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Hello palmtalkers! I've already had some experience of germinating Butia and now I'm starting my second palm from scratch - Washingtonia, possibly a pure filifera. This is a motherpalm, located in Termez, Uzbekistan. This Washy is 13 years old and it's fruiting for the first time this year. At age of 6-7 it managed to survive an extreme cold snap in february 2014, with a low temperature of -22C (-7.6F), the lowest recorded temperatures in the whole region, and continuous 168 hours of subfreezing temperatures, this is what makes this specimen interesting. These seeds arrived to me Cleaned and soaking in the water

In the winter of 2018 that palm received some cold damage when we had two cold events in January. Other than that it has always looked pretty good. It's holding more leaves now than I've ever seen. Beautiful!

My Tifton Hardy has been a real winner here .

Actually planted these this spring. I planted a filabusta but a rabbit or something ate it to the ground. I also planted butia but it drowned in all the rain we got this spring. I’ll try again this upcoming spring. Below is a mule , planted as a two gallon maybe, it took right off without skipping a beat.

Placing a marker here to document this seasons Jubaea germination method. A few hundred seeds mixed with wet Hydroton in a styrofoam cooler. I'm putting the cooler on top of my water heater. My previous method of cracking the seeds open to remove the shell would have been too much work for this many seeds.

Hello all! Just wanted to share an update on my cuban royal palm. I planted this bad boy in the ground in March of 2020. This summer it has skyrocketed! I believe the bigger spacing means it's growing fairly quickly per frond.

Central to Southwest Texas. Kerrville, Vanderpool, Campwood, Uvalde, Bandera, etc.

Finally, someone helping himself to Butia fruit as I post.. Thanks for looking!

Congratulations. I remember well my B.alfredii at this stage. I was so excited that seeds from the highlands of Madagascar germinated for me!. Today :

I was on a walk today and found this gem hiding next to a hotel. Excellent microchip late (canopy, concrete, beach nearby). Gorgeous white crownshaft!

After a busy year, a time of rest in the garden. While most things have finished up for the year, and await the new year to come, the yard is never completely void of any color / flowers. Taking advantage of continued good weather ( so far ) and getting a few things going for the year ahead ..with more on the way. Awaiting a delivery of deep pots / trays and different seeds to play around with, on top of all sorts of other stuff.. anyway.. Yellow Necklacepod, Sophora tomentosa ( seed grown and survived 5 years in the desert, in a pot, so far ) Started a touch earlier than in years past, but full of flowers/ a few developing pods atm. Interestingly, appears these are attractive to the neighborhood hummingbirds as well. Saffron Plum, Sideroxylon celastrinum, Tough, extremely fragrant and dependable winter flower-er, just starting it's cycle. Unlike past years, 2nd of the two plants i have is finally old enough to start flowering.. Hopefully this will increase the chances of fruit since both are loaded w/ buds, top to bottom.. One of two things guaranteed to draw in Queens ( butterflies ) this time of year, Gregg's / Palm leaf Mistflower, Conoclinium greggii.. Found nice plants at a nursery for installing later. As mentioned elsewhere, Queen, Danaus glippus go nuts over these in the summer. Other plant, Sometimes referred to as Fragrant Mist Flower is more of a bush than a low growing Perennial. Other than that, flowers look almost exactly the same / are a similar shade of bluish lavender ..and attract Queens ( and Monarchs ) by the dozens. Unlike Gregg's Mistflower, Chromolaena odorata can be a bit of an aggressive seeder in some areas. In Australia, it is considered a noxious ( and much despised ) Weed. Early start seedlings.. Muhly sp. collected at Oak Flat. Mexican Hat Cone Flower, Ratibida columnifera, Picked up seed of a couple other Coneflower sp to trial here this coming year. That NOID bushy thing from Boyce.. after surfing through every Genus in the Rose family, think i may have found out what it is, though the Blue colored fruit is throwing me off.. ( everything else matches though ) Anyway, appears to be a species of Osteomeles, " Hawaiian Rose / U' uhlei " being the most well known sp. Other 2 < or 3? > sp. appear to originate in East Asia and apparently are cherished as Bonsai subjects. 5 seedlings up as of today, so far.. 1st of the Agave chrysantha seed collected at Oak Flat starting to sprout.. We'll see how soon others start popping. Other stuff down, but not sprouting, fully sprouted just yet ** no picts **: * Southwestern Pipevine, Aristolochia watsonii * Sandpaper Tree / Anacua, Erhita anacua.. Reading thru some research papers, appears seed on these has to go through a process of weathering before germinating.. Supposedly, 6-8 month old seed will germinate better than freshly collected / sown seed. We'll see what happens. * Eve's Necklace, another great small tree from Texas, from fresh seed.. Next up, once the deep pots arrive, 4 sp. of Milkweed, among other things, inc. a plant that many horticultural " experts " religiously assumed was extinct, ..and sterile....

