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This weekend I decided to do another PRA, this time to visit Jim's garden in Los Altos, located in a classic Sunset 16 climate with ample Summer heat and mild Winters. Jim has lived there for a long time, so long in fact that he witnessed the brunt of the 1990 freeze where it got cold enough to freeze over soild people's unheated swimming pools. To me, his garden looks like a work of art, an amazing paradise of palms planted with a strong focus on design as opposed to the more typical "stuff it all in" approach that I take. Jim's garden seems planted with mostly upper USDA zone 9b in mind even though he rarely sees frost. Anything more tender is planted near the house or under canopy - a wise move given he's witnessed the brunt of many of the severe Northern California freezes. Two interesting factoids make Jim's garden really stand out: for one, he has the most Northern large healthy bismarckia in the State. I challenge anyone to find one growing bigger and nicer further North than his giant specimen. See the picture below and you'll know what I mean. The second unique feature in his garden is the biggest tripple livistona chinensis I have ever seen, a monster that would get DoomsDave to scream obscenities. This is the droopiest parajubaea torralyi I've ever seen. My first ID would be p. cocoides, but it's not cocoides. It also has green petioles. On the other side of his driveway is another parajubaea torallyi, this one has the classic brownish-red petioles, and it's got the more upright growth habit.

Not a 100% sure, but most likely they were there during the 2010 winter, they actually cut the one down on the right, the one on the left now has a full set of leaves and some fruit that they recently cut off, there is also a coconut in the parking lot across the street in the google street view you can find. 4 miles from the river would be fine for royals but pushing it for coconuts, but it is possible.

here is a link for some 2 miles from the river off of palm bay rd. they look better this year after the mild winter. http://goo.gl/maps/0If0C 4 miles from the river is close to 95, i have seen them in melbourne 4 miles from the river, but during cold winters they will look like the ones in the link.

They look so good this year because the winter was so mild this year. Cocoa beach probaly did not go below 40 this winter but just a few miles inland from there they had several days of frost. Did you go to Coconuts while you were there?

Unfortunately the world is made up of shades of gray, and compromise is usually the best way to combat problems, as purist solutions rarely work. The best thing you can do to save habitat is to contribute money to family planning abroad - less population growth means less pressure on habitat. And stop supporting big fat corporations that have a bad track record. I recently redid my retirement funds to avoid the bastards and stick with socially responsible funds. Meanwhile, the collector mindset is probably the only way many species are going to be saved from extinction. But if habitat protection is in place, then by all means protect the trees from seed collectors, otherwise they can't reproduce in habitat. Interestingly enough, the most successful species have enlisted man as a means to survive and propagate.

Syagrus sancona, seems to have no trouble with as low as 26F, the hardiness reports on this one seem mis-placed. But this one sorta looks like a queen until you look at the trunk, which is very different. Brahea nitida: If you're getting tired of looking at the palms, check out the cabana. Next to it is this dynamite brahea edulis that looks like it as something else crossed into it. The leaves are much much more costapalmate than any edulis I've ever seen. That's all for now. All in all an amazing garden. There's lots more in there including beautiful pritchardia. I was a bit surprised that Jim didn't have more dypsis, he certainly has the climate for them. He says he's not had success with baronii, he looses them to root rot in the Winter, perhaps they don't like his soil.

Raphis going to town: Sabal getting ready to speed up: couldn't get a full picture, it's a giant bermudana and there wasn't enough room to get it all on the camera. That's the best I could do, and it doesn't do it justice: Another b. alfredii, this one has purple petioles.

The rhopie and the philodendron are battling it out! Watch out, that philodendron survived the 1990 freeze. Another perfect looking rhopie! The secret is vigoro. No Bay Area palm garden is complete without a nice ceroxylon, this is a quindiense.

Phoenix reclinata X roebelini cross with beautiful bright orange-red spathes coming out, it's got very soft leaves unlike a true reclinata. another look: Look at those chinensis leaves!

Dypsis decipiens triple on steroids, stand back, this one bites! But this livistona chinensis triple will eat you alive if you get too close!!! Notice the absolute perfect shape of this specimen, not one trace of yellowing, it must be eating anything that gets within its reach. 3 year old rhopie growing like a weed:

Licuala elegans and another one that now I can't remember the name. I thought this Chinese windmill palm had a special form of crown that almost made it look like a cocothrinax, just get that trunk cleaned up! Turns out these are some sort of volunteer seedlings that pop up on his place, and they all have that distinct look. More, notice the big ones are ordinary trachys, the smaller one is yet another volunteer with that nice crown and leaf form: A beccariophoenix that looked a lot better than many of the specimens I saw in Southern California, no spots, perfect looking.

And the fastest.. http://youtu.be/-4R32A-UNyg

Been there and done that on most all want list palms, still slobbering for many New Caledonia species, but for the lack of cooperation from that country all we can do is hope for some brave and daring ramboesque seed collectors to fulfill our dreams!

Oh my god guys, stop being negative so much. I come to palmtalk to relax, not to get angry....