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I was wandering around the lake on a sunny winters morn and took this pic.

I normally spend my time posting on the cold hardy forum here, but this time I have some pics and info that might be of more interest here. I did a search through the archives here and found that there no pictures on the forum from Guantanamo Bay. It isn't the easiest place for people to visit, but I still thought someone would have beat me to this topic. I had the chance to spend some time a while back US Naval Station Guantanamo Bay. While I was there I did take pictures of palms, plants, and wildlife when I could. I will post my palm pics here, and I might post on the off topic forum about other plants sometime soon as well. The quick evaluation of palms at GTMO is that the three most common palms are (in order) Coccothrinax, coconuts, and pseudophoenix. There were also some royals, Phoenix dactylifera, and a few odd and end other species. Here you are:

Well a nice surprise in the garden this morning. Parajubaea sunkha number 2 has decided to pop open a flower. The good thing about this is Parajubaea sunkha number 1 a few metres away has an open flower and the males are virtually finished so that means in a few days the females will be receptive and the pollen will come in handy. Both have flower spathes happening so if they are out by a few weeks they are probably in sync to cross pollinate almost continuously now. They can “get it on” (imagine Barry Whites voice) . I think I’ll give them some privacy.

No matter what you’re setup is, good viable seeds is the key!

This one experienced a bit of cold burn after a couple of nights of single digits in January and some heat stress after a week of 100 degree weather in July. I still love it.

I love all of the upcycling and reusing old containers. I lol'd at the Cool Whip container because growing up in the south you never know what's in those, but you know it ain't Cool Whip. I found one in my late Granny's garden supplies - is it fertilizer? Is it weed killer? Nobody knows.

Here’s a recent update on latest mad scientist biology laboratories @happypalms with another 4 orders pending of 1500 seeds on order of all sorts of varieties, iam fast running out off room. Due to no potting up of seedlingsin winter! There would have to be at least 60 different varieties of palm seeds germinating in what you see in the lab there, ranging from batches of 200 seeds right down to just one seed of a known special variety. Will someone send around the straight jacket before this scientist flys over the cuckoo’s nest!

I’m posting photos of my Bismarckia as it’s looking pretty great these days. This may be the best it will ever look.

Yes , I save all my nursery containers . The ones I don’t use ( the larger ones ) , I give to @DoomsDave when I go down there. Also nurseries will take them back to reuse. Harry

More:

Cocos:

Hi Marcus, I am growing palms in the northern suburbs of Dallas. Our area is good for palmettos, windmills and pindos. There used to be lots of Washies around here but 2021 pretty much wiped them out except for a few survivors.

Sabal palmetto and Sabal texana thriving in the north Texas heat. Using papayas and coconuts as annuals.

https://a.co/d/gbP0aoR Why didn't I discover this sooner? I think my only question is "red and blue light makes dwarf," but other than that this seems like a nice all in one DIY germination station for most stuff. Obvs it's not going to work for anything with a massive tap root, but it looks like it's at least enough to get stuff into community pots or small planters without the tangled mess of baggie germinated roots.

The garden certainly looks good from a little cool weather!

And more:

Short shelf life or it could be our soil has that little thing that they need. Rainforest species from Australia I would personally want them harvested and sown asap! Fresh seeds way to go.

A sample of what I have

Two inflorescences open now and another spathe coming out, so 8 in total.

Planted today experimentally in far West Cork, less than 0.5km from the sea in zone 9b/bordering 10a: - Phoenix canariensis (actually twins, but felt I could not separate them safely without damaging the root systems) - Sabal bermudana - Sabal uresana ‘Green Form’ - Syagrus romanzoffiana ‘Littoralis’ They are facing south on a south-facing slope with some salt spray during strong southerly/southwesterly gales, but well protected from north and east winds by stone structures and tree breaks. I used black landscaping fabric and dark mulch to boost the temperature and control weeds. Fertilised with ample Irish seaweed fertiliser. Winter high temperatures are around 10C typically, maybe a touch colder. The winter cold is not a concern given siting but strong wind is, as is pests/animals, duration of cold, especially for the Syagrus, but I want to stay optimistic. Also shown is existing New Zealand flax (invasive), full blooming Hydrangea, and Escallonia elsewhere on the property.

