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From what I've seen first hand in habitat down in Florida, the types of soils they grow in and my friend in 8b Georgia having the same results as me where they'd sail through winter Only to rot away in the summer. Drainage definitely is the problem we have with clay soils. I know of a good specimen in an unknown location in Z7b somewhere in central Tennessee that I spotted in on a unrelated YouTube channel regarding fishing next to the guy's mailbox. Me being in 8a is what tipped me off that weather was not an issue but soil. Central and East Tenn have rocky soil which has good drainage. Where I am the soil is red clay and sand together which makes a horrible compacted concrete like soil that will not drain. Saw Palmettos naturally grow in rapid draining soil. My method worked with the rapid visible growth. It's the most I've ever gotten a saw palmetto to grow.

A lot of stuff from Taiwan seems to have good cool tolerance. Kontumensis, malaiana, ahmada along with densiflora all did well for me this winter. So more zone pushing has paid off. While not in the ground yet, but if they make it as seedings they stand a pretty good chance of living. We both need to build a mega heated hothouse, but one problem it won’t ever be big enough!

Ptychosperma elegans flowering away.

We have had the first rain in 10 weeks here in recent days. Nowhere near enough at 1mm / 0.04 inches, but it is something. It still looks barren as anything however with young trees/plants outright killed... The rain will probably properly come in September, but there are parts of southern England that are on 10mm / 0.4 inches since June 1st, which is 11 weeks now... Summer 2025 (another warm, dry summer) vs this current summer of 2026... If I am not mistaken, around 45 houses have been destroyed this summer in 4 separate wildfires. At least 30 in England, 10 in wales and 5 in Scotland...

Close to another inch today. Just had a random storm pop up. Power went out and all.

Crownshaft palms seem to take storms better

Spoke with Jeff a couple days before; wasn’t worried about rain, but the potential wind had him a bit stressed. It’s an active planet, no doubt.

Does anyone know which species of Syagrus this is? Picture is from Gizella Kopsick Palm Arboretum in St. Petersburg Fl.

I had one Saw Palmetto in ground make it a few winters in a dry spot, but it eventually died. The drainage was not great though, I wonder if it would have done better if I did something like this!

I was also excited to get myself a birthday present recently. I found a couple of silver Sabal uresana from Teddy's Nursery on eBay. They arrived healthy, and they already have great color: That little leaflet on the left is a dactylifera for color comparison.

I had the chance to visit Discovery Point at SeaWorld San Antonio today, and I snapped a few pics while there. Nice use of Sabals: Chamaerops: There are a few Phoenix dactylifera in the area. This one was a pup growing up from a stump: While this one appeared to be planted as a single (not a pup) There were even some really over-trimmed needles in the area: And some Butia: My 8 year old for scale: Sagos and counties: Lastly, it has been so hot and dry for the last month that even the squirrels at SeaWorld are feeling the heat. This one was laying flat on shady concrete under a fan:

It should be one of the hardier Pinanga given its origin. Keen to try them down here in Melbourne at some point. P sylvestris and P baviensis are going ok this winter albeit in my unheated greenhouse.

To try in the ground here I got a Chuniophoenix Hainanensis, Livistona Benthamii, Kerridoxa Elegans, Chamaedorea Metallica and Pritchardia Hillebrandi. Everything else is just a bunch of tropical bucket list stuff that is bound for a life in pots like a Joey, Flamethrower, L. Mapu, some different mottled Pinanga, and a few Calyptrocalyx. What did you get? I was originally going to put a feeler out to see if anybody else local wanted to jump on the order, but I was cutting it so close to when I was going on vacation I didn't think I'd have enough time to get everybody's plants out to them.

I'm just a few miles south of Mike and 25 miles south of Jason. Lala was not too bad at my place. Estimated 40-50 mph wind all day with higher gusts. No palm damage. The electricity was out 4 days. Total rainfall over about 48 hours was 20". Sounds like a lot to folks in California, but nothing too exciting in Hawaii. Hurricane Lane dumped 55" back in August 2018. I think most of the dramatic video footage was taken at the extreme south tip of the island that had the closest approach of the storm's eye. Not expecting any significant effect from tonight's storm, Moke.

@JD in the OC Nice, do these have the silver undersides, ramenta, or both?

I initially thought Sabal mexicana too based on the seed, but I wasn't sure if the leaves looked right. I think S mexicana looks more similar to palmetto but I'm not as familiar with it. My other idea was S. blackburniana, but can't find much information on that one of course. I don't know if the seed is supposed to be large or not.

Your issue has to be related to lack of good draining soil. I'm really sorry you are having this issue. In my part of Florida, these palms are relatively bullet-proof. Slow to get started but establish well and then take off. Mine has been in the ground 5 years. I got it as a little two strap seedling that I bought on eBay. It arrived with the bare roots wrapped in wet newspaper. I immediately planted it out and watered it every day for the first 2 weeks. After that, the twice weekly irrigation took care of the watering. It is now still not trunking. But, the leaves are huge and the palm is getting immense. I will try to get a picture this coming week to post here. I still believe that if you can solve the drainage issue, this palm will perform well for you in your area. It has to be a soil or drainage issue.

Chamaedorea woodsoniana crownshaft patterns.

Wowo Anyone know how jeff (floribunda) place ended up?

its not sabal palmetto for sure, seed is too large and the petioles are too thick. Its also not sabal causiarum, seed too large, petioles too thin. Maybe sabal mexicana(texicana). Seed is too large for bermidana too.

You guys are so right, I would rather put them in the ground and give them time now at least, I really don't want to have to take care of to many potted things this winter but that being said I'll have to plan where I'll put them. I have lots of sand so moisture is never a problem but that also sucks for my other plants since it requires so much more waterings for palms and ect 😭

Given the potential damage it sounds like you did pretty well. The fact that you didn't bring up any damage to your house, safety issues must have been limited to flying debris.

Here’s an update on how this palm looks roughly two years later. It’s been a relatively fast grower for me so far and is one of the most colorful palms in my collection.

I grew these from open-pollinated seed off of a palm on Fort Myers Beach, FL that i also grew from seed that was purchased from Ortanique as A. purpurea circa 2004. if you look closely at the ones in the middle of the row, they have a little violet on the crown shaft. I am convinced that these are a A. purpurea x alexandrae hybrid. JD

Maybe golden malayan?