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Lepidorrhachis mooreana, ground planted on 28.06.2011, as a small seedling approximately 15 cm (6 inches) tall. The true trunk shown is 14 cm (5.75 inches) in diameter. Previously I have grow two adults to a trunk height of 75 cm (30 inches) but both died from various causes before producing seeds. They did produce numerous spadices, including immature seeds.

Probably Lepidorrachis and this little Syagrus ruschiana for mine.

Lemurophoenix halleuxii is probably the rarest palm I have and it’s also the most expensive I’ve ever bought. Purchased from Mark Daish in Babinda, North Queensland. He only had 3 left, 1 was already promised to another, and he wanted the remaining 2 for himself. I kept asking and increasing my price until he caved, or he played me from the start 🤣. Didn’t care either way, just had to have it. I think there’s only around 300 left in Madagascar and one doesn’t come across them often in cultivation (outside of Hawaii that is), although Queensland is blessed with a few. Tahina spectabilis appears slightly less rare with circa 700 individuals in habitat, but far more than that it seems in cultivation. Mine was a gift from Michael Green, which I’ll forever be grateful for.

I'm blessed to have more than a few rarities scattered about, many of them doing okay. But then I'd have to find them and post pics. So, I'll just enjoy everyone elses. What I don't want to list due to the therapy I'd need is how many rare things have met their demise under my care. 😕 I can make myself feel a little bit better in that I think maybe only 25% or so passed due to a fault of mine... the rest is zone pushing.... or gophers 🤬

This was a rescue but not it is a beautiful palm

Trithrinax schizophylla is doing well. When I got it as a seedling, over 20 years ago, it was quite rare in So. Calif..

"Teddy Bear" (chrasalidocarpus leptocheilos) 18 months in the ground gets its ring. Its been getting plenty of rain recently. My large one(25' overall) was decapitated crownshaft and crown in hurricane milton last oct. Got this one as a bare root seedling 4-5" long with root about 6 years ago. I look forward to more teddy bear color in the yard.

Starting to put the shade cloth on the new greenhouse. 70 percent cloth will be used the standard percentage for palms. Industrial white horticultural plastic will be used for the walls followed by a 70 percent cloth put up on the outside to reduce the brightness of the plastic. It’s all about creating that microclimate in one mega grow structure. It’s been a fun project and it’s not over yet. Getting the materials. Starting from the ground up to welding the structure together, now that’s done it’s on with the shade cloth, walls, flooring, irrigation, bench’s and palms. I have worked in the horticultural industry for 35 years and over that time have learned a lot about growing!

Chrysalidocarpus Leucomallus These could be the slowest Chrysalidocarpus out there, so to have a ring of trunk is pretty exciting. Although I will say, this particular plant has not been slow for me compared to every other one I have grown, or tried to grow. So maybe I got lucky with good genetics on this one or it’s just planted in the perfect spot. Size 10 shoe for scale

Butia fruit is pretty good, though quite variable, I’ve tried Queen fruit, it’s edible but less palatable. I was curious how my Mule fruit would be, of course most Mule fruit aborts at an early stage and never makes it to mature size. I was pleased to find that a few of the fruit hang on and make it to size, they look quite a bit like Butia fruit. This one pictured here was really quite sweet, but very stringy. The flavor was good, it would be more enjoyable if not so fibrous.

I have 2. Copernicia cowellii and Coccothrinax boschiana. I had to travel to their respective habitats in Cuba and the Dominican Republic to collect the seeds to grow my own. These rarely are available as plants or even seeds as the ONLY location worldwide for mature, seed producing trees, is their tiny habitats. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Seeing all the amazing palms here, I realize I should have posted just my VERY rarest, with photo. So I’ll call it my “mealy bug” - because it’s rare to find one this size in CA, and it was also my most expensive palm…

Chrysalidocarpus Loucoubensis (formerly Dypsis Ampasindavae)

Look, what I found out during transplanting of two seedlings of Hyphaena coriacea. Of it is a second leaf, the the hypocotyl of this sp. penetrates considerably deeper in to the soil than the one of Hyphaena thebaica.