Hey all, Its a blustery late fall day today and I’m doing some much needed maintenance on the garden. Here are a few things that caught my eye as I did some cleanup. Some Dypsis thingee, possible hybrid:

My friend @shminbabe has a c. Macrocarpa that she is worried about. per her words; the newest growth has “gone limp” It’s been cool in Atlantic Beach but certainly nowhere near frost or freeze territory. She has an amazing microclimate. does the palm look okay?

Yes I know Scott grows them as well and if I knew previously, I would have purchased through him. Mine is planted between two homes on the eastern side. It gets sun until about 3pm in the summer. It's not ideal, but so far so good. Oh and I give it a lot of water otherwise it won't look right.

Big double trachy

Trachy

A minor actually planted two of them

Sabal causiarum as a large liner, growing very quickly for a sabal

Washingtonia seeds germinate easily, I germinated over 100 this year 1. Soaked them in water for 4-5 days 2. Sowed in a mix of perlite and miracle gro palm and cactus soil 3. Set container on top of TV box and within 5 days they were starting to germinate, with all germinating within 10 days

Great find! Perhaps bodes well for @shminbabe in her microclimate just up the road. She’s growing spindles too.

That is actually fenestralis.. I planted it in 2003 as a 5 gallon plant. Is a bit “weepier” than alfredii.

Aechmea gamosepala aka Matchstick1 on a chinese fan palm in my lil rainforest

On 1st St N left of the Best Western and right of the PPR office.

A beautiful Acanthophoenix rouselii and a recently trimmed “California coconut”

Hopefully I get this in the correct order: Dypsis manajarensis crown and Rhopalostylis cheesemanii trying to break through neighbors canopy:

Yes it’s a Brahea Brandegeei. I’ve spoken personally to Keith (Owners Son), and he told me it’s a BBrandegeei. I actually purchased my Brandegeei there from him. Treeland has a bunch of different palms in the back of the nursery that aren’t for sale to the public. If you find Keith and make conversation and start a relationship with him, he’ll take you back there and purchase directly through him. heres my Brandegeei from treeland.

A short visit to Villa Thuret in Antibes (INRAE). It's a garden where many species of plants are acclimatized, including palms. Here is Chamaedorea radicalis arborescent form.

April 17, 2021, I obtained with permission the first batch of ripe R. Baueri seeds. I try to search all techniques posted by Palm Talkers to help my efforts lean towards success. I kind of already wrote these off as I've never had success after 4 months. Yesterday, I still went through the process of observing and 3 popped up. The photo only shows 2 as focus failed trying to capture the 3rd. The first photo shows the initial cleaned seeds. I will now be looking more often this week. The second batch of ripe seeds was started May 6, 2021, so I'm still a ways off.

