All Activity

yea it was from Fast Growing Trees, recently they changed their policy and stopped offering a 1 year guarantee. When my Sylvestris palms died from freeze damage I got full credit because they advertised them to be cold hardy to zone 8, even though they didn’t make it. I deserved that credit back for those, I did everything right with them but they didn’t survive the natural weather of the climate. But yes unfortunately they realized it is probably a mistake to offer that guarantee and changed it to a shorter term one.

I love them too Harry, I've got a dozen or so in the ground in a big group, which should look pretty cool in a few years. I collected the seeds from a little patch of bush in Southern NSW, which is pretty close to their southern native limit, and I've got another batch from Eungella in Nth Qld, 1600km further north near their northern limit. Both lots grow equally happily here, so they’re clearly very adaptable palms! They love water!!

I find it difficult to imagine a guarantee on plants when a living thing can be subject to countless events, weather or human related. Get your refund or exchange while you can.

If you've already got another, then capitalise now, lol! Grow the smaller one on as your stock plant for insurance. The way the US is looking there might not be a market later.

Don’t get tricked into thinking that. The temperature by itself is not a good indicator of the future. As indicated by the arctic blast, we were about 80 one day and 25 the next. I’m not saying it will be freezing again but you really need to look at date, current temp, frontal activity, sun/cloud cover, etc… As for the palms in the pics, the small diameter ones are probably not going to make it. Larger ones have more reserves and have a better chance. You should know soon whether any will have a chance. If you don’t see any solid green growth by the time it is steadily warm, they are probably dead or not worth trying to save. Also, some palms will look ok for a while and then collapse suddenly. The damaged fronds are not repairable and the palm will need to regrow to replace them. You can try to add some fertilizer to spur some new growth but any growth will be limited until summer.

I think it would be better to get a new one.It looks very dead. but only time will tell , have you put hydrogen peroxide down the spear

This small windmill was planted 11 months ago and was doing fine until it had a spear pull a couple months after planting. It only has one mostly alive frond but has not produced any new fronds since the pull. Surprisingly this one frond has stayed intact for quite some time. Do you guys think it is dead, when I pulled on the trunk it feels more firm in the ground than it did when the spear pulled, as if it dug its roots deeper since then. My 1 year warranty will be expiring soon on it and was wondering if I should file a claim to get it replaced or if there is hope it will grow back.

Yes, no fertilizer gets near it, and time to weed! If I use mulch feral hogs will plow up the area, so no can!

I agree with @Jim in Los Altos. You are in Murrieta where summer and fall temps can be hot. Lots of water on that thing and it should come around. I never fertilize my Queen palms. We have a pretty nice storm coming so that will take care of watering for now . When the temps start climbing , just be sure it stays well watered . Harry ‘This was trimmed pretty severely due to our Santa Ana winds we get. This was planted in the wettest part of the yard . It was going to the dumpster at a big box store ,it looked much worse than yours in a 24” box . I gave the guy $25 for it . This area always had standing water ….until I planted the Queen Palm! It took care of that problem soon after planting. Harry

And yet, Bogota IS tropical! And S. FL’s climate—however “tropical” it may be—will never be as tropical as even a cool montane climate within the true tropics. I lived in Australia’s Wet Tropics for over seven years. Our house had an unprotected lipstick palm out front as standard landscaping. Before that, I lived in Florida. Both places had hot, humid summers. Both had dry, cool winters. 90% of the landscaping plants were shared. But only FL has its tropical gardeners worry almost every year about possible cold snaps. Not once in seven years was there a low in Cairns that threatened my plants. I now live in Tasmania, the coldest state in Australia. We’re at the equivalent latitude of Chicago. There’s a huge bougainvillea on our street (never protected), fruiting passion fruit in the city centre, queen palms, and even a few king palms! None is protected during winter. In other words, the lowlands of Australia’s coldest state is more temperate than north FL, and whatever you can grow in Key West may be grown in parts of temperate Australia well outside the tropics, yet few (if any) of such areas would be argued to be truly tropical. I love Florida, and, yes, S. Florida has a broadly tropical climate, but unlike such climates within the true tropics, palm enthusiasts are in for long-term stress and heartache because it’s not truly a tropical location.

