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My Quito Coconut Parajubaea cocoides is loaded with developing seeds after 14 years. - grown from seed off Darold petty tree located in Sunset San Francisco

I planted one here in Encinitas shortly after buying the house in 2010. The previous owners had group plantings of Archontophoenix cunninghamiana they planted before listing the house that were relatively small and similar stature when I planted the Foxy Lady. So fast forward to today, and they are similar stature. I have two more that I planted in Carlsbad around the same time as the one here in Leucadia, maybe a few months before. In Carlsbad, I don't have much I can compare that were similar size and similar time planting. Here is the one in Leucadia just a year ago. I have some more recent photos, but this one shows the best perspective of it even though it is inside the wall. It is definitely taller now.

A plant of the central desert region.

Hey Josh, have I got a C. robustus for you! Definitely qualifies as a Big A_ _ palm…..an apt botanical term. I also acquired as a 15 gal. back in 2011 and it’s been one speedy palm. When it was head height I remember the reddish woolly tomentum on the leaf sheath, it was like petting an animal, so cool. Anyway, give it room, it will become one prominent specimen. Tim

Some can be thicker than others. Several growing here in my neighborhood with most having narrower trunks than this one in my yard. I have a second one that is in a more shaded position and it's trunk is narrower than this too.

Anyone growing s. pseudococos? I have been pleasantly surprised by mine. Purchased as a 15 gallon with no pinnate leaves. Planted in ground last year and now is a beauty. I have a thing for Syagrus.. I know a lot don't. But I also grow sancona, the hybrid coco queen, picrophylla, schizophylla, romanzoffiana. Santa Ana, CA

Jubaea I started from seed 40 years ago. Possibly, Oregon's largest Jubaea.

The different habits of the two species as adult palm trees (*2013-04-01 & *2014-02-14):

So I decided to plant this guy . He didn’t seem to be that fast when it was in the pot. I’ve heard they are quick growers but how quick royal or king quick or not that fast ?

Hi, it looks like you live in West Texas in a Zone 8A Climate. In such a zone, Coconut Palms of any variety are out of the question. Theoretically, they could be grown in the ground for a while in an adequate milder Zone 9B Climate, with proper protection in the winter. But for the most part, they can only be grown successfully in the ground in milder wintertime Zone 10A Climates and above (as opposed to cooler or chillier Zone 10A Climates like Galveston and coastal Southern California due to the chilly daytime highs in the winter in these regions). Here in Texas, the northernmost limit of where we can grow them in the ground is on the east side of Corpus Christi near the water, where we are Zone 10A by the skin of our teeth, but a milder Zone 10A than Galveston. So, your only option is to grow one in a pot for a few years, and bring it in in the wintertime. You could set it out on warmer sunny days in which the temps are in the 60'sF or even 70'sF there. I would suggest you get either a Golden Malayan Dwarf, or Yellow Malayan Dwarf sprout shipped to you from Florida, as these are slightly slower growing than the Green Malayan Dwarf and will thus stay smaller longer. Once you get it, plant it in a 5 gal. pot, and you can repot it in a 7 or 10 gal. pot in about a year and a half and keep it in that pot until it gets too big to take inside in the wintertime. Then when it gets too big to take inside, if you make a trip to the Rio Grande Valley, you could sell it or give it to someone there, as Cameron County (the Brownsville area over to the coast there) is the only area in Texas where these two varieties can grow to maturity. Oh, and only water it about once every 7 or 8 days in the winter, and only on warmer days. In the warmer months, you can water it every other day when the highs are in the upper 80'sF and 90'sF. John

