All Activity

They are just going across the state . Thank you

I am 50 miles inland in SoCal. I have one that’s in my front yard where it’s in full blazing all day sun with a mini block wall on one side and my drive way and on the other side my driveway reflecting heat from the sun. It’s 2 years from a small 5 gallon and is now almost 7 feet at the top of the newest leaf. I give it copious amounts of water. These are tough palms that grow faster than its flamethrower cousins. As was stated above I believe the wax protects against both heat and frost which it gets each winter as it’s on the south east side of the yard and has seen 27-28 at night last winter.

Where did you source this one from? Any updated pictures?

Hey @Harry’s Palms I picked one up today from @DoomsDave but I am not sure where to plant it? You’re planting north facing wall with afternoon shade?

I will take all 10 thank you

2 happy seedlings arrived today safe and sound! Also just curious if you have any planted in the ground in Ocean Springs?

That’s fast growth for a seed sprouted in 2025! Great job! Looking forward to see how it performs in an environment such as Parson. That’s a beautiful area of Arizona. Hoping the El Niño won’t be a bust, too much hype regarding this event. Would be nice to see an end to the extended droughts over the southwest and southern US. Please let us know how this little dude does! Cheers, Chris

Thanks, Tom I had all 5 seeds that I bought, planted there, in situ. The plan was always to only keep one plant. I’ll need to carefully kill the other two - I don’t wish to risk digging them up. They’re maybe 8’ from the fence and maybe like 12’ from the house. Mostly Western with lesser Southern exposure. This was the most practical spot for me, at them time. I do love the hue of the leaves, as well.

@Jim in Los Altos @Darold Petty Thank you, gentlemen! I’m looking forward to seeing how many seeds I get from it.

Fascinating topic. Thanks for sharing. I also briefly(!) thought of trying to grow and sell. Until I saw the different success rates of germinating RPS seeds... I take it you dont live of your growing business? Would be interesting to start from the other end: How much money do I need to make? And go from there to understand the size of my nursery and the turnover. I do see people growing the hip indoor plant stuff. Begonias, Philodendron, etc. In transparent plastic boxes in their cellar under LED. But again, to make a living in an expensive OECD country? When you have growers from Thailand and Indonesia... Palms are still not that much en vogue in the indoor plant world. Which I dont really understand. Many greetings to down under Matti

Oh they said the black bamboo doesn’t run. Yer right they got that wrong!

Im looking for chamaerops humilis var cerifera and a chamaerops humilis 'vulcano prefer a small sized one between 3 and 7 gallon is preferable but dm if your selling any. TIA

I couldn't help thinking about the space that takes just to cut up a dead old frond when it comes down. Living in an urban area where our green waste gets picked up and hauled away, the other challenge is how much space in the waste bins just one dead frond would take. And before that, the damage that one of those fronds dropping would create in a huge footprint. Not something for a little garden like either of mine even if they would grow here. They are beautiful though to admire in other gardens better equipped to handle them.

Putting borassus aethiopum that close to each other is insane. They grow to a huge size, 4' thick trunk can be expected without leafbases. They have that very uncommon ethereal waxy light green color which is stunning. Best of luck with it(or them), hope you have a lot of space.

Highly recommend this species! Most memorable cycad flush I’ve seen was 10+ new leaves pushing on a friend’s old, multi headed specimen. Shiny and bright pink/orange, hardly looked real.

Well I have two survivors, one Syagrus weddellianum and one Syagrus hoehnei. Guess it pays to never give up too early. Mind you I lost at least six to eight mature specimens.

This is one of my Washingtonia filibustas, located in my west-facing backyard. It was started from seed in July 2025 (supplied by Desertscape Nursery), and it spent its first winter indoors. It was planted outside in May 2026, and after being moved to its permanent home, it rapidly transitioned from growing juvenile strap fronds to growing mature palmate fronds. The trunk visibly thickened in a matter of weeks, and since May, the palm has added nearly one foot (30.5 cm) in vertical height. Due to a large brood of early summer grasshoppers and intense high-altitude sun, it was sheltered within a pop-up mesh protection tent for its first 45 days in-ground. The palm has a dedicated drip-irrigation emitter, and it is watered every 3–4 days. That said, this summer’s monsoon season has been very active in Arizona, and consequently, I’ve been able to cut back on watering across several weeks. While the palm remains under 4 feet (1.22m) in height, I will use a combination of an inverted plastic trash can and chemical heat packs to protect the palm during the coldest and wettest nights of winter (while also temporarily tying the fronds together). Because I live at 5,000 feet (1,524 m) above sea level (USDA Hardiness Zones 8a/7b), most winter nights in this part of Arizona hover right around the freezing mark (32°F / 0°C), but even colder nighttime temperatures are possible. I plan to deploy winter protection for my filibustas if the forecast calls for a low temperature below 22°F (-5.56°C) on dry nights and below 25°F (-3.89°C) on wet nights. Because dry-wind desiccation is a BIG problem here, I will also use the inverted plastic trash can to protect the palm on extremely windy nights. While El Niño-fueled winter storms tend to be slightly warmer than typical winter storm fronts in the desert southwest (potentially meaning more rain than snow at this elevation), a heavy snowfall event is still extremely likely here this winter. It’ll be interesting to see what happens!

