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Another Rasta Man...Chamaedorea tepejilote!

Generations of rasta... two separate specimens of the same species on different sides of the garden.

A little stick insect on the Joey leaf got my attention.

Probably the genus I obsess over more than most. Got a nice husky P. forbesiana from floribunda several years ago. Followed by a becarriana I previously posted, but just is turning into a monster.

A magical little understory palm. So delicate looking and surprisingly tough for how delicate it is, a water lover but this one has seen a few dry times and still grows on. Very slow growing with an age of 25 years the one in the garden is not going to outpace any rhapis in a hurry that’s for sure. I have about 100 in tubes and they will e grown in containers and a few planted in the garden.

popping colors today.

Just after I finished protecting my C. mitis from the cold I went shopping for something and stopped by home depot otw home. I was about to leave, having already decided to buy a yucca, and I saw 4 palms in the corner looking ready for the trash. And while I couldn’t buy all 4, I did decide to rescue one lucky fishtail. It’s a bit rough, but for 80% off it’s a no brainer to buy one.

Sabal Yapa frond between several varieties palms fronds

My sabinara are starting pop up well. 19 out of a hundred so far and there’s more there with those tiny little white spikes poking through the substrate. They grow well in my climate, iam pretty happy about the fact they grow well it’s such a beautiful palm. Another month and I will know pretty well much know how many I will be getting. There an interesting looking seedling, I will lift them up like Bismarck and kerriodoxa when I pot them up. I just gently push the fork in and holding the seed and the spike I just tease them up with fork as I gently lift them. Theres an art to it and after practicing with joeys you know that sound when you break a root and cringe. So far no sabinara roots broken.

Love mine too! Saw my first one a few years ago @ Selby Gardens and got a 3g plant shortly after. It’s a nice 3’ x 3’ size now

I see now why I love my garden so much just like the test of us all. I see the hidden beauty in photographs I take. It always amazes me. it’s a beautiful gift a garden, one that is treasured. Just look at the gardener behind the garden and you see them in the garden style.

You did well. Yes, the department store is a dangerous place, in a positive sense, lol. That reminds me of the movie Shopaholic with Isla Fisher 🤣 I couldn't have resisted at that price either. I think she still looks like you can save her.

If I understand ne0ndrxft response to my initial question correctly, the characteristic that Jonathan describes as the shuttlecock shape is what you are asking if it is a characteristic of palms of Madagascar? I think that my friend Tim answers that question very clearly in his response, which is that the diversty of palms from Madagascar covers palms that have a more upright or shuttlecock appearance, to palms that don't. Harry mentions above the structure he refers to as the squirrel tail appearance. While I know what he references, there are some from Madagascar that do and others that don't, For each characteristic of a Madagascar palm in my garden that has been mentioned, I have a counterbalancing palm from another part of the world that has that same characteristic. ne0ndrxft I would look at this as a learning experience to review the palms mentioned and some photos, so you too can see the diversity of characteristics. Since we can identify so many palms of Madagascar that don't fit what you descrbe as "many palms in Madagascar have these upwards shooting fronds and a similar look" , my response is that no, this is not a characteristic of Palms of Madagascar. It is a characterstic of some palms of Madascar as well as some palms of the rest of the world, but not a distuingishing feature. Some "upright" shuttle cock palms, some droopy palms, some straight leaf palms some recurved leaf palms all from Madagascar. (1 & 2 Ravenea julietiae, 3 Chrysalidocarpus onilahensis droopy form, 4 Chrysalidocarpus leptocheilos, 5 Chrysalidocarpus decipiens, 6 Chrysalidocarpus decaryi, 7 Chrysalidocarpus ambositrae with a Ravenea glauca). THe morphology diversity is well represented and only a snapshot of what is the diversity of Madagascar.

I just pick some or collect fallen one. 5-10 seeds will not harm anyone. There are always plenty around

Colin, I had no idea the beetle was having that horrible an impact. That is really depressing. You’ve been one of the few voices of knowledge on these Hawaiian natives, so thank you again for that. The two bakeri I am honored to be growing are still chugging along. They are definitely a more compact palm than most Hawaiian Pritchardia.

Well, half of that anyways LOL. But in seriousness, thank you.

Well i agree with everyone above. I Love to see palm gardens around the world and I appreciate the mental and physical effort required to make it come to life. Well done Sir !