I'm sort of stumped Dave. I would say that if it's not Cyphophoenix nucele, then it's not a New Cal Palm. So my first thought was C nucele, but it has less tomentum on crown than mine, and the basal leaflet was bugging me. I went and looked at my C nucele, which is about the same size, and the basal leaflet is fairly narrow, and just a single "V" attachment, but the basal leaflet on yours is like super fat with an accordion patterned connection (up down, up down, up down). It's basically several leaflets fused together. I can see this on all visible leaves on yours, whereas mine has no basal leaflets even remotely resembling that. So maybe there is variability in C nucele (there is some variability in K oliviformis, so not totally insane). But I just looked at a LOT of New Cal palms and NONE had this fused basal leaflet. It's clearly not C elegans, doesn't look at all like any Burretiokentia, or Chambeyronia, or cyphosperma, and way to big to be cyphokentia or any of the other more rare New Cal's. So, I'm still stuck on either a weird variant of C nucele or it's not a New Cal palm at all. Matt

Here’s big Alfie my biggest Beccariophoenix alfredii. Next to a Roystonea borenquenia

Well today I caved in and carefully ripped off the oldest branch that was partly green and tatty. Wow, We are starting to see that color now on this side of the crownshaft. How is everybody elses A. Purpurea doing?

Oh they still " scalp " them ..down to a few fronds each year.. That said, at least in my neighborhood here in Chandler, some were given their yearly bad haircut, while others were left alone ..with just the dead fronds / loose boots, and maybe a couple half dead, greener fronds removed. Scalped specimens have recovered their canopy pretty nicely, despite our brutal summer ( 55 days above 110F this year / 36 days w/ morning lows 90 or above, ..and of course very little rain < 0.15" of an inch at Sky Harbor > if you hadn't heard ) but of course, the " barely trimmed " ones look the best. Over in the " Other Tropical Plants " section of the forum, i posted / will add more posts as i see stuff to.. a thread related to " Landscape Failures " i'd noted around here.. It might be there,, pretty sure that's where i put it, but, ..anyway.. i posted about the ..ahem, horrible bracing job the landscapers the city of Chandler currently has caring for the landscaping in the street island here.. Anyway, one of the Mex fans was mowed down awhile back after someone ran into it and when the landscape guys installed a new one ..let's just say the " bracing " they provided was ..uh, ..pretty sad? ..to put it nicely. Watching it settle in since then, somehow, the brace held up through what Monsoon -generated wind events we had this year, but, the palm itself has a definite lean when viewed from the right angle.

Folks here could do some trimming right now if they wanted or needed to, though 99% of all Washingtonias get their annual haircuts in the late April- early July time frame, just as they start setting flower stalks. ...Like the first 110+F highs, and buzz of Cicadas, the sound of chainsaws echoing from the tops of all the Mex. fans here is a prelude to Monsoon Season.

Maybe his standards for brown are more lenient than yours.

This house went on the market in Brookings and check out the size of that White BOP!

Such a chunky palm. The one I have is starting to get beefy

Love those fat trunks, need some more jubaeas and washingtonia filifera fatties, I know they are out there. Here is bismarckia nobillis, its not the fattest one Ive seen for sure but at around 3' at the base it graces my yard every day.

I did my homework and finally tracked down a large shipment of kerriodoxa elegans seeds I have germinated them before so iam going to use the same technique coco peat perlite mix with just enough moisture not to wet plastic lined styrofoam box’s with lids I use the etiolation process know as skotomorphogenesis it may not be for everyone this technique but I find I have success with it I was told of this process by a elderly nursery man wanting to pass on his knowledge and listening sometimes is this best thing to do with plants no bottom heating will be required as it’s coming into summer and put into the hothouse combined with the drought and heat already in my climate time will tell how many I get fingers crossed 🤞

Prestoea montana?

A few pics

Haha.. just kidding.. I love this tree.. I hope it sets viable seeds soon!

Thank you for the tips Rachel! I do have a couple of those palms in the garden and they are the good safe options which means I find them boring 😂 of course I love all the palms that shouldn't be planted in my climate but slowly coming to terms with what I should and shouldn't plant! I see you are in Miami! I am actually coming in November and very excited to have trip round Fairchild gardens 😍. My garden has changed quite a lot in the last 2 years, I post a lot of photos on instagram (Jamie_richards_88) and I have a few newer threads on here too. Are you growing many palms?

