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Pretty mild here today and pretty much rained the entire day. Yesterday we had heavy and steady rain all day. Supposed to have been getting snow by now but no sign of it yet. Tonight will still be above freezing so another 24 hours or so before some freezing weather. Most everything has been protected. Just a couple small things to do tomorrow. Merry Christmas everyone. Here’s a picture of the only conifer I own!

Approximately a 2 year update on my K.O. Fair speed I suppose.

Over the past 30 years of so I've been terracing my stream slopes. There is probably a 15-20 foot drop from the level lands on both sides of my "stream" depending on where you are on it's 600 + foot long run through my long narrow 2 acres. The easy lower slopes were done years ago when I could drive my old truck down and along it to haul in rocks from anyplace I could find them. I'd be driving along the road and I spotted a rock on the side I'd pull over and pick it up. Sometimes after big rains and slides I could get a truck load. What's left now is the last 5 or 6 feet on one side and it's the steepest and hardest to terrace. There are dozens of scrub haole koa trees that in the winter are in full leaf but in the dry summer lose just about all the leaves. I'm in the process of trying to create little terraces to plant a tree that will someday shade the lower slopes after I cut down the scrubs. Worked on the little spot today to plant an avocado from a fruit I picked up in the mountains back in October. Yea I know it may produce junk fruit but all I want is shade. In two months it went from a seed to about 2' tall. I have two others in other locations that were planted a year ago and they are both about 4 feet tall. Wish me luck that I don't wipe out my "old" body scrubbing around for rocks and moving them. A lot can be done if you are careful rocks just a bit larger than say two fists. The biggest rock in the picture was already there and so I worked with it to form the little terrace.

The snow touched down here around 2 am. It is close to 3 inch, the temp is around 29F

My low last night was 32F with 2 inches of snow.

Here is my 8 year old sabal blackburniana. At least that is what it was labeled as when i purchased it. 5 years ago it was barely peaking over the block fence and has since taken a liking to the AZ heat.

31f. 5" of snow. Last night overall low 29.6F. They forecasted 25.

Looking good. I planted a one gallon Bentinkia condapanna in October of last year. It's under some cheap shade cloth from HD but it's doing fine. Thinking about removing the cloth. The pictures are 11 months apart.

These were pics of the Bentinkia six months later (from July 2021) so not tons of growth but I’m happy to see it continuing to do well in my area. Will maybe go for the one year photo as well next month. I just really like the coloring so I felt like sharing.

Ryan i love that big wall of windows and nice tall ceiling. The forecast continues to get a little milder each time I check it. Threw some upside down flowerpots on a few thing. The only things I really spent time protecting were the Butias, and I enclosed my covered corner with the Syagrus and Butiagrus, there's a heat lamp in there and I think it will stay above 32f in there. Bryan thanks for posting those pics!!

Just wanted to share a few pictures that highlight my Kenti-O. I am constantly taking pictures of my palms as I am sure most of you do. Sometimes I like the way the pictures come out and want to share them. I really liked the natural lighting in the first three pics. It is finally starting to show a little growth for me.

-9c my low for today but tonight it supposed to go down to -12C or 11F. Arctic outflow warnings still in effect for my area. The winds where howling yesterday night and I’m sure they will be back tonight. I’m sure a lot of damages will be done in the next couple of days .I’m glad I pulled out my mule, sabals and jubaea which were all seedlings.

Yesterday to this morning! 25f with 6” now and not looking like stopping. Lower temps coming. Gonna get a little crazy. 2 big fortunei On their own. 18f forecast should be ok I shake off the snow every couple hours to keep from weighing down.

Well it worked! The AC condensate drain has managed to keep the soil cool and moist enough to ensure the Embothrium I planted in spring survived and thrived. I made sure to work a lot of sand into the red clay it got planted in. Surprisingly, it was able to grow a full 12 inches this summer, despite being in very humid Georgia. We're now at the end of December, and the tree has dropped most of its leaves for winter, but the top few leaves are still hanging around. The top has a crown of very small green leaves, ready to keep growing when spring rolls around. Excited to be growing this beauty in Georgia. I doubt there's another of its species in the entire state, but I'd be overjoyed if others in my area would give it a try as well. It seems to be a picky tree when it comes to location, but worth all the effort.

