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When I first joined this forum I didn’t know because I was too far gone. But I was going through bad depression because of work. I was drinking heavily but also obsessed with palms. I was using palms and this forum as a way to feel better. I’m very thankful for that. And this. Iam doing amazing as I got a new job within the company. (Huge company) I’ve taken on reef tanks again. As I did as a youngster. Thank you to everyone for your support. Thanks for the love. The YouTube support. My palms are doing well indoors here in southern Ontario. I did loose a few seedlings this winter as I have been taking care of my family. My parrots and my reef tanks. But I do get some dm as people ask me for advice for indoor northern growing and it makes me feel great!! I know I’m not on a lot. But I just want to say thank you to everyone for helping me get through a hard time in my life ! rob

Pretty standard 1/4 acre. Lots of palm density. I left a few genus out of my list like Jubaeopsis and Polyandrococcos. Here are a few garden shots...

Good afternoon! Today I saw a Variegated Washingtonia in Tempe Arizona, in front of someone’s business. First one I’ve seen in person randomly around. Enjoy.

I drove past a wholesale nursery south of Vero Beach yesterday with a section of Beccariophoenix alfredii. I know quite a few nurseries in Florida are field growing them now but I had never seen one. The most B. alfredii I have ever seen at one time.

After all these years I finally made a visit to Dave’s Jardin de Palmas. WoW! Beautiful specimens. I picked up 6 palms While there (3 C Radicalis tree form, Spindle, A. Maxima, Dypsis Lafamanzanga). A few pictures. Thank you Dave! Pritchardia Jubaeopsis Cafra R Oleracea with Chamies to the left. R Regia - I think this one has the moniker of "Spanky" ala Our Gang Licaula Tri-Bear Watermelon Massive Panoramic view Dypsis among the Chambeyronia

I badly wanted to cross the river to get some under canopy photos but couldn't face wet clothes for the long journey ahead. But finally I gave in and found a nice grove and went and got these photos. Jaw droppingly beautiful to be inside a grove like this with towering old Nikaus and their millions of offspring underneath. As observed / mentioned before - these have a very Howea Forsteriana look when under canopy.

When I saw this, I thought I was going to need a pacemaker. In all my years looking at palm parts and pieces, I have never seen anything quite like it. John Hovancsek and I were going through the garden when I removed an old leaf sheath off this Dypsis basilonga only to reveal the first spathe since planting. In this case, a picture is worth much more than a thousand words. Tim

"You know you are a palm nut when..." - ... you have palm seeds germinating in your car's cup holder. - ... there are coconuts rolling around in the bed of your truck and you don't remember where you got them. - ... you take a palm book with you on a long flight. - ... you have a bucket of common palm seed in the back of your car, along with all the groceries. - ... you bring a wagon, wheel barrow, cart with you to a palm sale, along with a cooler loaded with a day's worth of drinks. - ... you take 75 photos of the same palm. - ... your pocket list of the species you have is replaced by a list of the species you want. - ... your pocket list of the species you want is replaced by nothing, because you have it memorized. - ... you've knocked on a stranger's door asking to collect seed from their yard. - ... you have given a palm as a birthday gift. - ... you have received a palm as a birthday gift. - ... you stop to identify a palm while riding your bike. - ... you bought a palm because it looked cool, only to find you have four more like it at home. - ... you have created your own style of hieroglyphic writing to identify the origins of all your palm seed via their tags. - ... you have a 1-gallon palm sitting within the rim of a 7-gallon palm which is sitting within the rim of a 25-gallon palm. - ... you need to use a flashlight to give a tour of your yard, at two o'clock in the afternoon. - ... the utility meter reader is scared to death of entering your property. - ... you've had to pull a dead animal from the spines of your heavily armed palm. - ... you've had to pull yourself from the spines of your heavily armed palm. - ... you have forgotten where you have planted a certain specimen. - ... you find a palm in your yard you do not remember planting. - ... you clean out the marginal area between your yard and your neighbor's only to find seedlings of ten different species. - ... after the garden tour, you need to draw a map to get the attendees to the exit. - ... the space between your potted palms has shrunk to zero. - ... the seedlings popping up in the yard, belong to a mature tree above, which was once a seedling itself, belonging to an even taller palm higher up. - ... you dream of palms, awake and while sleeping. - ... you can see the crown of your climbing palm and have no idea where it is planted. - ... you have generations of hybrid palms creating themselves in your yard. - ... you can't find the tags you used to label your palms, because they were replaced by another system of tags which you cannot find either. - ... your cold sensitive palms are better protected than your pets. - ... you have created a custom moving system to transport your oversized Red Sealing Wax Palm indoors and away from the cold. - ... you have no hot water because it's been diverted outside to heat your yard. - ... you have Christmas lights around your palms, weeks after December. - ... you talk to your palms and hope they don't talk back. I could keep going, but I gotta eat. Ryan

This thing is loving the heat.