My first garden in Qld had size, I had the money for water, hardscaping, plant purchases....everything but the right climate. The heavy nightly frost in winter, the low humidity in summer and the fact that a 5 year drought set in not long after I began it all. I thought I had achieved very little during the 6 years I was there until I found photos taken just after I had moved in. Even though I am my own worst critic, I had to admit that I had turned the 1.5 hectares around the house from a cattle paddock into a parkland with flowers, shrubs and trees. My next attempt was on a suburban block, only 600 sq metres but it was slowly planted out and improved. I finally grew trees tall enough to shade the houses, had flowering shrub hedges and easy access to sources of rare palms. Although it fell far below my standards, I was approached a few time to participate in the open garden scheme. Never accepted the offers however because I had no hardscaping at all ( I was so broke I had to save up to buy one paving brick at a time) and any landscaping was my own feeble handiwork. Still, in hind sight 23 years of hard work really paid off. My garden was a local landmark (known as 'The Oasis') Mid 2021 I moved to my current home, with a tiny front yard and very very small backyard both just mud, a few bindii weeds and a lot of builder's rubble. It's at the stage where many palms are the same height so it looks cramped and untidy, still no money for hardscaping and since all the specialist palm nurseries vanished, it difficult to get anything bigger than a tiny seedling to buy. There are so many palms I would love to have but they are too expensive, hard to find and usually too slow growing to get the effect I am after in this lifetime. Richard you have put so much time, energy and money into your place and believe me it shows. It is such a lovely garden now and I sometimes really try not to hate you ! Regardless I shall battle on, searching for fast growing palms that appeal to my taste and hope I live long enough to see some of my not so fast growers reach a decent size and be able to afford a little flagstone path one day ! Peachy

Great old thread. The easy answer for me is the only one I have ! 😂 A P. Hillebrandii that I brought home from Maui many years ago , just a seedling with certs. Now well overhead and looking better all the time! Harry

As our collections mature we will , at some point , end up with fruiting specimens . The seeds can fall and be messy or they can be used to grow more palms . Some palms , like Archontophoenix or Syagrus produce copious amounts . For me , it started in the 90’s when I was out at an art event with my wife and , then young , daughter . There was a very old Howea at the college where the event was held and the ground around the palm was littered with fallen fruit . I asked security if I could pick up the seeds . He said I would be doing them a favor as the maintenance crew complains about them . I grew three palms from those seeds and traded / sold the rest to a Kentia farm . Those palms are now in my neighbors yard. Years later , after coming on board here , I was noticing @happypalms and how he continually has palms sprouting . I decided to “ dip my toe back in the pond” of germinating seeds . The Chamaedorea need no help at all but some of the others need to be cleaned , soaked , and kept in small or community pots . A bit of patience ( sometimes several months to a year ) and you have little ones . I have several pots of various species from my own as well as other collections . I don’t have a greenhouse or even a garden shed so I put my little pots around the mature palms on the west side of the house where they can be watered regularly . This can be a very rewarding way to “grow” your collection. Harry

I was in the area today so made a small detour to visit these palms. They are huge! There is a person in one of the photos for scale. I would’ve guessed they were causiarum if I didn’t know better. Very thick petioles and a nice bit of blue to the fronds. There were some palmettos in the same complex and their trunks were half the thickness. They looked like pencils in comparison.

Good score there! I once spotted a pallet of palms headed for the dumpster at HD . When I asked , the guy told me that they are not allowed to give them away . I said I wasn’t looking for hand outs , I got a bunch of Queen palms for $2 each , they all survived and looked worse than the fishtail you just bought . The fun part of the ordeal I went through was trying to fit all my new palms in an old Mazda 626! Thank God for folding seats and four doors. I had a crowd cheering me on . It was quite the day . Then , when I got home….. my wife “ what the…..?” She started coming with me when I go to Lowe’s or HD. Harry

yeah for sure all 4 stems have a good spear, i picked the least bad looking one to take home. ill give it a trim later and give it some water, and with some patience it’ll look new again

I had 37 at my house in Altamonte Springs, 38 at Leu Gardens.

