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Chamaerops humilis var. argentea opening a new frond

Thank you so much, Tracy 🤗 for your explanation and the great photos. It’s really going to be huge, and we’re excited to see how it develops here.

Thank you very much, dear Richard 🤗, for this great suggestion! I’ve heard about the Finger Lime and its 'citrus caviar' before, but I didn't realize it was as tough as you described. Since my Kumquat is finally thriving here on the 4th floor, I might just have enough space for another Australian gem. Do you think the Finger Lime would benefit from a real 'heat-engine' effect? My balcony gets a lot of solar radiation, and as I’ve recently documented in my climate threads, we’re hitting maxima similar to the Mediterranean right now. I’d love to see those 'citrus bombs' ripening in the Swiss sun!

Well a failure here for some reason I suspect way to wet upon only recently been in the past spring, or to cold and wet now the temperatures have started to drop, so a candidate gor wint grow in the ground but a container only in my climate. Or just a failure and that’s the gardening for you story. Try try again they say nah maybe not.

Thank you so much, Nathan, for your insights and valuable information. I really appreciate you and your wonderful knowledge and experience. It’s interesting that you mention its pickiness regarding frost and humidity. This is exactly where my microclimate research comes into play. In my 425m Cfa-enclave, I’m trying to bridge that gap between the 'too cold' regional climate and the specific needs of such neotropical species. With the heat sum we generate here (averaging 12.5 °C over the last 12 years) and the protection from our solar-trap, I’m optimistic about giving this 'Pleroma' a fighting chance. As my recently overwintered Strelitzia rhizomes have shown, the soil here holds much more potential than the elevation suggests!

Yes an easy mistake in labeling rules, how a rare palm can get lost in the collection! Glad you helped thanks.

Aroids are all new to my gardening skills. I have only really started to collect them for the garden in last 5 years. And there are some very interesting varieties of aroids out there and a lot are highly prized top ornamentals!

A before and after showing what once was, and hopefully what will be, its permanent replacement. If the Colvillea freezes this coming winter, I will have to find something else to replace it with. I am already considering a spanish lime, or maybe a chico sapote if it comes down to that... 😄 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

And we finish up with the native bee hive in the garden, inherited from my late father!

You can feel the garden breathing it’s amazing what rain can do, irrigation in the garden is essential for my garden but you can’t beat Mother Nature!

A bit of rain has sparked the garden back up after a dry spell.

Linospadix minor and Chuniophoenix nana in the background!

Ah yep makes sense! Yes I’ve ditched the permanent markers in favour of pencil these days. C balansae is definitely a special palm even without the backstory.

Marojejya darinii, liking this spot in the garden at the bottom of a drain getting all the water!

Dypsis poiveana, a lovely little dypsis to have in the garden!

Yeah, the climate here is basically frost free. Sometimes a bit of frost on cars and exposed lawns once or twice durning the winter. With all the canopy in my garden, it adds a couple of degrees on clear nights. A little bit of elevation (323 feet) further helps. I’ve been to Monterey a few times in the summer and every time it was overcast and very cool. Would be ideal for Ceroxylon and other cool cloud forest species.

The green and white stripes of this marginata are just beautiful in colour. A true variegated form of the marginata genus. It’s such a stunning plant mixed in the jungle green colour of the garden! For propagation I can only get tip cuttings to take, not wood pieces to strike. So somewhat temperamental but doable.

A nice group of three ghiesbreghtiana planted with the third one going in the ground today. Couple of years and they should be looking good adding to that tropical look!

Actually @tim_brissy_13i worked out how it happened, the mix up was from faded tags written in ink and they fade. I did mention to you a while back about some fading tags from some of your labeled palms I got from you. Always use a pencil this mystery palm is indeed from the late Merc psillakis and it was a gift from him to me! Now that I have worked out how it happened. And this palm is even more special now since Merc gave it too me and it has its name. And something kept telling me about how special it is!

A great chamaedorea variety to have this one, right at home on jungle floor in the understory of the garden. If you create the palms habitat in the garden they certainly reward you for that microclimate, and thus chamaedorea is right at home!

I have a potted mango of the variety Palmer. It didn't look very happy from the beginning and I sprayed it with Bordeaux mix few times. I thought it might start looking better once temperatures rise and sun is out which is the case the last few weeks but to no avail. Could it be some fungus? It is under the sun for several hours every day and I water every 2-3 days. New leaves emerged a week or two ago but they look stunned, chlorotic and curly.

Found this thing chewing out the spear of my trachycarpus hybrid this morning. I'm not so precious about that palm but is it something that could be on my other big palms? Kinda concerned as it's not so easy to inspect the crown of the parajubaea at this point. I haven't seen anything in my butia or other small seedlings.

You realize your summer high temps are warmer than quite a number of areas in the Los Angeles metro! And your winter temps don't seem that far off from Santa Monica. Another place that is so unexpectedly hot in my own experience is Big Sur...how many times setting out from the consistently refrigerated air of Carmel...driving that amazing coast, and suddenly you arrive at Nepenthe, get out of the car, and you're absolutely roasting. Bizarre!

Neat plant ..if you can keep it alive.. Picky about what it likes / hates.. Mild and moist < but not wet > ? = likes ..Heat and too dry ..and temps below the lower 30s? = hates.. Beautiful, when happy. Genus, ..of neotropical origin, was recently chopped up and served into separate resurrected / new genus. What once was listed as T. unvilleanum, is now in the genus Pleroma, ...as are a couple of other sps. grown in the U.S.