Leaderboard

The first one I tried croaked. This one has been in increasing shade beneath an oak for at least 15 years, growing slowly, now seeming to pick up steam. Background has Archontophoenix and a Carpentaria trunk. Flowering bromeliad is a variegated Vriesea and the yellow flowers are an Oncidium orchid. All typical yard plants.

Inflorescence time on this Chrysalidocarpus prestonianus again. I need to get an umbrella out for the cycad below it, because a shower of golden flowers is imminent.

Here’s my row of 3 and big mumma is flowering for the first time.

When I first started planting Howea in the early 2000’s I wasn’t sure they’d even be long term plantings in the garden but, lo and behold, they are and continue to be. I can’t imagine the garden without them.

took this pic from a boat in Newport California.....when they are in their element, they can become exquisite palms!

Chambeyronia hookeri, still putting out spectacular new red leaves…look up, look up. Verschaffeltia splendida Clinostigma savoryanum

While we are at it a pic of my one and only P t var microcarpa.

I was out for vacation in the Yucatan peninsula for 10 days and left my palms to grow without any sort of care. I came back from my vacation today and noticed insane growth in some of them. Chamaedorea tepejilote with its new leaf fully open. Almost going completely pinnate. Cocos nucifera 'Panama Tall' opening a new frond Syagrus sancona is one of the fastest palms I have. 4 new fronds this year. Bactris major with a new 3rd leaf and pushing out a 4th one

Growing so many palms and having a nursery I do sell a few palms by mail order. It’s a simple online business you basically wake up and have made a sale for a few palms to various locations around Australia and to some countries overseas. I post on Mondays so I get the palms ready over the weekend, the key to getting your palms to arrive in a healthy condition is packaging, first I place a bit of cardboard and paper towel over the soil and tape that in there. This way you tip the plant upside down and shake it all about that’s Australia post job to do that without losing the soil and disturbing the palm. Then a paper towel is placed inside a plastic bag then taped around the bottom of the container so no moisture damages the packaging and it helps keep the palm hydrated for its journey around the country or world. Then I use zip ties to secure the palm in the packaging so no damage is done during transport to said various locations. A business card is placed inside and then they are sealed up the address is placed on the packaging and away my little palms go to start a new life in another garden. They arrive as seeds in the mail and then they are sent out to gardeners by mail. I love it knowing my palms are going to various locations and gardeners to be loved it gives me joy and happiness @happypalms

When I first started planting my property I purchased 30 good sized ones in 400mm containers from a friend he said have them, i insisted he take at least $250 dollars for them I found out later he gave my wife the money back. I was so proud to start to plant them out. Now I have some fantastic palms in my garden. Iam still growing a few Howea to plant out in the garden but mostly bellmooreanas.

My two sunkha are both going to have babies together too.

Everyone likes a teaser clip. This year's - Beccariophoenix fenestralis

That’s a great picture with the flag and the palms, very patriotic I like it!

Metroxylon, Obi Island, and my purported Pinanga sp. ‘Thai Mottled Dwarf form’ but could be misID’d

Chrysalidocarpus Mystery with nice coloring has caught my eye lately:

Here is an update on my Ceroxylon quindiuense. The seed collection was in Columbia, 1978, by my late palm mentor, Garrin Fullington. I ground planted it in the spring of 1983. It is a sibling from the same seed batch as the two plants in San Francisco Botanic Garden. I have not found aborted flowers on the ground yet, so the gender is unknown.

Another palm that needs identification please. No idea at all but lots of seeds! Thanks for looking.

Can’t dispute the colorful trunks in them as well. This one receives half day sun.

Correct, if it would grow at all.

Thank you both! Zone 9, Florida central east coast weather. Been very hot and humid last month with lots of afternoon showers. Sandy soil - 12 houses from ocean. Landscaper covered with weed fabric and rock then placed drip lines. Water 3-4 times per week. I shall do the peroxide treatment today and see what happens!

