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Thanks for bumping this thread! Here are a couple of updated photos of mine. One of the three is now producing seed. These are great as they are not as fast or large as other clinostigma.

@Ben in Norcal opened his garden up for the Northern California Palm Society today, here are some pictures from the meeting.

The trunk....

Borassodendron machadonis

Updadate of 2022 post on growth of Jubaea Chilensis in Oregon. Current pictures of Jubaea 3 years later are show classic bulge in trunk with additionnal 3 to 5 foot verticle growth. Large Jubaea began producing fruit and nuts in late 2024 at about same time the trunk began to slowly taper out of the bulge.

They may not look like much at this age, but they certainly will if I can get them into the ground in a few years time. Some rare ones in this bunch!

I have a mate who lives out in bush with very little water and only solar power. And over the years I have been influencing palms on him. Today I got see his set, and let’s say very basic low budget, but you know what it works. He was saying the chickens ate his bangalows, but at least he has an interest in palms. The plastic bag was just filled up with sand from his property and just sat there near the chicken pen. I will say his Livistona are looking pretty good along with his Bangalows in the pots.

Merc has been germinating seed for me for some time which have then been donated to many Australian Botanic gardens,. We bought seed together, sometimes separately. He was great supporter of the Palm conservation project I am involved with. So when you visit Wollongong, Hunter region, Sydney , Coffs harbour, Cairns etc Botanic gardens you will see some small palms he may have germinated. Most are still to small to plant out but over the next 5 years they will turn up in the ground. When i asked him if he would become involved he could not say yes fast enough. A huge lost to the world, he was one of those people that everyone loved.

This large, tall Pheonix Rupicola in a neighbor's front yard. It may be a hybrid of some sort, but it certainly has mostly rupicola genes if that is the case. Regardless a gorgeous not commonly seen palm in my area.

Here is an updated pic of the Clinostigma savoryanum at the San Diego Zoo. This pic was taken on September 2, 2025. I believe this palm is more than 25 ft, maybe closer to 30 ft tall.

Not my strong point Sabal palms, iam sure the palm gurus will know what variety it is thanks.

I don't think the inflorescence is right for bermudana based on the Zona monograph. I would say it's a palmetto, or maybe mexicana.

I think you’ll struggle to get a positive ID Richard. Gyuseppe’s point is valid; some species are basically only consistently distinguishable by inflorescence and fruit/seed size and shape. In addition, your palm looks to be stretched out a bit from growing in part shade so that impacts typical growth habit. Id be fairly confident it’s one of S palmetto, S mexicana or S bermudana. If you’ve got photos of fruit or seeds we might be able to ID.

my Pritchardia hillebrandii has been producing seed for several years now in Carlsbad. I was just cleaning up the trunk earlier, removing some old retained leaf bases and snapped a photo. I wonder if climate plays a factor in when they produce their first flowers?

Finally got me one a few months ago! So far it's a rocket and doesn't mind the heat in my area.

Daryl O'Connor and I spent a few days in Kiama with Colin Wilson back in late 2022. We arranged to meet Merc at Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens. Here he is standing against a Caryota kiriwortgensis. Rest easy Merc, hopefully see you up there someday (save me some of your best seedlings as you used to do down here).

In the hot CA desert areas, many Washingtonia are literally growing in water for months out of the year. They handle saturated soil well as long as the climate is predominately hot and dry. I had several growing happily at pond’s edge in mucky wet black clay year round when I had property in San Martin, CA.

I moved here after Palmageddon in 2022 and it got down to 22°F here and 24°F in Brownsville. I noticed a handful of queens died in new subdivisions but they were newly planted and likely not watered well. Same thing with newly planted royal palms. Many royals didn't survive 2021 but most did. All royals saw at least some leaf damage the past 3 winters at 27°F but aside from 2021 27°F is the lowest temperature recorded here since 1989. I planted this royal in 2022 and it hasn't been protected the last 2 winters. When they're damaged they look pretty well recovered by the end of summer. It's about 14' tall today but fit in my car when I bought it!

What do you think about these fruits. It s a same palm butia archeri.

My mum said to me if you find something in life you’re good at stick with it. It appears you have found something in life your good at! The good old Tupperware container comes in handy. Just like the beetroot one and the lettuce container. Richard

My Chatham Island Rhopalostylis seeds are just starting to sprout and earlier in the year I germinated a batch of Cyrtostachys renda, the first seeds I have germinated for about 15 years ! Used my very high tech method of course, a Tupperware lunch box !! Peachy

Seeing the inflorescence I’d be leaning towards S palmetto Richard. Looks at least the length of the petioles? Fruit size would determine between S palmetto and S mexicana. Smaller than 0.6” (1.5mm) palmetto, larger than= mexicana. For what it’s worth I’m not seeing the typical traits of S causiarum or any of the other huge Sabals.

Good question with many answers, it sounds like your not having much luck and want to increase production. By changing what you are doing is a good step in the right direction to success. To make life easier I would suggest, coco coir perlite just slightly damp, a community pot is fine and depending on seeds size a 200mm container you could get up to 50 archontophoenix seeds in not a problem. Place a plastic bag over them and place in a warm spot, you could use a heat mat most common seeds will take a 30 degree Celsius setting. Once germinating has taken place you can start to pot up either when they are spikes (no leaf) or when they have one leaf is best depending on the variety you are trying to germinate. Most seedlings will fit into 75mm tubes square or round I find round is best to use. If a long root system you can use deep forest tubes or a container the depth of the root. But make sure not over pot your seedlings eg tiny seedlings need 50mm tubes, but triandra will go into a 75mm tube. Be careful not too over water let the top of your soil dry out before watering. Place them in warm not hot shaded spot on bench’s or up off the ground less disease and weed. Dont let the roots grow into the ground easy if on bench’s. Use a coco coir perlite and a little good quality potting soil mixed up well. Just don’t over water and fuss to much palms are slow regardless they don’t grow like a tomato.