The sabal genus is very interesting, it seems there's a whole bunch of strange sabal, some really not properly classified about which little is known. Some are crosses and varieties, Either way, I thought I'd compile the oddballs all in one thread to learn how to make sense of it all. I did the best in compiling the info I could find around the internet. Feel free to add info and correct. The only easy ones here are the ones that are different forms of minor - slow, underground trunk, inflorescence that stretches well above the leaves and small seeds. The rest are all some sort of mutts that have either been given their own species label or left to folks to guess around. No one seems to have done any thorough genetic analysis, except for brazoriensis, which someone was obviously curious enough to want to test. In this list, the most interesting unusual sabal seems to be tamaulipas, which has the unusual property of having a trunk that creeps along the ground. The fact that no one has bothered to give it a species assignment is disappointing. The other interesting result is that sabal birmingham is surely a sabal riverside offspring. Sabal brazoriensis Origin: Brazoria County, Texas. Species: DNA tests verify it's an ancient hybrid between Sabal palmetto and Sabal minor Hardiness: hardiest of the trunked sabal palms, reported to -15F. Trunk: max 20' tall Sabal Blountstown Origin: Blountstown, Florida Species: minor Hardiness: 5F Trunk: underground, dwarf maxes out at 18" height, only 1-2 leaves per year Sabal mccurtain Origin: growing in McCurtain County, Oklahoma it is one of the most northern growing plants found. Species: minor Hardiness: -20F? Trunk: underground, height to 5', slow, only 1-2 leaves per year Sabal 'Emerald Island Giant' Origin: coastal NC near Emerald Isle Species; minor Hardiness: 5F Trunk: underground, leaves eventually reach 7 feet in height, only 1-2 leaves per year Sabal Louisiana Select swampy areas of Louisiana and east Texas, where it grows among regular Sabal minor. Species: unknown, possibly a variant of minor, Hardiness: 5F Trunk: 6' tall trunks, fast Sabal 'Wakulla Dwarf' Origin: Near Crawfordville, Florida Species: minor Hardiness: 5F Trunk: undeerground, dwarf maxes out at 18" height, slow 1-2 leaves per year Sabal tamaulipas Origin: Tamaulipas, Mexico, 1500 feet elevation Species: unknown, seeds much bigger than minor, and is trunking, much faster than minor Hardiness: 5F Trunk: 4' long ground creeping, 6' wide costapalmate leaves, total 8' height Sabal birningham Origin: Unknown, possibly an offspring of sabal riverside. First identified with a large palmetto that grew in the garden of Eva Alexander in Birmingham, Alabama (hence the name), which survived many freezes below 10 °F (−12 °C), including at least one below 0 °F (−18 °C). One even survived -11 degrees F in Tulsa, OK. Speculation indicates the seed source for this particular palm was somewhere in California. Species: unknown Hardiness: -10F Trunk: same as Riverside Sabal Etonia Origin: Florida to Southeast Georgia Species: it's own species called 'etonia' because inflorescence is shorter than leaves Hardiness: 10F trunk; usually underground, but sometimes above ground with up to 6' of trunk sabal riverside Origin: Riverside, California Species: unknown, resembles both causiarum and dominguensis Hardiness: 5F Trunk: 30 feet sabal blackburniana Origin: hispanolia Species: it's own species - blackburniana or variant of palmetto or dominguensis Hardiness: 20F Trunk: 30 feet sabal lisa Origin: Southwest Florida, Fort Meyers Species: palmetto, mutation or variety, 68% true to seed, the rest revert back to regular palmetto Hardiness: same as palmetto Trunk: same as palmetto

Ok full midday sun it is. I’ll just leave it alone. Thanks everyone for the input.

What they're saying is you should not put it in the lawn ever.

Thank you!

That's really pale for a kentia. Were they all that colour when you bought it? The dry leaf looks like natural senescence of a very old leaf and nothing to worry about. Anything dry and crispy can be cut off without harming the plant. Not familiar with your potting mix as I'm on the other side of the world, but I'd amend any general-purpose mix with perlite/pumice/bark chips/etc. as they never seem to be free-draining enough for palm or cycads, whatever they claim.

Welcome back Tim - nice to see you posting again.

That's the same company I used to remove my Ganoderma infected royal sixteen months ago. I had a similar challenge, may be worse. The royal is over 50 feet tall, and have obstructions on all sides. 10 feet to it's north west is my roof. 24 inches to it's east is a steel fence. Non-replacement fence since the building code has changed, if it ever needs replacement or major repairs, the new fence has to be moved back three feet from the property line. 12 feet to it's south west is a fish pond with delicate masonry boulders and a wood bridge over the pond. There is no good place to fell the palm. I called the robotic tree removal company and they pointed out an added problem, which is a power line about three feet away from the royal, at about 30' high in the air, which means they cannot use an robotic arm because the arm will not clear the power line. The day of the removal they climbed up the royal with spiked shoes, first cut off all the fronds and dropped them one at a time to a safe spot below. Once the fronds were cut they are down to about 40' up. Next was the hardest part. They basically had to hand cut from 40' to 30' a slice at a time. So basically they are running a chainsaw horizontally across, and cut a slice about 10" or so in height, and cut all the way around. Then they lift that slice off the palm and pushed it towards the street, over the fence, into the swale area outside. They did this for the next few hours once slice at a time until they are below the power line. Then the grapple truck came, it's arm went below the power line, above my fence, and clamped onto the trunk. They made the cut at the base, the arm moved the entire trunk outside. That was three days before hurricane Dorian heading to Florida.

