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Butch, would love to hear more about your time there. The history of these grounds is vast. We stay at the inn a The PResidio which was the officers quarters at one time. I am sure y9ou are aware of it. 1968 in SF must have been a heck of a time! Thank you for sharing.

I got a lot of my royals from another member as seedlings they would just pull them up and send them to me so it is possible that they are not all the same variety!!! I also have a lot of other palms that turned out not to be Royals!!!

I was stationed at the Presidio, and lived in those red barracks in 1968… There were so many of those spectacular views of the fog shrouded Golden Gate Bridge to see there… I only wished that I had had a camera at the time… Butch

A little goes a long way, less is best. A good rich well draining soil medium is another good way to feed palms, get your soil right from the start and a lot of your nutrient deficiency problems are less of a problem. Also overwater will cause a lot nutrient problems, locking up your soil. This is critical to container growing. If in the ground good rich healthy mulch will greatly help, and animal manure.

New to the palm world so this might be ignorant of me to say but Fairchild botanical garden has a Lodoicea maldivica “Coco de mer” they have stated it to be doing well and growing more lush then before. results through the reverse osmosis water process they use.

I do use the regular osmocote a lot for all my other plants. The higher phosphorus isn't an issue?

Had the coldest morning in 3 years today. -1.2C at a weather station about a km away. White lawn, crunchy ice in the bird bath. The forecast was 4C so was expecting a 0C. Albany got down to 2C. On Thursday night I’d put layers of frost cloth over parts of my nursery area just in case we went below zero. I was busy all Friday and went out this morning to check how the frost cloth had worked and to my horror, the previous days wind had blown it all over the place and it had all come undone and it did nothing. I was worried about my Pritchardia schattaueri so covered them. Well they had ice on them. Damage always shows up later but they don’t look any different so maybe they can handle frost. It was amazing though to check out what got frozen and what didn’t. You can really see how well the canopy protects things. Canopy is your biggest security from frost. Water bodies like lakes are not as much of a protection from a radiative freeze. Choose canopy all the time for frost protection. Under canopy everything was snug and dry. The next few days will show up any damage but today everything looked ok. Such is the issue with growing palms in an area that sometimes turns into an ice box, where the crisper in your fridge is actually warmer than your garden.

Liquid seaweed extract, fish emulsion, osmocote or nutricote slow release. Chicken pellets. There are so many different brands of fertiliser out there on the market. What is available in Australia may not be available in other countries. It depends on if you want organic or synthetic fertiliser.

I am curious if community members would share their preference for the type of fertilizer they use on their palms. I have been using Carl Pool for a few years with very nice results, but I see so many different palm specific products out there and just wanted to get some crowd-sourced input on what people think is the best. Share your thoughts!

After over a year of waiting, some Butia lallemantii is showing activity!

How about some pictures of these palms 13 years later?

Iam lucky enough to live near the habitat of linospadix monostachya. They make a fantastic garden palm, predictable size and growing patterns. They flourish with good water, cool tolerant wet deep shade understory is there perfect habitat. Somewhat similar growth habit to lytocarum weddlianum and similar growing conditions being a little dry tolerant once established. They look amazing in habitat by the hundreds covering the forest floor under the canopy.

About the only chamaedorea hybridisation in my garden has been with male chamaedorea adscenden pollen, accidentally cross contamination with chamaedorea genoformis. This happened when I was hand pollinating my adscendens. As I only have female genoformis in my garden and I get seeds from them know and then. So something has jumped the fence and I suspect adscendens. The resulting seedlings are a much more wider looking genoformis leaf.

Chambeyronia macrocarpa and hookerii a nice example pairing together!

You’re sago looks fine, a few brown tips is most likely a few harsh conditions that would be climatic conditions general wear tear on a plant in any garden. You can remove the pups and replant them in containers or just plant directly in the ground. Let the pups sit around in a dry mild place to dry out the wound before planting. With just the bottom one inch of the pup in the soil.

Yes, this coconut looks great. Well grown when you see it in person. It must have a good microclinate in that area. It's closer to the sea. My coconut is a bit more inland. It looks also like a green tall variery. Mine is more yellow. Maybe more sensitive. I wish people would try more coconuts here.

Spring is only another 5weeks away, now is the danger time for any of the new plantings, so far so good with only one palm taking a bit of burn.

I haven’t been watering the garden, trying not too wet the foliage. In the morning would be the best time for waterings, but with plenty of rainfall the garden doesn’t need it.

VThe garden is holding up to the usual winter weather not a problem 2 degrees celcius this morning, and iam sure the low lying areas in the valley most certainly would have seen a very white ice blanket on the ground possibly even a minus degree reading somewhere.

Lol I have too much self-respect to plea, while I spend money. Besides babypalns do not send always, what you have ordered. I have personal experience of two cases, I do not claim they do it on purpose but it can and does happen from time to time. It is part of the game. One instance had been a Coccothrinax purported to be argentea and another a Chamaedorea purported to be plumosa. Latter bears too much wax on stem and petioles to be the real McCoy. Like I said not cheap neither impeccable, so that I would need sticking to them. THRINAX had sent me one a Gaussia maya, while I had ordered a Pseudophoenix sargentii! It is all part of the game, but at least they deliver to Greece.

Iam quite surprised at this glorious beauty of a palm taking quite cool temperatures down to 2 degrees celcius. The 4 young palms are doing great and the recently pacsoa purchased flowering one is not fased at all by the cool conditions. What they don’t like is hot dry conditions, the more humidity the better. I do know they are water loving palms and the more the better, I sit them in shallow trays of water pretty well much all year long. One gorgeous palm, will I ever plant one in garden not too sure they are that rare, and my climate does suffer drought conditions, i could irrigate but the day I forget to water would not be a good outcome!

Caryota mitis, catching the afternoon far red spectrum.

And a trifecta of chamaedoreas!

A nice trio of kerriodoxas!