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Assuming you looked here as well? https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/244216-Xylocopa-sonorina#similar-tab

Just noticed this string. I'd been to Walt's on numerous occasions. Sad news indeed.

That was probably a preventable disaster... Also awful... Butch

Carpenter Bee??? I looked at a lot of pics, especially the male but it lacked the fuzziness or green eyes... Maybe a different bee??? This shows the actual color a little better.. Butch

Interesting Tracy. I'm growing Cussonia transvaalensis-no buds yet after about 6-7 years in the ground. Not sure if it will branch like your Cussonia or stay more of a pole.

Time for a window AC unit.

Brahea elegans

Those are very nice palms . I don’t think there would be any way to slow the growth down without compromising their beauty. Harry

It would probably work here in Southern California under the right circumstances. No doubt that they love water . I have a very large one that I treated like most other palms . When I started watering more , the fronds doubled in size . If I see the ground dry around that palm , I give it a good soaking . Fortunately it is near a hose! Maybe , if I ever have a moat , it will triple. Harry

I wish the water tenp was still 90 in january lol. Freezes would not be a thing.

The only seeds that I have ,that seem to be attractive to rodents , is the Butia Oderata. I can watch , from our deck , the squirrels jump from a fruiting Brahea to the Butia to get the fruit! The fronds almost touch and they leave the Brahea fruit untouched . Fussy little buggers. The Chamaedorea I have don’t seem to be on their menu! Harry

My station after that rain last night is at .44 for june. It would be funny if we got a huge downpour the last day of the month to make it average. Florida is like that sometimes lol. All indicators are that the pattern will shift; if you look at the averages for the months there is an indicator that this pattern is somewhat frequent in june, then levels out, with slightly lower rain totals on the west coast in june than elsewhere. Not by much though, so still a bit of an extreme event, but the west wind flow pattern is known for being unpleasant here especially when the water heats up. I had a low of 86 yesterday morning, which was lowered to 79 at midnight last night with the rain. Never seen that before but the water is over 90 now.

Do you rule out cats?

Stick around long enough and you will be hooked😂. It usually starts with just one. Oddly enough , @happypalms and myself both started our journeys with Howea Foresteriana ( Kentia ) . I would gather seeds with my young daughter and trade them to a large Kentia farm here . I ended up with quite a few around the house , spreading them around the neighbor hood . Most folks , back then , had no idea they would grow outside in the garden .

Got a random .58 inches of rain last night. Puts me at 1 inch for June so far

I’ve got way too many of these and I know they don’t sell for as much as some of my other seedlings I need to make space for so I’m giving away 1-3 of them. If your up to trade I can throw in some royal palm germinated seeds, cocoa germinated seeds or a small Pseudophoenix sargentii. I’ll trade for absolutely any palm or rare tropical plant. (All seedlings only have a strap leaf.)

So true for many palms we have today . I remember the first Wodyetia showing up here in the 1990’s , back when Australia had strict regulations to protect the seeds. They still made it here , thanks to some determined palm collectors . I was telling my daughter how some palms may have gone extinct had it not been for private collectors in search of the next rare palm. Some of these palms have been decimated in habitat due to over development or climate change. Thanks to folks like you , and others , we can get “endangered “ palms and grow them in our collections . It all starts with discovery , then getting precious seeds , and someone who sees the demand . Harry

Up to now, the heatwave has underperformed a bit, in part due to rainfall from thunderstorms on Monday night that has caused wetter soils that reduce the heating capacity. Also a northeasterly wind off the North Sea limiting temperatures a bit. We just about scraped a new June record on Wednesday with 36.1C / 97F… Last night was baking hot. 29C / 84F at almost midnight last night in places… My bedroom didn’t drop below 31C / 88F last night despite having all the windows open and two fans running. My nighttime minimum was 22.7C / 73F here. New UK nighttime record for June set in Wales… It is definitely going to get even warmer the next few days/nights though with more records to come…

Bring on the red.

Richard, here we only have small mice and they don't eat the seeds, but the blackbirds and turtle doves do eat the seeds.

Sounds like it will end in tears 😭

I remember the day I planted this agave some 30 years ago. Time is one of the best gardening techniques around!

They don’t come any tougher than this one!