My Trachys look really nice , and I think can compete with other varieties as far as beauty is concerned . Some palms obviously are so damn cool that my Trachys can't compete with those cool beautiful palms , but considering everything , like climate , I think mine are respectable when put up against a lot of palm varieties in more southern locations . What do you think ? Will

After losing another foxtail I planted earlier this year I decided to plant a new Wodyetia about 3-4” above the soil line. The previous one I planted a bit below soil line and after noticing for 4 months the spear was frozen and the open leaves died back I inspected and it broke off at the base. I concluded it was getting too much water and some rot occurred. So I put down about 2” of grow mulch above the soil then added another 2” of stone. I’ve read that palms will sink into the soil in the months after planted is that accurate?

Just had my Parajubaea sunkha flower again at the start of winter. There are 6 flower spathes behind this one so maybe, just maybe I’ll have some male flowers and female flowers open at the same time with viable seed as the result.

It’s what makes most native Cuban palms great for hot, dry and harsh areas. They work out great in South Florida with our similar climate. Poor soils and long periods of extreme dryness, with interspersed heavy deluge rains over short periods. Kind of a let down to see the plantings of Coconuts, all the Christmas Palms, and Lutescens. They looked sickly compared to the Cuban palms. This pics shows a great contrast in what was a great idea to plant here, and what was a terrible idea. This is also a very “south Florida” thing to do, for a residential complex. I didn’t see any, but Pseudophoenix would look much better than all of those Christmas palms in many of the pics. Great pics overall though…. Thanks!

I wasn't really familiar with the climate either, until I went there. That part of southeast Cuba is pretty arid. I saw it rain a few times while I was there, but most of those times were over within a few minutes. We got one really nice thunderstorm though, that lasted about half an hour. It still looked dry and crispy the next day though. It was dry enough that a fair number of the cocos and the royals looked drought stressed. I also noticed that the coconuts usually fell of the trees while they were still small. I also never saw a coconut sprouted on or near any of the beaches to lead me to believe they are naturalized there. If I had to guess, I would say the coccothrinax are the only palms truly native to that part of Cuba. They were naturalized all over. I don't know for sure though.

Fast food cups, old nursery pots, plastic soda bottles - if I can poke holes in it and it'll hold dirt I'll use it. I'd still like to try growing a cactus or a succulent in a beer can, but I'm sure there's a reason nobody's done that. Gardening has made me a lot more environmentally conscious for sure.

Absolutely gorgeous Richard. I love the palms , of course , but the Clivia- like flowers really add to the garden. Harry

Those palms are too close to each other and the building if they live more than five years.

Beautiful garden . They should do ok , depending how much sun they get in winter. The only concern I would have is how close to the building you planted the Canariensis, but it will be many years before it would become a worry . They are very hard to move when they get large , due to the massive root ball and size of the palm. I am especially curious how that Syagrus will do in Ireland …..palm trees in Ireland whodathunk! My Irish Mum is turning in her grave 😂 Harry

That’s a pretty good deal . It would work for most Chamaedorea or smaller palms . As soon as they get going , they would need to be bumped up though. Harry

Nice package. I have been wanting to share pictures of my setup for a while, and this seems like the right opportunity. Aside from the lights, the germination boxes were very cheap to make. This is my setup that I use for both germination and for sustaining young plants through the winter. These full spectrum LED grow lights are awesome! The camera picks up the colors of the LEDs, but in reality, both lights are so bright you cannot look at them directly. My custom made Box(s) Of Dreams. About 8 square feet of lighted growing space

Nice palm grown to perfection, congratulations your number two son has become an adult!

One of the few imo pure fiilifera specimens I have spotted in Greece. It is the one in foreground.

