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I visited Karen Piercy's place this afternoon under the pretext of picking lychee. Of course, the real reason to visit was to commune with the jaw-dropping collection of massive palms. I posted a photo of this Corypha umbraculifera a few years ago, but it was even more overwhelming on this visit. The trunk has to be over 4 ft in diameter, maybe closer to 5 ft. Growing in deep Hamakua soil at roughly 1200 ft elevation overlooking the Hilo airport. Now you know why you don't often see these growing in suburban landscapes. Certainly gives Tahina competition as the most massive palm out there. It's probably still decades away from blooming. You may remember Karen and her husband, Dean, as the organizers of the 2004 IPS Biennial to Hawaii and helping again with the tour of the former Carlsmith palm collection during the 2022 Biennial. BTW, I filled my 5 gallon bucket with delicious lychee. That didn't make a dent in the fruit still left on the trees. Oh, the hardships of living in Hawaii...

Fifteen old leaf bases finally falling away on this eighteen year old P. torallyi’s fattening trunk. This one was planted as a small two leaf seedling. This one has never set seed but a number of dried up immature inflorescences were hiding behind the fallen away leaf boots and they fell off as well. The palm is pushing a very visible fresh inflorescence now. Maybe this one will actually produce something.

These “Potato Chip” Palms seem to have been enjoying life in the front garden for a number of years. The stems “crawl” horizontally and root in wherever they make soil contact. Anyone else growing these, please post photos!

Got this view last week of some of my Lord Howe Island 🏝 Palms from the upper deck.

This specimen has been in the ground for about 6 years and is finally starting to flower. I love the crownshaft of this species.

This Hedyscepe is according to my records is 11 years old today from germination in my shade house. Is approximately 1.7 m tall.

First flower spathes on this 2 headed Chrysalidocarpus Prestonianus Hybrid

Close to five years past and the palm nursery is getting there. I would say 60 percent was started from seed and the other 40 percent from mostly bare rooted purchased seedlings. When I first started the project I knew it would take around 5 years before you can really do anything with the plants, from planting them in the ground to seller a few of them. It is a love of growing palms and plants that drives me to succeed in such a project, and now there is no stopping all I can do now is grow from strength to strength and build another greenhouse to fill it with more palms. So if you’re wondering how long it takes to build up a palm nursery at least five years. IMG_9723.mov

This is probably my favorite palm in Leu gardens. Thanks Eric for planting this beautiful plant!

Glad you got one of these. Yours is doing great - especially for a palm that can be a bit fastidious. One of my favorites in my yard. Here is mine now flowering. This came as a 7 gallon from JDA in 2008. Little more history on the palm. JDA had two similar palms at the time “Betefaka” and “Honkona” (note the ‘o’). Both grew very similar. Betefaka being more glaucous, Hankona green. This is the plant Ron Lawyer once called the “butt-ugly betefaka” because the original Betefaka was such a looker from a young age. That original betefaka turned into Oropedionis.

I’m doing a remodel and I’m now working on the kitchen so I’ve kinda ee-victed myself from it to an outside space with profane tank etc, damn almost don’t care about fixing the house, just stay out here. So maybe you’ve got a Palm Cave? If so show us!

Sabal Lisa in Dallas in June after experiencing 12F Four months ago. 8 year plant in background. 6 year tree in foreground. 🌴

Both still growing but not yet trunking. They look like Nikau but are slower and a lighter green than some Chatham Island forms. Fortunately Chathams flower very early so might not have to wait too long for more conclusive information on their true identity.

My largest of three Lepidorachis mooreana is very close to developing clear trunk now. The Climate on the summit of Mt Gower on Lord Howe Island is cool humid and windy lowest temperature recorded was 2C and the highest was 21C. Perfect my cool maritime climate.

What a privilege to visit Phil’s garden and wholesale nursery (Eumundi Palms) on the Sunshine Coast. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do since moving up to Queensland more than 3 years ago now!!!. The stand out for me was this incredible Cyrtostachys renda hybrid (C. renda x C. elegans). Hopefully one day it’ll produce viable seed, and there will be no shortage of customers for the resulting palms I’m sure, as they thrive in the sub-tropics.