There were green, blue, and silver variations. I had thought the color was natural. But based on the other hybrids I saw, and the thinner leaves of some of the extremely silver variants, I’m wondering if it’s a hybrid with Thompsoniana or Rostrata? Thompsoniana is in this area and Rostrata within 100 miles of there to the west in Black Gap, and to south in Mexico. Yucca Rigida also grows to the south in the Mexican state of Coahuila.

I think a lot of people don’t realize there was a period of time in Afghanistan that people went on vacation there.

I have two favorites: Curved Washingtonia filifera

Turf be gone ! - always been more into plants that benefit wildlife pollinators over just greenery, so here’s my start. Water will be fully installed at some point... before July . cheers

My first palms were a bunch of Phoenix dactylifera from Medjool date pits. I didn't get into palms until my first trip to Florida. We saw Sabal palmetto and Sabal minor in the Carolinas and Georgia, but it really hit me when we got to Orlando with all of the neat stuff planted around the resorts.

My first pseudo-collectible was a Caryota Gigas/Obtusa. My first love is bromeliads, and I was happy about how much shade the fishtail palm gave them. I started researching other unusual palms I could buy (though in retrospect, the Caryota wasn't THAT unusual). That's when I discovered DYPSIS LEPTOCHEILOS ("teddy bear")... I was officially in love - and was very disappointed that I couldn't find a large one anywhere. Once I had resigned myself to raising my beloved D. Leptocheilos from a young plant, I wondered what OTHER palms I should buy (i.e., if I'm going to have to wait, might as well make it worth it). That research - mostly on Palmtalk - led me to a love of rare palms, with me happily snagging chambeyronias (macrocarpa watermelon & hookeri), archontophaenix purpurea, dypsis lafazamanga, and other "colorful" palms (I tend to favor palms with color, likely due to my bromeliad background). My most expensive snag (compared to its size) was a Dypsis sp. 'black stem'. I'm determined to keep it and all my other palms thriving, so I've been researching like a mad fiend, trying not to do anything stupid. There are a few more "colorful" palms I still want to get, but I'm now branching out into "weird shape" palms as well... joey palm, dypsis onilahensis 'weepy', three crinitas ('old man' palm), rhopalostylis chatham island, etc. My current quest is to find a "pandanus" (though that one's not technically a palm). My back porch is currently full of a couple dozen palms in sizes from liner to 20g, all waiting for their turn to go into the ground. So yeah, I've officially got the bug! Another key moment (since you're curious about the psychology) is when I realized that I happen to live in one of the most palm-friendly areas in the country, with my home being located in an excellent micro-climate. I certainly didn't consider gardening potential when buying my house, but it made me think that I would be stupid to not take advantage of one of my home's best assets. I also noticed that a ton of the palm experts on this forum lived very close to me. I figured that if they could grow rare palms, then maybe I could as welI. Two years ago I could barely tell the difference between a King & Queen palm. Now that I've done hours & hours of research, I'm able to see subtle differences between dypsis types, rattle off latin names like a champ, and spot all the rare palms in a nearby neighborhood (one that's more interesting than the tract houses in my own neighborhood). I find it fascinating how you need to educate yourself before you can "see" the world of palms. But once you cross over, you see them everywhere and can appreciate all their subtle differences. Thanks for welcoming me into the palm collecting/raising hobby. I'm having a blast. Stacey

Lightening in Florida and lightening in California are two entirely different things. This is why you never see really tall Wahingtonia here in Florida like you see in California. Just my two cents.

