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This is my only trunking one. It’s been a long journey from a small seedling, about eighteen years, but it’s putting out several new leaves per year now. Much faster growth than years ago. I hope it manages the sun after it gets up above the roofline.

With a truck load of palms being delivered to the gardens in Coffs Harbour. It was time to get planting due to OHS I was not able to participate in the activities of planting only spectate. But Rick and Toby had it all under control so no need for someone getting in the way. But I will be planting some of the smaller palms that have been donated by Colin Wilson, Lyn Crehan and myself. The plan is get the big ones in and then plant the smaller ones in and around the garden. The planting of the smaller ones should begin next week. So a big thank you to Colin Wilson for donating a truckload of palms in my home town and it’s great being part of a conversation project for future generations. Ps and a big thanks to Jodie the better half for putting up with a palm nut in her life.

Clinostigma savoryanum, always worthy of more than a passing glance and a photograph. Tim

@PlantMorePalms + @Kim A lot of them are unlisted on YouTube, but I was able to locate them on Palms.org. This is as complete a list as I could assemble: IPS Webinar – Pacific Island Palms with Don R. Hodel IPS Webinar – Palms of Cuba with Paul Craft IPS Webinar – A Blank Slate to Flourishing Palm Garden IPS Webinar – Designing With Palms with Jason Dewees IPS Webinar – Ecology of the Mazari Palm with Dr. Abdullah Abdullah IPS Webinar – IPS 2022 Hawaiian Biennial with Rick Kelley and Mary Lock IPS Webinar – Palms of Vietnam with Andrew Henderson IPS Webinar – Life of a Palm Biologist with Larry Noblick IPS Webinar – Exploring the Palms of New Guinea with Dr. William J. Baker IPS Webinar – The Madagascar Giant Suicide Palm (Tahina spectabilis) with Dr. John Dransfield IPS Webinar – The Palms of Colombia with Dr. Rodrigo Bernal IPS Webinar – The Glory of the Gardens: Palms and the Making of Kew with Dr. Kate Teltscher IPS Webinar – Combatting the Red Palm Weevil with Yehonatan Ben Hamozeg

I went down a little rabbit hole to track down some information on my recently received potted Astrocaryum sp. (Mike Merritt 🙏) that is 10 years old. The mother plant is growing at Floribunda (Hawaii). It is a palm that has not been conclusively identified by neither Andrew Henderson (Stated it might be Astrocaryum aculeatissimum) nor Hari Lorenzi (He did not think it was Astrocaryum aculeatissimum). So there is a bit of mystery from that angle. However, the bigger mystery is that the mother plant is spiny (as expected) and the sibling from the same seed collection are spiny as well. However, my plant is spineless and I can literally hug it 🤗. It has a few prickly hairs on the leaves but not the typical nasty needles on the trunk. I have attached 3 pictures of my spineless plant as well as 2 pictures of the spiny sibling plant (Mike Merritt). Therefore, I was wondering: Are there more reports out there of spineless Astrocaryum plants? There are some really vague references on the internet that Astrocaryum might have spineless individuals. Is that more common for certain species or do all species in the genus Astrocaryum have the ability to loose their spine "on occasion"? Here on Palmtalk there is one picture of a spineless Astrocaryum alatum in Costa Rica: Palmpedia has a reference for Astrocaryum vulgare https://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/Astrocaryum_vulgare "Some rare individuals are spineless" That reference might be from: https://ecocrop.apps.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/cropView?id=3522 "Some rare individuals are spineless" Source: Eeckenbrugge and Ferla 2000 (Astrocaryum vulgare) I was unable to locate the publication by "Eeckenbrugge". The only truly scientific reference (in Spanish) I could find was in: Cosechar sin destruir Aprovechamiento sostenible de palmas colombianas 2018 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279205064_Guerregue_Astrocaryum_standleyanum in chapter Güérregue (Astrocaryum standleyanum) Néstor García Page 117: "Una actividad de manejo del güérregue que sería altamente favorable a largo plazo es la selección de una variedad sin espinas, que facilitaría la cosecha de los cogollos. En las poblaciones naturales del Bajo San Juan hay una proporción muy baja de individuos, cercana al 1 % del total, que tienen el tronco completamente desprovisto de espinas [314]. La localización de estas palmas y su polinización controlada para seleccionar una variedad sin espinas es una tarea relativamente fácil y altamente prioritaria." Translated: "An activity for managing the güérregue that would be highly favorable in the long term is the selection of a thornless variety, which would facilitate the harvesting of the buds. In the natural populations of Bajo San Juan, there is a very low proportion of individuals—close to 1% of the total—that have a trunk completely devoid of thorns [314]. Locating these palms and conducting controlled pollination to select a thornless variety is a relatively easy and highly prioritized task." If anyone has any additional information, please share! THANKS!

