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Well, after a couple more years the one “Hospita” out in the open has really taken off. It’s about 9 feet tall, and easily 1 foot in trunk diameter. Now has gnarly spines. I wouldn’t be shocked if it’s mixed with one of the bigger Copernicias, or maybe not. It’s very robust and pics don’t do it justice. The other hospita, partially protected by other palms, it slower and less robust, but still doing fine.

I was particularly impressed by the size of the male cone on my Encephalartos munchii. It is the first time it coned and I don't recall seeing any munchii cones in person before. I had no perspective on what to expect until it began to stretch out and start dropping pollen. I decided to get out the tape measure just to see how tall it is. With the peduncle, the first cone is topping out at about 37" but the peduncle adds about 10" of that 37". Since my Encephalartos cerinus is also now yielding a little pollen and has likely achieved its full size, I measured it as well. This cone seems bigger than past, but now I will have a measurement as opposed to memory to gauge future cones on this species, or at least this plant. The cerinus is about 24" inclusive of the peduncle, which is about 4" tall.

What a beauty. Do you know where I can find good alexander kings in your area? Id rather drive down the 126 then the 405 lol

Mine has put on it's annual 2-3" of growth....

hey, i was just wondering if you ever found anyone who was selling the seeds at a reasonable price?, i love watching plants of all kinds grow and growing unique and carnivorous ones fascinate me (we have a poison garden you can visit here The Alnwick Garden The Poison Garden). If you ever did get some i'd chuck some money at you for postage.

I crack Jubaea seed before sprouting. Sometimes there are two or occasionally three separate viable seeds in one shell. In picture below you can see some half sphere seeds sprouting. If you didn’t crack them you wouldn’t know you really have twins. See upper left.

I just planted my first Ptychosperma. I had the same opinion as you , I thought it was much too tropical for my environment. Then I went down to @DoomsDave place in La Habra , very similar climate to mine , even closer to your climate. He had a beauty down there . I was so excited to learn I could grow them , if I get the right species . I came home with a juvenile Ptychosperma Sandereanum and planted it in our courtyard. It gets warm afternoon sun from about 12:30pm -about4pm depending on time of year. It is planted not far from the A. Alexandrae. It has been in the ground a couple of weeks and already opened a new frond. Harry I have hope this will be a great grower in my warm inland climate. The one Dave has is superb . Maybe partial shade out there where you are. If you go to Dave’s in La Habra , he has a great selection of palms that may work in warmer climates. He has mature specimens in the ground so you can see what they will look like , also a great knowledge of what will work for you. Edit- I will say , we water A LOT! I have fast draining soil and a sunny south facing lot.

Steve, you're not wrong, although the "traditional" june bug around here is somewhat smaller, and tan colored. That is the genus Phyllophaga. The fig beetle was always referred to as the "Japanese fig beetle", hence the confusion. I thought they were an import as well. But no, they're native, from the genus Cotinis. Both harmless and non-destructive. No need to call in Dale Gribble.

Dang! growing up here for 45 years we always called them June bugs and then later on Japanese beetles. I always assumed that they were introduced here. I never knew they were a native species. Time to get the sewing thread out and take one for a flight.

I can relate, I killed my first big container palm, $600, by handling it by the trunk. It was too heavy for me to plant gently without a bobcat and it had sensitive roots. We live and learn, and I do understand that palms in california are a lot more expensive than here, I lived there for 7 years. 54" rain a year will make them cheaper to grow here to a good box size. Most of us on palmtalk started out wanting that immediate impact. It is very rarely worth it for the faster growing species. With your heat you should be able to grow things quickly given enough water and some fertilizer. Remember that those Alexandre will need a lot more water out in the open like that compared with a bismarckia or alfredii. Wind dries things out much faster and if the roots can't take up enough water, you get brown leaves generally oldest first. When you plant a palm from a container it has small roots that have a limit for how much water they can take up. I would wait to plant those alexandre till it doesnt hit 85F any more. Over the winter it has a chance to grow roots before the hot weather tests those roots for how much water they can supply. At some point, watering more doesn't solve the problem of a small root system. For Alexandre, make the soil pretty rich in organics and perlite with y our clay. The perlite hold water and will prevent soil compaction which is often a cause of poor drainage. Deeper drainage gives deeper roots and they may give a much healthier tree in the inland heat.

I will concur with others. My A. Alexandrae was planted out at a 10” size , in full sun. It stabilized much faster than the Cunninghamiana . Both species do well here but I have a bit more coastal influence . These heat waves will come and go and only the oldest fronds show any damage . It has been here over 25 years , seen triple digit temps many times , cold into the low 40’s , and seems to love it here. The swollen base gives it a bit of interest as it ages . The silver underside to the leaves and dark green uppers would give a nice look to that area. Look for sun grown examples to plant . Harry This was a few years ago.

@MC Silver I'd guess it was grown in part shade in a greenhouse or under shade cloth at the nursery. The older fronds look very long, i.e. "etoliated" and stretching for sunlight. So when you put it in full sun the next fronds will be much shorter. It's hard to see for sure, but it looks like the top surfaces of the old petioles/rachis are sunburned yellow. If the fans on the old fronds are also getting burnt yellow/orange/red then it's definitely just sunburn. If so then it'll grow out of it towards the end of fall. A photo of the whole palm would help.