As everyone knows, 2020 was a crappy year. Here in the states, the covid stuff in conjunction with the election meant every possible subject was divisive and polarized. I think it’s really cool that throughout - I’d come and read palmtalk and find a total absence of that. Throughout the year, I’ve seen photos of gardens and noticed Joe Biden or Donald Trump, Black Lives Matter or Blue Lives Matter signs in a small corner of the photo (by virtue of being in front of a home). I’ve noticed subtle comments that indicate that some people are conservatives and some are liberal. Some people appear to be afraid of covid, others frustrated more by government measures. Despite all of this, however, this forum has remained essentially neutral ground. We are here because we love palms and sharing our information and our passion. I know that if I don’t want to hear this side or that get riled up about something, and I just want to know more about cool plants I like and other people’s experiences growing them, I can come here to be free from that. It’s cool that there is this small group of people representing a fraction of the global population who is still cohesive over the things they love rather than the things that piss them off. This forum, the people who use it and the information contained within has been a real bright spot in an otherwise dark year. Figured I’d drop this thought here.

This deserves an update! Since being planted at knee to waist high, the specimens pictured in the first post are now right at my head height, with some over my head (~6').....in only 20 months!!!!!!! They've been through: couple Tropical Storms frost on several occasions (light to heavy) 32F-35F multiple times Below 32F a handful of mornings (lowest is 27F) *three smaller specimens in the back are more recent additions to this grouping (added in Feb2020)

This is one of those Southern California winter days that’s so glorious it’s like a happy hallucination. Nice to get out of the house. Houses are really great, especially when surrounded by a palm garden. They’re really nice to live in, of course, but it’s also cool to be able to get up on the roof and reacquaint oneself with palms that have gotten tall. And, Happy Holidays to all! Here are the tall Teddy Bears, Dypsis leptocheilos.

I try to take photos of our yard every New Year's Day. I usually start great guns in our back yard jungle but often get sidetracked by my daily bucket list before I complete the whole 0.61 ac Paradise. This year I hope to be more diligent. Uh-huh. I started with general views of the jungle beginning from the vacant lot across the canal. World's Smallest Jungle, Cape Coral, FL 2021

I have been busy trying to eradicate as much of the horrible vine, pica pica (Mucuna pruriens) from my land as possible. This afternoon I called it quits for today and went for a stroll. Two surprises greeted me. The first was on my largest Licuala mattanensis 'mapu'. I almost missed it. Then I looked more closely at my only Licuala sallehana.

Hi everyone, I’ve been here a while but never posted much just taking advice from posts and admiring other gardens and palm collections! I’ve been working on my garden now for 4 years, when we purchased the property it was full of dead almond trees and we had to get a tractor in to clear the plot and access the house. It’s still very young garden and being so big it takes some doing but I’m hoping it will start to fill in as it matures. I thought I would load some photos as it is now. If you would like to see the progress I have an Instagram account dedicated to gardening which is TropicalGardenSpain. Would love people to comment what palms I am missing here! Climate zone 10a we don’t have frosts but temperatures can drop briefly to 0c for an hour or 2 coldest nights in winter but days can be up to 15-20c and we have dry winters and summers. Watering the garden and keeping on top of it is the toughest jobs and one I will be tackling this year!

Stopped to take some pictures while mowing the grass.

Well what a year, may 2021 be a lot better, can’t get any worse right, haha on a positive note Merry Christmas and a safe, healthy and prosperous new year to you all and keep building up ya palm collections, my hookeri and Kentiopsis Piersoniorum opening up simultaneously Cheers paul

So I put in an order with Floribunda early in the month, and it came the other day 2-day shipping. Everyone arrived reasonably happy, being well packed and secured. The box weighed 70lbs and cost about $90 to ship. UPS made sure to drop-kick the package 600 times enroute, but still the palms arrived in decent shape from half way around the world. Yippie! Many of the Palms are potted in tiny, jagged lava rock stones. So I made sure, in my haste and excitement, to fling a bunch here and there, sporadically around my place. I managed to get a few right outside the doorway, so that they could greet the full weight of my bare heel as I take my first step out the door in bare feet. I’m sure they will forever be with me now. I got some B Alfredii.. Cyphophoenix elegans.... Chambeyronia macrocarpa and hookeri... this is the type of Palm-crack they send to get you hooked. Areca vestiaria reds... Ravenea hildebrandtii... Dypsis orange crush... and Dypsis lafazamanga sprouts... Wish me luck....