Sabal loughidiana (from Montgomery Botanical Center source and purchased at CFPACS meeting /auction and Sabal antilllensis found at South Florida Palm Society sale last spring from Natures tapestry Also couple favorites this year and kinda rare are Calyptronoma plumeriana - Clay Porch @ Urban Oasis and Allagoptera caudescens - looked for awhile and found @ Floribunda under Polyandrococos caudescens

One palm that’s a beautiful palm in my garden the warscewizianus. RPS had some seeds available a while back so I took advantage of that and purchased a hundred seeds and had a good germination rate. I also purchased a few seedlings about 4 years back and they have grown quite fast and healthy. Once a rare palm now available, how the palm market has changed, thanks to the internet what was once rare is common and what is rare is obtainable!

While walking in Normal Heights, San Diego, Ca. yesterday afternoon, this beautiful royal palm caught my eye. It was a very warm, humid day with remnant rain showers coming in from Tropical Storm Juliette. This is why the picture is so dark and cloudy.

It certainly will add to a lot more space for more palms. Not sure on the floor yet still deciding, but if I go bench’s I will most likely get gravel for the reasons you mentioned, but not a fan of walking on it. Weed mat is a good alternative and cheaper, I will still build bench’s with the weed mat, and it has an advantage of no weeds. Gravel will get weeds, but I don’t have weeds in my nursery. Iam very strict on weeding my palms by not letting them in, one years seed is seven years of weeds, and after working in the industry for a long time I know what weeds do, they bring disease and insects, fungal problems, eat nutrients and moisture. I take great pride in my nursery on no weeds. That said the weed mat is a lot better at keeping the weeds out on the floor. So Iam leaning towards weed mat. Humidity in my climate never really drops below 65, it may drop a little lower but a consistent level of humidity in my climate remains stable, on hot days in my greenhouse and just sit in there or walk around and spot for weeds. Richard

I sowed 5 seeds of Basselinia pseudovelutina (labelled B moorei at the time) in March 2022. 3 sprouted quickly. I gave one back to the seed source, 1 damped off and I’ve still got the other. A year later another sprouted. Room temperate baggie with coco coir and perlite. Then exactly 3 years later the remaining seed sprouted in March 2025. I had been told high elevation Basselinia are sporadic and remain viable for years so I kept some hope but was genuinely surprised with that last one. I bought 10 B pendulina from RPS and 2 sprouted after soaking in water a few days. That was July 2024. None of the remaining 8 have sprouted but I’ll be holding onto them. The seed still looks good and not rotten.

Boy, I would have to say it’s a Voanioala gerardii from Madagascar. Managed to get a 1 gallon back in 2010. Known as the forest coconut. Tim

I’ve posted about this palm before. Definitely stoked I decided to buy it. Sold to me as baronii “black petiole” which isn’t to be confused with Dypsis baronii “black stem” but is still a gorgeous palm that I look forward to watching grow. Two leaf bases fell off yesterday revealing some rings.

I would really have to say my marojejya darinii, obtainable but they don’t won’t to part with them!

Just a new leaf, remote germinating do that. I have seen joeys do that.

Your comments about "spongy and soft" are concerning but many palms suffer trunk damage and continue to grow fine. There are several Washingtonia hybrids along the San Antonio Riverwalk with damaged trunks from freezes. It looks like you got a lot more snow in the February 2021 event so I'm surprised that you had that much foliar damage with the added insulation. Sabal mexicana in San Antonio only saw minimal damage and you were just a couple of degrees colder. I'm not sure if there's anything you can do but I don't think it's going to be a big problem. I just spotted this W. robusta trunk here in Harlingen. Looks bad but not causing any problems.

Yes Richard, I also had one in San Antonio that grew at the same speed. It was my fastest grower - outpaced my queen, Butia x Syagrus mule and Washingtonia filifera. Although similar to W. robusta I think it's a nicer looking palm. 🙂

Dypsis poivreana. Tim

Mike and Andy Green, hardcore palm mates. Nice gift for sure. Tim

Foe me it’s my Dypsis bejofo, yes a real one!