Does the soil still smell like rotting garbage? Has it started draining out of the "planting bowl" yet, or still mucky? The fact that it's even trying to open up a frond is remarkable. I've had palms recover from root rot, but it does take time. Realistically it'll have to grow a whole new set of roots, if they were severely rotted. If they were just drowning in water then it might take less time to recover.

I could be wrong but I don't think the ptychosperma survive in my climate. Thats much more of a Florida palm. I'm in a dry Mediterranean climate, we have diurnal shifts in humidity and temparture. We can be at 38 degrees Celsius and 30% humidity and by early am be at 20 degrees celsius at 65% humidity. Howea Forsteriana for me are one of the most beautiful palms in the world. I can grow them but they need to be in full shade. The sun is simply too strong and will burn the fronds. You have to live no more than 15 miles from the coast to plant them in full sun. I am not sure about the bellmoreana you would know better than me, but it would definitely be more of a specialty palm. Most nurseries don't carry it here.

I've been watering every day, rotating among the garden beds. I dug up a bunch of Colocasias that were crispy and even with me watering them that morning the soil was like dust, which kind of shocked me. Forecasts are showing 25-30% chance of rain towards the end of the week, so that likely means isolated downpours to the western and northern parts of the city.

Once I remove the Alfredii i'm gonna have the drainage issue fixed. I'm not going to make the same mistake twice. Unfortunately, I'm no longer willing to spend a $1,000+ on a palm tree. I can buy a 25 gallon king palm for $250 bucks in nearby San Fernando Valley. I know this may sound high for Floridians, but its reasonable in California. How cold hardy are these? I believe the lowest temp recorded in the last 20 years has been 28f, but the area has considerably warmed up in the last 10 years, it rarely falls below freezing. Its much more of a solid 10a climate that previous decades.

sabal palmettos in the wild look better here than those in gardens. I will echo some points, they are really slow maybe 10 feet vertical growth in 15 years. My neighbors triple added 10 feet in the time my sabal causiarum grew 35' overall, and my causiarum has a wider crown than that triple. Lots of people here plant triples. The triples can actually throw some shade. They grow tiny sparse crowns as a single, 8' wide? In a triple they look much better. The groves in the woods are stunning, curved trunks, good density. They will grow differntly out west, sabal palmettos here always have thin trunks 10" or so without leafbases and tapering somewhat smaller with height. Here is a natural stand staking over This was just after hurricane milton so they were roughed up a bit. THis next pic shows the survivor palmettos after deciduous trees were knocked down or snapped after Milton. Hurricane wInd damage favors the palmettos in a long term takeover. I cannot grow a palmetto in my yard that has the impact of a stand, and I see these stands and more several times a week walking the dog. So I dont grow sabal palmetto in my yard. IMO they just look so much better in groves. Some of the above "palmettos" look too thick to me, though the balboa park ones look spot on. Perhaps the thicker ones are more like mexicana which is a more stout relation with thicker trunks and a bigger, fuller canopy. If I were not going to plant a grove, I would go with sabal riverside, a majestic palm of bigger stature.

Sure looks like your weather has taken a 180 lately. Cold and rainy, so that should help.

Interesting. These look about the same size. Much larger than the Washingtonia seeds. I was also able to find some, what I believe to be Sylvester and a couple not quite ripe European fan palm seeds. More of those will be ready soon as well

I agree the alexanders are a lot better in florida sun than bangalows and they are ok with continually wet roots. The OP has a spot there that would not work for a bismarckia anyway, it doesn't drain and the Alfredii -which has the same soil drainage requirements as bismarckia- rotted the roots. Ive never seen an Alfredii die that fast, very few have died in 9b+. Alexanders are a lot less cold hardy(5-6 deegrees F?) than either bismarckia or BA, but they don't mind wet roots as they grow surface roots not the deep roots of the others. The alexanders may get burned when small, but he could always put a net over them for a year while they develop roots. Here is my alfredii triple 6-7 years ago back when I could still get a pic of the whole triple. These were 8+ years in the ground from a 1 gallon. They will; grow a bit faster and will get a bigger root system and canopy if you space them out little like this triple. For scale, the fence is 7'.

I sympathize with your plight. Milton damage here made me not want to be in my garden for a year. I kind of lost my hobby for that time. But the healing will happen in time. In a a couple years new growth will uplift your place.

Good to hear! It's the decline of critical thinking that worries me most...oh, and the power usage, and the water, and the job losses...meh. On topic: I bet Hedy's would do well up in the Dandenongs.

Alex will take that fine. Where I am we get up to 43c / 109f for a few days at a time, keep the water up and mulch over the roots then you wouldn't have issues. Agreed, I've found atleast till the bangalows are trunking they just get burnt. I have two Ptychosperma elegans planted both do okay in the sun, cold winter winds here make them a bit straggly. Normanbya I only had very young ones and they got fried even in dappled shade. Kentia bit like the alex and bangalows, keep water up and they can take it but definitely do better once they trunk and emerge from shade also.

Cycas panzhihuaensis x Cycas taitungensis

Nice flush on C panz x C multifrondis pushing through a pollinated cone.