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My two R hildebrandtii suffered for years from no overstory, but now the bamboo and palms have come to the rescue. Plus, one guy whose name I always forget has apparently a red leaf that I didn’t recall….and T parviflora (supposedly)

My poorly sited, rarely vibrant C ophiopellis and geckos warming.

California should be a no brainer for big boxes to expand their palmy selections. Even here in Arizona, orange and blue big boxes occasionally bring in bottles,spindles,coconuts, Chinese fountain palms and foxtails... aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Bambusa lako shoot on the right center, emerging from the vines - two lighting versions, I prefer the warmer.

Daily storms. Two palms next to each other. No herbicides lately. Sounds like a probable lighting strike; especially in Florida - lightning capital of the world.🌩️⚡⛈️ aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Coincidentally, my own one just arrived this morning, seed and all, after a week in transit! Looks OK despite that. It will spend a lot of time potted before I attempt to plant it out. The first one I got was chewed in half by the damn squirrels! They didn't damage any of my other palms; guess they have good taste?

Along the front porch was (and still is) a mess. But it's somewhat less messy than this: I yanked the dead clumps of Cat palm and Elegans here and distributed some of the taller green/purple gingers. The two Peace Lily clumps are very slowly growing back. The dead stumps of Philodendron "Xanadu" seem to be regrowing too. Unfortunately the weeds are growing back faster...again. I desperately need to mulch this area and the other side of the walkway. Maybe by the end of the year this will grow out and not look so bad: Speaking of looking bad and weeds...this agave bed was completely clean of weeds on 5/12. It took a full day of hand weeding to go from this: To this: And the other rear agave bed took a whole day to go from this: To this: Most likely this agave bed will get demolished, as the freeze killed about 2/3 of the plants in this bed. I'm probably going to consolidate the agaves into the left arc and plant palms and cycads in front of the Bismarck.

There’s probably nothing you can do. Sudden collapse is usually fatal. I had a Veitchia Joannis do something like that. One day it looked beautiful and the next day I went outside the crown was on the ground. It was rotten inside but you never would have known.

Just to the left of the above photos I redid the main entrance walkway. On one side I decided that I really disliked the Bambusa Multiplex "Rosa." It was infested with aphids and sooty mold, and attracting large numbers of aphid wasps (ok) and yellowjackets (not nice!). It was just kind of "meh" looking and had to go. The clumps of lilies just below it became the new row on either side of the walkway. They were from my great-grandmother's place in Texas, planted sometime in the 50s. I've tentatively ID'd them as Crinum Lily "Regale," but will have to wait until they bloom again to be sure. From further back at the entryway the two clumps of Orange Bird of Paradise went to a more shady area (they don't seem to want full sun here), and I split up the 3 big lily clusters in a row on each side. On the left I moved a Zamia Nesophila from the sun (next to the pot) over to the other side of the Encephalartos Whitelockii where it's in AM sun/PM shade. It turned back green almost immediately. The purple cannas to the left of the pot went out into the front yard island, replaced with some Bordelon bananas. The pot is my last Attalea Brejinhoensis from Neil in Cocoa Beach. The bottom right corner Licuala Grandis might be d-e-d, but I'm waiting for a while longer to see if it'll push a new spear. And this is the "after" shot, with a row of lilies along the path. Just behind from L to R is a Ptychosperma Salomonense double, a Philodendron "Evansii," Bordelon bananas behind them, Attalea Brejinhoensis, d-e-d stump of the Beccariophoenix Fenestralis, another Salomonense double, a concrete dragon's head, and pre-existing Dioon Tomasellii. You can see the massive dead Jesse Durko culms in the right background.