I was lucky enough to spend an incredible evening at Mike's immaculate garden in Broward County, Florida. I believe he has over 700 species of palms and it's overwhelming. You can walk through it over and over again and see new things each time! Anyways, here are the photos! To see the complete album, click HERE First, here is a tribute to the native flora of the area. A beautiful Quercus virginiana (Live Oak) adorned with an amazing array of epiphytes. Calyptronoma plumeriana with burgundy petioles Tahina spectabilis getting huge Any IDea on what the ID of this Ravenea could be? Cyrtostachys renda hybrid matched my shorts! Veitchia look great when accessorized with epiphytes I hope you enjoyed the photos!

A few photos of the crew admiring Tahina spectabilis:

My boy was climbing our Sabal causiarum today and it felt like a good time to post an update on this pig.

Walking along the path toward the sun, I turned and captured this view... On the other side of the path, the young Tahina spectabilis was begging for a closeup. Farther along the path, Pinanga philippinensis looking glorious My tallest palms, Ptychococcus paradoxus, high in the sky

This thing never stops to amaze me. Dypsis carlsmithii. Three leaves just fell off, due to rotting infloresence.

Yeah they start out slow from a 3 gallon, but here is mine after 10 years in all day direct sunlight. Theis view over the 7' fence helps one to understand what a person walking down the trail in back sees over that fence and its not a small tree at the 10 yr point. they are big enough now that I have to leave the yard to see how tall they are lest my wide angle lens scrunch up the height. Pictured are my sabal causiarum and the bigest alfredii which are now within 2' or so in height at 25+ either one. They were both planted within 9 months of each other, the alfredii was in the ground that much longer and both started life at the same 2' height overall. The causiarum is a fast palm, a bit faster than BA but not that much faster. The beccariophoenix now stands taller than my livistona decora, livistona chinesis(almost 10' taller). Any body else have growth in time for your BA? At the 10 yr point I can walk under it easily without touching leaflets wich are 2-3' overhead, I dont think that is slow. The alfredii is closer so it looks taller than the causiarum but other view points say they are very close, (~2')edge for the sabal for now. I have 3 BA and when I planted them I was asking do I really want 3? Today I am so glad I did as they are stellar performers in cold and in wind. Some have reported some tilting at a smaller size but my wide in the open windblown palm, 20' overall at the time, did not tilt at all in IRMA and neither did the ~17' middle sized one in part shade. The deeper shade palm (with extra windbreak) that was about ~12' in 2018 did tilt a bit during IRMA with its less established root system and smaller diameter(half the large one) trunk. These palms do not elongate in part shade when I look at my 3, the longest leaves(~20') are on the biggest palm in full sun and the other two have leaves shorter and according to their overall height. The big one is about 30' wide in the crown, perhaps a tad(<2') wider than the causiarum. These are big palms when they are happy and trunking. We could help those who dont have an alfredii see what they can expect as this tree has been in cultivation only 15 years or so.

Here is my parajubaea torallyi planted as a small 15cm seedling in March 2010. Growth rate has been very impressive and now is setting seed. My climate here is cool Oceanic temperate 500m from the water lowest ever temperature is -0.9 C ( 31 F ) summer highs are rarely above 78 F and winters average 10c - 16 c ( 50 - 60 F ) closest comparable climate is Carmel / Monterey area south of SF California. This palm is growing in deep very well draining sandy soil that has been enriched with organic compost and seaweed pellets. on Irrigation for 40 min every 4 days except winter and early spring the wettest part of the year.

5 years ago I made my first Palmtalk post about my front garden, using a water rebate program from the state. The full post is here: Well, it's been five years and things have grown! I did add some things as well, but not as much as it appears. I hope you enjoy!

Sort of a miniature Clino for me, which makes for a choice palm. Growing in what seems to be solid rock, which I’m sure slows it’s growth, gives it great scale and a palm to look at and not up. Nothing like the glow of a Clino crown shaft. Tim

