Leaderboard

I just went back and looked at the more recent speed of growth of my full sun(largest) Beccariophoenix alfredii. These palms start out kind of slow but I was surprised at the last 2 years, I had to check the file dates to convince myself. We do have a long growing season here and I have more recently been putting down a few more lbs of florikan on this palm so that might be part of it. But huge roots and never cutting off green may have combined with the florikan to increase the growth of this palm. Here it is in dec 2017 and dec 2019 and it was hit with one advective freeze 30F for 5-6 hrs and of course hurricane IRMA winds at a "mild" 65-75 mph for 5-6 hrs. BA was my least damaged pinnate palm in those events. So patience with your BA, let it get the roots down and make sure its well fed and in full sun and you might be surprised. My other BA started out in half shade which I removed the canopy and they are now growing very well. This was was always in full sun, the overhead oak branch was to the south so that tree, which has since been removed, wasnt shading the BA at 20' away. the second pic was taken from the opposite direction since I no longer have enough clear path to avoid the use of a distorting wide angle lens (from that direction) on this 25'+ overall monster.

Yesterday a yellowing frond fell away from my oldest (20 years old) Rhopalostylis sapida in the front yard and this colorful spathe is now visible until it pops open to reveal the inflorescence hidden within.

I got this one from Ken Johnson in sept 2011, it was one of his expert transplants from a home in the miami area. I thought it was a tad pricey then, about 4x more than any palm I have purchased, but now I really appreciate what I have, LOL! When it was planted, it was ~ 5 years away from trunking and was about 9-10' overall. Back then they weren't nearly as expensive as they are now. They probably cost 4x as much now. This one was beaten up pretty badly by IRMA in 2018 as it was in a fully unprotected windward position. It saw the strongest continuous wind of any palm I have, no buffering by other trees or the house. It gets full sun all day, sits in a drainage low spot, and is given a hefty allotment of florikan palm special 180 day controlled release 2-3x a year(probably ~25lb a year total) as the roots extend far from the trunk. The leaves are in excess of 6' long without petiole, they do take wind damage in hurricanes as the sharp thorns of newer leaves ripped up the older leaves during 5 hrs of 65-75 mph winds in IRMA. Its about 90% back now and pushing/opening a bunch of new spears and stands at just a foot or two over 20' tall. This palm glows/reflects and changes color with the sky as long as its out in the open, not shaded. Its brooding and pale green/grey on cloudy days like this pic and a powder blue/pale green color when viewed(sun at the viewers back) on sunny days. Mine was never as deep green as those pictured above. When it was planted it was elongated from being in too much shade and the crown wasnt so dense, 6 intact leaves and a spear at ~9-10' overall. It was pale green with a hint of silver, not much cuticle wax. But as it grew in it started to show nice blue/light green hues under a blue sky and the color you see here under clouds. Just after the sun goes down, it glows as well, something green palms never do, and bright moonlit nights bring it out, looming in its height. And just before the sun rises over the horizon, it lights up the yard along with my bismarckia. I love my pinnate palms, but none of them can reflect sun so many colors and color moods and mesmerize with the moire pattern of leaflets like this palm. IF I were to start over, this species would be my first choice, followed by C baileyana which is also a gorgeous palm in either blue or green phases. Crown size is a few feet smaller than bismarckia or sabal causiarum, but it more than makes up for it with its arresting outline and color. I made sure this palm has nothing too near it to make sure it got plenty of sun and could be seen against the skyline where the color and leaf detail is all the more mesmerizing.

Hello there, our coldest period this winter had 13C/55F and lasted exactly one day. We had another one or two days with 14C/57F but I think that was is it for this year"s winter. So, I got no real damage on my palms they just slow down their speed of growth. My until now best performer during all of our seasons - in the ground for about five years... ...my Howea forsteriana! best regards from Okinawa - Lars

Here is my Arizona grown fallaensis from the first batch of seeds RPS made available. aztropic Mesa,Arizona

First one looks to me like a Spindle, last ones look like Majesty’s

I like to lay out some empty pots and do my measurements based on the overall size when mature. I do alot of visualization & spend alot of time just thinking & looking at my design I lay out. Did some work today, fun times

Now that’s a beautiful palm. It’s nice to see Edward scissorhands is still finding work though.

True borhidiana are slow growers... especially under desert conditions. This pair is about 25 years old from seed. aztropic Mesa,Arizona

My Livistona fulva had no trouble this winter, both the one in the ground and the one in this pot. The latter had no protection at all and has come through so far with no leaf spotting or excessive yellowing. They were raised from RPS seeds.

I received some gifts for Christmas and actually planted a couple last Sunday. Last Autumn I removed a Caryota which had flowered so I had a spot for something. The palm is an Adonidia merrillii hybrid and my wife like's Cordyline fruticosa so I planted it adjacent to it. You can see the damage to my Cycas thouarsii x cupida from when I was taking out the Caryota. Well it's just a couple of flushes away from recovering. I also have a few small Chamaedorea species to plant and a 5 gallon Dypsis psammophila waiting for a little warmer weather to go in.

