of trunk in mid august 2011, with a tiny crown due to sitting in 90 gal pot for years. Ken said nobody wanted it and he recommended it to me. It was delivered with a few other specimen palms(C oliviformis). Over the years I notice that each year a bunch of spears(~10 or more) at the same height rose up and pushed the previous years leaves down towards the horizontal. The new leaves open pretty quickly when the palm is ready. They can be seen separated against the sky fromt he old ones in a cluster. It reminds me of a new flush of flowers. SO I use the term "flush" when a good number of leaves open is quick succession( a couple weeks). A couple days ago against a story sky but some sun peeking through at my back I took a pic to show the "flush". The only other palm I have that does this is P, rupicola. The rest take a week or more between the opening of spears. This palm was hit by Hurricane Milton and lost some was as leaflets were bent. It was one of the better performers of the well exposed palms in my yard. Here it is with the dead leaves from Milton still hanging on. You can see this years flush is separated from last years by angle to the horizontal. As you can see its in sandy soil and has a little clay underneath at 2'. Its not in a wet spot irrigation or soil wise, and it did suffer in this drought but looks ready to go after the recent rains. The leaves are now self shedding to a smooth trunk the latest 3' of trunk(out of view here). Does anyone else out there have an alba story or a newly planted alba?

@Moe Exotic Looking at the pictures from top to bottom of this page (May 2024 to present), I believe you have more than doubled it's size. That is doing really good. Putting a string of Christmas lights wrapped around the base along with occasional blanket during the cold months has kept the core from frost or freezing, and the size of the leaves shows it. Jubaea grow year around especially when its raining. Only time of year our Jubaea slow down is late summer during the dry season after several months of no rain when the lower leaves die back and fall off leaving smooth trunk. In the above picture of our Jubaea taken couple days ago, some of the lower leaves are turning yellow to brown and getting ready to fall off. Some will say I should water the Palm during this dry season, but I have kept from doing that last 12 years as its native habitat in Chile has its own dry season. When our Jubaea were small without trunks and the lower leaves turned yellow and brown I would cut them off leaving stub, just as you have done, no harm done. The dead stubs will eventually fall off or break away when the base begins to swell and widen as each new leaf gets bigger and longer. Keep the core healthy and away from frost and it will continue to grow bigger and faster. Looking at your most recent photos I would say your couple years away maybe three from signs of a trunk. This also means that your Jubaea is in accelerated growth stage just like a child going into teenage years and will want more regular fertilizer. We have two Jubaea both same age but one is smaller probably because I did not fertilize it as much as the bigger one when they were young. Fertilizer can get expensive feeding two young Jubaea and I never seem to have purchased enough. I would do the fertilizing two to three times a year during the rainy months.

The wind heavily exacerbated the damage. This was also an odd freeze because the cold came more west to east than the more typical north to south or northwest to southeast. As such, the immediate gulf coast didn't experience much of an event since the cold air was modified by the warm gulf water. Further east, even very protected microclimates reached 25F-27F. An urban area with a lake to the west could typically stay 25F-26F, with some barrier islands on the east side of the state stopping the slide at 27F. Open areas had 40mph winds and temperatures in the low 20s. Some cold pockets reached the high teens. I didn't have more Coconuts surviving than Chambeyronia on my Next Big Freeze Bingo Card. We live and learn... I guess

Idk how to edit a post. Meant mild winter not molding winter 🤣. Please no molding winter

Hey Harry, it’s a little bit difficult to tell in your picture, but my observation is that barbadensis has a leaf that is not fully circular. Sorry for the less than great picture, but here’s a couple shots I took this morning.

Thank you all! It seems like I was correct in my top choice for the right reasons but the issue of finding a Howea forsteriana still remains. The person who had looked for it in 2018 seemed to have the same sort of trouble. (https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/58649-kentia-in-florida/#comment-877585). Any ideas on how I can get a decent one for a decent price in/to North Florida?

I only have A. Engleri and it does well here too @gyuseppe . Yours looks beautiful. Harry

Is East and West defined geographically or according to time zone division, so, as a matter of speaking, conventionally?

Looking good Garret! THese are my widest canopy crownshaft outside the royals. THey do throw some nice shade as they tend to hold more leaves than most. Mine were slow till that size then they started to add trunk about a foot a year.

Rained much of the day yesterday, the total in my straight walled bucket open to the sky was 2"+ yesterday. The ground is soaked, I sink a little walking on it in the garden areas. There is a glow to the yard this morning that I have not seen in a year. The retention ponds and the canal I haven't seen in a week look near full, not overflowed onto the grass but !6" below the lowest grass. It was 2' plus a couple months ago. The canal is higher than Ive seen in a year and the water is barely moving, a leaf on top moves about half a foot in 3 seconds. More rain is predicted for today late. We were in a severe drought still a week ago, the next update should be interesting.

Welcome ! You have chosen well , the Howea palms are great indoor choices . The Foresteriana being best suited for your situation. As was mentioned , Bell palms are much slower and probably would need more direct light . The Palor Palm ( Howea Foresteriana ) has been used for many years as a way to bring tropical foliage indoors . Use a pot with really good drainage ( I put smooth medium size pebbles in the bottom ), soil that has more of a sandy loam mixed with perlite , and a pot slightly larger than what it came home with. Do not over water , but they like regular watering . Let the top few inches dry to the touch in between watering , then water thoroughly ( you’ll want a nice tray under the pot ).The occasional outdoor shower and fresh air is a huge benefit . I would find a shady spot with a slight breeze for its holiday at least once a month , even over night if it isn’t below 50f or so. It sounds like a lot and they will survive with less , but to grow reliably , a bit of attention goes a long way. They will take low temps if planted in the ground and established but not cold. Good luck and enjoy . Harry Edit: interesting that you are finding them elusive where you are , they are quite common in Southern California . Most good nurseries have a few available. They are a bit expensive for anything over 3 gallon size. Howea Belmoreana are a bit harder to find.

Hopefully we have some warm years and they don't go under 20F for you. Mine took a lot of damage under 20F but less UV here for the next day warmup than you. Here is my Mule Palm playlist of the growth I had, https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpVDrk5W7jTdjQmxI4FEtmI7CrCvNqNKs&si=VFS-i1SLpo1BHruH

Cibotium glaucum finally decided to grow a new frond after almost a year. Is this normal?

Yes in the proteacea family, easy to propagate as well!

Me too, just light stuff. It was really weird watching it somehow dodge the area like that. Fits the pattern for my house though, but idk why it happens so often here.

Nice, different-is it a Protea?