I started my “palm garden” in 2024 after moving to a new home. I wanted to make a thread to share some pics and posts as I go. first, my hurricane cut palmetto. Fully unprotected. Showing hurricane cut pics after install, and 1 year out. Home weather station read 12.9F this year as the low. Maybe 5 times total sub 20F. Honestly, most the brown on it was there at end of summer. Very little damage noticed. second group - 1 year of growth on my L. Nitida. Now in-ground as of March. will show my other nitida later. I love these things, and want them to work so bad. Fingers crossed. Then, some windmills. Palmettos are my love. so the windmills feel like “yogurt, when I really want ice cream”. Ya know? Being zone 8, windmills are plentiful in the area, and do well here. I didn’t always love them, but they are growing on me, for sure (literally). working on a Z9 garden now. Mostly doing some robustas and cycads. And an CIDP I ordered from Etsy. I also have a ton of Oleander blooming. And others In the mix. Comments and critiques are very welcome. I tried to share info to answer the sort of questions I had last year.

I stopped by my previous home in Roseburg Oregon to check in on the palms I planted. So glad to see the new owners kept all of them, even though they did remove a 50ft sequoia. You can't see them from the road, but I got some pics from our old neighbors house. They were all planted around 2011 and were probably 5 gal at the time. Butia sp.? Glad to see this looking so good, I covered it a couple times when it was young, but the new owners haven't protected it at all. Even after a couple hard winters, all the fronds are still green. I would guess that's around 5 years of fronds, which would be about the time we sold the house. Chamaerops humilis Row of 6 Trachys, tallest is close to 20' and shortest is below the fence. Other angle.

Not a cave but a place we like to spend quite a bit of outdoor time , our fire pit. Whether early morning coffee or evening under the stars , many hours sitting as we gaze out over the Santa Paula Valley. We burn White Sage from our hill , sometimes listening to flute music. The smoke from the Sage in the Abelone shell is wonderful. Harry

The new larger palms that have been donated to the gardens have tucked themselves in well with all the recent rains. Kindly donated by Colin Wilson the largest ones and a few smaller ones by myself. A nice group planting of some joeys and a single kerriodoxa along with a lanonia dasyantha they are established and just need time to get up and growing. But there in the garden and will be gor the years to come.

No time like the present then to plant my alfredii, if there as tough as they say they are this planting session will be a spring holiday for the afredii then! How tough are they we will find out!

Aloha - This year, we got off the island of Hawai‘i and travelled to the closest thing Europe has to offer, the Azores, an island group in the middle of the Atlanta that is part of Portugal. I know it is not totally the same, as it is much further north in the Atlantic. The closest in climate (in my gestimates) that Hawaii has to offer is Volcano on the Big Island or the higher cloud forest elevations of Kaloko Drive in Kona (Big Island). Maybe somewhat close to the climate is also Waimea (Big Island). We are staying right next to the Terra Nostra Park (Parque Terra Nostra) in Furnas on the island of Saõ Miguel. That place is truly amazing! It is a 150 year old botanical garden, with several thermal (hot) pools you can take a bath in. Anyway, I will start posting a few (mostly palm-) images below that we encountered. It might be the only place in Europe (Please correct me if I am wrong!) where you can see a fairly dense palm forest as well an abundance of large tree ferns. Furthermore, the garden's collection of huge Araucaria spp. (plus 2 Wollemia nobilis!) as well as their cycad collection are quite neat. I just wish their palm collection was a tad more diverse, their website states that the collection contains 19 palm tree species. In that climate you ought to be able to grow way more different palm species 🙂. Maybe they need to hire a palm-nut from this forum!! Fun fact: The garden was started by US Vice Consul to the Azores Thomas Hickling. From Wikipedia: "In 1795, he was appointed by Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, as vice consul of the United States (a position continued by his son), beginning the oldest continuously functioning American diplomatic representation in the world (in Ponta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel). Sadly, in the current political climate, it was decided that 12 diplomatic posts of the US to be permanently closed, incl. Ponta Delgada.

A nice winter afternoon with the garden looking well watered and rested up tucking in for the next couple of cool months. With a lot of new plantings in the ground it will be an interesting few months to see who is going to make the zone push race in the garden. So enjoy a nice wander in the garden.

Amazing Len! @richnorm what do you reckon…to me this looks like the decipiens I saw throughout NZ (Landsendt, Auckland BGs, South Pacific Palms). The blue fronds, plumose leaflet arrangement and even orange freshly exposed crownshaft. I didn’t see large ones of what I know as the typical form at all over your side of the ditch.

