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It’s an amazing time to be in the garden both mornings and afternoons. It’s a westerly aspect and I get a lot late afternoon sun that keep things just that bit warmer in winter, with a lot of the far red colour spectrum, which is great for flowering. Richard

Lovely , Richard. The coloring of the garden with the sun breaking through the canopy makes me think , maybe late afternoon? Early mornings or late afternoons are splendid in the garden . Certain colors come out that don’t seem to appear in mid day sun. Harry

Misunderstanding , sorry! That is curious . The palm in your pic sure is purple , I didn’t even look at the fronds for further ID . Lovely palm though . Maybe the cooler mountain temps at play ? Harry

Every winter you get a few young joey palms just giving up the middle spear or new leaf. It’s not a detremental crop failure ahead it’s just the weak ones that are not going to make the race to live. This can be interpreted as why they say joeys are hard to grow for some people. It’s most likely a soil fungus that’s doing it when the cold temperatures arrive. But it does happen from time to time and soon there will only be the strongest ones that survive and make it to maturity.

Couple of nice afternoon sun pics of the garden.

1 Dollar??? Let me guess, it was the shipment where they made their money

Bonjour, je vous partage une expérience débuté en Mars. Le projet est de multiplier la tête de ce cycas. Je ne pense pas avoir réussi, mon erreur est de n'avoir pas avoir assez scalper la tête pour trouver le point blanc du cœur. J'ai dévié la tête je pense, mais pas multiplier. Je referai l'expérience.

Thanks for the ID, I inherited my father’s collection, and he never labeled them just collected them!

Lucky Hawaii growers! Plant that cabbadae before winter gets your way! Richard

Normanbya is a beautiful palm, iam getting a few more seeds next month I like them that much, but definitely a humid climate with good rainfall palm to look there best.

Their native habitat is up north in cyclone country, so no wonder they stand up to hurricanes!

That’s one way of explaining it I guess. I dread the day my ones start seeding, might just cut the flower of I think. They are a winner for a lot of reasons!

I think you may be right, I got it off a guy on eBay who had a bunch of interesting ones didn’t catch his name though. …so I have these in a shopping cart and trying to decide if I want to spend the almost $400 for all these seeds. I already got the small lot seeds import permit but playing the tape forward I see a lot of potential frustration of not having seeds germinate and then a long road of having a million pots to take care of for years.. but it could also be really fun and rewarding..

I’m sorry I probably didn’t word it right. I don’t doubt that the palm you posted in Pauleen Sullivans garden is correctly labeled and really is Archontophoenix purpurea. What I meant was the palm I posted up can’t be Archontophoenix purpurea because it’s 900km south of the Mt Lewis area. The purple palm I posted has no white under the leaflets, or whiskers under the mid rib. All Archontophoenix purpurea are white underneath and have those whiskers. Seed size is vastly different between the two as well as first leaf size of seedlings. Archontophoenix purpurea has large bifid leaves for ages. These ones are small from the beginning.

No, my big queen is not flowering yet. Hoping she does next year.

Any updates on the seedlings? I am working with another PT member who has a dozen (or more) mature Jubaea x butia of Patric's that are producing fertile seeds. Saw low germination numbers the first round, have about 450 seed collected and cleaned about to go into germination beds with this second round. Small seed is standard Butia odorata seed.

Was the the queen used to make your mule palms ?

Also what's your watering schedule?

Yes you will see Normanbya a bit, more up north than in my subtropical climate. Some resorts have them, whoever the landscaper was some years ago doing contracts must have known there stuff and was getting palms from up north near cairns. In my area you have to know what you’re looking at but they are around.

I’m pretty sure that the Sullivans had this palm labeled correctly . Only one is Archontophoenix and the fronds and crown shaft are not visible in the photo . The fronds that are visible are not Archontophoenix but something else. The collection was started sometime in the 1950’s Pauline and her husband have both passed on but the son and , now grandson , are maintaining the properties that have the collections . The rotted fruit could be from something else , there are a lot of palms there and I’m not sure the Archie is fruiting , it is very old and super tall. It isn’t as tall as the Ceroxilyn but close! Unfortunately I couldn’t get a pic of the fronds or the Purple Crown , the trunk seems to disappear into the sky! Small city lot with lots of mature palms. I have Purple crown Archontophoenix juveniles from my friends palm and yes they have silver undersides like Maxima and Alexandrae . Harry

So you were weaned on fosters. Just look at some of the beer in Belgium, unobtainable in Australia. One of the reasons is our alcohol content law is way below what the average Belgium beer is. But not many drink fosters in Australia.

Start tracking it down and have a good look, they are a bit cool tender. You need that right microclimate for them and good soil and moisture but once established they are a beautiful palm. Here’s a nice example of a Normanbya, one in a subtropical climate near the coast not far from me.

As you are aware of this is the colouration of the southern population of bangalows. Iam leaning on purperea that was my first thought. And as discussed with you iam sure if it was a different species they would be onto it. Keep looking you just never know what you will find. Trucking around the country side, be calling you the Leyland brothers next or is that Malcom Douglas.

Here’s big Jubutea — yowza no point in the Shoe. It’s about 25-30 feet overall with about 7-8 feet of trunk.

Really need to know trunk size, soil type, field dug/regenerated and were they hurricane cut.