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They’re everywhere here on the south coast of WA which suits them. A few alexandrae too. Howea also look beautiful down here. A nice grove of bangalows are sweet.

I only started to really notice my garden ten years into it growing, that’s the big picture moment you see your garden forming. Now close to 30 years old my garden you really start to see it with time, and then the fun begins filling up all that understory it’s a whole new garden growing again in a garden, it’s a fantastic feeling watching it grow. The only thing is the older we get the better our palms get!

Well this weekend has been trialsome. -1.2C yesterday morning complete with blown away frost cloth, then 75kmh westerly winds took down a tree onto my shadehouse destroying my Dypsis onilahensis collection. 😔 I will rebuild though. Black shadecloth goes in. One less tree to bother me again.

Pioneer palms Cunninghamiana palms, the first palms I planted on my property. There’s plenty of them to see around this side of Australia. They look there best when group plantings are done I reckon. A single specimen is a sight to see, but a grove is even better. Winter photography is different than summer photography, in winter you capture more detail of the season, summer is different but the season details you capture in winter set the scene better.

All the best mate. A forecast like that would have me leaving for at least the sub tropics. 0C at 10pm!!! Wow. I’ve never experienced that before. You’ve done your best. Just don’t do what I did the other day and not check to see if your frost cloth is still attached and working. You could get an outdoors gas heater set up near your most tropical palms. That works. I’ve done it. If you do do it make sure the gas tank gets some of the heat from the heater because it will freeze up solid and stop the gas supply to the heater. I’ve learnt from experience.

Wow, that must have been cold to knock out baronii and ambositrae. Years back I had things freeze under canopy when the canopy wasn’t as thick and the plants were more sparse. My Hedyscepe did burn which was surprising. My baronii wasn’t touched. My Pritchardia hillebrandii and maideniana looked awful but grew back. Since things have grown I’ve not had such damage again. I do use lots of hardy gingers in the garden to be the sacrificial plant when things get bad. They grow back so quick. If they look ugly in spring cut them to the ground, chuck good soil or rotted chicken manure on them and water well and a few months later they’re all perfect.

Gorgeous photos. I’m looking forward to seeing scenes like that very soon. Archontophoenix cunninghamiana is the building block, canopy plant of much of my landscape. It’s common, but a well grown one is beautiful. A landscape full of healthy ones is stunning.

Microclimate and time is correct. It takes time to create a microclimate, as well as grow the garden. I’ve been here 12 years and I feel like I’m just starting. However 12 years ago, the place was so open that I could see the neighbours and when it was cold everything was in the firing line. Not now. The microclimate is growing.

A very scary forecast for tonight onwards first appeared at the end of last week, and kept getting worse. It hit a three nights run of -3C, -4C, -3C at its worst. If accurate was/are facing worst in about 10 years. This is the offical forecast comming from our equivalent of the B.O.M so had to take it seriously. However, puzzlingly, the main models EC/GFS etc all along have not/are not showing anything too crazy. The irony is that the forecast temperaures are pretty close to what has already been recorded at the met site eailer this month and my garden coped just fine and there are bannnas around town that look barely affected. The concern that is that the forecasts were only for -1C when that occured, it seems like the forecast tries to predict what urban residents will see, what gets recorded in a low lying open field out of town is much colder. Have they suddently decided to start forecasting for what the met site will record as the low? Spooked, I've done some serious erection of temporary artificial canopy, took most of the afternoon. The sky cleared before dusk and it is calm but the temp has not absolutely crashed, down to 3.2 at 10pm, only dropping slowly. I've seen it hit 0 by 10pm before. If this is going to be coldest night in ~10 years it's not stating as I would expect. Can't do anything more than have done can only watch it play out from here.

Those melt in summer here and my garden has never seen 30c!

I thought the same thing. I wish I had seen the original post. On a side note to anyone in the Orlando area - Lukas Nursery in Oviedo had a couple of these in huge containers when we were there in the spring. They had just arrived and had several feet of trunk. To say I was surprised is an understatement. They are generally not cold hardy enough for the area. The timing was bizarre too since we just had the worst cold snap in years. We haven’t been there since but I would assume that they still have them.

A vine that was scrambling along the ground.

Beautiful! What's this plant...I can't place it??

The peace and quiet and with a lot of areas inaccessible to the family car there’s always a spot where you won’t see anyone at all except for the animals!

True, true. I don't think I'll buy from him again. I bought a Veitchia Joannis and it was literally the only one I found on sale in Europe back then, so no choice.

They are not always multi stemmed . I planted one over 25 years ago that just grew straight up , single trunk. . It has never produced pups or offshoots. It was a very small plant that I got from a palm nursery near San Diego , California. Harry

With very unique plants that have adapted to cope with all sorts of climatic conditions, and relying on the animals for that symbiotic relationship to survive for a lot of species and visa versa with a lot of animals dependent on that ecosystem for survival.

Have taken your advice Darold and put them in small pots, fingers crossed. Noticed today that my G undata weberbaueri are starting to pop, so hoping for better results with them second time round, after fussing the last batch to an early grave!

The mid north coast of Australia a subtropical paradise. With thousands of hectares of rainforest that covers a fair chunk of it. Before settlement it would have been one very unique piece of land. Now it has been fragmented into isolated areas broken up by farmland. Much of it is either state forests or national parks with a lot of special reserves locked up for conservation purposes.

You can create a microclimate, if the conditions are to harsh its amazing what a canopy will do for that game changer. Microclimate and time are two factors that build a garden. Iam in a very unique position for growing a lot of tropicals and temperate plants. With the temperate stuff iam up against the heat and with the tropicals cold is my enemy. Now with so many great palms available it’s a bit of trial with a bit of error. Yes there are certain tropicals I won’t bother with but iam yet to really get into the temperate palms, as they become available I will try with them, but for now I will leave them up to the refrigerator growers @Jonathan @Tassie_Troy1971 and @tim_brissy_13 they have the real cool tolerant stuff that I can’t grow for now but that’s not going to stop me from trying. Also being realistic is a good approach as well, but as for the rule book it’s thrown out the window in my garden! A great example is I planted a Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana yesterday with 2 degrees celcius this morning, they are from altitude and I know they are cool tolerant and with spring coming up bring it on!

I did, very nice to see these hybrids in person. They also planted a Jubutiagrus on the edge of the lawn.

Easily the best palm fertilizer I’ve used. Great lasting results.

@Pdmesa did you end up selling the last two?

Good luck, and if it doesn't work out we can always try again.

Actually plant size is a bit deceiving, because it is disproportional to root size (smaller root size, larger aerial parts). You do not need special experience to imagine, what would happen, if you plugged the plant directly in to the ground in such condition. Whatever intial advantage relates to seemingly lower price, is canceled through the horrific transport fees. Long story short no need for us to beg for a deal with this enterprise.