Got to 29deg F here near Valparaiso, FL. Actually not as bad as I thought it would be. Since I'm on the northern edge of town sometimes I match Crestview's low (which was forecast for 26). I had prepared for 26, however, even the 29 deg low we had was very brief as it was already 43 degrees at around 8:15am. Winds kept frost from forming. It's crazy to see areas of Central FL got into the mid to low 30's on Nov 11. In most freeze events, usually those areas are about 10 degrees warmer than the Western FL Panhandle. In recent winters, especially the period of late 2018 to early 2022 the temps seen this morning typically were the coldest it got for the whole winter (in January usually). From looking at weather maps, the reason for this is that the trough was centered further east dragging the cold air behind it at more of an angle directly down into the peninsula. I believe that more than many think, the relative lack of freezing temperatures compared to history in peninsular FL in the last 15 years or so is more due to the pattern not configuring in a way to really push the cold air at the right angle in this manner.

Yea , chances are slim on that one . You will know for sure soon enough. These take a long time to germinate here in Southern California . They stay in the juvenile stage for a few years . Most of the ones I have sprouting in my garden are volunteers from fallen fruit . They show up in potted plants or just about anywhere there is moisture. Do you have access to seeds there ? Harry

Exactly, I don't think that taking seeds,is like stealing, is anything wrong, but I always ask the gardeners first and they always said that I could collect them.

That they are🌈

A magical palm that is one for the true palm collector. With so many varieties available with fine white lines to yellow lines to whole leaves that are a myriad of colour. The Japanese are the master growers of these ones, with some very old clones in cultivation. A must have for the collector and palm enthusiasts. Ayanishiki Zuikonishiki

Wonderful story, Harry 🤗 Going back to the new space today. A lot has already been done, but there is still much to be done. It seems we will need to be patient until we can really get started, given our limited financial resources. It feels like we are putting together a puzzle ... It seems that the journey is the destination...🤔🤗

I think they've changed our forecast low to 22 and there's already frost on the lawn. I have protected nothing outside, but on the inside ---- This old guy is putting in work. I'm sure I'll wake up 2 or 3 times and make sure the pilot light doesn't go out.

Wilmington might get some snow before us that's just crazy! Obviously it's not gonna be anything crazy probably just a light dusting but it's still crazy

Yes, it looks like some of the stuff I've had to transport partially exposed down the freeway. To my eye, it looks like windburn.

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” mostly for people. My garden and many others do not appreciate the cold as much. I recently brought almost everything potted into the garage. Anyways, the C. mitis is on its second winter, and last winter it did great considering it got frosty multiple days. I didn’t expect a possible frost in December, but here we are. So, pretty last second I got it wrapped up to protect it. Hope to keep this thing thriving another year.

It took me a couple days to getting around to uploading these - first, everybody out for flooding (because someone used willow water and didn't dilute it enough and also to deep water) Then everybody back in. There's 101 pots plus 12 willows in bags outside. That's a lot of pots. Potty mouth warning.

Hello To be clear, this plant has not been exposed to frost, probably lowest temp it has seen is 46-48 degrees fahrenheit, brought it in tonight to protect from high 30s. While I appreciate the seed thing, obviously I purchased this on sale, growing palms this size from a seed would take a considerable amount of time

I have stored Anthurium pollen in the freezer, with a dessicant packet, in an air-tight jar, for months, and then obtained successful pollination.

@gyuseppe so sorry you lost them . For me , palms grown from seed become very personal and close. Harry

Beautiful seeds, my friend Giuseppe. You're amazing. A great harvest of seeds. And congratulations! You have enough to germinate the same palm tree for a lifetime.

It's been unseasonably wet and cold down here since I planted these, so I went and checked them at the weekend (they're planted at a property we bought about an hour away from our home), was slightly worried that there might be standing water in some of the planting holes but everything looked good. Think I'll use this thread as a sort of visual diary for this part of the new garden, so the photos don't just disappear into the black hole of my phone! Below are a few Lepidorrachis and two Hedyscepe, surviving the deluge and saturated soil conditions. Very glad that I planted these on raised terraces, as the ground is at full field capacity, with water running everywhere!

mine produced about 300 seeds!

It would have to be one of the most rewarding gardening experiences germinating seeds from your own garden, when you are given seeds it’s even more of a special feeling knowing that they have another story and a person behind them, and every time you see that plant from seeds that where given it to you it’s a special reminder of that person and they live in you’re garden. your bitten by the palm bug and next thing you know your out in a public place picking up seeds of the ground being looked as if what are they doing madness look. It’s a fantastic way to expand your garden and collection. You can obtain just one seed of a really rare palm and the joy that brings germinating it is endless. It’s a wonderful hobby and gardening practice that anyone can do. Harry you got been bitten many years ago and it’s great to see it never left your system happy germinating! Richard