Relocated this one about 18 months ago and I think it likes the new home. Just an awesome plant. Tim

Looks like a roseate spoonbill.

I'm just gonna let things go as the forecast doesn't look to bad...im a bit pissed my Loquat tree is in full bloom ..but oh well

11 acres of foot deep snow. All the structures are holding up nicely.

Next up is an R louvellii I got from Jungle Music a LONG time ago...probably 15-17 years ago as a small seedling. This is clearly different from the previous palm, with darker tomentum on the leaves and a much more "normal" shape to the leaf. Also, not as upright. And i'm guessing someone's going to ask what that palm in the background is with the impossibly white crown - Moratia (now Cyphokentia) cerifera, bonus pic added (no photoshopping required)

Below is my Nainital that looks a little smaller than one in the previous picture . Another view of the Nainital : Shaylen in the jungle . Thanks for looking :

New Braunfels, Texas. Dec 26, 2021. Sampling of Washingtonia Hybrids and Canary Dates. We lost a lot of super thin Robusta, but had almost complete recovery of Filifera and good hybrid recovery among the medium sized trunk kind. Canaries had good recovery percentages too. This is not everything, but just one small section of town.

We get much snow..it is almost 5.5" of snow at 12:40pm and it is still snowing. The temp is slowly going down.... More pics of snow...

Got about 4" here in Salem.

Pretty cold on my part of the island. -7C was my low last night. Lots of snow but back up to -4.5C currently. Supposed to drop back to -8C tonight. Wish me luck.

31F with an inch of snow here.

A few emeralds that have visited the garden: Nemoria bistriaria Nemoria lixaria Chlorochlamys chloroleucaria

Merry Christmas from Texas! (starfruit still blooming its head off, hopefully I'll get some fruit set with this warm stretch of weather?)

Here’s my big julietae.

I may have to crack out the shorts next week for work. My written rule is that anything over 16C / 61F is typically shorts and t-shirt weather in my line of work. Otherwise I will overheat if I am working in jeans and a hoodie inside the warehouse. Those forecasted nighttime temperatures are ridiculous as well for 51N during the last week of December. I would expect nighttime lows of 13-14C in July, let alone late December. Some model runs are putting the nighttime lows at 15C for Wednesday and Thursday following a high of 18C / 64F on Wednesday! 14C at 850hPa translates to about 17-18C at ground level. It will be interesting to see just how warm it gets, especially if some eastern places also benefit from a Foehn effect too. Potentially 20C / 68F in a few eastern locations, although I find that hard to believe during the last week of December at 51-54N. Probably 18C maximum. If we had a setup like this in July it would bring 35C+ temperatures. The consistency of the ensemble runs is remarkable! I have never seen a set of ensemble runs so consistent like this. It looks like this warm/mild spell is nailed on now. Here's the ECMWF for Wednesday, which is supposedly going to be the warmest day, although it could be any of Wednesday, Thursday or Friday in theory. UKMET pumping higher pressure and warm air up from Africa, although the airflow into western Europe and the UK is coming up from the Canary islands specifically. The GFS model puts Jan 1st / New Years day as the warmest day potentially... Here's the ECMWF model for New Years day. Both setups looking very similar. Potentially record breaking in many places on the western half of the continent. December records, and possibly winter records too, may tumble next week in Spain, UK, France, Netherlands, Germany etc. Watch this space. Daytime maxima and nighttime minima both at threat.

If there were palms in the Fraser Valley hope they were out of the wind. Just brutal. I’ll cross the Valley off retirement possibilities. Bellingham International gusts over 50 mph. Portland Metro has lucked out. Briefly when the high resolution models, which usually are better predictors of precipitation, stars aligned and had a convergent band of snow today and clearing skies overnight and calm winds. They responded by dropping the floor out. Now it’s not going below 23F tonight, if that. GFS got that right recently with a precipitation shadow staying over the metro and warmer temperatures.