Technically not an ornamental plant. But in the plant kingdom. I don’t think I would be eating this blue one in hurry, not even at a Timothy Leary reunion party. 🥳

the palm in the picture #1 is pseudophoenix sargenti var. navissana. In fifteen year that fallaensis will be maybe 10' tall. In twenty it will be mature and hypnotizing people with the uniformly separated leaflets. The blue one is fallaensis the green is a baileyana.

Sooner or later we need a place to rest. Well today I think I found my place. At least I will fertilise the palms some way or other.

Hi everyone Back in 2013 pogobob took me to a friend's garden in San Clemente California I was fortunate to be allowed to collect seeds from the palm and today I have this in my coastal Tasmania garden. Troy

The inflorescence on this palm always gets your attention with its colorful flowers. Getting viable seed is actually a rare occurrence in my garden and sporatic. These palms can get fairly tall, I’ve seen some at least 25’ tall. Tim

It will be almost impossible to tell tem apart before flowering. They are from same ABB subgroup with similar characteristics and growing habits

Looks like the city found some "bargain-priced mature palms" and ran with it. From the appearance in the photos, you won't have to look at them for long.

That looks like 'Thai Dwarf'. Very nice little palm. They have been propagated here in FL for a couple decades. Here's a variegated form that i ran into in Miami last week. (Wasn't for sale 😤)

I can honestly say iam not a fan of golden cane palms. But today I found a reasonable reason to like them in the form of dwarf varietie. Thanks to Colin Wilson for gifting me those ones 4 in total, but the curator Rick ackland of Coffs Harbour botanical gardens had his eye on them for the garden so offered one up as a donation to the garden in Coffs harbour. A very intriguing little palm that does not flower and is propagated by division only. Not sure if this is the Thai variety or Vietnamese variety but it doesn’t matter it’s in the collection now so thank you Colin for the palms there in good hands now.

Here's a look at all of my Sabal Palms, besides sabal minor. It would be a tough choice for me in my zone to say which would be hardier, these from the video or windmill palms. I like them all though.

Building is 20 feet(6 meters) tall for reference Size 10.5 shoe for reference

Hi! My Washingtonia robusta was planted in March last year. It's been staked since. I've read it has to be staked one year, but I've read somewhere else it has to be three years. Which one is correct? It's in a spot which is not protected from strong winds, but it's not often windy there.

1 year is quite a while. I’m pretty sure it’s developed a good root system by now.

It's incredibly windy in Corpus Christi - even more so than Chicago "The Windy City"!

Why do so many of them have leaning crowns? Not a good sign I would guess.

I bought a sylvestris (supposed to be solitary) at Barton Springs 5 years ago and it started suckering! Back then they had lots of different Sabals including causiarum, uresana and guatemalensis. The owner had collected the seeds and grew them up but I guess he sold them all.

I only ever see big trunking ones at tree nurseries. I was lucky and stumbled upon a 5 gallon one in the back corner of a nursery.

At least with the dwarf variety you won’t have your compost heap full of leaves. Think of all the time you will have spare on a Sunday now not picking up them leaves. The problem is with golden cane palms is they are absolutely perfect for any type of gardening making them so popular. I could sell hundreds of them all year long. But I don’t like growing them unfortunately I have to or I lose a sale, number one question I get asked is got any golden cane palms yes I do but wouldnt you prefer a baronii or even better a Joey. Richard

I agree - not a good choice for that location. I hate to think what they'll look like in late September after limited irrigation.

