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Looking great Tyrone...that's going to be super nice when they all start trunking. Do you get frost in that area?

And a Nypa!!

I had a pretty bad event recently. They got in my greenhouse and destroyed a bit of valuable stuff, but I only discovered later that they got to my south facing garden on the blind side of my house which I don’t check often. My female Chamaedorea Metallica is likely done for; a chewed hole through to the growth point and spear has pulled. And check out the pruning job they did on my Cham elatior pair - like a bad haircut! Luckily they left the growth point of the C elatiors though.

I’ll take 5 if some are available, shipped to 90712

That palm is living life on edge, and to its fullest potential!

Nice plant, a great score. You can take cuttings from the young growth before they start to get hollow, but they are tricky to strike!

I wish I had wet soil like that, prime Johannesteijsmannia real estate. Raised beds would be a game changer for you. And as far the weeds go it depends on what type they are, but some weeds give a ground cover and that green look.

Evening everyone, just wanted to chip in about cocos if I may, I was stationed at NSC Oakland in the Bay Area, and in San Francisco, I did notice some palms (looking like cocos) but wasn't, it almost looked identical to cocos, but it was a Coquito palm) nuts the size of an acorn, if I remember correctly, or slightly larger, I don't remember the taxa exactly, something like Torry palm, or something like that. And I remembered after accidentally coming across this palm on a web page a few short years ago. They're supposed to be native to the Andes mountains, I believe a couple thousand feet up or so, but not too cold for growing other palms and the like as well. In fact, San Franciscos climate is very close to certain parts of the Andes, without having the altitude like some of the Andean cities with a Mediterranean climate like San Francisco, and these palms can handle cool periods in the winter, (I've heard some of these palms have survived lows in the Andean regions of 25°F for short periods without any damage) when I was in the Bay Area, it was generally in the upper 30s to low to mid 40s on some winter mornings, but usually mid to upper 40s, and during the days of winter, it was generally in the low 60s (61°-63° to be precise of my memory in the late 1980s to early 1990s. As for the Torry or (Torrey palm, this might be the correct spelling for the taxa) if you're patient enough to cracking open the small nuts, it's been said to have the same (if not very close taste) of coconut, and in Puerto Rico, the coquito nuts are used in drinks they make there. If anybody has anymore info on these very attractive palms, please let me know; in San Francisco nurseries throughout the bay area, they are available. Please keep me informed of any info on these palms, and take care, and Happy growing.

Stick with the hose Harry, a moat might attract sir Lancelot from Monty python, something about a holy grail and a bunch of nuns, and a rescue mission gone horribly wrong for sir Lancelot. Zoot I think her name was.🤣 Richard

If the question you are asking is, you want to remove the palms in your picture? Yes quite easily depending on a couple of things, how much labour you want to put into removing them, or can the palms be accessed by machinery. Looking at the photo you could cut them down and let them rot at ground level, job done and time is your helper. Or you could cut them down and manually dig the remaining trunk and root ball out with a lot of muscle involved. Last effort cut them down, get a machine in remove all the brick walls that are the large container they are sitting in, dig the root ball out, replace the whole site with a bit of flash landscaping and perhaps a better choice of palm or plants. Or just level the lot and a nice clivia border to match the garden behind the palms.

Pretty well much anything from Australia has to good, and the good old Bangalow is one example of such greatness Australia has to offer, that and vegimite!

They already have about 35 years ago when I got into palms. 🤣

Hooked is not the word completely obsessed with palms and anything related to palms more like it! Richard

This came straight from Australia (the seeds) I made about ten of them

I’ve had rats chew my Chamaedoreas up. Some will defoliate them, others will chew through the trunk and leave the rest dead on the ground. Monsters.

They’re coming to get ya. 😜🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴🌴

Although not in this picture or area I’ve found that Archontophoenix purpurea loves growing in full sun at least until about 2pm in boggy soil. Those I’ve tried in shade just languish and do nothing in my climate. Put em in the sun in a boggy pig sty and they wake right up. Just like Ravenea rivularis.

Here’s my little grouping. Excuse the weeds. They go mental when it’s wet. The ground is sloppy and saturated and water runs out of this area all winter. These pictures were taken a couple of mornings ago when it was about 2C. Brrrrrrrrrr

I would say definitely try Hyphaene, but if you’re only going to be there for five years you probably won’t have much return by then.

Water has much higher heat capacity than air or soil so I guess it would moderate root temperature somewhat. Maybe even at the fronds it might help surface temperature just that little bit to avoid heavy frost settling. Definitely an interesting observation. You’ve convinced me - maybe it is worth a go with R rivularis. Would say full sun is a must though. While you’re at it, give the same strategy a go with Dictyocaryum and Cyrtostachys renda 🤪

Spoil sport, why let reality get in the way of a good theory! I'm sure you're probably right in all seriousness...the scenario in the pic below is so tantalising though, reclinatas in a pond in the middle of winter, there was frost on the ground all round them this morning. I planted a couple out years ago in my dry sand in full sun and they were destroyed by frost, which is why I didn't bother with these ones, so what's going on here? The pond itself is way too small to moderate the temperature, so is there some other factor involved? Does full hydration in winter build stronger cell walls? No idea and probably just BS but interesting to contemplate. For reference, other species that I've had sitting in water all winter include: Archontophoenix cunninghamiana, shade Sabal bermdana, sun Livistona nitida, shade Livistona australis, shade Probably no great surprises there. Someone send me 20 rivularis seedlings to torture please!

Here's mine in clay

I’m definitely not trying to under play the importance of water to R rivularis. It’s a water hog and enjoys swampy conditions when it’s warm. Tyrone’s winter averages are significantly warmer than mine. He’s closer to Sydney averages than mine, and I’m closer to you than Tyrone. It doesn’t surprise me that R rivularis could grow nearly in standard water there, but it seems to be a different story for me and I suspect it’s just that routinely getting down around 2C or so and being boggy might be the combination that it wouldn’t like. All that being said, I haven’t tried in a truly boggy spot so who knows. They are common and available enough to give it a go so why not!

Great looking palms . Harry