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Palm Trees at Moody Gardens in Galveston, TX


HtownPalms

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After spending months in the house due to Covid my wife and I spent a weekend at Moody Gardens in Galveston after Texas had opened businesses back up. We went back in May before Texas started seeing drastically higher covid cases. Fortunately we didn't get sick. Here are a few pictures of the palms that they had. 

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Ok, so i have WAAAY more pictures, but they aren't uploading. Once I figure out what's going on I will upload them. Stay tuned, there's much more!

Edited by HtownPalms
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Moody Gardens is lushly landscaped with a wide array of tropical plants. Many of which are commonly planted in the Houston area, but a lot of what MG has are very rare in our area. 

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Looks like maybe my pictures are too big? Right now I can upload only about 1 out of every 12 pictures which is a shame, because the best pictures are the ones that aren't uploading. I will try again in a bit. 

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5 minutes ago, HtownPalms said:

Looks like maybe my pictures are too big? Right now I can upload only about 1 out of every 12 pictures which is a shame, because the best pictures are the ones that aren't uploading. I will try again in a bit. 

When I upload pictures, I typically do it from a PC after I resize and/or crop them to reduce the file size.  I thought maybe that was the issue, but if I download your first picture, it's only 137KB.  Are you doing it from a phone/mobile device?

Lakeland, FL

USDA Zone 1990: 9a  2012: 9b  2023: 10a | Sunset Zone: 26 | Record Low: 20F/-6.67C (Jan. 1985, Dec.1962) | Record Low USDA Zone: 9a

30-Year Avg. Low: 30F | 30-year Min: 24F

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Hi kinzyjr, Yes. I am trying to upload to the forum from my cell phone. I am also not on Wifi. I used to use photo bucket for forum pictures, but it was such a slow process. I will see if using wifi helps. If not i will try a pc when I get home. Thanks.

Edited by HtownPalms
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Nice pics, thanks for sharing. Did you get any shots of the royal palms? 

Jonathan

Katy, TX (Zone 9a)

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Hey Xenon. Yes I did! I have about fifty or more pictures to post, but they won't upload. Once I get whatever is causing the uploading problem fixed i will show the pictures of the Royals. They were huge! 

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Here are pictures of palms in no particular order, since I am having trouble uploading. The building is the Rainforest Pyramid at MG. Lots of amazing plants and palms inside. If anyone knows the species of any palms I posted pictures of please feel free to say what they are. I don't know what most of them are.

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3 hours ago, HtownPalms said:

Here are a few pictures of the palms that they had.

Hey Harlan, good to see you post again - I was just wondering how you were doing.  Glad to hear that you're staying safe!

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Jon Sunder

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Hey Fusca. I've been around but mostly as a lurker. I decided that there were too many cool pictures from my weekend in Galveston to not share them on the forum. I have been keeping up with JimmyT through PM's. Everything is great here in Houston. FYI Bismarcks are starting to become common at the local nurseries if you ever need another one. Glad to hear from you! 

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If Galveston could grow royals like the valley I'd already be making plans to buy a place there. Alas, just gets a little too cold every once in a while. Nice pictures though!

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Great pictures Harlan!  Thanks for the posting.   @necturus  If you buy that glass pyramid in the next to last picture you can grow any palm in the world in Galveston TX!  Wouldn't that be a Hoot!

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2 hours ago, necturus said:

If Galveston could grow royals like the valley I'd already be making plans to buy a place there. Alas, just gets a little too cold every once in a while. Nice pictures though!

Seriously. Those look pretty good. Sure, about once a decade they get damaged, but they always seem to recover. I wouldn’t let that stop me. 
 

actually, I guess there were a few that didn’t recover from 2018

Edited by Jeff985
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Thanks for the comments everyone! Working on getting more pictures uploaded. 

Jimmy, If I ever win the PowerBall jackpot I am building a twin of the MG pyramid greenhouse!

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Very nice. I took a few back in February as well. I would like to make it back down there.

 

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Mean Green,  I used to live in the apartment complex next door to Moody Gardens. If I still did I would have a season pass and spend my Saturday's sitting in the Rain Forest Pyramid! 

 

 

 

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Sorry for the duplicate pictures. Having trouble remembering what pictures were already posted versus pictures that are new.