Copernicia fallaensis This palm has a lovely flair about it even Martha had to get a screenshot with it! has anyone had their hands on one or mind sharing some real photos? I want one!

2/22/2020, 1:30pm PST 17C and raining!

TJ let me know a week or so ahead of your trip and I will give you directions and a mini tour. Its a small yard(12000sf), but it has some good specimens of what I do have. Once again I'd like to thank @Ken Johnson for the fallaense and about ten other specimen palms over the years( kentiopsis O., satakentia, etc). He taught me a lot about palms and has always delivered outstanding specimens and great advice.

Looking good Jim.

We have only a front yard and our garden was a barren dirt patch only 4 months ago. Here it is now. We park our car in the big empty space, but left it outside the gate for the photos and while we planted our new manila palms. Our palms are: 7 manila palms (3 are planted as a single group), 1 bottle palm, 1 areca palm, 1 single trunk fishtail palm, and 1 clumping fishtail palm. I can't wait for rainy season!!!

Even by Low Desert standards, a very mild 66-69F around the East Valley at 10:40PM after reaching the upper 70s under partly to mostly cloudy skies.. Forecast washout for most of tomorrow is slowly building north from N.W. Mexico and Baja atm. Still looking at rainfall totals between .75 - 1.00". If Sky Harbor tops .45" after the rain moves out tomorrow night, it will break the daily rainfall record. Entire area is also under a Flash Flood Watch until 11PM tomorrow night. Anyone in town w/plans to attend any Spring Training games.. Fo' gettabout it tomorrow.. Clears out Sunday and another warm up begins.. 00Z GFS may be hinting at quite a warm up for AZ and S.E. CA as the calendar flips to March. Suggested potential for another round of, showery and cool 'ish weather looks to be giving way to a building ridge over the west. Some low/mid 90s even showing up around Yuma and El Centro ( CA.) sometime between the 4th and 9th of March.. Such building heat out there translates to temps in the 82-86F range here in/ around Phoenix if it ends up that warm. Let the madness begin??

I've killed all my triangle palms! URK!

Yes. It has been at my house since Christmas acclimating in my yard after coming out of their greenhouse which is about 4 blocks east and 1.25 miles south of me.

Here’s the triangle palm at the erstwhile Hooper garden

This resembles a 2-3 year old Carnegiea gigantea Hi 73˚, Lo 55˚

For my use they were actually better. I've had 2 Galaxy S-7 edge phones that were each dropped one time in a rubber cover from desk chair seat height that killed them. Now I'm on a Galaxy A-6 but the camera isn't as good as the ones were in the S-7's so I'm back to a phone AND taking the Nikon camera with me. uggggggg Like many people of a certain age I can't read the damn phone without powerful reading glasses anyway so half the time the damn thing is useless. I don't even bother trying to use the web with it. Oh, gotta go yell at those kids , "GET OFFA MY LAWN!!!"

Nice! Definitely a practice in patience. Love your Caribbean collection btw. Next time I’m in AZ I’ll have to see about a tour.

This one was a strap leaf 1 gallon planted in 2000. aztropic Mesa,Arizona

Bismarckia are FAST growers.This tree was a strap leaf 1 gallon planted in 2014. aztropic Mesa,Arizona

From 11 to 18 of july I was in Chile with my family. It is certainly the most civilized country in South America. Friendly people. Safe. A lot of different sceneries for different tastes. From Santiago , a millions city to Viña del Mar a seaside resort, to snow covered mountains in a trip and places with vegetation that looks like chaparral with columnar cactus and Jubaeas, like in the Parque Nacional La Campana , sector Ocoa. Some pics of Santiago, with Jubaeas, giant Phoenix canariensis and Jubaea

I’d have to say maybe my Dypsis Lanceolata, although most stuff comes through pretty good except for maybe a small Pembana I have; seems to have yellowed up quite a bit this winter?

Not nearly as good as the Aztropic real indigenous but seen on a drive-by:

That was strange. My picture did not make it on the original post. Here it is:

Also in Pandora are some huge Pachypodium (no pics) and some nice specimens of Pandanus utilis. The 2nd photo is my Pandanus furcatus that I grew from a seed and planted in my yard. I gave it to Disney in 2014 and they planted it in Pandora.

More Caryota obtusa...

Caryota obtusa, most are growing in the Pandora /Avatar section. They planted over 100 specimens.

These fallaensis seedlings are less than a year old for comparison. aztropic Mesa,Arizona

Seed size is almost 1cm each. Thanks for stopping by. aztropic Mesa,Arizona

I like these types of threads Front Door: Back door (note: the three over-trimmed queens in the back are my neighbors....it extends my palmy view):

Another spectacular preview of Spring around the Valley atm.. While some increasing, passing clouds have cooled things off a few degrees, most spots around Chandler.. and most of Phoenix are sitting in the 78-83F range. Before the clouds rolled in, closest 3 Wx stations to the house topped 83F. A few others over in Tempe and on the N.W. side of town topped 85-87F. With the clouds, should be a fairly warm evening ahead. Should hang in the mid upper 70s tomorrow as clouds continue to increase. Looks like the storm forecast for Fri night/ Sat. is going to be stronger than earlier forecasts had suggested. While things can still change, Instead of the .20" - .50" of rain suggested on Sunday, Rainfall totals may exceed .75"- 1.00" in the Valley, higher totals.. up to 2," possible in the foothills surrounding Phoenix and Tucson. No cold air w/ this storm either and temps quickly rebound back to the mid-70s by Monday/Tuesday.. Quite possible we're back around 80 by the last couple days of the month. Watching for one more shot of cool /cold air right around the start of March but not all so sure it will happen, here at least.. From the look of some longer range model runs, Winter 2019-2020 is about done for the lower Southwest.