I cut away the boots on a few of my larger Pindo palms and many seedlings fell out. They’re in a container together and they seem to be adjusting. There are also seedlings growing in the ground around the canopies.

Hi Neighbor! Here's a quick & dirty Photoshop mockup of one possibility (excuse the messiness... only had time for a super-rush job). Shown in this photo... - Keep the Traveler's Palm. I think it looks amazing next to the blank wall! The leaves will eventually get wind-tattered, but I personally love the look of it there. - Lose the bananas. I'm a fan of bananas and similar large-leaf plants (like white bird of paradise) since they add visual contrast to palms. But I don't see any reason why you would want BOTH a travelers palm and bananas in that place. - Add a pinnate palm. I added a palm known as being pretty sun-tolerant... Dypsis (or Chrysalidocarpus) Onilahensis "upright" version. I'm showing it at a middle-size... would be smaller initially but eventually clear the roofline. You mentioned full-sun, so I'm assuming you could only put sun-tolerant palms there, right? Still lots of great options, and you'll be glad you went with something more unusual. - Add a fan palm. I'm showing a rare-for-our-area "old man" palm (Coccothrinax crinita) but there are other Coccothrinax types that would work well in that spot. I didn't show it in my mockup, but if you can, I would "bow out" the front of that planter to allow a little more depth at the center of your planter. That would give you even more options. - Add color. I used the trellis you had in your photo, but if that's not staying, you could add Hawaiian Ti plants, bromeliads, and other color sources. Hope that gives you some ideas!

I'd love to know how these are doing now.

Several growers with much nicer gardens than mine have told me theirs suddenly died after setting seed. Matt's plant has given me hope. Mine has now pushed its first leaf spathe.

Ugh I missed the April 3rd birthday. Here she is today 4 years from a sprout and just beginning to show a trunk under the oldest leaf bases.

Thought I’d bring back this thread with a photo of my baby “Mad Fox”… kindly sold to me a while ago by @Matt in OC. I realize it’s a long shot, but it sure looked healthy when I was checking on my seedling collection… Took it out for a photo shoot to celebrate it making it through the winter… Wish me luck!

We get very strong , gusts of wind up here on the hill. Every year , the Santa Ana winds blow relentlessly for days . The gusts this last year were over 80mph. I have a large Howea planted very close to my house that caused no problem at all. The stucco is abrasive thought and makes the leaf tips tattered . Harry

Some good rains has produced some nice red on the new leaves on the Chambeyronias in the garden.

So these Trachys were recently planted at the site of a public pool-water park that’s currently under construction. There are a lot of them, and they’re big. I can’t believe the city went with Trachycarpus. What I imagine happening is that somebody is in full panic mode over 2021 and demanded whatever is the most cold hardy (trunking) palm. Well….they got it, and I don’t have anything against Windmill palm, but this isn’t the climate where they look their best, especially not in full blazing sun like that. I expect they’ll survive just fine, it’s not sand in that location so I don’t think nematodes will be a problem. But they’ll never have the full, beautiful, large crown they deserve. Especially in full sun and on the cities (non) watering schedule. You know what does look it’s best here? And is invulnerable to cold? And heat? Sabal mexicana is native and invincible here. It’s used quite a bit around town, so it isn’t an uncommon choice. Just say’n that if the city was looking for something invincible, that would have been a better choice, along with quite a few other things. Anyway……..

Very nice yard! I need to check that out next time I'm there. I've been looking for more palms in Charlottesville, would love to know of any others in the area. The only one I know of is this nice windmill I came across in a backyard. I was there in the middle of winter and it had no protection.

FYI - a flag leaf is the last leaf before the flower emerges, its much smaller. That's just a normal leaf and I would leave it alone.

Some nice ones there . A lot of work , even with the equipment. Harry

How embarrassing for the turkeys. Having me as a representative on Xmas day🤣

Now that it's warming up, Irrigate it everyday for a month. I never tried the trunk cut but I've heard it works. And yes, use peroxide!

ohh ok idk then, sorry

Prolonged dry and above average conditions here. Though no signs of hot or near record temps for April (high 20s c). Likely due to the fact that for that to occur Spain has to be running above average. For those hot air masses to come up from the south. It does look like it's warming in Spain however.