Hola, no they aren't opposites. The Sahara is in the tropics or maybe subtropics and it is very very very dry. Think Tropics in the latitude sense, and not how wet a region is. Average annual rainfall dictates if a place is very dry, dry, humid, wet, etc. So across Cuba, and the rest of the Caribbean (technically in the subtropics), you have a range of rainfall distribution that affects the vegegation that grows there. Ciao

The tropics is the area between the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer. Within that area there is anything from deserts to rainforests. So there are plenty of "dry tropical climates".

This palm likes things dry. I go so far as to cover mine in the winter with a golf umbrella to keep the cold winter wet a bit at bay. You have a somewhat new planting but I’d watch your moisture meter and keep it on the dry side. Clean out the spear pulled hole with some hydrogen peroxide and spray in a little fungicide in there as well. Let it sit a while, then dry out the whole with a chopstick and paper towel. Hopefully you’ll see some success soon. I know I did when I nearly let mine freeze into oblivion. Nearly frozen to death with spear pull: After a little care:

@Xerarch how about an update?

Hello Eckhard, it's summer, I'm curious to know what temperatures you have in your city

Argh we don’t need any bugs down under. Hold off until the cat pandemic gets under control, but after that send em on down under. This way it will give me time to box up a few happypalms promo gifts for you!

They are listening!

Hi all, Short update . As written I was able to collect three seeds. Et voilà, three little palms. Hopefully I can keep them alive during winter inside. Will try the same as for my royal palm seedling which already survived two winters. Currently they are inside as temps outside are to low for them. Thanks again for the identification. Eckhard

Trying to get an identification of this palm a ptychosperma but what variety is the million dollar question?

Yeah, they’re not the fastest growing palm for me but they are way faster than my slowest growing stuff. I would put them at a medium pace and they seem to like the climate here. I think there is only 2 degrees of latitude difference between my place and habitat in Chile.

My Med green

Ouch, brutal!

The black spots you mentioned are normal. All of them have it. The weather this January was a bit chilly, but it doesn't look like Ormond Beach got below freezing this year. The symptoms look like a potential combo of salt burn and fungal infection. If you're providing them with supplemental water, it would be best to stop. Especially if you're using municipal water or other high-pH water sources. Put a few drops of peroxide down the spear leaf and into the crown of the palm. If it starts fizzing up, you'll want to peroxide them daily for at least a week.

Looking good @Tyrone! Mine are similar sized, no flowers yet though. I dug out 8 or 10 smaller ones that were in crappy dry sand out the back, will replant them this spring at our new place, where hopefully they'll get better care!

This one is 17 years from seed collected from a tree at Perth zoo and has since been cut down. It would have been about 110 years old. There’s one only other fruiting Jubaea in WA and it’s at Perth zoo. This one had its seed stolen after germination at one leaf stage and it just stalled. It put it back 10 years.

Don’t forget when they seed and are mature you get some nice red seeds with a bit of green and yellow. They make fantastic container plants in the old oak wine barrel that’s been cut in half, and one with a trunk in that barrel looks amazing. One palm that has stood the test of time and proven its worthiness in grace in many a hallway and courtyard. A true grand old winner!

Let’s set aside the Red River Rivalry and bring some Sooners to the Lone Star State for a palm extravaganza everyone can agree upon. See you in December! Thanks @Cindy Adair

Mauritia flexuosa (Buriti or Aguaje)

The Howea fosteriana it needs no introduction, it speaks for itself. Theres even a couple of variegated ones in the garden!

One other healthiest foxtail I have ever seen got my attention today!

Hi there, I don't recall having seen one of my Bismarckia pushing three spears at the same time... Keep growing, little beauty! 😍 Lars

Orania Trispatha on the left, Chrysalidocarpus Robusta Hybrid on the right

53.5 degrees north

Primeval basic survival instincts from caveman man days hey to eat fallen fruit from the gods. We haven’t changed much since then. I collected seeds once at sea world from a cycas near the cafe they looked at me like I was some sort monkey with two heads. Richard

Back to Parajubaea. Here are my 3 biggies taken today before sundown. I’ve put the shovel in the pictures for scale.