 

 

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A few royals looked like they were in trouble early 2019 along with a few of the triangles.  Good to see at least one of each made it. 

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Kemah Boardwalk is another place to see some cool tropical plantings. They can’t complete with MG’s rainforest but they have some pretty cool stuff growing there, including a couple Adonidias. It’s only a couple miles from my house and I have a seven year old so I go there often, then go home, look at my yard and feel bad about myself. 

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There should be a row of 3-4 tall royals (crowns visible from the parking lot) right up against the pyramid near the main entrance. They are easy to miss, fyi to anyone visiting. There are also more royals and big ficus in the sheltered area between the hotel and the convention center. 

Edited by Xenon
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Jonathan

Katy, TX (Zone 9a)

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MG's has a very large specimen Allagoptera Arenaria in between the rain forest and the aquarium. I'll try to remember to take a pic of it next time @Jeff985 Kemah doesn't have a Chamberyonia like yourself tho =) 

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T J 

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14 minutes ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

MG's has a very large specimen Allagoptera Arenaria in between the rain forest and the aquarium. I'll try to remember to take a pic of it next time @Jeff985 Kemah doesn't have a Chamberyonia like yourself tho =) 

True. I have a few things they don’t, but no matter how hard I try I can’t replicate the overwhelmingly lush tropical look they have. Whoever designed that landscape really knew what they were doing. 

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23 minutes ago, Jeff985 said:

True. I have a few things they don’t, but no matter how hard I try I can’t replicate the overwhelmingly lush tropical look they have. Whoever designed that landscape really knew what they were doing. 

Big difference is there landscape is more mature and your just lacking companion plants ;)

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T J 

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Great pictures. Looks like a great place to visit for us palm lovers. Thanks for sharing.

 

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7 hours ago, Jeff985 said:

True. I have a few things they don’t, but no matter how hard I try I can’t replicate the overwhelmingly lush tropical look they have. Whoever designed that landscape really knew what they were doing. 

They also have huge turnover in plants, I remember a few years back they installed a dozen triangle palms along the driveway and then promptly removed them. There was huuuuge mule palm (tallest I've ever seen) by the hotel that was removed too. They are continually installing new plants that push the boundary even in Galveston, tons of Ficus plantings out by the golf course and some rare palms and cycads tucked here and there (very easy to miss). 

Jonathan

Katy, TX (Zone 9a)

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23 hours ago, HtownPalms said:

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I wonder if that Coconut Palm in the last pic is the one I donated to them back in 1993 that was about 4 ft. tall in overall height from a BIG bit I collected off of East Beach there near the south jetty back in 1990???

John.

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Thanks for all of the responses everyone. I agree with what was said earlier about MG replacing plants. The Kemah boardwalk constantly plants new tropicals too. I wish money wasn't a factor so I could do the same! 

Mr Coconut Palm, I wouldn't be surprised if it was. They have two coconut trees inside of the rainforest pyramid. I ran across a lady selling plants at a flea market in Ft. Worth; turns out she was the head gardener for MG. I told her my hobby was growing exotic palm trees. She said that MG was always looking for new plants if i ever wanted to donate a palm. Once some of my palms get too big for me to handle I'm going to call her and see if they are interested. I think it will be cool to see something I bought as a seed in the rainforest pyramid someday. 

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2 hours ago, HtownPalms said:

Once some of my palms get too big for me to handle I'm going to call her and see if they are interested. I think it will be cool to see something I bought as a seed in the rainforest pyramid someday. 

Im hoping to do the exact same thing one day, since I'm growing many palms that just have no chance in the ground here =/ 

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T J 

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Back in the mid 1990's, Moody Gardens had 3 in ground Malayan Dwarf Coconut Palms in a raised bed near the parking lot.  They were approximately 10 ft. tall in overall height.  As I recall, they lasted 2 to 3 years before they succumbed to the relatively chilly winters there.  Galveston rarely gets below 31F or 32F in the winter, so it IS a Zone 10A Climate, but it is what I call a chilly 10 A Clmate as the normal high/low in Jan. there is 60F/48F, too chilly for Coconut Palms.  Even here with somewhat milder winters at my place in Corpus Christi ( high of about 65F, low of about 50F in Jan.) mine struggle in the winter.  Mine thrive here in the hot humid 95F weather though in the summer.

John

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