Strange to see cattle grazing inside the park. I´m not sure if this is ''carelessness'' or has an ecological purpose to substitute the effects of ancient animals that actually are absent like alpacas etc.... At 1;00 pm we ate someting at the side og this stream

Monday 17, was our last day in Chile and we went to the Parque Nacional La Campana - sector Ocoa. With our guide Jorge from ''Jorge Excurciones'' we climbed to a cascade in the park, a walk of 2 h 30 min and and 1 h 10 min hours back to the park entrance. It was my dream to know this fantastic place , a ''Patrimonio de la Biosfera''. Big centuries old Jubaeas and also younger palms, a lot of interesting plants like Trichocereus , Puya berteroana, Puya chilensis. I saw a tree that is also native to my place in Paraná, Drimys winteri . A wonderfull flora located in breathtaking location.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Campana_National_Park a Campana National Park is located in the Cordillera de la Costa, Quillota Province, in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. La Campana National Park and the Vizcachas Mountains lie northwest of Santiago.[2] This national park covers approximately 80 square kilometres (31 sq mi) and is home to one of the last palm forests of Jubaea chilensis (Chilean Wine Palm), which prehistorically had a much wider distribution than at present.[3] Another attraction is the Cerro La Campana, which lends its name to the park. In 1834 Charles Darwin climbed this mountain, during the second voyage of HMS Beagle. In 1984, the park, along with Lago Peñuelas National Reserve, was designated by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve. The park is in the Chilean Matorral Ecoregion. Chilean Wine Palm groves occur in the Ocoa Valley. Other typical vegetation species occurring in the park include the Boldo, Litre, Peumo, Patagua, Winter's Bark and Lingue.

Jardim Botanico Nacional in Viña del Mar. Some healthy Juania australis and others not so.... A row of Araucaria angustifolia [the state tree of my state Paraná], giant eucallyptus, a moai from the isla Pascua

It might be worth getting a digital laser thermometer. I think they start at about $30.

It won't be that heavy at all, depending how much of the rootball and soil you take up with it. I have moved Fortunei in a smallish pot with 5 foot of trunk and would estimate the weight of them to be around 100 pounds. An 8 foot specimen with quite a bit of rootball and soil would probably be about 150-175 pounds. Good luck with it!

I googled "Giant Yarey Palm" and C. fallaensis shows up. I googled "Yarey Palm" and C. X textilis appeared as alluded to by Tracy and Palm Tree Jim. C. fallaensis has always been my all time favorite with glimmering fronds that almost hurt your eyes. However the C. X textilis appears to have the same glimmering frond trait. Truly beautiful! Sonorfans C. fallaensis is astounding! Whatever KJ charged, it had to be the best deal ever. Giant Yarey, C. fallaensis, Yarey or C. X textilis are all amazing. Thank you

There are lots of nice palm specimens at Disney's Animal Kingdon; hardy and tender. I was out there a couple weeks ago and took some photos of some of the more tender specimens. I didn't get any photos of Archontophoenix or the Chambeyronia in Pandora. Also there are a couple young Beccariophoenix fenestralis going towards Dinoland. Many of the taller palms have been growing there since AK opened in 1998. Licuala spinosa, Roystonea regia and a young Elaeis guineensis near the entrance;

I have never heard C fallaensis referred to as a Giant Yarey before. I was under the impression that C fallaensis and C yarey are different species (C yarey with a couple of forms which includes a "robusta" form). C fallaensis are tough to come by in California as it is almost exclusively brought here from Florida. Since they are at a premium there in Florida it is even harder to get them shipped here. Len, aka LJG on this forum, has a beautiful one out in front of his place in Vista. I haven't seen any recent photos of it but it was impressive in person last time I saw it.

It sounds like climate won’t need to be a consideration. Things to consider are water needs and sun/shade tolerance. You don’t want to plant a shade loving plant in full sun and you also don’t want to plant something that prefers to be dry next to something that requires a lot of water. Since you’re only planting one type of palm, that also won’t be an issue. It sounds like the only thing you need to consider is eventual size. Make sure they have enough room to grow. Also consider planting them in groups of various sizes. It will give it a more natural look. I also like to put things in strategic locations to create privacy. Other than that just put them wherever you like. Consider spots they can be seen from inside also.

Bonus shot of Dave at home with his magnificent Beccariophoenix alfredii. I told him that I would post this on Palmtalk, and he just stood up noticeably straighter with a big proud smile. Thank you Dave!