Fall Update #8 - Individual Specimens The Map: The map boxes and labels the garden locations on the property. Note that the live oak provides canopy protection to most of this area, hence the number of crownshaft palms that inhabit the area. Another item to note is that the Stadium Seating Specimens section sits roughly 3-4 feet above the previously featured Veitchia and Carpoxylon areas and 6-8 feet above the lowest point in the northeast corner. This gives the garden a layered look from the Fire Pit and ensures no frost with canopy and constant air movement. Satakentia liukiuensis: Another favorite from Okinawa for @palmfriend. Pseudophoenix sargentii Archontophoenix cunninghamiana Ptychosperma elegans: If that's what this is, it has done pretty well. Thank you, @SubTropicRay! Cryosophila warscewiczii: It's starting to trunk. I noticed some root mealy bugs when I was weeding. Syagrus romanzoffiana: A seed-grown queen to interest @EPaul Chrysalidocarpus lutescens: Another seed-grown specimen of this species that wouldn't fit in the bed set aside for the genus. It's already clustering. Caryota mitis: Seed-grown from local stock, it is also already clustering. Ptychosperma macarthurii: A palm from @Fishinsteeg234 that also has already started to cluster Wodyetia bifurcata: The smallest of the seed-grown stock from our local 2007+ survivors. Cryosophila stauracantha: They looked rough for a bit, but have shaken off any of the rot or other issues and turned a healthy green. Cocos nucifera: This was previously bought as Fiji Dwarf, but doesn't look like it. Regardless, it's a coconut in inland Central Florida, so 🤷‍♂️ Phoenix reclinata hybrids and Washintonia robusta: The Phoenix grew from seeds and the Washingtonia was bought as a filifera. Dictyosperma album 'conjugatum': Grown from locally sourced seeds that survived our major freezes. Acoelorraphe wrightii 'Azul' + Medemia argun: This bed needs some mulch, but wanted to get photos done so I could do some other work. The Medemia is probably not going to work here as the leaflets have started to close up. Archontophoenix alexandrae: I'm disappointed that this one hasn't returned to form. It may need to be removed if this winter doesn't wipe it out. Chambeyronia oliviformis: Formerly Kentiopsis oliviformis, I wasn't happy with the growth rate where it was at and moved it to a spot that gets more sun. The potted Jamaican Tall coconut is doing nurse plant duty. Ravenea rivularis: Another species that never seems to do well here in spite of flowering and seeding specimens in the same area. If this one goes, the grass can have this spot back.

Such a beautiful palm and there are some real stunners out there in palm land. Let’s see them again. You could plant hundreds throughout the garden and have a wonderful tropical look every step you take. I have got about 20 planted throughout the garden so far and will planting more!

Fresh crownshafts and growth rings on Chrysalidocarpus lanceolatus. Love the colours on the thing, and the fact it’s still alive down here!

While the id might not be accurate, this Pritchardia I acquired as P flynnii is always at the tops of my list. The petioles are fuzzy brown and undersides of leaves are loaded with lepidota. Thus far it appears to be a pretty small growing palm, but time will tell. This new leaf popped open and the adjacent Burretiokentia's inflorescence seems to be laid out on an older leaf of my Pritchardia. It created an eye catching contrast of both color and shape that drew my camera into the scene.

Hey all I recently purchased a beautiful triple planted 30g Christmas palm on sale at Home Depot, FL 9b, I know these are super sensitive I couldn’t resist so I decided to keep it in the planter for now so I can baby it during winter , I brought it in my garage tonight due to cold front and noticed it is starting to look pretty rough. Browning on the leaves, white powdery substance, at first I thought maybe the brown was due to sun but it’s been in mostly partial sun since purchased. Any thoughts on what could be going on? I should note this has been briefly exposed to mod to high 40s at night, not sure if that is a contributing factor

This is the first time I've seen them near the coast in northern Spain. I counted 18 of them altogether. Sorry for the pictures, but they had to be taken from far away, or else, they would fly away. They are commonly seen in southern and eastern Spain and for some decades now, but not here.

I agree. Washies are unfazed by temps hovering at freezing. They are good to the low 20s, even the teens but I would be prepared to protect if lows fall below 20F day or night unless they rebound quickly once the sun rises.

Well, well, well, first flowering for my Lemurophoenix. A few weak prior attempts but, finally. Planted as a 3 gallon back mid 2008 from Bo Lundkvist stock. That seventeen years has gone by like a rocket. Tim