Nice one thanks for posting. A place steeped in history for various reasons! One doesn’t think of palms when the word Guantanamo bay is mentioned!

Narcissus is back !

Warmer soil temperatures and increased humidity definitely helps them. They are a palm from the tropics.

I used to send important things via USPS Priority. No more. 2 to 3 years back problems began where things got lost in distribution centers. ATL and SATX are black holes. Postal employees started to post videos. I now use UPS 2nd Day.

Great specimens, Jim. And quite old ... in terms of numbers ... Wonderful 🤗

Lucked up with a few nana seeds. A wonderful little understory palm or dappled light. Easy to grow and easy on the eye. About 50 seeds so not a bad little order of home grown goodness without the import duty fees or postage. Slow growing though this plant is about 24 years old. A great little palm well worth growing and a nice bit of colour when in seed!

They like a bit of a greenhouse climate as seedlings. So indoors it may be a bit slower and struggle to get past its baby stage.

I never know if I've cleaned my seeds enough. I famously had no idea chambeyronia seeds needed to be cracked like a walnut. I squished a bunch of Sabal Louisiana and thought they were rotten, but no - the seed inside is just teeny teeny tiny. There's a couple randos that I took a nail file and sandpaper to and probably burned through everything. I really just need to Google the seed and what it's supposed to look like when it's clean and ready and sometimes I feel like cleaning a million seeds and some of them give splinters and I give up and they'll either sprout or they won't at that point. Then I read posts on here from people who have been growing from seed for decades and they don't clean anything, they just throw it in dirt and leaves and grow beautiful palms lol.

The bottom part is the tree and the upper part is the reflection because that's how it works down there.

I really like the palm and the photo "down under"! 😁

Palms are growing like weeds with the plentiful rainfall this summer. The Bismarkia both recovered well from 100% defoliation (15°) F guessing in January my baby mule I brought home from Florida is taking off like crazy and I included a picture of my silk floss 😄.

This is therapy letting me know I’m not alone in my habits. 😅 1. I definitely leave palms in pots way too long. 2. Collecting way too many palms with nowhere to put them. (I guess that’s why they are in pots too long.) I have slowed down on the palm hoarding a bit. 3. I definitely have planted too close together. I recently had to pull two R. Sapidas that were planted too close to B. alfredii’s. More editing will need to be done down the road as well.

Here’s mine in the backyard sold to me as Baueri. 2nd pic is Nov 2020 so It’s very happy and grown great. I just noticed yesterday how big and wide it’s getting. Crown is a little smaller than a 5G bucket. No rings yet. -dale

1. Pushing climate boundaries (this winter RIP Geonoma stricta) 2. Collecting way too many palms than my space allows. 3. Planting too close together. They are bad habits in some ways, but on the flip side the same habits have yielded great results at times. Not sure I’ll ever change 🤣.

Do we really have to limit this to just 3? Ok, I'll try. 1) I either pay way too much attention or totally neglect everything. I can't find that happy medium. 2) Not so much of an issue right now, but buying plants for the wrong reasons - I wanted a queen because I read they grew really fast. I was completely unprepared for how fast they grow once they turn pinnate. I wanted a Pritchardia Pacifica because they look awesome, and actually this probably belongs under #1 because there's at least a possibility I kept it alive if I kept up with it. 3) I'm terrible at picking old leaf bases. Especially the spindle since it's right next to my chair. I pick at them like scabs. Honorable mentions: spending way too much money on the wrong things. Bottom watering pots. Poor lighting conditions indoors. Letting seeds sit around for too long before germinating. Writing posts on PalmTalk that are so long, nobody reads them.

Not much longer to enjoy the contrast between the nearly white trunk and chocolate petioles of this Neoveitchia storckii. Once it begins blooming the inflorescences will cover the good stuff. Baby Corypha umbraculifera on the right.

A few Trachycarpus wagnerianus pics I took some years ago now, most likely in excess of 15 years ago.