To explain the averages, 6F below average is 6F below the average temperature for that day. Say the average temperature for that day is 45F, 6F below average would be 39F. And if it was 6F above average, it would be 51F (This was an example) All questions are likely good questions! Also, you shouldnt base off of one forecast model. Rather than using one model, use as many as you can. In terms of global models, you have the American (GFS), European (ECMWF), the Canadian (CMC or GEM), and the German (ICON). Im sure there are more, but these are the ones made available to you on Tropical Tidbits. You can also check out a Hi-res version of the ECMWF on Pivotal Weather, you can also look at the CFS to get an idea that the pattern might be changing over the next month or so. You also have your shorter range and hi-res models. These include the NAM (North American Model) and the HRRR (High Resolution Rapid Refresh). The HRRR updates every hour. There are also different versions of the NAM, such as 3km, 12km, and 32km. 32km has a resolution similar to the GFS, while the 3km has a resolution similar to the HRRR. The 12km and 32km go out to like 3 and a half days, while the 3km only goes out to 60 hours. These models are good for forecasting severe weather events, but not good at forecasting hurricanes (NAM 3km showed a Category 5 for Hurricane Barry 2019 LOL). On a side note from forecast models, i just had to mow the back yard on *checks calendar* DECEMBER 26TH I have never had to do that before.

Some new Jubaea , Butia, and Queen palm seeds. The Jubaea are from a tree at the Mission rose garden. They are not as round as I think Jubaea seeds should be. The tree that I got good germination from lives at the Santa Barbara lawn bowling park, downtown. Also trees at Alameda park , Alice Keck Park and the Sexton tree in Goleta. Still looking for a shorter/ younger tree so I might collect pollen someday.

I've tried to alternate with a planting terrace and a path terrace This shows progress back in 2005

Each denotes different temperatures at different heights in the atmosphere.. 2m ( 2 Meter ) Temp = suggested temperatures roughly 6ft above the surface.. 850mb = Temperatures at 3,800 - 5,200ft in elevation ..or roughly 5,000ft averaged.. or something like that.. Anyway, the "Anomalies " Would reflect how much warmer / cooler the temps are at that elevation compared to normal. So, if a forecast map is showing a -3C temperature anomaly at 850mb, that would = 6 deg ( F ) below average at that height, which would also keep surface temps lower, ..but not quite that cold. I look at both, esp. during the summer here ( always rooting for below average 850mb anomalies because that usually means it won't be 116F every day, and a good sign our monsoon season pattern is actually bring rain ) When 850 anomalies are way above average, that is when we ( ..and almost anyone else under such above average heat at that height ) roasts..

0z ECMWF is out, a little chilly but certainly not as cold as the GFS or CMC

Still in the extended range but a colder look indeed 18z GFS: 0z CMC: 0z ECMWF: Not out yet

The HRRR Model is picking up on something bad for Portland area. Hope it doesnt pan out.... I also dont like the long term forecast gives me PTSD even for a light freeze here.

I feel that this Butia would be toast if I had it out in the middle of the yard . Instead it's on the south side of the house with sun all day in the winter . In the summer there is a deciduous tree that leafs out so there is more shade . Fronds closest to the house after a bad winter do better than fronds that extend out further , so it's getting some help that way too . Butia to the right of Shaylen .

Its a neat orchid.. As are many of the other sp. / crosses w/ Cattleya and Laelia. Remember seeing a massive -sized specimen at a growers nursery in FL. that was mind blowing when flowering.

My sister-in-law is responsible for this launch.

Merry Christmas everyone from South Africa.

Beautiful 79F, Merry Christmas!

Pink flamingo this afternoon:

Call Edward Leedskalnin of the Coral Castle near Homestead…

OK. thanks for your response.

Last is a palm I got from Kevin Weaver as R julietae. When I got this, I hadn't realized that my 'albicans' was probably julietae, but a few years after planting they seemed to be the same palm. This one has been in full sun whereas the other is more shaded. It's also a few years behind in growth. So the general habit looks a bit different, but at least a couple years ago the two palms seemed clearly to be the same. Looking today I was sort of questioning whether they really are the same palm, but I think it's just a difference in stage now tha makes them look sort of different. They do have the same distinctive leaf shape.

Something about overcast, rainy days here in Arizona seems to deeply accentuate the foliage color of blue plants and draw it out more than sunlight does. No filters on any of these: Brahea armata: Bismarckia nobilis: Sabal uresana: and… okay, not palms… but…. Juniperus deppeana: Eucalyptus kruseana: And last, but certainly not least, Acacia pendula:

....I smell snow in the air! .....