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Had a quick visit to the gardens yesterday and snapped a few photos. We’ve had a few extreme heat days this summer up around 44C/111F but for the most part there’s not too much damage. Good to see more new plantings and there’s more to come. Geonoma undata. Pretty exciting new addition to a new cleared area where some South American species are being planted. Chamaedorea tepejilote Licuala ramsayi new planting off to a new start. Let’s see how it looks after winter but they are proven to be hardy here just very very slow. Hedyscepe canterburyana Arxhontophoenix maxima with a bit of heat damage to a new frond. Brahea armata in flower. Puts on a great show. The colour on Butia odorata in the background is eye catching too. Both such great palms for here. Parajubaea cocoides loaded with fruit Jubaeopsis afra is really becoming a standout feature specimen now. Beccariophoenix alfredii. Such a beast. Livistona mariae. This is a very old plant. Been about this size since I can remember. The smaller Hedyscepe canterburyana. Appears possible a bit heat damaged with its lower fronds dropping hopefully should recover with our long cool season coming up Chamaedorea woodsoniana still going pretty strong Syagrus schizophylla One of the big old Jubaea chilensis caught my eye with half of its crown shining silver reflecting the light off the fronds’ abaxial surfaces.

Good!

One more reason to not go on hikes

People will find their palms dying for many months after the freezes. I had a Pseudophoenix sargentii keel over dead 18 months after the 2010/11 freeze. Also, my Hydriastele beguinii 'Obi Isle' gave up on life 9 months from the same freeze. Lost all my young coconuts, Euterpe, Wodyetia and many more I can't recall. I'm still losing palms 3-1/2 years after Hurricane Ian. I hate to say this but for many of you the carnage has scarcely begun. You will have to make some hard choices on how much money, treatments, time and work you are willing to invest trying to rehab some of your palms. To be honest and not being snide, pygmy dates are common, cheap and easily replaceable. I'd go that route before I bankrupted and exhausted myself trying to save them.

I see fatsia to the left of the good looking palm, what are the two plants on the right?

Most years, yes, but not this last year. It was pretty mild for us and only got into the teens a handful of nights.

Mine are going palmate - variegation increases with age and growth. Very cool and well worth trying.

Here is mine. Grown from seed maybe sprouted 10 years ago. Kept potted too long. Had 3 in one pot. The other two died off probably due to competition but also slowed this one's growth even more. Planted all in the ground together but here is the only one. Was hoping for a triple but didn't work out that way. Glad I have the one.

Man, it’s brutal out there. Clear blazing skies and dry as a bone. Some stuff is OK, while others are just hanging in there, waiting for rain. Some rain is forecast for tomorrow though.

Nice looking palm (Trachy?). Do you protect it?

Cape Coral mandates a 15' easement between plantings and the street - we have no sidewalks around our property but how much longer that might go on I don't know. The Cape does not allow wretched 6' vinyl fences or any other fences to extend past the front corners of houses so no one can turn their whole yard into a fenced fortress. We have no fence at all and that allows visibility out to the streets and alongside our canal. What Yankee transplants refuse to understand is that cheesy vinyl fences cannot stand against even moderate hurricanes much less a cat 4/5 Ian. Those slats turn into javelins that skewer any buildings, yards, vehicles and sentient beings unlucky or witless enough to wander into the path of flying debris. Gotta know your territory.

Sarcoglottis sceptroides, 3.5 ft bloom spike

Soil moisture at the garden is still looking pretty good, still moist under the mulch. No signs of wilt at all. I'm feeling really lazy...and it's supposed to rain next week 🤷‍♂️. Guess I'll just water a handful of things and call it a day

Just added to eBay - Pritchardia flynnii seed Chrysalidocarpus burtscherorum x Lanceolatus F2 Seed https://ebay.us/m/k9Bs23

Bumping this thread because we are looking for one locally, ideally in a 15g. Flora Grubb lists them in a 5g but this is a little small for our intended use. And Jungle Music lists them in a 15 but that would be a lot of shipping cost. If you know of a NoCal source please let me know. TIA.

Update: the first spear has opened with a nice salmon color. I expect future leaves will look better, not having been stressed in the weeks prior to opening.

Chamaedorea plumosa doing its best impression of a crownshafted palm, with very little encouragement from me. I’m sure this has something to do with our recent heat wave and continued warm weather.

A Red Flag Warning is in effect today until 8 PM EDT due to dangerous Fire Weather Conditions. Minimum relative humidity values will fall into the teens with wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Any fires that start could quickly grow out of control. No expectation for rain this week. Hopefully there is an active hurricane season.

How its going.

In dry climates irrigation is number 1 issue for many palms(non desert palms). If things are not growing fast for you irrigation is the most likely suspect holding things back. The difference between the dry hot spring and the hot rainy season is quite dramatic, no marking of spears needed just count new leaves per month. When palms are dry they go into stress and that stagnates growth as they try to find water by growing new roots when all they need is to be watered. In high drainage soil this issue is magnified in a big way. When I lived in arizona I saw lots of people kill palms with frequent shallow(short duration) water schedules in clay soil, moisture at depth is not achieved as soil evaporation and runoff(in clay) dominate ground penetration. In our florida drought we are only allowed to irrigate once a week. This years growth could be seriously stunted as drought stress signs are everywhere. Did you know that palms cant feed on nutrients in dry soil? You can throw down plenty of fertilizer and still palms can be nutrient deficient if the soil depth where roots feed is dry. Moisture is required to enable the transport processes of nutrient uptake. If your palms are growing too fast and you want to slow them down, cut watering down in the hot season, it will do the trick.

^^ THIS ..Not the " cloud seeding creates drought con " 🤦🏽‍♂️ ..That is about as bad as those who pulled that same card during the floods in TX last summer.. Which is it? " cloud seeding creates mega droughts " " ..or mega floods.. ..or...... " If droughts, then this part of the world has been screwed since ..several thousands of years ago, lol.. Don't think anyone was flying around dropping Silver Iodide into clouds back then.. Ofcourse, ..it would be nice to have that time machine to prove that, lol.. Someone well versed in their climatology ..and how climate directly effects the ecology of a particular region probably already knows why FL, < Cen and southern portion of the state esp > ..and the rest of the Caribbean region.. can experience long dry periods ..while also experiencing really wet bursts.. Long dry periods in that region is one reason Cacti and other plants that can store water in their trunks / stems grow in these areas ..areas that aren't growing within riparian corridors sited directly next to streams where water is more available. When the Peninsula of FL was wider after rising ( again ) above sea level, interior of the state was considered ....Desert ... or very close to desert... Aside from direct ENSO - influenced effects, i do wonder if recent drier trend there ..in in other areas recently might be connected to any expansion of the Hadley Cell circulation during the summer.. Most are well aware the overall subtropical belt is expanding pole-ward in both hemispheres, it makes sense that the circulation that defines the northern boundary of the subtropics would get pushed toward the poles too. More intermittent / less sustained summer rainfall pattern ....that might have been laid out across areas south of FL. in decades past might have shifted / is continuing to expand into areas further north ...say the northern boundary of that belt now sits say across the Panhandle ..or Say in a line from Tampa to Melbourne.. Makes much more sense than these constantly de-bunked " cloud seeding " " theories "..

Not sure! At least I'm not.

So are we in concensus about Archontophoenix Maxima doing well in swmpy conditions? I know Purpurea is not.