I just took this picture there are 3-4 royals in it and mules the only burn my old eyes see is the little I circled I don’t know what would cause that one frond to burn maybe it’s not sun burn we have had some crazy winds so maybe it’s not sun burn but maybe the result of strong winds when it was freshly opening!!!

Makes sense for sure. And the tough thing with Chambeyronia is the slow growth rate. Best of luck with the new planting.

climate, sunlight, and zones and their utility is one of the most common gardening threads here the last 19 years. I have lived 10 years in the 9a Arizona desert to 122F with 32 days of 110F one year and 92 of 100F+, and now in "gentler" subtropical Florida in sandy soil(not helpful) where we hit a low of 28F 2 times in 16 years. The climate/soil/zone discussion comes up every couple years. 25,000 posters here, there are some detailed answers to zones sun and climate types. I can paraphrase the conclusions of a dozen climate/zone discussions by posters, most that do not post regularly these days but have a lot of actual recorded experiences in the freeze section and elsewhere. If you have been here a while, you should understand that coastal fog is very protective of sun sensitive species and inland desert is potentially damaging in intensity. Max sunlight intensity in the USA is arizona desert, I found everyones "full sun" descriptions were radically over stated. Zones are better understood in their weaknesses in that its the temperature of the bud, NOT the air that matters. The bud will stay warmer than the air for a while in a cold event. It does depend on whether the bud is waxy and how big of a mass it is vs surface area. The heat transfer out will first cool the outside of the bud, then inner layers will cool. When tissue freezes, cells are burst because the water in them has become ice and is less dense than water it was before freezing, so it expands and rips cell walls. There are no zone type ratings for heat transfer dynamics which is what is really going on. 1) Most critically zones don't tell you how long the cold is, those are separate events that may be short or longer. Heavier thicker buds will cool off more slowly making them more survivable. Palms that retain leaf bases have extra insulation. A big royal bud will take longer to cool down than a smaller archontophoenix bud. So all else equal, the royal will take a lower temp short event than an archontophoenix. There are species differences, the temp of the plant sap freezes at will vary depending on electrolyte composition due to the law of freezing point depression. Yes species may have different levels of electrolytes in the cellular water. 2) So knowing length of cold can be a critical factor, zones are not enough. The radiative or advective nature of cold is critical. radiative colds cycle to warmth more quickly, advective ones persist and are more deadly. 3) wind: heat absorbed from the sun is re emitted at night and it hangs around a lot longer if there is no wind. Lack of wind leads to thermal layering, its warmer up at 20' bud height than it is at a 4' bud height. Wind destroys the layering and carries the heat away. So the buds on taller trees see a warmer temp than those on shorter ones in an radiative event. Winds(advective event) will make the bud cool off faster, 4) Freeze section Data: much more knowledge on zones and survivability in different climate types is in the freeze section than you will find in recent threads. Palms do grow differently in different climates. Some grow much faster in subtropical florida than in mediterranean climates and others hate florida humidity. So its wise to look for experienced growers from your area to discuss their success. I thought that was obvious, and its why I do mention florida as a conditional to an observation. Archies have grown well all over coastal California and some inland areas with less than full all day sun.

Here is another hybrid flushing. This one is Transvenosus x Horridus.

He's on thyroid pills now. Losing lots of hair. Still a puppy, i don't care.

Royals don't burn in the sun? I have my teddy bear palm exposed to sun most of the day it looks great. The Macrocarpa is tucked and gets only morning sun.

I have some of these planted in my jungle in Phoenix they are beyond sloooooooow!!!!

Royals are tough!!! My Chambyronia is in deep shade the Chrysalidocarpus leptocheilos gets some sun but the heat doesn’t bother any of them it’s just the sun that causes problems!!!