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We were 96 yesterday and 85 in Ventura at my shop , which is less than 4 miles from the ocean. I have lived in Ventura County since 1959 and can’t remember ever seeing March temps like this . We are going into our second week of daytime temps above 80f . It looks like this is going to continue for a while , temps 20+ degrees above average. As I said in my thread posted a few days ago , we have had a very odd weather year . Our rainfall is 215 % above average for the year and our wind events have much more frequent all winter ….now heat waves! Harry

i'd say stick with your natives an try some further south natives to see how they handle your weather. you wont have an empty hedge if you mix and match your areas natives. Florida Native Plant Society | Conserve, Preserve & Restore Florida's Native Plants good starting point. i like to layer and tier my hedge line. been finding out what i can push from s.FL and what i can't, stoppers have performed, along with jamaican caper, pineland strongbark, wild cinnamon, wild lime, necklacepod, lyonia, marlberry. For you, perhaps pushing central florida natives may be an option to see what they can bare. looks like some native to your area are allspice, buttonbush, gallberry, anise, saw palmetto, and some others. i believe we have a better chance at growing exotics or zone pushers if we have a solid native base to start with, may or may not be the case, i'll stick with it until proven otherwise

Anything you do get will need to be decent sized before planting, and we have a hard time sourcing any of those trees at all here. I'm betting online orders for them would be necessary, even native diversity in nurseries is lacking. This discussion has me rethinking some ideas for the front too, I had two Texas ebony seedlings I planted too soon that I think are dead now, so those need to be a decent sized pot first and not 2 inches tall 🙄.

A couple of nice plants for the garden, potting up in stages is the key to growing!

A couple of good ones for the collection!

Your welcome, you got me on those ones, they will live in a refrigerator! One palm I dont think will grow for me.

Doesnt Jonathan have easy warm weather for growing his sabinara, I hear it’s a growers tropical paradise @Jonathan. I gave him two calmus varieties I got from last years show, so I hope this large one fits in his mailbox, I had to buy it for you Jonathan, hope you don’t mind.🤣

My 20 year old Rhopalostylis baueri has been doing this for years. I live in the College Area of San Diego and always thought it was too hot and dry for the inflorescence to develop. I really don’t know what the reason is, but it would be nice to find out.

It is just a mater of time to skyrocket!

For starts, Stay FAR ..and i mean FAR away from these... All three are messy, short lived, ..and HIGHLY invasive. A stenophylla ( ..and A. salicina ) are weak wooded as well.. Our landlord has an A sal. in front of his office and i've advised him ..it has to go.. Seeds like mad ..and about half sprout, even under our minimal rainfall conditions.. W/out fail, limbs are sheared off of it almost every year during our ..fairly mild < compared to hurricanes there > summer storms. ..If it weren't as tall as it is, i'd have cut it down already, lol.. ..As far as " Southwestern region " trees?? ..Since humidity and rainfall is typically a bit higher there, your best bet would be trialing stuff from central / south TX vs. some of the trees that grow here. With that said, you have lots of options.. Like: TX Ebony, Anacacho Orchid Tree ( more of a smaller, " Patio " tree than something that could get big.. ) ..and Bauhinia macranthera You mention Corida boissieri, Anacua, Ehretia anacua, would probably be worth trialing.. Same with Arroyo Sweetwood. Both will handle some cold. Think both AZ and TX Kidneywood would be interesting trial subjects there.. Mexican Buckeye, Ungnadia speciosa would be pretty unique, depending on how well it can tolerate the humidity there.. Desert Willow and the " X Chitalpa " cross are definitely worth a try.. Don't think any of the Arbutus would tolerate the heat + humidity there ..but i could be wrong.. Talk to Eric about that one / that Genus in general.. Leucanea retusa could work. Might actually do better there than they do here ( due to our dry heat ) . Believe Bauhinia galpinii can handle / would return from the roots, if severely whacked down by temps into the lower 20s. Same with some of the Fairy Dusters.. like Calliandra haematocephala and surinamensis. Ceiba insignis ..and speciosa seem to handle the occasional low 20s seen in Tucson every so often but, ..That is under our general " dry " cold spell conditions. Both also tolerate similar temps in moderate 9B areas of N. Cal. that are more humid than here ( Thus more frost chances during their winter cold spells ) so, ..I'd give it a try if i were in your situation.. Common Handroanthus species that are grown in Orlando should be a sinch in Spring Hill, esp. if Peltophorum dubium reaches the pictured proportions there.. That area might be about as far south as you could get away with both Big Leaved native Magnolias ..ashei and macrophylla.. Never seen this species anywhere here, ...or in California..

It helps that I've got an 85 degree swampy room to start things off in. I keep things fairly updated on my Mississippi Squad thread on here but lately I've moved away and gone to YouTube/IG/that other Zuckerberg site I vowed I'd never return to just because- honestly there's no traffic here. I'm sanchosgreenpaws on all of those. And eBay as well (just saying)...

So all, how are we doing with our Sabinaria? Making progress? How is yours doing Jonathan in Hobart? Tim

Codiaeum variegatum ‘Excellent‘ maybe?