Over the past month I've made a LOT of changes. The majority of the plants that died are actually agaves and cacti...strange. In the front yard most of the palms and cycads are growing back. The only ones that died were generally small seedlings or known not-hardy palms like Bottles and Spindles. A couple of them (like a few Gaussia Princeps and Satakentia) I should have left in place and waited to see if they'd actually recover from spear pull. In the front bed on the house side of the driveway I had about 73% burn and lost 28 out of 175 plantings or 16%. Deaths were: Dypsis Basilonga x2, Dypsis Cabadae, Ravenea Hildebrandtii x2, Pytchosperma Elegans, Archonto Cunninghamiana triple, Cham. Elegans 3 clumps, Cham. Cataractarum 1 clump, Arenga Hookeriana, a 6-7' trunk Spindle, a Lanonia Dasyantha, Arch. Alexandrae, a small Alfredii, Reinhardtia Latisecta, Burretiokentia Vieillardii, Kerriodoxa Elegans, Actinokentia Divaricata, a small Spindle, Satakentia Liukiuensis, Cyphophoenix Nucele x2, Chamberyonia Watermelon and 2 Hookeri, Arch. Maxima, Arch. Cunningham double, B. Fenestralis, agave Blue Flame, and agave Blue Glow "Mediopicta Aurea." Along the driveway I decided that I'd had enough of hassling with the "Jesse Durko" bamboo. It routinely defoliated and at 22.5F lost 100% of the culms...and started growing back again as a big shrubbery. Instead of fighting with pruning it back from the driveway for the next year I took 3 days and dug it out. I cut down the dead culms first, leaving this: And then a 9" carbide reciprocating saw took a day to slice and dice and clean up the rest: And I replaced it with a division of Gigantochloa Luteostriata #4776 and a couple of Philodendron "Little Hope" transplanted from the backyard. The new bamboo sits about where the old Archontophoenix were planted. Hopefully it'll be far enough from the driveway to not be a daily annoyance! You can see the Ficus Auriculata quickly growing back on the left...and a bunch of weeds starting to take over again...sigh...

Thanks for the background story, that palm has a lot to live up to. May, ‘The Force Be With You’, Lars. Tim

Good growing, good going Dale. Keeping tabs on you, ya know. Tim

Those are impressive specimens Alberto and the growth equally so. Not having to irrigate pretty sweet eh? Tim

Hello, I live in southwest Florida and we have daily storms. I have many palm trees in my yard and no others are affected. I have not applied anything to the ground recently. Attached at two photos.

My Bottle and Spindle survival ratio isn't that great this year. I lost 3 big Spindles (one with 6-7' of trunk), one small Spindle, and trunk cut too far on one Bottle and killed the bud. Survivors are two trunk cut Bottles, two semi-protected Spindles, one small Spindle and a big Bottle that I didn't touch. Cutting and treating with hydrogen peroxide + Daconil did seem to help. Ones that I didn't touch (with fungicide or cutting) basically all died. So in the future I'll probably trunk cut earlier...but not so far that I chop into the bud!

I checked on it today, the wrinkle doesn't seem to be progressing, it doesn't feel soft either, it isn't browning either, it has stayed green so far. The stipules seem to be moving a little. The dead part was only the top (newest growth). It was not a big plant, dead leaves on all plants were dark green, not brown.

Photos. It's hard to get scale, but the trunk is actually quite think - ~10 inches diameter. And the inflorescence is impressively big. It expanded a LOT after it first opened up.

I have a palm that I grew from seed from Ortanique just before they closed, I believe ~2007/2008. It was called Dypsis 'andavaka'. It looks just like bef/slick willy but mine is single trunked and as far as I know the other palms from that seed (that I distributed way back) were single trunked. Mine happens to have just thrown its first inflorescence alsom, something in the air I guess. The coloration looks a little different than Nick's but not sure that means anything. I generally think it's the same species. Will post photos...

Good news on that! Harry

It will be interesting to see the difference between the two as time goes on . Harry

Nice score . I hope you’re able to bring it back, it will certainly test your patience. I just wonder why the Lowe’s in your area has way better selection than the one in Ventura ( Southern California )where most palms thrive! Our Lowe’s has just generic palms , not elven anything close to collectible. Poor quality and limited selection. Harry

Scott, other than the obvious that California sucks and I don’t really blame you for not dealing with our stupid laws…..is there a reason why you can’t ship to CA or just you don’t want to? I’ve got plants shipped to CA multiple times from FL. -dale

Palmeraie-Union is pleased to propose you the brand new issue no. 55 of its associative magazine Latania. On the program: visits to Reunion gardens and incredible botanical stories from all over the world. The Latania 55 is available for download at the following address: https://www.palmeraie-union.com/latania_pdf/latania55.pdf For memory, all issues of Latania are now available at the following address: http://www.palmeraie-union.com/latania.php Very good reading

I don’t know what it is but to me, Decipiens looks fantastic as a double planting. It’s already quite the statement palm but two really makes it look great! That is a perfect set with awesome growth. Funny to me no irrigation is required. Must be nice! 👍🏻 -dale

Thank you!! 👍🏻 Here’s my backup plan. Got a single leaf sprout from FB last year. Happy it’s still alive. -dale