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OK, fed. Not near the size of a 5 gallon bucket, but with a one gallon pot for scale, it’s larger than it looked previously. I think it should probably be in more sun, but hey, maybe it will stay smaller longer. Tim

Always wanted to get into Indonesia, so close, but life seems to get in the way. Kalimantan or Sumatra would be great.

With all the talk about a super El Niño I was expecting an extra dry and cool dry season. If fact it's been the opposite. Most of the mornings have been mild and nearer the coast some light rain. Generally that's keeping the humidity up, as well as the minimum temperatures. On the other hand maximum temperatures are slightly down with cloud cover. Although this morning minimum was 21.9, definitely not usual for July. June Av Min 18.2 Av Max 32.7

Well. I’ll be darned, I’m growing a runt. Maybe I should feed it, which I will do right after I make this response. Something to look forward to anyway as this is one attractive palm. The base of the sheath is really something. Thanks Rick. Tim

Here is another member of that cohort of FB babies. It is about 15 ft tall with a swollen base. Petiole coloration is a dull orange-red. No obvious sign of distichous leaf arrangement so far. Filtered light in morning and late afternoon, otherwise full sun. Growing in black volcanic cinder and compost. At about 8 o'clock you can see a white fuzzy blob in the background. Check the 'Color Thread' to see the current Prestoea acuminata bloom. Standard 5 Gal (20 L) bucket for scale. I got seeds of the very similar Orania ravaka several years ago. They geminated quickly and looked ok in pots, but withered away after I put them in the ground. No idea what went wrong.

Yet another photo of Prestoea acuminata var montana in bloom. Opens pure white, then becomes pink, and finally dark red with green fruit. Never fails to draw in visitors to the garden. I'm not sure if the geckos are hunting the many bees attracted to the flowers, or something else. But you gotta love those blue eyelids. Geckos were introduced in Hawaii decades ago and now number in the billions. The Kalij pheasants love eating them, but don't put a dent in the population. Plenty of geckos make themselves at home inside my house. And my first Pinanga speciosa has gotten too tall to appreciate the colorful crownshaft, so I've planted some babies. Just starting to hint at the coming show.

I suppose you could use it . I use perlite . I just bought a pretty big bag at Ace for $10. The thing with styrofoam is that it is hard to contain. Little pieces go everywhere when you break it up. Harry

Axel, Filling in the pool/ koi pond, as seen in these pictures, opened up an area for several more palm species. Archontophoenix, Burretiokentia, Bassalinia, Chambeyronia, Pritchardia, Bentickia, Howea, Syagrus, Rhopalostylis, Geonoma, Dypsis, Chamaedorea, Cyphophoenix, and Pinanga are some of the genus growing in that former pool area. The new area for planting was created three years ago.

Neither Parajubaea nor Butia are self cleaning palms and, therefore, the hybrid is not as well. Occasional pruning of old dying/dead fronds is necessary.

The only problem is I keep saving all the good places for all the good stuff, and that’s a problem because I have so many good ones! 🤣 Richard

Coco coir perlite mix just slightly moist, bottom heating set at 30 degrees celcius, in a container of your choice at lest six inches deep. Soak the seeds in water for 24 hours if they are not freshly picked!

June ended up at .84 inches for me, and half that was the last day of the month, the rest very small amounts over three days mid month. July is already double that the first day lol, and im happy for it and hoping it continues🤞.

Thank you for your advice

I have a beautiful hybrid BxPJC from Patric. Does anyone know if these hybrids are self-cleaning? I’m in San Francisco so don’t see many large Butias. The B odorata i have is about nine years old and i have to cut off dead fronds. The Parajubaeas I see around the city seem to have fronds that fall against the trunk when fully brown but may need to be trimmed? The largest are in the botanical garden and Presidio so I think someone may be cutting off the old fronds?

Lucky you. I had 1/3 of that.

Brahea elegans showing the armata portion of its genetics .

Nice. The Bayview area has some really nice homes and gardens as well

Nice Cycas Thouarsii flush getting photo bombed by Zamia Furfuracea flushes. I planted these at a property I do the landscaping on in Pacific Beach.

These sprout pretty quickly with bottom heat, at least if you're in a cooler area like I am. 6 weeks or so seems to be the average time needed to germinate. I find that tropical species want the soil temperature to never fall below about 70 degrees F, night or day.

Those are looking very nice , future palms for gardens. Also uncommon varieties in numbers. It really puts the emphasis on how long it takes to get them up and going. Almost 2 years according to the last photo. Harry

Thanks for the reply! @happypalms Yes absolutely, palms really love heat anyways😅, but also don't burn them out in the sun!

Thank you for your info! @PalmsandLiszt Yeah I live in Indonesia so its not a major problem to grow palm trees actually😅, well perhaps the seeds I ordered are not really fresh since probably the seller also bought it from rarepalmseeds.com which takes a lot of time on shippings and storage for the seeds, so maybe it will take months to get the seeds sprouted. Also for the pot maybe I'll just use the 13cm height it will be fine since you mentioned it with a small pot. The rest of your info I got it already, once again thank you very much!

And please send a video of you when you try to pronounce this at the restaurant 😂.

we had lots of clouds but minimal rain yesterday. I appreciate the clouds that reduce the sun heating. The winds out of the west overcoming the windshear has left the west coast particularly dry and often cloudless. Glad I isolated almost all my wet lovers in raised beds or clayish soil. Still, the crowns should be growing back fast after MIlton damage but the are not. Still many of the wet lovers have small crowns of leaves meaning less shade overall. Shading the ground slows radiative heating and water evaporation from the soil, not getting much help there as shade is noticeably lower than pre Milton. Glad I generally planted the more drought tolerant palms in the most sun exposed positions. My water loving palms would be cooked by now out front.

Probably you have tried escargots à la Bourguignonne , give those cute mollusks a second chance by trying also chochlious boubouristous. Several Australians are of Cretan origin and some day you may have this opportunity without having to travel abroad. About the Spanish caracoles never tried them either, at least to my knowledge, perhaps they had been mixed in to a paella...