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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?

These are beautiful healthy seedlings and someone should snap them up!

Here you go Matt. The palm is set back with the potted Sobralia blocking the lower portion in the full monty photo. The other angles only allow close up photos due to other plants in close proximity. My plant was acquired from Josh as a 1 gallon but I think he acquired it from Floribunda.

Had to water last week and this week, the 2026 hand watering count is now at 4. I will be out of town for the next 4 weeks. It needs to rain 😭

I think it’s time to call it done! The palm is alive and is pushing spears but they immediately desiccate before even fully opening. I have no idea why this is happening or what to do.

We got hit pretty hard by hurricane Lala With many trees down. I got very lucky that the only palm loss was a Kerriodoxa elegans that had the unfortunate fate to end up under a giant fallen Guatemalan cypress and one of my peach palms came down. The Kerriodoxa still has a spear so it will make it. I chainsawed the peach palm and will eat the heart of palm, but it’s already got suckers coming up so no problem there. We’ve had a number of hurricanes come by pretty close, but nothing was ever as bad as hurricane lala. I also learned that the damage seems to be consistent with winds coming down vertically from above as opposed to sideways, which is very weird. Several places had trees down in a 360° radius. I looked this up and it seems to be a thing with hurricanes. They’re called mini downbursts. I was pleasantly surprised by the amazing tolerance of Bismarck palms. But also very disappointed in beccariophoenix which sadly are pretty much all leaning sideways. I am going to leave them that way so they make that coconut style curve at the base. But talk about a weak palm none of them have trunks yet so perhaps they will root in better once they make a trunk. I figured the Big Island would be a pretty safe place from global warming, but clearly it’s not. The super El Niño is churning out storm after storm and Hawaiian waters are now warm enough for them to actually intensify close by. on Sunday, another tropical storm is passing by this time much further to the south.I guess you can pick your poison, either fire And drought or hurricanes. I also learned what a hurricane cut means. Most of our royal Palms are now sporting that hurricane cut. They have a very effective coping mechanism of just dropping lower leaves, which is not good for anything going under them, but they look fine. .

I'm in Kurtistown about 10 miles south of Hilo and at about 750 feet elevation. My report is about the same as Jason's above. No palm damage. Let's see if I can get a picture in here. MVI_8561.MOV MVI_8562.MOV MVI_8563.MOV The new storm Moke (Mok-ay) isn't as well developed as Lala, is farther away, but could produce another 10 inches of rain.