Your climate is more desert like , even with a large pool. The hot , dry winds will be brutal to most tropical looking or crownshafted palms. Definitely not Decipiens , they like coastal environments. They do well in climates that have damp , cool evenings . Zone 9a and cold hardiness is only a fraction of the equation when it comes to growing plants , there are regional differences that come into play. Also , almost everything on that list from your search would perish in Lancaster. Harry

🤮

That’s what iam worried about the big sprayer!

I’m still learning and experimenting, but I think it’s based on time more so than size. I potted up my original B pseudovelutina last Spring after 2 years just because it looked like the soil mix was looking sad. It was definitely not yet nearly root bound. It’s now at about 4 or 5 fronds. Quite slow but that’s to be expected especially in my climate.

I rarely treat my seeds, only a water soak for some that have been imported, I don’t think Mother Nature would be using sulfuric acid. And heaven forbid one drop in the eye you won’t be looking at your palms for much longer. You can scarify some seeds for a better germination rate, some licuala and a few other varieties will benefit from scarification. If you wish you can scarify your seeds it may or may not make a difference. Good luck.

Yes Tim, filtered light is ideal, but when mine was small, all the other palms were small too, and it got morning sun. It had gotten used to it. Is bought this one as a seedling in the early 2000s from rarepalmseeds and it's about 3.5 meters tall.

What the, that’s moving faster than the speed of light and the starship enterprise at warp speed, that thing is on something pretty good, beam me up Scotty!

They dislike the cold wet in my climate. I have tried the Calyptrocalyx species you mentioned before, and no luck. So it must the cold wet conditions they dislike. But you would think dryer conditions would be colder in the dead of winter. Richard

You devil you!

Labor Day Weekend teaser - Cocos nucifera flowering

Floribunda had Dypsis decipens now. I got 3 seedlings a couple months back

Coming along nicely . This will add a lot of growing space to your operation there. What type of flooring do you use ? When I built my little greenhouse I used a lot of pea gravel ( several inches deep) . It helps with drainage and humidity . I would wet the floor down in the morning and by early afternoon the humidity would rise with the temp. Mine was amateur but worked . I would go in with my plastic chair and have my tea in my “ tropical “ environment. I only had 40% ( I think ) shade cloth and never had burn on the palms even in summer. Harry

This is an old photo from 2022 of the larger of my 2 Voanioala gerrardii. Tim (realarch) and I are both growing this palm, along with a number of other Big Island palm enthusiasts. I should take a fresh photo, it's a beautiful palm -- basically looks the same but bigger now.

Pinanga maculata crown shaft catchified me eye today.

Pinanga coronata ‘blunt leaf’. Not really sure of the name or possible variant. Pruning this clumping palm keeps it well behaved. Tim

Some awesome palms I’ve never heard of in this thread. Most of my palms are rare for central Florida while not rare in other places, but rarest is most likely my Coccothrinax Macroglossa “Azul”

I dont have a rare palm, though in my neighborhood many are rare. I guess the least common palm I have is a patrick schaffer hybrid (BxJ)xJ. I got it as a strap leafer in 2015. It might be very uncommon for florida. I am hoping it gets massive, fingers crossed.

A few of my contenders: Lepidorrhachis mooreana Ceroxylon vogelianum Linospadix apetiolatus, L microcaryus Chamaedorea frondosa, C liebmanii, C falcifera Sygrus harleyi, S cataphracta Basselinia pendulina, B pseudovelutina Here’s the Lepidorrhachis just after I got them. They’ve grown well over winter since.

I would say my hemithrinax ekmaniana copernicia curtissii and copernicia rigida....

Jubaeopsis in my yard is still going strong. It's a bit wobbly, so I've propped it with a few rocks at the base

The one at the Melbourne (Aus) Botanic Gardens starting to look pretty nice. My 2 are a few years behind.

Thanks for the tip! I'll be doing this to send seeds out because this is more convient for me!