I have quite a few variegated rhapis in the garde, with all the recent rains we had and the cooler temperatures they certainly are looking quite well. They seem to enjoy the cool weather for some reason. And iam glad got them 25 years ago and put them in my garden.

7/21/2025 It has been much cooler than usual for this time of year and not any heatwaves for quite a while. The coconuts have been growing much slower or maybe I’m imagining it, not sure. The tree behind my coconut looks very happy and healthy and I’m wondering if it’s roots are taking the coconuts fish fertilizer haha

July 6, 2025 Ive been gone quite a bit so I can only hope they’ve been watered as much as I’ve instructed but the plants tell on them. 😡Since under all the homedepot soil is native pure clay, I wonder if they have a natural reserve of water down there. The large coconut has gotten so tall I have to get on a ladder to show the top. It must be near 11 feet tall. The new fronds are massive . Now that I’m home for good I will remove what’s left of the greenhouse structure. I am worried about rats so if anyone has any methods I’m all ears bc I have tried all the normal stuff and they seem too smart for traps. Here is this one. I removed the actual coconut and you can see how little it is. Maybe that’s why the plants so little? Here’s the yellow potted one. He grew but shows some signs of not getting enough water I believe.

I see “Hannibal Lecter” when I’m out sometimes, will have to grab one. Someone told me the spinier broms tend to handle more sun than the smooth ones…. Not sure if it’s always true, but it seems somewhat accurate. This one makes a ton of pups. Was a single 18 months ago, now it’s more like 12+ (I put the other half of the clump elsewhere). It gets a red central spot in the sun, but this is shady here Whenever I want to get rid of, or move, a normal size brom, I just pull it up and stick it in this side area. I forget they are there sometimes. When I come back there are always a bunch waiting for their new home. What’s nice is you just grab them up and stick them in somewhere else, and they are fine. There are a couple front gardens here with hundreds, if not thousands, of single type bromeliads. I bet they started as a single plant or two 10-20 years ago.

Very observant My yard is in the midst of a multi-year redesign. Some areas are close to complete, and in those areas I've planted everything right in the ground. Here's a photo of the first area I declared "complete" (or close)... Other areas are in a "temporary" state, where they are far from final but I still want them to look nice for now. In those areas I've got some of my plants in buried pots. The Plumeria are in buried pots, as are the Ficus dammaropsis (those would be WAY to close together at that spacing). None of these will end up in this spot (nor will the strawberries). It's a temporary storage area for some of my plants, with the pots buried to make it look a little nicer (till their final home is ready). I also sometimes bury pots for functional reasons. This Joey is buried since I was worried the aggressive fern roots might choke it out. Seems to be happy in the buried pot so far (has been there 2yrs). As for bromeliads, it's very rare that I would bury a bromeliad in a pot... I normally just stick them in the ground and dig/move whenever I feel like it. But I made an exception for my six "Mom" Julietta bromeliads. I'm a bit worried someone is going to mistake the grass pups for a weed and yank them off... plus I've been moving them around a lot (to add splashes of color throughout the yard). Here's a photo showing another one of my "Mom" Juliettas in a temporary location... in a buried pot (the Twist Ti is also in a buried pot since I might want to bring it inside during the coldest part of winter). I've read a lot about buried pots and it sounds like it's not always a great idea. But I'm a bit on the OCD side with garden cosmetics, and it makes me feel more at peace to have most of my yard at least in a somewhat stable state. Then again I do have several areas where potted plants (not buried) are allowed, and I'm fine with them as long as they stay in their designated "container ranch" areas. Long story short... plumerias are in buried pots and will eventually be spaced out more