@NickJames When I looked at the tags a few months ago, the price was in the $150 range for one of the large pots like you had in your pictures. The larger ones tend to be more cold tolerant. In some circles, the theory is that the Jamaican Talls and Panama Talls are #1 and #2 for cold tolerance. I think the International Drive coconut in Orlando is a tall of some kind. If you want a Jamaican Tall (or a Panama Tall), you can get them from Calusa Palms Nursery at one of the sales they plan on attending. Just be sure to email the owner and request what you want so they know to put it on the trailer. Their information is here: http://www.calusapalmsnursery.com/ If you get a Malayan Dwarf at Home Depot, make sure to get the Green variety. The golden ones tend to be a little more tender from my experience. The color of the petioles is usually a good indicator since the big box stores typically carry Malayan Dwarf varieties. Fiji Dwarf typically have to be ordered. You could also contact Fairchild if you don't mind driving down to get one. Be sure to tip them well for their efforts. Whatever you decide to get, you'll maximize your success by doing the following: If you have a southeast facing alcove, that's a good spot. Protected from the north and northwest wind and the eave provides some level of frost protection. Slightly elevate the planting area to allow the coldest air to drain away from the base of the trunk. If you can gently elevate the planting a foot and taper it gently, it will help. Use a very dark colored mulch to maximize the amount of heat it absorbs. Stone works better than wood for this purpose, but it can get expensive. If you use C-9 Christmas lights, make sure to keep the bulb away from the foliage and the trunk so you don't get burn damage. Have some lengths of rope and some old blankets ready to wrap the bud in the event of abnormal cold. If the palm dies of something other than fusarium or ganoderma, plant another one. Since you are from Jacksonville and into landscaping, you might have heard of Earthworks Jax: Earthworks Jax YouTube They have some nice videos and professional landscapers. The Palm and Cycads expert, David Casella, is a great northern and north-central Florida resource.

This is an update on the palm that the "PRA team" discovered several years back and posted. Mssrs Matty, Paul and Bob stopped by and posted this amazing find by Bob and accomplishment by Mike Edwards the owner! I saw the owner Mike outside as I drove by and stopped to chat. He said he got it MANY years ago as a seedling at a Palm Society meeting. He said he had picked up a seedling to look from a trayful and moments later Mardi Darian swooped in and grabbed the whole tray declaring "you can't grow those"! Well, I never saw one at Mardis... He then told me his secret! He said he barely got it up to a 1 gal size and had a Avocado tree near where this is, he said the leaves and mulch he had underneath were starting to make some warm compost, he decided to clear an area and plop the palm down right there! It wasn't rocket, but it responded well!

Hello everyone, small update on my experimental Brahea. I am surprised that they are growing pretty fast! I transplanted first of them in a bigger pot, more to come soon. I like the small hint of silver at a base of the leaves. Could anyone confirm it is Brahea aculeata at this stage or is it something else? Thanks! Regards Ondra

Update to the list of successfully germinated seeds using the "delidding" process 5. Bismarckia nobilis (silver) The batch of these arrived in early july. Following the traditional technique they were placed in moist cocopeat. a week later 40% had germinated on its own. Since then the rest 60% was sitting in the bag doing nothing and signs of rotting began to appear on 1 of the seeds. The embryo of Bismarckia is located right at the center of the south pole of the seed which is very easily identifiable. Seed is enclosed in a very hard and rigid exocarp, resembling a walnut. No, i didnt use a nutcracker . A knife was used to break the bottom of the seed which separates safely from the mesocarp. It is a large seed and very vigorous when germinating, so dont bother to clean all the exocarp since it will not affect at all the germination process. The mesocarp is a leather-like layer encapsulating firmly the endocarp, and the embryo tip is obvious underneath it. Sharp blade again scraping around the tip in a circular movement and slowly lifting the mesocarp (lid) covering the embryo. Embryo is a sizeable one, and should exhibit a vivid white colour if healthy. 72 hours submerged in water was enough to initiate germination and the button formed perfectly. 5. Bentinckia condapanna Little, delicate seeds, appearing like a dried nut. received in mid July and since then none had germinated till last week (5 months) while half of them rotted away. The germination pore is easily identifiable just below the white tip of the top of the seed. This one also has a thin cover above the embryo and it must be lifted carefully not to hurt it. This one took longer to germinate and needed 5 days in water to start the germination. So far so good, and still none of the seeds shows any sign of rotting or degradation. Germination continues normally for all of the seeds. More will follow when results are available. Happy germinating!