@happypalms That bone yard looks pretty full, it might have to be a guerrilla planting. @peachy We won't be able to get bargains from Temu here anymore. 😇

Another Dendrobium in bloom, Dendrobium jonesii this time. The plant really needs to be elevated to appreciate the pendant flowers.

California towhee nest in one of my Erik's this year

Chrysalidocarpus Sp. Orange Crush (not sure if this got an official name yet?)

I think you might be mistaking Borassus for Tahina? Tahina is endemic to Madagascar, but there are many Borassus throughout northern Uganda. Here are a couple of Borassus photos I took in the area around Murchison Falls:

I got a thousand kerriodoxa seeds about 3 years ago. I was growing them in the hothouse and it seems iam not a hothouse grower it was to difficult for watering.As baby seedlings it was fine then as they grew it got more difficult to monitor for water combined with temperatures above 46 degrees Celsius. Just too much to control in getting it right. So I removed the plastic roof about 3 months ago and a huge difference in growth health perhaps kerriodoxa dont like hothouse conditions, Johannesteijsmannia love hothouse conditions and you can water them like crazy without overwatering. So a learning curve growing kerriodoxas on mass. But I think I have worked them out for now.

These things get big! Just thought I'd share a pic. of my trio. No flowers yet. Show us yours.

Grabbed some lunch today. They are looking good after this cool winter…

Two midterms down, and while I have a moment to breathe, I wanted to provide a quick overview of seed biology and the purpose of the three trials. The evolutionary goal of every plant is to reproduce most effectively within the environment in which it evolved. In my opinion, no seed should be impossible or even difficult to germinate, provided we understand its basic biological needs and the environmental factors in which it evolved. Over the years, I’ve wasted many valuable seeds (which is always heartbreaking) and spent far too much money by treating every seed the same. My approach used to be as simple as soaking them, discarding the ones that floated, planting them in soil somewhere warm, and relying on the power of prayer. While this method may suffice for standard domesticated garden vegetables, ancient plants like cycads (280 million years old) and palms (80 million years old) evolved in vastly different conditions. Palms, in particular, evolved during the Cretaceous period, when the Earth was much warmer, and the world looked very different. Over the last 80 million years, as the continents drifted apart and the Earth cycled through ice ages and warmer periods, palms evolved and adapted to their slowly changing environments, resulting in more than 2,500 species today. The three primary physiological factors essential for the germination of any seed are: (a) imbibition of water, (b) cell elongation, and (c) an increase in cell number. Palms have evolved a variety of strategies to achieve these goals. As humans, our task is to understand the natural evolutionary challenges faced by these truly undomesticated plants and to find ways to maximize germination in the most efficient manner possible. A bit of background on Cociods: The ancestor of all Butia, Syagrus (Lytocaryum), Jubaea, etc., likely evolved in what was once a tropical paradise. Over geological time, however, the Earth underwent significant changes, and palms adapted accordingly. Brazil, being the cradle of evolution for most Butia species, has undergone drastic transformations. Not only has it drifted further south and cooled substantially, but it has also experienced uplift, mountain building, changes in weather patterns, and variations in precipitation. As the ancestors of our favorite palms were subjected to these forces over millions of years, some species died out, while others adapted. Today, we have species that cover vast areas and have adapted to multiple environments, such as Queens, while other species occupy very specific pockets, such as a single mountain slope in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Interesting side note: I recently came across a study from 2023 in which what was previously lumped into Butia archeri var. ‘archeri’ and var. ‘diamantinensis’ has now been reclassified into several distinct Butia and Syagrus subspecies. If you’ve been growing archeri since 1984, please reach out to me—I’d love to share the article and see what you’ve been working with. Several of the original pockets of subspecies that produced seeds are now completely urbanized and may be extinct in the wild. That’s enough background for now. I need to get back to studying, but I will continue this discussion later, focusing on how to use this data to break dormancy in Cociods. Wish me luck!

Got them as 5 gal from Joe, planted out 10 years ago!