Well it's been over a year now, and the tree is doing fantastic! So I thought I would bump this thread rather than start a new one. New fronds are emerging everywhere. I had to trim a few of the lower fronds off, and the tree is noticeably larger and taller, with a much larger diameter trunk than the posted photos show. (I'll have to post a few new pictures). One thing I added that REALLY HELPED, was I buried a 25' soaker hose under the bark at the trunk, that I wrapped several revolutions around at the base. I then buried and ran enough hose to reach my front spigot. At the spigot I installed a manual timer.... This one: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Orbit-Hose/3686858 I'm up early, and every morning during the hot weather I give it a 45 minute soaking by simply opening the spigot, and twisting the manual timer to 45 minutes. After it shuts off I then close the spigot. If I forget, nothing happens because the valve itself will automatically stop the flow. This is in addition to the normal bubbler system the runs every other day. All this tree really needed was plenty of water and fertilizer. Every so often I give it a good, healthy shot of Miracle Grow, and some Palm Tree fertilizer, and it just keeps coming back for more. This is what I've been using: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Miracle-Gro-Water-Soluble-5-5-lb-All-Purpose-Food/1000806092 https://www.lowes.com/pd/Arizona-s-Best-5-lb-Tree-Food/3654066

Back around 2008 our native bamboo here began flowering. It's supposed to happen every 80 years, so I wasn't even thought of last time it did. It progressed over about three years. There were piles of dead bamboo (it's a very tall species) along the rivers for years. But before the last lot had finished flowering there was new bamboo coming through. Now of course when you look around you wouldn't know the difference from before the flowering. It didn't turn out as apocalyptic as I'd expected. I think most species will be much the same, otherwise they'd have died out long ago. Pandas as well.

Wow josh! Well done getting that thing so chunky. I think some of the more tender Dypsis just need to be planted at a larger size to really take off in SoCal. The hard part is getting them to the size you did. I bet that thing goes crazy now that it's in the ground.

The first set of photos look Cyphopheonix Nucele but the second to last shot almost looks like Burretiokentia Dumasii (at least color wise). The crown shaft kind of looks too clean for Dumasii but I have one from Josh that’s in full sun and it’s real upright with short petioles sort of like your first photos. Do the fronds open with any color? Either way it would rule out quite a few New Cal species.

And another fallaensis slightly more shade for this one

Slow for me, pot or ground. But given others' experiences it could just be me.

Going into it's 7th year with over 60 palms in relatively cold 7A! Here is some transformation photos/video 2018 (Front corner) 2022 (Front corner) 2017 (Back side) 2022 (Back side) 2017 (Side corner) 2022 (Side corner) 2019 (House edge) 2022 (House edge) 2020 (Rear side) 2022 (Rear side) 2019 (Side path) 2022 (Side path) 2016 2022

Looks like last winter didn’t even happen. The mule filled out really nice!

I would leave any removal of fronds or trimming until mid-spring (April-early May), once those stately Washsies are actively growing and cold is past. These are hot weather palms, and that timing would help them the most. No disturbance when colder, especially where more marginal. Heck, I'd wait to work on the same palm down here, even with another 10-14 days of growing season than ABQ by climatology. But trimming now could be OK in Tucson or PHX?

Last night I realized the boots of my seed-grown Roystonea violacea were ready to fall off. I peeled them away and discovered about 18" of pink/purple trunk. It's the real deal! It is the sole germination success of 20 seeds I bought from RPS 6-7 years ago before customs cracked down on plant material from overseas. See link below for more info on this rare, endangered palm from the eastern tip of Cuba. https://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/Roystonea_violacea It survived Hurricane Ian last year with only windburn and a 60-degree lean to the south. It has since straightened to almost vertical and replaced damaged fronds so only the boots remained to hide its trunk. In the photos below you can see scars on its crown shaft from hurricane debris. Eventually, it will grow out of that damage. It will be smaller (up to 50') and more gracile than behemoth Roystonea regia. Still a juvenile, however, but I hope I live long enough to see it flower. Roystonea violacea, Cape Coral, FL, October 2023

@SailorBold Personally. I'd leave those as is for now. Looks like there's a few dead fronds but other than that, these look great.

