All Activity

I was out this afternoon driving with my daughter when I spotted a double Livistona chinensis in Schertz: They aren't my favorite palm, but they aren't common around here either. So, I thought it was worth a quick photo.

Yeh, it seems to be doing alright. I think they grow pretty well up around Auckland and Northland. Dunno what is going on with posting though, I had written a reply to Jonathan's post with the picture and it all seems to be deleted when posting! I think that's the second time that's happened. Anyway, I was saying that it does alright for me, just quite slow. Winter doesn't seem to faze it kept away from frost. I just moved them from a shady spot on the south side of the house to the north, but still out of most direct summer sun. Hopefully the extra warmth will speed it up. It seems to grow similar to Arenga engleri here, only 1-2 leaves per year, although the mitis keeps making more offsets

Looking nice! I really like that med palm! That goat looks like he hasn't budged.

They’ve survived low 20’s in South Texas.

Average annual precip here is ~50 inches, comparable to much of Florida. Definitely "green" Texas. But evapotranspiration is high as well. Currently sitting at ~33 inches for the year so far. Looks like it might "cool down" to 95 degrees with a chance of sea breeze showers next weekend as the high pressure recedes ☺️

Hi Tim, here are couple shots of mine Purpurea hybrids. You’ll see purplish crown shafts with silver undersides of leaves but missing ramenta. I have 3 with varying degrees of purple. And I’ve noticed during summer months when a new leaf base falls off it’s not as vibrant as in spring when it’s cooler.

Bright dappled light is about the max that they want, full blazing sunlight you would get a nice yellow one I would think. The more humidity the more sun certain palms will take. A little midday sun would be fine but as for powering a dozen solar panel sunlight I don’t think it would it be too happy.

As has been mentioned, A ‘Teracarpa’ isn’t a thing in Aus. Have seen this pop up occasionally on Palmtalk and always been curious what the origin was - good info above. My gut feel is it is probably a hybrid. It seems to have traits of A cunninghamiana and A alexandrae just from the photos above, but I’d be interested if anyone has close ups of any details. Do they have ramenta? Silver or green abaxial surface of leaflets? Crownshaft and trunk covered in scales? A cunninghamiana x A alexandrae and the reverse cross both generally produce robust specimens from what I’ve seen in Aus. They tend to lean slightly towards A alexandrae but with brown scales on the crownshaft and occasionally ramenta like A cunninghamiana which might be similar to these.

Mother Nature will always throw something new on the table over time, after all Charles Darwin was onto something good!

The hybrid debate is an intriguing one, a lot of growers say it doesn’t happen and then there is evidence of it occurring in gardens and collections. Even a hybrid in my mother in law’s garden from Butia x syagrus and that was a natural occurrence from wind or bats or some sort bird or insect. So it’s definitely happening naturally. Genetic testing would definitely help and appease all those interested in hybrids. I respect the work that goes into creating hybrids and the credit to the grower in doing so.

I’ve seen A cunninghamiana, A alexandrae, A tuckeri and A maxima all throw coloured new fronds at times. Have heard reports of A myolensis doing the same but haven’t seen it myself. Never heard of A purpurea doing it. I don’t think it’s a reliable trait to distinguish between Archontophoenix sp.

Possibly an Albang then, a genetic sport from the Albang. Plants have interesting ways when it comes to hybrids F1, F2 and so on. Be an interesting back cross then.

I think many nurseries have hybrid happening accidentally as they keep flowering specimens of multiple palms that end up cross pollinating due to close proximity. At least in Phil’s case he calls it something else entirely. I have 3 Archontophoenix I purchased as Maxima but they are bright purple without ramenta and clearly Purpurea hybrids. I agree with Kinzyjr that it would be great to see genetic testing done of this palm to see what it turns out to be.

Very nice! Attended Fordham, so it good to see a palm in the Bronx.

The dominant theories are that this is: A hybrid that occurred at Phil Bergman's Jungle Music nursery in California. A variety of one of the known species. While it is possible it was an undiscovered distinct species that slipped into a seed batch, my personal thoughts were always a hybrid similar to @James B above. Genetic testing would put the proverbial nail in the coffin.

So what’s the name of the one that has a flush of colour in the new leaf then?

No rain for 9/10 days. You're lucky. 🤣 I am up to day 50 now since the last time it rained here. All the hand watering is killing me here. Expecting 35C / 95F tomorrow as well. I think some stuff is going to die. My Sabal Minor looks dead from the drought and that has had a few watering cans dumped on it as well. The Mexicana is still clinging on, for now. My Rhopalostylis looks dead now too. I think my total rainfall since March 1st (5 months) is only 3.2 inches. But not a drop since June 16th now (7 weeks). The forecast has no rain for the next 2 weeks either. So I am going to go 9+ weeks with no rain here.

Never heard of it, and Australia is the home of archontophoenix!

Nice. What was your average maximum there for July? I am guessing you guys had record breaking heat and sunshine? The July average maximum in central London was over 30C / 86F. The St James Park Met station is gone now but I am seeing PWS's with 30-31C ave maximums and a 22C average, which puts it as Csa (hot-summer Med), like in July 2022. Obviously zero rainfall for London in July just gone too. 330 hours of sunshine.

A really neat climate for somewhere at a latitude of almost 52o Probably fairly expensive to live there given the comfy climate.

Definitely. The city government orders these from Jungle Music. The employees working at Hollis have told me this variety is the most resilient to cold out of all of the various species that they've ordered. We have Archontophoenix cunninghamiana, alexandrae, and I think a few maxima sprinkled into some spots. My thought was that it would generate enough interest for genetic testing amongst the scientific community, but to my knowledge, that hasn't happened. It would be really interesting to have genetic testing done to verify or refute some of our theories as to the origins.

Every single day was above the mean high in July in Cork City this year—only two days with highs below 21 C this July—nice to see these well-sited Birds of Paradise finally blooming on the edge of the city.

Not sure what the Ph is but I’m sure its prob not great water being on San Diego municipal water. Don’t get alot of rain in so cal either but with this super El Nino we should get tons of rain this coming winter.Thanks again for the tip on chelated iron! It is working wonders on my Cycads!

Do you put rooting hormone on the air layer when you do it? I agree with above. Water and pray for roots is your best bet at this point.

Bump!