Leaderboard

Come across this orbicularis flowering today in the Coffs Harbour botanical gardens. Not very often you get to see a licuala orbicularis flowering in the subtropical climate.

……and over 5yrs of a stalled thread, I’m going to bring it back to life! Let’s see your H. Indica out there. Mine has been a rocket! Pictures are not even 3yrs apart. Planted out at the end of 2022 as a Floribunda 1G H Indica Red variety. It grows amazingly fast but only keeps 3 leaves before the oldest looks terrible. Admittedly it’s too close to the rock edging but oh well. -dale

1 leaf of chamaedorea nationsiana

I have been waiting most of the year for the seeds at Sullivans garden , yes …those huge Decipiens . A trip over there last week told me it was finally time! There were about 20 seeds that had already fallen but were green. My good friend Terry doesn’t live there any more but keeps a house next door . In the rare chance of running into him I decided to knock. I had already been given permission by he and Sevan both but , didn’t feel right just taking them. Terry was there! I showed what I had picked up and he said that they were ripe! They don’t change color like other palm seeds. After looking at all the fruit on the palm he said they are ready for harvest “ take all you want”. Music to a palm collectors ears. I went today and climbed up the ladder to get a few more . I had already picked up the ones on the ground as I was being pelted on the head with more. I was also given permission to take the seedling volunteers that were sprouting up from last year. They came up easily , seed still attached and not root damage . The soil was very easy to work with and these don’t have much root to them when they are small. Harry The parent palm ( one of two), full of fruit! Seedlings from my first visit. Harry

I have a respect/hate for Christmas palms. Down here, they are fairly tough, tolerating our dry spells much better than other tropical looking pinnate palms. They grow fast, not too big, are messy with their endless seeding, hurricane tolerant, and planted literally everywhere to the point of nausea. Still, they do very well, neglected in literally everyone’s yard and parking lot. I spend hours every month, cleaning up after the 12+ that overhang my yard from my neighbors. I’m sure they look happy and lush in The Philippines. I love Sargentii, maybe to a certain degree because they are less common here. They can be homely, variable, and weird looking, even when healthy. Tough as nails, but many show a lot of battle scars from oscillating rough conditions, and “Pseudophoenix decline” injury.

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:

I found this one in the greenhouse the other day I had completely forgotten about it. But I was very surprised to see it has survived my winter and sitting in a tray of watert growing quite happily. So with temperatures around 2 degrees Celsius and very cold feet it is possible to have a cordata growing in the subtropical climate, in a container not sure how it would grow in the ground and would definitely need to be planted as a larger specimen than a tube stock. I only purchased it out of curiosity and they say curiosity killed the cat but not the cordata!

One could say the final trim has been added to the recent donation of palms in the Coffs garden with mulch being placed around the palm garden and a few more recent plantings of some of the larger donated palms by Colin Wilson. It’s getting there another planting day with a few more exotics that where not going to get planted in winter and a few from my collection and it will start to look a lot better!

A lovely gift of a few seeds from a palm talk member. A deep container shall be used and placed inside a large plastic bag and placed in the hothouse. A very interesting palm from Africa, iam pretty sure I will have enough summer heat for them. Just have to germinate them first.

Today was quite productive and fun. I potted up 10 seedlings . Harry most still had the seed attached A couple were doubled up as I ran out of containers not a bad haul for about half an hour of fun! Seeds will be sent to @DoomsDave for germination. A huge “ thank you” to Terry and Sevan Sullivan for their generosity. Harry

O k , time for the palm underground to get these distributed to the rest of the palm folks😂. I have noticed in recent years , more Chamaedorea species that are available . I have not seen , or heard of , this one. Good going on those babies , @giuseppe . Yes , keep us updated , you have the touch!! @happypalms or @peachy could you post pics of older examples ? Harry

Not if you look in my nursery, they are available my little possum! Richard

And more:

So sorry for your loss , that had to be devastating ….on top of the threat to your health. I know how I feel if just one of my palms suffers . Harry

Back from a little Mediterranean vacation. Made this drone video of Sanremo, Italy. Lots of Canaries and Braheas and nice architecture. Enjoy!

These are a lovely species and grow very quickly too. They are very hard to find here now too. You will be pleased in a couple of years from now. Peachy

Well you have them now happy growing!

A hotel I stayed at in Cayo Coco,Cuba actually did make use of the wild local palms for their landscaping. There were easily over a hundred rescued Pseudophoenix sargentii planted all around the property and roadways of the area. Lots of wild ones too as soon as you started hiking in the natural areas. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

I have not seen this tree in awhile. Looking rather stately and full of seeds. Off Selva and Malaga for those on the area. JW

I agree. Best thing he could have done was gotten Sabal minor 'Cherokee' and Sabal 'Birmingham' and argued back that they were natives. Applaud the efforts, but poor execution and timing.

A bit cold for mule palm. Birmingham average annual low is 14f, making it a warm zone 8a. Tarrant most likely close or slightly colder. That said, trachies, many sabals, and some others would be perfectly hardy. That said, they have had 3 or four upper single digit lows(7-9f) in the last decade. So those established palms the mayor saw in his city probably sailed through that cold. But newly planted, unestablished palms(<3 years), succumbed. Then add tax dollars, and maybe these were Florida sourced palms planted in December!