As usual, I took a walk through my container garden of palms and other tropicals this morning. To say I was NOT a morning person in the past is an understatement, but since I’ve become so into gardening, I can’t wait to climb out of bed before my alarm even goes off for work most of the time so I can check in on all my plants. 2020 was, as it was for most, and incredibly tumultuous year for me: COVID-19, cancer diagnosis within my immediate family, (everything turned out better than we’d hoped) cross-country move back to Florida, temporary salary cut because of the pandemic... it all added up to a slurry of stress and lost sleep that I’m sure many can identify with given the trials and tribulations of last year. I’ve always loved plants and I’ve always loved being outside. I’ve had palms in some capacity my entire life, but really being able to dive-in and get my hands dirty (literally, haha) was an absolute life-saver for me. Re-building my palm collection after a brief hiatus from FL helped me get outside, stay busy, and stay healthy both physically and mentally while avoiding large social gatherings and staying safe. You folks here at palm talk have a lot to do with that! Thank you all for all the help and advice you tirelessly provide that have allowed me to adequately care for what is now 35+ different species of palms in containers. Sadly, I’m renting this townhome and stuck with containers for now, (and seriously out of room, haha) but soon, the advice you’ve all shared will be put to work getting these puppies rooted in earth. I couldn’t help but feel proud as I looked through what I was able to accomplish and care for thanks to all of your advice and guidance. Thank you all!!!!

That golden light of morning really lights up the palms. Walked around with the iPhone this morning and this is what I saw... I wanted to get a pic of the just-planted Cryosphila sp. It was very root-bound in a 3-gal pot that had to be cut apart to liberate the palm. It's about 4 ft. tall at the tip of the highest leaflet. Just behind me the sun was lighting up one of my 3 Dypsis hovomantsina, getting very beefy. Looking eastward from the same spot, Dypsis lastelliana, Licuala peltata v. sumawongii, and a Pelagodoxa henryana lit by the sun's rays.

A few more...

This is what you buy for yourself for your birthday. My wife shaking her head in disbelief that I'd buy more palms.

By way of introduction, I moved to East Hawaii in 2012 after twenty years of living in Houston. I suppose I am an early climate refugee. Texas is famous for hot summers, but in 2011 Texas suffered a heat wave and drought that shattered previous records. Every day in August of that year the temperature in Houston was over 100 degrees (39-43 C). In olden days, Houston rarely got over a very humid 93 degrees in the summer before an afternoon thunderstorm would cool the city off a bit. I decided in a world of global warming Houston was becoming unlivable. I visited the Big Island to look at real estate and was surprised at the very affordable prices in the Puna District. I looked at the lava eruption risk zones, the rainfall at different elevations, and decided Orchidland Estates 17 miles south of Hilo was the right place. I bought a 3-acre property at about 700 ft elevation with a small house. I moved here full time in October 2012, a week before my 56thbirthday. Palms were not in my plans. I could tell the difference between a palm tree and an oak tree, but that was about it. My property was a 300-400 year old lava flow with no soil. It was covered with the native ohi`a trees and a thicket of invasive trash trees. I soon visited Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens (HTBG) and the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo and Botanical Garden where many amazing palms were growing. I assumed you needed special permits or licenses to acquire these rare, often endangered species. But no, anyone could buy them at local nurseries specializing in palms. My transformation into a palm nut began by joining the Hawaii Island Palm Society (HIPS). My first garden tour was Jerry Anderson’s beautiful garden in Leilani Estates. Shortly after that I visited Karolyn Lundkvist’s world famous garden and was blown away. There was no turning back. Then I visited Tim Brian and Bob Gibben’s spectacular palm garden in Hilo along with Karen and Dean Piercy’s jungle just north of Hilo. And of course, we are lucky to have amazing commercial nurserymen like Bill Austin and Jeff Marcus to supply an incredible selection of exotic species. Bo Lundkvist’s web site chronicling the birth of the Malama palm garden was quite an inspiration. Besides seeing what could be achieved in private gardens, I also discovered what a fun and friendly group of gardening enthusiasts was here. Fast forward eight years. I’ve planted around 150 palms, some of which are starting to get some size. During the pandemic lockdown I thought I should organize the many photos I’ve taken during the construction & planting of the garden. I’m posting on PT in case any palm nuts on the mainland were contemplating retiring to Hawaii. Do it! For my first post I’ll begin with some Metroxylons since they might not be widely grown outside the very wet tropics. HTBG has a trio of monster Metroxylon amicarums at the bottom of its entry boardwalk. If you visit the Big Island, you must see these trees. They are scary big and worth the price of admission. Everyone wants this species because it is the only member of the genus that doesn’t die after fruiting. I had to get one. Turns out they are hard to find. Below is a 5 gallon M. amicarum shortly after being planted in late 2013. The middle photo was taken a few weeks ago with me cowering below for scale. I anticipate it will gain about 2-3 ft of new trunk per year from now on. This is planted next to my front gate and gets a lot of attention from neighbors. The seeds are fairly plentiful on the island, but most people find them a challenge to germinate. I have probably tried 30 seeds over the years only to see them all rot. However, I did have success earlier in 2020 with one seed. I thank Mike from Dalbok Gardens for the germination tips. I recently planted it in a prominent location that should be eye-catching in another ten years (right photo).