Yes not to bad I thought, once he gets them in the ground they will be looking good, a palm is a palm after all, you don’t need a mega setup just a love for plants!

A nice variegated rhapis!

Getting into the potting up with winter finally finished. Quite a few seedlings to pot up so time to get them growing up, this will give the rats something to think about. But if I catch them they will be thinking twice about it that’s for sure! The guagra are from rps and the heterospathe where a gift and will be muched loved!

Richard the Sabal are difficult to identify

Maybe the palm knows he doesn't like it and is responding accordingly? 😂

Well, my small Trachycarpus takil (that had not grown at all in the 18 months since I dug it up before my move to TX) finally gave up the ghost. I am not a big fan of regular fortunei due to the messy looking fronds. On the other hand, wagnerianus can look kind of awkward as they get taller because their leaves are so small and stiff. I have some space though close to a wall that faces ENE that I wanted to plant some fairly small palms that will not be bushy at the base (looking for minimal blocking of sprinkler heads) I already had one hybrid waggie x fortunei, so I bought another one to replace the dead takil. Trachycarpus grow more here during the winter than the summer anyway, so it is a good time to plant them. New hybrid: Hybrid planted last fall: They don't look like much now, but I am looking forward to watching them grow over the years.

Your climate is so harsh in winter, I was in Winnipeg in Canada for a while both in summer and spring and went to a nursery holy heck I thought nothing but fruit trees (apples) and a few roses and some native trees I thought nothing is going to live in this climate. Gosh darn it was so hard to garden in that climate. It must be so frustrating for you to see all the tropical plants and only have them to live indoors.

Coccothrinax Clinostigma gronophyllum

So adding a new twist to this thread. While cleaning up some fronds this evening I happened to notice that the palm posted to start off this thread in 2022 shed 2 fronds revealing that it has decided to develop 2 heads. gmp

Great looking palm George I've never seen one with that much Orange in the crown shaft very stunning. Maybe it's a cultural thing both of mine are part day sun and have always been White

Dypsis baronii has been a difficult grow for us. Planted out on the farm as 5 gal size in 2008 during our absentee owner period. This one survived (although originally it had 3 stems). Would love to see others. - gmp

September 6, 2025 The oldest fronds are coming off and revealing some trunk at about it’s 2 year birthday 🙂 also I put a little lemon guava in there, it fruits so profusely that it doesn’t grow much and will stay low, hopefully similarly to the jackfruits once they’re old enough to fruit This one yellow one

One of the Macrozamia species which seems to continuously be pushing a new leaf. I haven't noticed a flush of multiple leaves emerging at once. I don't recall if this is another communis or different species. I bought it as a one leaf band size years ago.

Nothing like 100° summers and (average) 15° winters. Yeah it's frustrating because they'll both bake in the sun and freeze in winter. Even in the shade it's almost 100° and we _average_ like 85-90% humidity. It's literally a swamp.

Wow, this is so sad. Someone sent me a news report on this and at first I thought it was one of those fake AI deaths as it seemed to crazy to believe. I never met him personally but communicated a lot online and of course sent him seed, or received his seed, over the years. RIP.

Most Washies are mutts. There's a famous one in LA that's literally growing out of a storm sewer and it's huge. This thing is literally fertilized with motor oil runoff and hobo pee and look at it.

Well winter according to the calendar is over now. Coldest temp was around 1.5C with no frost, that makes 2 winters with no frost, and warmest temp was 27C. Unlike last winter which was very dry this winter has been a wet one with approx 500mm falling this winter. The high rainfall has highlighted the drainage issues here, but that’s the issue when you live on a swamp. The only damage I have sustained is a sad Ensete ventricosum that was doing well until about a month ago when it got too wet and probably didn’t enjoy a day of hail. My bananas look a bit beat up too, from hail and a few days of high winds in storms. However basically everything else is fine. Bring on Spring.

Female E. Trispinosus

E. longifolius, this one’s yet to cone for me!

These are always fun to look at….

My wife's favorite palm is our Caryota gigas. It is probably the most commented on palm in our Carlsbad rental's garden. It caught my attention when I was over there today.

Also you can always ask Lowe’s/Home depot or any nursery if they have extra cheap nursery pots. I pretty much grow all my potted palms in stuff I’ve reused. I don’t think I ever purchased a pot except for the large pots my cold hardy coconut and bizzie are in.

It's 50% off time...let's gooooo!!

This was a rescue but not it is a beautiful palm

Planted this 2023 from a 2g.

I’ve got a long road ahead of me with both these things. The 5G is a standard Baronii I got as a 1G and it’s already split a couple times. I’ve got 4 spears growing. It will go in the ground in a month or so. The Small guy is a “Big Baronii” variety I got from @LJG and it will be potted until it’s big enough to plant out. Could be a couple years yet. Mature plant photo courtesy of Len. -dale