I am growing teddy bear in Santa Ana, CA. Still a small one, but it has pushed out 3 fronds this year so far.

Im also going to call bull on natives too. What zone is it a native of is more important than what state. Live Oals dont crow well in wet rocky soil and their native environment is in huge clustered sandy/swampy forests where sun doesnt get into the lower tree so the tree self prunes the lower branches. Sticking a live oak out in full sun by itself leads to a very non native structure of too many small branches like a dang brillo pad and then you can pay to have them trimmed, but no private yard seems to do that so they look very non native as stunted gnarly trees that have reached about 20-25' tall in 13 years. Most of my palms self shed and no leaf raking is needed. I had a mediuk siuzed bamboo but it was a complete mess every year shedding culm sheathes and the oaks across the fence drop their leaves too. Fortunately most of those leaves just blow the other way into the forest strip. All these city planners have botched up many things, including planting many eucalyptus all along california coast, uggh. Ya know the aussies call them "widow makers" for a reason and california planners planted them all over the pacific coast highway. When you cut back water usage many big branches up to 18" thick needed to be "trimmed". or they will fall on traffic So now they have new plans for other trees with unknown negative impacts. In another 30 years they will change their philosophy again.

In your climate zone 10a, you have such an opportunity to grow a wide variety of palms. I'd recommend considering some cold-hardy options like the Trachycarpus fortunei (Windmill Palm) and the Chamaerops humilis (Mediterranean Fan Palm). They can handle occasional dips to 0°C and would complement your garden beautifully.

Patience is a virtue my mum said to me good things come to those who wait i had to wait twenty years for my ferox

Looks like Cyphophoenix nucele but I’m not 100%.

At this point, at least the afternoon temperatures aren't near or over 100F. Since it did rain a bit the last couple of days, I made sure to trap as much of it as possible in the two beds I modified with a thick layer of mulch. Annual total rainfall thus far is ~51 inches; normal from a statistical point of view here. I think all of the dry days in between the deluges gave the advantage to the pests this year, though. I've seen more mealy bugs, aphids, scale insects, leaf skeletonizer, and spider mites this year than all previous years combined.

Hold on tight! Once they trunk they’re fast; mine in the picture grew like 10 meters in a few years.

Starting to get some size.

41) Although looking like a Caryota, this is Ptychosperma. Seems like P. caryotoides but haven't been able to find anything to corroborate it. 42) Ptychosperma inflorescence. 43) Tempted to say Drynaria quercifolia or sparsisora, but it looks a bit different. Just have to leave it at Drynaria sp. 44) Cordyline, but don't know which species. 45) At first thought this a Calamus, but it has no spines. Remains a mystery to me. Looking back at it there's not enough detail in the photo. 46) House with a view. 47) No idea what this is but the colour is impressive. 48) All along the way there were big clumps of orchids fallen on the ground and rotting away. 49) Striking flower. Looking at it and the leaves (to the right) I'm guessing one of the gingers. 50) Finally a Calamus sp. The trail pretty much seems to avoid Calamus, this is the only one I saw. [End of firsthalf of trek]

Holy smokes some beautiful Kerriodoxa. Here’s my California grown version.

Not mine. This is at the Lyon Arboretum on O`ahu. It's near the visitor center.

water water water

Here in the Arctic northside of Atlanta, Sabals are generally starved of water. These want their heads in the sun, their feet in the swamp. Put one on a drip irrigator from May 1st to Sept 30th. You can easily double the growth on it. I got similar fast growth on Trachycarpus. For two years my front sillcock was leaking. Palm grew at twice the rate of the others.

Looks happy and healthy! I've sold about 20 of these over the years,so maybe future Phoenicians will have a few to look at someday. aztropic Mesa,Arizona