Oh man, you are so on! We’ll need to verify any photos you post to make sure they aren’t from Columbia. Tim

Hopefully you’ll post pics in the Tropical Plant forum with your results when you have more testing data. 📝 As pleased as I am with finally getting some success, I’d love to grow a huge one… or black one… or (even better) a huge black “holy 💩” one! Good luck on your testing… I’ll be watching any updates closely. 👀

Several more trees I'd be interested to try Albizia chinensis- cold hardiness? there's very little data on cold hardiness for this species. @Eric in Orlando mentioned to me previously he thinks it could tolerate down to 25-26 deg F before severe damage, but I'll be eager to hear how the ones at Leu Gardens survived this recent hard freeze in February. Its range is quite widespread so I wonder if there is variation in cold hardiness throughout the different populations. It should thrive in poor, sandy soil. Chiranthodendron pentadactylon: devil's hand tree- according to San Marcos growers website, this may be hardy even to zone 8b Cordia boissieri Drimys winteri Elaeocarpus sylvestris Michelia x alba (cold hardy enough? also may not be as tolerant of poor, dry, sandy soil) Photinia serrulata (possibly serratifolia?)- I got a 3 of these from seed several yrs ago and planted them in the dry, sandy median of my neighborhood. They have endured extreme drought amazingly well and continue to grow. Phytolacca dioica (I think this species would do very well in such conditions) Schima superba

For shrubs here, it's hard to beat Podocarpus. @flplantguy likes to use Myrcianthes fragrans (Simpson Stopper) . @HudsonBill might have a few favorites, too.

I'm making a separate thread to discuss the non-palms for climate/conditions such as Spring Hill, FL to keep this thread focused on palms (I realized I might want to post more about them than originally thought)

Hope that none of the others succumb to whatever it is. My own thoughts are Lethal Bronzing. We've lost thousands of Phoenix species. The typical choice for replacement is Livistona decora locally. Out of all of the Phoenix species, the Phoenix reclinata hybrids in the area seem to have the least issues, followed closely by Phoenix roebelenii. All of my Phoenix have started to flower at the same time, so who knows what kinds of mutts will be produced.

I'm going to create a separate post in reference to the one I just made about what palms could grow in Spring Hill, FL (it turns out I might be moving there) https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/93025-what-palms-could-you-grow-in-spring-hill-fl/ This will help keep the discussion centered on palms in the other thread. This is what I have so far for trees I'd like to try if I were in such a 9a/9b borderline area (gets temps in the mid 20's every few years and low 20's (deg F) on rare occasion depending on microclimate) Acacia: probably many species would do well, but I know farnesiana (now in the genus Vachellia) thrives in sandy conditions, has sufficient cold hardiness, and tolerates FL's rainy season, other potential ones are baileyana, melanoxylon, stenophylla Arbutus unedo, also cultivar/hybrid 'Marina' (not sure of performance in FL for the latter) Brachychiton: discolor and rupestris (these are both native to areas of Australia that go through a prominent dry season as well as being documented to survive temps in the low 20's just fine). I'd especially be eager to try B. discolor Ceiba insignis: white floss silk tree (cold hardy enough?) xChitalpa (hybrids between Chilopsis and Catalpa) Chilopsis lineararis? Eriobotrya deflexa Geijera parviflora - Australian Willow (cold and drought tolerant but able to tolerate FL summer conditions?) Leucaena pulverulenta Osmanthus americanus Neolitsea sericea Pittosporum undulatum, angustifolium? (these seem to be used more in the southwest so I'm not sure how they would do in FL, but for cold hardiness and drought tolerance I'm interested) Quillaja saponaria (another one used more in the southwest so not sure of performance in FL) Xylosma congestum @Silas_Sancona would you happen to have any idea on whether some of the trees above which are seen more in the Southwest US might grow in FL?

Just discovered this thread. Regarding my recent post regarding what can be grown in Spring Hill, FL (9b/9a) and whether Ceiba insignis could grow there, I think the comments above answer my question. Looks like it would be worth trying.

@Tassie_Troy1971 Ah man! I’m sorry that happened. Hopefully they keep producing for us!

Thanks @Jonathan. I appreciate the reply!

Black Swan is a hybrid from Brian's Botanicals that's supposed to be relatively close to Thai Giant size and the Plumbia Nigra is supposed to be a pretty decent size too. I could probably throw one of these Thai Giants (I have 5 bulbs) in there or one of the 27,000 Jacks Giant I have, and I've got a lot of Black Magic. This is my first year playing with colocasias and alocasias so it's gonna be a fun learning curve. I guess one advantage I do have is I can dig them up and start my bulbs early so I don't have to worry about starting from scratch, but I learned the hard way that starting bulbs in December is way too early. I'm looking for something massive to put here. I don't want that "wow" factor. I want that "holy 💩" factor. Nice pun btw.

Oh I believe this is far from out of the woods. I still get at times a little seeping from the trunk. It is still very stressed. Figuring things out.