All Activity

Nice to meet you! Good to hear they're doing well for you

The Arenga micrantha in Chch botanical gardens (not added to the last post so as not to delete what I had written again!)

Monostachya looks cool, hopefully it does well. I had to look it up, had never heard of it. No clue if it's gettable in NZ! A. micrantha is a stunning palm. I bought 20 seeds a couple of months ago but nothing has happened yet unfortunately. There's a stunning plant in the botanical gardens in Christchurch so it must be pretty cold hardy. It snowed there today!

Turns out if I write a post then insert a pic it deletes all the text when I posted it.... I just wrote a reply talking about how chilly it is now, but at least NZ still looks quite tropical! This is Punakaiki today at about 42*S before dropping to about - 1C tonight. We definitely have our challenges with climate, but there are plenty of cool temperate and tropical highland plants that do well here, as long as we can get them!

Iam impressed with them that much I got 110 seeds to get a few more around the garden!

Another victim to cool weather, Areca warburgiana. No harm in trying i say!

Try a bit of a soil wetting agent, detergent mixed in with some water even. Seaweed extract as soil conditioner and plant tonic (vitamin b) I reckon the soil might be a bit hydrophobic perhaps. But do try a soil wetting agent. Other than that leave the hose on for two hours a day if the drainage is sufficient.

Perhaps they just don’t match up in timing, I know I have 3 female plants, but they are ranging from 7 feet to near 14 feet in height. Also they are planted in rows not in a clump but that shouldn’t matter I think!

A couple of container palms in the collection. roscheria melanochaetes dypsis fanevaGeonoma mooreana linospadix monostachya

You got me on the micrantha, not even I have one in my collection yet ! Nice palms!

Just the tip of the Joey iceberg, with over 1000 of them you soon learn a trick or two with them!

It does have a nice heel if you look closer behind the stem. I will go with your suggestion and plant it asap, at my rate next week in my climate 🤣 The soil mix is a heavy river sand based mix, my high iron water might be a culprit in this case, but I have never had any issues before with my water. Argh growing palms it never ends, I also like to purchase 2 or more of any variety in my collection, having more you can tell if it’s just one palm playing up, just o e single individual it’s hard to tell if grower mistakes or just climatic conditions giving the palm a hard time. Thanks for the tip!

Possibly, but it’s the second winter season here. Iam not that impressed with the soil mix it came in. Richard

A nice sallaca, variegated lanonia dasyantha, dypsis Pembana all looking good in the garden.

Yellow Latania

It’s just a hybrid either way ☝️

Great pics. That’s enough to show it doesn’t match any single Archontophoenix sp. I’d be confident it’s A cunninghamiana x A alexandrae (or A tuckeri, A maxima or A myolensis less likely) or reverse.

The big Chrysalidocarpus species are notoriously tricky at that size Richard. I think they need a unique combination of warmth, great drainage and also good soil nutrition. I’d be tempted to bare root it and have a look what’s going on under soil level. I can see it’s developed a good size heel already. It may be that the growth point is too far under soil level and its promotes rot. I’d also be tempted to put it directly in the ground in Spring after raising its level a bit. I’ve had them respond well when allowed to spread their roots. A friend and former Palmtalk poster gave me a C malcomberi that was languishing in a heated greenhouse for years. I put it outside in a sunny spot in the fridge down here and it’s starting to look good, even during winter.

Anything from Cuba grows great here. Coccothrinax species make nice smaller specimens. In the same vein, native palms like Pseudophoenix, Thrinax radiata, and Leucothrinax. Satkentia look very tropical and grow easily. Teddy bears and Chambeyronia Oliviformis grows easily here. All of these are one step up from the common palms, and grow and look great in South Florida with basic care. Lantania loddigesii. Dictyosperma Album grow well. Some silver Serenoa repans for bushy coverage in dry sun spots with bad soil. . Chaemedorea Metallica as under growth in shady spots. Bromeliads, Ti Plants, Crotons, Yellow Shrimp plants and many others as accents. You can get much more exotic, for much more work and water expense. And sometimes not as great results despite this. But what are you working with? A wide open sunny yard, partially shaded? Sandy beach soil? Marly canal dredge out west. Tons of space or little space? Look at your sun exposure and soil. Pick what fits that.

Same with my glaucifolia female plant.

@Chester B I’d be curious to hear if you ever planted it in Texas and if it ever revealed what it might be lol

Well maybe the Winter is stressing it? Harry

I don't think it would survive your long cool winters. If you grew it in a pot with bottom heat, it would make it, but not in the ground. However, CA doesn't allow me to send you rooted plants anyway.

No the trunk is not green, it's brown, it's about maybe an inch in diameter at the base, maybe a half to three quarters of an inch towards the top. But it's brown shows distinct nodes where the leaves have fallen off, maybe four and a half or so feet tall no signs of forming any branches at all.