It looks great ! I think it favors the Romanzoffiana side with that trunk. Harry

From did the best to did the worst: tier 1 rhapis buccaneer palms dyspis cabadae baby in semi protected spot tier 2 cyphophoenix elegans pembanas kentiopsis oliviformis (very exposed) triangle triangle teddy bear hybrid tier 3 flamethrowers florida thatch unknown clumping dypis tier 4 hurricane palms ( montgomery palms (tall and exposed) royal palm (most exposed spot) tier 5 coconut (these look real bad, crown too high to see in there) licuala grandis obi island I can’t tell yet: old man palm (somewhere between 2-3) bottle palm (probably a 4)

The title of this thread is "Climate of Extreme South Florida Truly Tropical?" The first perspective in your second paragraph is the only relevant one to this discussion and horticulture forum. The second perspective is irrelevant For the purposes of discussion here, nobody is considering Bogota tropical despite its latitude

About 2-3 years ago while poking around one of my favorite nurseries in Ventura , I found a neglected palm that looked different than anything I had in my collection . It had a healthy spear growth and one , that’s right , just one nice frond that had just opened . The others were brown and tattered. It was in a fairly large container and I could tell by the base of the palm it had a bit of age to it . Priced at $150 , it was a good solid deal…..IF it was healthy . But it was clear that this guy was less than healthy . After getting an employee to help me with ID , I asked “ how much ?” I told him I would be interested if he marked it down a bit. He went and checked with his boss and said “ how about$100?” SOLD!! Fast forward a couple of years and I am so glad I got it. They aren’t as common as they should be around my area . Easy to grow , unique costapalmate fronds , deeply divided. I was surprised at how quickly it came around . The growth rate is much faster than the L. Chinensis that was planted near it some 25years ago. This one willpass it up within 5 years I think. Just lots of water and sun is all it wants! Harry I am not walking down there to get a better pick so excuse the poor quality. You can see the Chinensis to the left . Such a beautiful , easy to grow palm with a very interesting frond.

This is a reasonable statement, but “tropics” in English means between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn; “equatorial” means at or near the equator. One could not call the Bahamas an “equatorial nation,” nor would anyone say that Townsville, Australia is “equatorial.” However, “tropical” Australia is only so referenced when it is within the tropics. The problem is climate types, which are a mix of flora, temperature, and rainfall, include the term “tropical,” and a such, S. Florida is a tropical climate, but it is not within the tropics and can never have the same minutes of winter sunshine as anywhere in the true tropics. From that perspective, even Key West is subtropical, despite its being more temperate in winter that high-altitude, inland parts of tropical Queensland.

I gave this palm a fresh haircut and trim - i have to say that it looks amazing that way

In the winter months that is. Tampico's climate is negligibly warmer in terms of annual mean due to hotter summers.

This!

As others have pointed out, the problem with this statement and criteria is it is completely arbitrary and subjective. There is no rule that asserts this. Your arbitrary cutoff of 50F means Cancun is subtropical. How does that make any sense? The only sensible metric to evaluate climate zones is the flora and fauna that can live in a given area, and only as a whole because you can always find unique species that are not even able to grow throughout the tropics. Tampico is within the tropics, at sea level, and without a major cold water current offshore cooling its climate. Its flora and fauna is tropical consistent with areas to the south. There is no basis whatsoever to claim Tampico does not have a tropical climate, and Miami's climate is warmer.

Definitely the burbs where people planted z10 fruit trees and tropical. The other issue is our grass got zapped so all grass everywhere is pretty much brown. Just adds to the depressing look.

I would cut it back and mark it for growth. Meanwhile give it peroxide in the crown twice a week. That being said, if it's Fusarium, there is no saving it. Plus, the fungus resides in the soil. Lets hope it's not that serious.

Normally, I wouldn’t have been too fazed by such an unfortunate end to a 10-day forecast, as I would have coughed it up to shoddy algorithms, but this year, it’s been a series of dire forecasts being realized. The way it’s been playing out, day 1 we get an absurdly cold forecast for the end of a ten day run. Next few days, it moderates. Then backtracks back to the original cold forecast.

🤭💪💪

If this happened to me Ione thing I would pour a bunch of hydrogen peroxide into the crown/growth tip area. This can help with fungal rot. People often suggest that here on Palmtalk.

It’s just unique microclimate I have that helps a lot, plus all the new palm varieties available now. Deep sandy Liam soil is what palms love with good drainage, the ocean air influence a large canopy cover with the Australian bush. These factors alone help the garden immensely. I have a few drawbacks in the fact the gum trees and some very large ones on my property drink all water available and store that water if there is excess for future dry times and a tad cool in winter. But apart from that it’s a palm growers paradise and if you add a bit of garden cultivation with water iam in a palm growers heaven. Richard