All Activity

Interesting do you still keep in contact with that nursery? Or is it long gone

So Trachycarpus was your first palm? It’s the number 1 cold climate palm. You can grow some nice palms in a Mediterranean climate, except the illusive cocos nucifera.

For the first time my Sabal minor has produced two distinctly different blooming spikes this year. Not sure if this is based on male vs. female flowers?

Welcome to PalmTalk! Generally speaking, it is best to plant palms and other marginal plants along the south-facing side of a house. This allows for maximum warmth for the palm in the winter. North-facing is typically the coldest side of a house due to minimal winter sunshine. If you decide to reposition your palms, do so ASAP. I wish you the best of luck.

Absolutely believe you are right. C Ernesti Augustii was outright killed next to it, and C Cataractarum was 90% defoliated. Must be the added organic material in the Florida sugar sand keeping the nematodes at bay.

The nursery I bought it from probably has 15 chamaedorea species growing in one shade house. A lot of hybridization, and the employees aren’t all knowledgeable. Cool place, but you do get some mystery palms

Glad to learn you've had success. I had sunk in the ground a small C. amazonicum a few years ago in its pot and it steadily declined under the same damp and shady conditions as my current one. I may see how well this one grows over the summer and then make a decision in the fall when the rains resume.

Here’s an update on my Cycas megacarpa flush that is starting to open. Too many leaves to count.

My current favorite cycad is this small Central African Encephalartos. About a year ago I removed it from the screen house and planted it in the ground in a pretty exposed area. Since then, newer leaf flushes have a much better look and show more V in the leaflets and recurve on the leaves. Can’t wait to see how it looks in a few more years.

Are some of these T.wagnerianus?

For me it started when I set up a landscape design and construction business nearly 30 years ago. Never got to deal with palms or many tropical looking plants at horticultural college, but Tracycarpus started to be a popular plant for gardens we built, and from there I started using a local nursery selling more unusual plants that were suitable for a south east England climate. Got more interested in palms from there, growing my own collection and experimenting with growing from seed. But didnt really have the time and dedication needed. Fast forward to 2019 and the decision to move to the Mediterranean, and now had the time and climate to grow and care for the paims I could never have living in northern Europe. Trying not to make it an obsession, but certainly loving learning new ideas and practises living in a different climate. Has been like going back to college.

Yes, I would also be interested in this in the future.

Is there a market for Raffia palm seeds?? Anyone looking to buy? I have many

No, there are not fused segments to groups, which in turn are deeply separated down to the costa.

Damage observations at the Polynesian. May 3rd. Satakentia at the new DVC hotel building The garden below used to have more lush plantings and a large Plumeria tree (now a stump). Definitely a lot cut back here. Slight browning of Phoenix hybrids Another Plumeria that bit the dust Golden shower Cassia fistula tree recently cut down, with some root suckers sprouting. I forget the ID of this large tropical tree (Some Brachychiton species maybe?) but it didn’t look good. Philodendron Xanadu took a hit While the garden by the front entrance looked good, I could tell there was a lot of foliage missing that had been there the previous year. That was even with large blower heaters they had pointing on this area during the Feb 1st freeze.

Some damage observations at Epcot. This was on May 2nd. The Foxtails farther from Spaceship earth were much more brown than some that were closer. The latter were comfortably recovering while a few of these looked questionable whether they would rebound well or at all. Big ficus at Moana Journey of water didn’t look good.

Back on May 1st. Coming into Orlando on I-75 from the north. Interstate Bismarckia plantings quite brown, some worse than others. Ones closer to Ocala were about 100% brown. Causarina Australian pines mostly dead. Also in this same area there is a large clump of Melaleuca that looked 100% brown. Enterolobium cyclocarpum ear tree with tip damage

Had nearly three inches of rain here yesterday (over about 2 hours) and yet had to water twice a day over the past weekend because of how dry and hot it was. A few potted Sabals were even drying out, twisting and shriveling due to the heat. Ryan

Whoa Mike, awesome pics. First cultivation pics of trunking specimens I've ever seen. Thanks for sharing!

I planted 4 "sp. giants". After getting my camera battery charged, I went out this evening this evening to take the following 3 pictures. They are much bigger now, having grown well. I use the lawn chair for scale. The first shows two female trees. They have been flowering and producing seeds that ripen red, unfortunately non-viable because I don't have male pollen to fertilize them. The second shows another one that has grown well, has a crown even larger than the first two, but has a much shorter stem at this stage. It has never flowered. The third pic is one that has never been as healthy and easy growing as the first 3, included just to show that there are some that lag behind. Raveneas have done well for me here. I guess they like the climate without strong highs and lows, and the heavy rainfall. Besides sp. giant, I have dransfieldii, glauca, krociana, lakatra, madagascariensis, sambiranensis, and xerophylla. I have never grown rivularis, which looks fine to me, but I saw so many when I lived in Florida that I decided to focus on other varieties. I especially like lakatra because it is an exceptionally beautiful palm. I have 4 of them in my front yard reaching heights of maybe 12 feet. I lost my one julietae, and two other krocianas (the remaining one is fine and has got quite large). Seeds of sp. giant were from Ortanique and sown in summer 2006. One was planted in summer of 2009 (I don't remember which one). The other 3 were planted in February and March 2011.

Sad to see the old Sabal causiarum finally gave up the ghost. I collected/grew a seed from this palm in 2019 and have it in a pot. Mine might be a hybrid with S palmetto of course. But I know it has a good amount of causiarum genetics because when we had a hard freeze here in northwest FL the leaves bronzed slightly compared to my pure Sabal palmetto which were unscathed. Sabal causiarum x palmetto hybrids nearby. Elsewhere on campus

There used to be one or 2 queen palms in this area below that succumbed to ganoderma or fusarium in the last few years.

Landscape was very unkempt.