Here is my eleven year old Chamaerops 'vulcano'. It was a gift to me in September, 2021 by a guy who will remain unknown. Let's just say he knows the best place for pho ! It is 3 cm diameter by 30 cm tall (1.25x12 inches) I ground planted it today.

More of a tree fern cave I guess View from cave

With a couple of Chams to spare why not plant a row of them along the path to the greenhouse. Germinated these few from a RPS batch of 200 seeds and lucked up in the Chamaedorea department. A nice row will make for a nice casual walk to the greenhouse sort of the driveway of driveways only to the greenhouse!

Some pioneer palms for the new garden, they will help in creating a microclimate, planting them along with a few trees will help to start a canopy. And also break up the harder more difficult areas to garden in, once the ground has shade in my climate it completely changes, more moisture means better growing conditions. You just have to make that start with new plants sooner or later!

Hard to believe June 21, 2025 is here. What a cool, wet Spring we had. Getting our first summer heat wave here in the DMV zone. The winter was a cold one in my estimation with two nights in single digits(5f and 8f) and corresponding days below 32f. Nights were consistently in the 20’s but day temps did tend to moderate above freezing. A cold winter and spring though. @Allenmy big Trachy got the dreaded single digit pin holes and some segment damage but all in all, had a good, relatively unprotected winter. I did give it some crown lights and black landscaping cloth wrapping but nothing too drastic. It’s neighbor, the Needle, is undamaged as always and is really bulking up some trunks. The Brazoria has always had a really hard time with its fronds in winter. I cut all the damaged fronds off and it’s got two new fronds following the slightly damaged 2024 spear. It’s also sending up spikes. I really like the trunk on it. And it’s fronds are massive…so it’s a catch-up challenge every spring. the small Trachy got lights around the trunk and wrapped in landscaping cloth. The fronds remained uncovered did extremely well unprotected so I have a feeling it’ll do as well as the big one in this south facing backyard. This is the accidental, squirrel planted Butia Odorata. It’s a long story and a very slow grower but as soon as I get a pinnate frond, I’ll be posting it…it gets some lights on the ground and leaf pile cover for now while it is so small. This pair, total protection Chamaerops and zero protection McCurtain are growing in to each other but I like the way they look together. Hard to believe the Chamaerops came back from near total destruction a couple years ago. Then there’s the good old no protection stand by shady Needle. 1/3 the size of the bigger fuller sun Needle but happy just the same. Welp, that’s about it. No winter deaths and I can’t complain about the recovering ones. I’ll have to order some fertilizer and give them a good dose. Before you know it, it’ll be Christmas 😂

I couldn’t help myself in buying an original plate from 1896. It just goes to show that palms have been of intrest for a long time, and to stop by lord Howe island and collect seeds way back then they certainly had some great minds to think about the beauty of palms. Botany has always had its place in history and will continue to do so.

One of those palms folks can’t help but stare at in amazement, Neoveitchia storckii.

A special bit of colour in these plumosa seedlings. They could almost go for being red arecas there that red some of them. The seeds are from my own palm in the garden. It will be interesting to see how long they keep there red colour for, but gor now there definitely interesting as seedlings.

The long forgotten solitaire palm a beautiful Australian palm. I have three mature beauties in the garden. Tough as well heat tolerant cool tolerant and a little dry tolerant. A great palm and a nice single stem ptychosperma well worth growing.

If anyone would like to see how my gardens doing this year i made a video here on youtube:

Variegated Caryota mitis are a clourful plants especially in sunlight. Sorry only one picture had the leafs in the sun

Massive flower on this, will produce enough seed for the world 10x over. two story high Areca macrocaylx "red" next to it. aloha

I recently had a chance to quickly swing by the University of Melbourne where they have a nice palm collection by Melbourne standards largely thanks to a collector and former palmtalker. Hope you enjoy some of these: Trachycarpus fortunei var wagnerianus Trachycarpus martianus (L) and Arenga ‘micrantha’ (R) Becarriophoenix alfredii Livistona decora Trachycarpus martianus Arenga ‘micrantha’ Ceroxylon ventricosum Another Ceroxylon ventricosum. There’s a group of 3 here. Hopefully a seed production factory one day in the distant future. Macrozamia macdonnellii for the cycad lovers. Linosoadix monostachyos loaded with ripe fruit Archontophoenix purpurea Licuala ramsayi. Very marginal here but they look good. I’m told these are old plants, in ground over 10 years. Very slow here. Archontophoenix cunninghamiana Archontophoenix alexandrae

Here’s my palm cave, and what happens in the palm cave stays in the palm cave!!