Anyone else growing latania lontaroides in CA? I’ve had mine for quite a while now. Seems pretty trouble free.

I found some nice Acoelorrhaphe wrightii on Hilton Head Island, SC. They look pretty good to me!

Today we took a drive over to Fort Myers to see the two palm parks in downtown FM. One of them, on Martin Luther King Jr Ave by the former railroad museum is now the home of two formerly wild Sabal palmetto Lisas that were rescued from an I75exit about 10 years ago. The taller of the two palms has been my avatar since I photographed them in situ in 2008. Those two palms have provided many 100s of offspring to members of PT since then. They continue to thrive in their safe home and have grown too tall for us to access seeds except by picking them up from the ground. I saw both palms are flowering and setting seeds about 6 months later than usual. I'd like to find more seeds but have no idea when they will be ripe. Guess I'll have to stay tuned. I took the following photos. Note that the taller palm sheds all its boots and has a bare trunk while the shorter palm hangs on to its boots. Sabal palmetto Lisa x2, Fort Myers, FL, 09/21

Every morning, I get a warm sendoff and a wave from this Phoenix rupicola. I planted it sometime in 2014 or so. I love how it looks when backlit in either the early morning, or late afternoon.

Boy, what can I say……….. Tim

First discovered this flowering over a year ago now. It's been a slow process for this development. Unfortunately, the property had been sold so I'm not sure if I can follow this development of future flowers and seed. Hopefully so....

Here is a catalog of all the bigger CIDP's around London and their locations, so that they can be monitored moving forward. It also helps for people to know where they can find them exactly, should they be in the area and decide to visit some. Many of these CIDP's are not well known, so I will be photo-documenting and logging quite a lot of fairly large specimens in the city and suburbs. Starting with the one at Lambeth Bridge... River Gardens, Fulham Hollands Park Kensington These CIDP's on the intersection are fruiting profusely and producing viable seed... Another one further down the street... There's two big CIDP's outside Hackney town hall. They've been there about 20 years. Egerton Place It's in need of a trim, which will make the trunk look even bigger... Mount Street gardens, Mayfair Notting Hill Richmond White City, west London Clapham Next to a church in Ealing, West London. Next to Wimbledon fire station. People's back gardens in Bermondsey, south west London Wapping, East London Eaton Square... Islington North Kensington... Clapham again... Camberwell... Southwark... East Dulwich Croydon Apartments in Fulham St. Annes in Notting Hill Front gardens kitted out... Earlsfield Another in Notting Hill... A back yard in the London suburb of Leyton... Decent sized specimen in Walworth... That will do for now. I will upload the rest tomorrow as there are tons of other CIDP's in people's gardens/yards. I've barely scratched the surface on the London CIDP's yet...

The four of us; Jeff, Sujin, Kim and me posing in front of the largest Tahina spectabilis.

Masoala madagascariensis.

It’s the best place in the world to grow palms and tropical plants (but I might be a little biased!). Here’s a couple from my yard and around the island. some winter color

Here’s my pride and joy , maybe 15’ now

Had to get on the roof today to diagnose what appears to be a leaking solar water heater...grrrr! Good opportunity to take a few snaps while up there, though. Keep in mind this garden was started in 2013, on the main!

Here's a Pseudophoenix sargentii I grew from seed started about 20 years ago. They do well in the desert,but seem to grow much slower than under tropical conditions. Finally got it's first trunk ring,so growth should be speeding up at this point. I've grown dozens of this species and until a trunk is formed,I only get 1 new frond produced each year.After trunk formation,2 or 3 new fronds per year is the norm. aztropic Mesa,Arizona

A storm is brewing, can hear the thunder so looking forward to a nice downpour to reinvigorate the garden. Took some pictures to pass the time. Cheers

Went out to the garden, in order to seek serenity; and saw the palms mission accomplished! Show us your silver palms in the light of evening? Hell any color ... No flash

Common but pretty. I planted one this week. i picked this one out for its dark petioles.

This is a palm that usually grows pretty well for us in our area, unlike its cousin H. laugenicalis. Mine can hold 2 or 3 good leaves any any given time, but then winter sets in and beats it up and it then takes a full growing season to look reasonable again. So, this is about as good as it gets for me. Nothing like the tropics, but still draws a lot of comments. The crownshaft after a leaf drops off is awesome looking, purple with white wax streaks. Thanks for looking!