Leaderboard

Is the school open? Being a landscape designer since 30 years and reading this thread and trying to plant a tropical garden (the first one was behind walls !!!!) I think I have to start to learn as soon as I can in order to avoid making more mistakes... Is it a nice hotel close to school where I can have nice food and drinks too? My favorite hotel is Intercontinental in GENEVA, of which I did the landscaping, inspired by G.Bawa's work. So I have to start to learn the proper placement of palms and trees!

Dear David Curtis, I have planted mine Argun palm in the ground,this is how it looks as of now. And here is a photo link for you to see,what harsh growing conditions these palms are in. http://www.arkive.org/argun-palm/medemia-argun/ Love, kris.

Always a pleasure to be surprised by these-- THis one has entire leaves

Today is a great day, Philippe has birthday! Thank you for your very interesting topics and photos from Sri Lanka. Good luck with your garden! All the best my friend, Ondra

A couple of new palms I put into a new landscape project in Honolulu. The Tahina's leaf is about 4 ft across, got these via barge from Bill Austin, Big Island. aloha

A very happy birthday to you Jake! And many more, Ed

Philippe With respect to your trade and experience, please enlighten me with the concept of a balanced and well pleasing landscape design....at least the basic tenets. I dont live in a nicely built home like Versaille or Buckingham but at least have a decent landscaping to make the home a little more presentable and enviting from the exterior. Thank you. Ritchy Ritchy I am sorry I can't "enlighten" you with landscape design. There is no truth , only experience and personal choices which can change... Palmtalk is giving us so many inspiring pictures! I believe that every gardener has his own curiosity, culture, climate and can do a lovely garden in font of any house, trying to match to to surroundings or at the contrary not to match and make a very special garden, the one with Gravel, Pink flamingos and fake coconuts. Did you already post pics of your garden or ask any question? if not, you can! Mostly and recently I learnt that palm trees are changing so much from juvenile form to mature size that a plan garden is a scenographic garden which can change the composition within 1 year! So we, palm-addict would better deal and accept this speedy ability to change because there is no hope to keep a static composition like french classic gardens do with box edging! Would our friend Pangeaexpress agree to tell what he thinks about that? Why not a curtain of Dypsis lutescens in front of your house? Intercontinental Geneva is hidden behind a curtain of giant bamboos....Tony Chi, new-yorker designer I worked with loved that! (http://www.tonychi.com) Kindest regards Philippe

Can't wait to receive mine early April.... Mine was planted 2011 and the photos are from last month. Of course "pruning" by cattle last April slowed growth down a bit.

Good to be in the ground! Nice planting! Congratulation Kris! Thank you for posting updating pics. Kindest regards Philippe

Hi friends, Here's an update.The Argun Palm seen in the blue barrel container has now been planted in the garden soil.Here are few stills of that. And step by step planting work procedure stills & video will be posted in a new thread.More on that later. And this how its now ! Lots of love, kris.

1. Site preparation. (This is not picking a great site, we all have what we have for a number of reasons. This is about optimizing the site you have. Drainage, selective elimination, types and location of structures, etc.) I dig hole and throw palm in because I am lazy. 2. Soil preparation. (Now we are down to the planting hole level. I just throw native soil back into the hole. 3. Plant selection. (The right plant for the right place) Eh? If there is room, it goes in. 4. Plant care (Watering, Feeding, Pest Control) I pee on my palms, does that count? Seriously, this is actually pretty high on my list, I fertilize often because of my poor sandy soil using good slow release fertilizer. 5. Aesthetics (Garden architecture, design, hardscape, composition, textures, color, groupings, views, style, harmony, emotional feel) If it looks laid back and tropical, I'm good. 5. Environmental Responsibility (sustainability, organic principles, composting, water management, runoff management, maximation of resources, etc.) As I said before, I pee on my plants. 6. Social Responsibility (sharing knowledge, cultural interaction, engaging youth) I post on PalmTalk and some people get mad at me. Does that still count?

Ahhh, one step of you sir! Figured I would try the standard germination method of mine - 50/50 damp peat moss and sand in a ziplock bag.

Not sure, but I hope you scooped up a bunch of those seeds.

All of the royal palms seem to be recovering from last February (low of 25*F with 3 days with highs below 40*F) at Moody Gardens on the northeastern coast of Texas (29*N), probably because of the equatorial summer (lows are in the low 80s*F, yesterday's low was a record breaking 85*F!). Here are some pics, I'll post a full travel log later... Even the smaller ones survived... Jonathan

Paul , Ed and Kris, (west very west , west not too west and east enough east!) many thanks! It was a nice day, I got good news of Oncosperma seeds sprouting, (few seeds from the old palm in Peradeniya you can see even on old postcards!) I am glad I have babies of him before his death! Here in Switzerland it was a sunny autumnal day. Kindest regards Philippe

Aloha Keith, I think your list is right-on, except I would probably put aesthetics before planting. Not sure how many people practice No 6 - social responsibility but I hope a lot of people do. Bo-Goran is stellar in this category; he spent an enormous amout of time educating us; as I am sure he has done with many other beginners, I hope your inclusion of social responsiblity will inspire other gardeners to practice it. Lee

Actually, I have a bunch of rules: House should not be visible from the street, grow big fat giant palms in front. Plant as many palms as possible to maximize bio-diversity and to create a micro-climate Plant lots of overhead canopy palms and grow smaller palms underneath Plant bold giants Keep your bismarckia away from other palms have a greenhouse have a nursery area where to keep potted palms Bring in lots and lots of rocks Make sure palms are accessible for urination feeding Grow thorny palms on the fence line with unfriendly neighbors

The basic "rules" as presented are very general, and very old-school. They don't allow for much imagination or creativity, but they exist for good reason. Many people have no connection to gardening, and no interest, and they need that sort of skeletal "how-to" information. Those people want a decent-looking landscape, but they don't want to "get involved". Do it, done, mow-blow-go, and get on with the rest of their life. Fair enough. However... PalmTalk is home to some very talented and creative professional and amateur landscapers. I'd love to see some street views that express delight with plants and nature, because palm-thrilled gardeners have got them, and they are to die for! As Tom and Axel point out, houses are not uniform the world over. I have one house with palms at the corners, all of 30 feet from the front door. Yes, it looks neat and tidy. I have another house where I look forward to the day when the palms in the front 120 feet of the lot completely obscure the house from the street view, a desireable privacy trait in that neighborhood. Location, siting, lot size, terrain, slope, natural features, and local flavor all play into the landscape choices. Great subject!

Fern Gully... Areca vestiaria orange and a Chambeyronia for company... Areca vestiaria red and Reinhardtia simplex Kerriodoxa elegans ?

Dypsis lastelliana Dypsis madagascariensis Dypsis hybrid Dypsis 'tsaravoasira' Chamaerops humilis Dypsis baronii? Thrinax sp

Another look at those healthy Foxy Ladies another young D.carlsmithii Dypsis decipiens, high and dry Dictyosperma album A nice Dypsis

Kris, my dear What ever this experiment will yield... keep fingers crossed for you. Seems that you are on the sunny palm side of life, everything you start is working. Keep us up to date in this palm, I am looking forward to the growth of this beauty. Love, Verena

I took photos of my one-leaf Medemia (near dusk, so quality isn't the best). The leaf is bluish and has an unusual texture. I also have two more Medemia seeds that have germinated but haven't shown a first leaf. My dear palm friend Simona sent them to me. They sell Medemia fruit in markets in Jordan. I think it will be a really cool palm.