Drop dead gorgeous Bentinckia condapanna.

Wonderful example of Tahina spectabilis.

If my Chrysalidocarpus prestonianus hybrids turn out half a nice as Philip’s, I’ll be chuffed. This looks to have some C. pembanus in the mix I think.

I was recently in Chesapeake/VA Beach and the palms are doing really well down there!

Well I don't post much palm pics here (yet), but that's mostly because I only really got started on my palm planting in earnest a few years ago and until now never really felt like I had much pics of palmy landscape worth posting. Some of my palms are planted among grass and overgrown brush that desperatelt needs to be cleaned out. Anyways last summer I decided to take out 3 large (40 foot) Chinaberry trees that were planted in a row 20+ years ago. Palmageddon kilked them back nearly to the ground, but they then resprouted on the lower 15 feet or so of trunk. Those sprouts were epicormic and thus very weak jointed to the trunk. Once the branches would get to about 15 feet long they would tear away from the trunk and peel back 5 to 10 feet of the trunk. So last summer I decided to rip the trees down along with all of the brushy undergrowth. Here's some pics of that in progress. This past March I replanted that area, and beyond (not pictured) with palms, cycads, yuccas, agave, etc. Then since the area was now exposed to copious amounts of sun, the weeds exploded from dormant seeds. In the last few weeks I've been focused on pulling the weeds and mulching it in. Mostly it's a mix of pine bark mulch and rocks of various sizes, texture and color. The last pictute was taken 20 minutes ago. It only shows about one third if the entire area I have been working. You can see that even in that area I have not yet completed the mulching, etc. ... it's a work in progress for the rest of this summer/fall. I will add more pics as progress continues. -Matt

Hello and happy summer to all growers and plant lovers, thank you for a busy spring season! We are happy to share our new price list update, filled with new and enticing species, including the awe inspiring Marojejya insignis (pictured above in its Madagascar habitat) and more, including: Vonitra perrieri is one of the most spectacular palms in the world, the combination of its tropical stature and unbelievably plush soft red wool on its spathes make it a popular talking point in the garden. Seedlings available now at $8/ea. Check out our other Vonitra species as well! Heterospathe califrons adds a dramatic flair to any garden with its upright form and entire leaves, and is Benji approved. Available now in 4 inch size for $20. Ravenea musicalis is another mythical Madagascar palm that is one of the only species that is truly aquatic, as seen above in habitat during one of Jeff's trips. Rare in habitat and very difficult to find for sale, we will be shipping seedlings in pots for $20/ea. Order yours now while supplies last! Chambeyronia lepidota is one of the rarest and most elegant palms of New Caledonia, with its characteristic stiff leaflets and velvety red crownshaft. We are proud to be a part of conserving this amazing species and distributing it to more gardens. Other featured palms from the new list: Euterpe sp. 'Orange Crownshaft' Iguanura polymorpha Pinanga maculata Chrysalidocarpus sp. Hybrid - Jason Dunn (Photo by Jason Dunn) All these and many more are available now on our new price list! View Price List

My absolute two favourites . Licuala sallehana var sallehana and licuala triphylia. They take the cool weather well for such little tropical classics. Spring will see them go in the ground. Perfect understory specimens just waiting to go in!

My Trachys look really nice , and I think can compete with other varieties as far as beauty is concerned . Some palms obviously are so damn cool that my Trachys can't compete with those cool beautiful palms , but considering everything , like climate , I think mine are respectable when put up against a lot of palm varieties in more southern locations . What do you think ? Will

Yes, that clever iPhone made a video of my garden with photos from 2020 -- much easier than me trying to do it myself. I will attempt to post it here. Got a garden video to share? Post it here! My Time in Pahoa - 2020.mov

Spotted some variegation on the latest leaf of my Hyphaene petersiana today. May well amount to nothing, but worth keeping an eye on.