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About the recent thread bumps of what one PT members termed as "ancient threads." Yes they are indeed exactly that, "ancient," well at least in the eyes of a young internet savvy person. Plants do not run on Internet time, and making a living in technology, I love that. It gives me a great balance in life. Many of these bumped threads are open ended begging to re-display old knowledge, honor those now departed, give closure to questions once asked, and to offer the opportunity for that most precious "before and after." Every day we plant things simply in the hopes of what may be in the future. I am of a certain age, and as that famous quote goes, I plant things under whose shade I will never sit. I plant them in the promise that someone someday might appreciate what I began. And if they don't and cut them all down which is their right, well, I only hope that they will plant their own dreams as I once did mine. So there you go, my little introspection of the day.

Inland Palms helped me out with this gem! Should like it out in here in the desert.

So my family and I just got back from 2 weeks on our ranch in Mindo, Ecuador. Here are some pictures of the palms native to the ranch, at least the palms I was able to find. I'm sure there are at least 3-5 more species in the forest I wasn't able to find and photograph. I may need some help with the identification. I'll start a new thread in the photo forum with more pictures from the trip. 1. Socratea sp.?? 2. Ceroxylon echinulatum 3. Chamaedora linearis 4. Fruiting Ceroxylon echinulatum 5. Flowering Prestoea acuminata 6. Prestoea acuminata 7. Canopy of Ceroxylon echinulatum 8. Geonoma undata? 9. Geonoma undata? 10. Geonoma sp.?? 11. Geonoma sp.?? 12. Mature stand of clumping Prestoea acuminata 13. Chamaedora linearis 14. Bactris gasipaes 15. Socratea sp.?? & Ceroxylon echinulatum 16. Geonoma sp.?? 17. Phytelephas aequatorialis 18. Phytelephas aequatorialis left in pasture 19. Geonoma undata? 20. Geonoma undata? 21. Cocos nucifera (not native but growing on the ranch)

Just wanted to share the growth of this beast. It now has about a ft of trunk.

Plantable holes are really hard to find where we live. So I was quite thrilled when I was using my girl-sized O’o bar to find a small hole for a small plant and came across what I thought was a small rock that my husband Mike could easily remove with his man-sized O’o bar. I asked him to check it out. The following are the pictures I took (except the last one – which I did not know he took) of the process he went through to remove the not-so-small rock so I could have a ‘small’ hole. With each of the pictures is Mike’s comment on the process. All you need to do is get the O’o bar under an edge and pop the rock out. #@!!#@&! Just a tiny little lift and up it comes. #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! When the rock turns out to be a little bigger than expected you may need some help from the person who had this idea in the first place. Lee assisted by sliding rocks under the lifted edge in order to raise the rock higher and higher. A modern day version of what the Egyptians did. #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! If the rock turns out to be even bigger than you expected, you may find it helpful to throw your full body weight into the effort. #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! A tiny bit more “Egyptioning” and there is light at the end of the tunnel. #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&!#@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&!#@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! This would be a lot easier if I was 20 years old. By this time Egyptians and O’o bars are pointless. The only thing left to do is body wrestle the thing out the hole. #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&!#@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&!#@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&!#@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! Anyone can do it after mastering the simple technique of simultaneous lifting and swearing. #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&!#@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&!#@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&!#@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&!#@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! #@!!#@&! And here it is. Just a small pebble compared to some of the ‘serious’ boulders we find and remove. Lee who by tnen was sitting on the rock and soaked from the downpour that continued through most of the process said “Now that wasn’t so hard was it?” The End. I had the last laugh when I got this picture of the pants she destroyed. She was working with a painfully displaced broken toe and had to spend most of the time sliding around on her okole (bottom) as she helped me.

Nice plant randy and a great deal for 550! Someone needs to take advantage of that

Happy Birthday Jude! Ed

I really enjoy your thoughtful, insightful and well written posts as I sure many others on PT do. Please keep them up! Lee

ENJOY!!!!

I joined PT at the very end of RLR's days, and very close to the end of DIck Douglas and Merrill's active times. They were true inspirations to a non-tropically oriented palm person. I benefited, learned, and was inspired, especially by the latter two. I know of no one today who is filling those voids, at least not yet, maybe in another 10 or 20 years. Until then, these threads should be bumped. The more I learn about gardening and study older books and materials, the more I learn that there is very little new knowledge, just a lot of re-learning of that once forgotten.

Assuming that's indeed a Medemia, then this is what you can look forward to. The two large palms in the center are Medemia argun. Photo taken during the Biennial in Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden in September 2012.