Piecing together information from the article Google Maps from the information added by @amh, it looks like the palms did OK during January 2022, but took a beating in December 2022 - with damage showing in the January 2023 screenshot. January 2023: Just about everything is damaged. March 2022: Everything looks very green a few months after the long chill of January 2022.

It's still just a baby! Will become a monster in a few years as it puts on the first few feet of trunk Some more bizzie pics~

A new dypsis in the Coffs Harbour botanical gardens I have been asked to identify. And it’s got me stumped almost like a large on steroids lutescens, but obviously it one with no yellow crownshaft and a lot more robust. The flower spathe is a lot larger and the seeds are a lot smaller. This is the best I could do for pictures so iam asking a lot I know!

Nothing better than risking life and limb climbing a ladder to get palm seeds, well worth the risk good to see you got your priorities right! Who beds to clean gutters when you got palm seeds to collect 🌱 Richard

Fantastic. This is such a rare palm in habitat. It’s great to see the efforts in keeping this species from complete extinction. Collect and grow as many as you can. It’s a great resource for seed for the US.

I have 2 Allegoptera the first picture is of arenaria the second is what I would like identified!!

2.5" overnight friday through saturday.. Puddles in the yard this morning too. THere was a several dry days last week but just when I think about watering we get hit. The growth in my palms has been very encouraging after the nasty 110 mph (max) hit by Milton last year. Street signs were flattened to the ground and dicots tilted or knocked down all around my neighborhood. Another 0.5" is expected today . I have no complaints about rain, love the cooler temps and growth of my palms. It appears to be an average year here with 33" so far.

Yes, those are facts. We will try, and I completely understand if you (once again) or someone else doesn't want to go to the trouble or considers it too much effort, given the uncertainty of whether it will be successful or not, and therefore has a different opinion. That's fine and important. Even some of my close friends initially laughed when I told them what was possible with exotic plants here at this location. And when they saw what was possible, they were first amazed and then delighted. Yes, sometimes I am stubborn in these matters, but the journey is the destination... Cocos nucifera is a very big challenge, I am aware of that.

I had not heard of this sp until now!

Looking really good Richard and you have only just got warmed up, imagine what it will look like in 5 years time! Anyone driving south or north should stop in and have a look Regards Colin

The problem is that the palms weren't established. They were planted early 2022. December 2022 we went from 55°F to 5°F in 36 hours. Classic winter pattern, warm rain out of the Gulf followed by a cold NW front, drying everything out. Those palms would need 3 years in the ground to handle that. I drove by the yard with the half-dozen, 6+ foot trachies last week. One is still a stump. That's why T.fortunei is rated z8a (10°F). They're hardy to that temp, but below, genetics plays a part in individual survival.

Licuala seem fine outdoors for me and the cold hasn't bothered them at all. Probably because they are so lovely people think they are more delicate than they actually are. I did lose 3 this year, about 60 cm high but that was someone who 'helped' me in the garden put them behind the shed and never told me so they got no water and duly croaked. Peachy

They are such a lovely plant and thank you for posting the photo as I didn't know how they flowered. Peachy

Richard, I'm very happy to have this species of chamaedorea, because in Europe they are not found.

Holy anthocyanins Batman, that’s a lot colour in that lot I like it👍

It’s not far from flowering, the pregnant look!

Here’s an amazing one I photographed in St Augustine in 2023.

Who needs Hawaii when you got happypalms growing just as good, besides that you gotta give @realarch a run for his money it’s not all about sitting around looking at your palms so they grow, I have to water mine in the great land down under! Lucky Hawaii growers, they say we Aussies do it better, even those ones in @Jonathan in chilly Tasmania give them a run for there money. But secretly don’t tell them I said that!🌱

Interesting. I lived for a couple of years in the Philippines where Christmas/Manila palms were some of my favorites. Those Christmas palms at GTMO looked so much less attractive to me that I actually thought those were some species of pseudophoenix. I am embarrassed I didn't realize what they were, but I am kind of surprised I thought they were something different. Maybe it is that I am used to seeing them palnted as doubles and triples? Maybe because I remembered them having smoother more attractive trunks? Either way, I am disappointed that they aren't using pseudophoenix which, as you pointed out, would likely be better suited to the conditions.

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

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!

Here's my newest Bismarckia - just 4 weeks since collecting seeds. I decided to direct plant the sprouted seed in the ground rather than mess around with it's sensitive roots. A week after I picked them the two adult palms were cut down!

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

My smaller Med was almost completely defoliated, but growth has been phenomenal over the last few months.

More:

Cocos:

KEEP THE COMMENTS COMING! I kinda picture a Palm Advisor for Mr. Mayor . . . .

The palms appear to be trachycarpus, or possibly rhapidophyllum mixed with sago "palms" planted along E Lake blvd in front of their city hall building and around the parking lot. Both species should be cold hardy to the area.

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.