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This has been a fun palm to watch grow. I planted it in 2012 as a solid dark green 1 gallon. Slowly it became more and more silver on the bottom of the leaves and then started to turn silver on the tops. Now I have to climb on the roof to shoot a pic of the tops of the leaves and they are solid silver only loosing some their color as the leaf ages. Sorry for the Bigfoot quality photo on the first shot.

This is mine. Super nice palm 🌴 breahea pimo to its left in the second photo

Mine is about 8-10 years behind I guess but I already love it. It’s nearly finished its green-silver transformation. All the different hues it goes through during transformation are nice but it’s good to see it approaching nearly full silver now.

Added photos to my original post. Couldn’t wait!

I've had this Super Silver growing for well over 10 years. Super slow growing for me in sandy soil on a steep slope in a hot environment. Always looks good, loves as much summer water as you want to give it, just has been incredibly slow

Both planted 2015 as small palms..not even close to Stevetoad brahea..probably climate, shade and to much competition...

@pogobob, I had a problem with a trunked Howea, the rat would chew through the top of the petiole, just below the frond blade. This would happen one frond each night. I tried spring traps, glue traps, metal band around the trunk, nothing helped. In desperation I purchased this very expensive trap. It worked, the corpse had dried blood out the earholes the next morning, very satisfying !! For those unfamiliar with this trap, it was invented in New Zealand. It is a most clever design, forcing the rodent to stand on its hind legs to investigate the bait within the top of the black section. When this occurs, the rodent trips the trigger, causing a horizontal bolt (inline with the A24 printing) to strike the rodents skull. Then the rodent falls away. It is powered by a CO2 cartridge, and automatically resets for the next victim. My favorite detail is that this is a mechanical kill, and there is no risk of poisoning a non-target animal that might scavenge the carcass. (the reason I do not use poison)

Washingtonia filifera in Candelaria, Texas , Chinati Mountains and surrounding area

My regular Brahea Armata is very slow growing but getting a very large trunk . It has been silver since it was a small 10” pot size about 25 years ago. The “super silver” that you have has a smaller trunk ( judging by the photo )with more rapid growth. Harry this was last year , I think. Unfortunately not much of the trunk is visible in this pic , but clearly a different palm than you have. Very slow growing like the L. Chinensis behind it. All the palms down here are about the same age. In the upper left hand corner you can see the Brahea Edulis which grows a lot faster , already about 8’ of smooth trunk. Harry

Evening sun hitting this 2 headed Chrysalidocarpus Prestonianus Hybrid

I've been growing one of these trees in Arizona for a couple years now, mainly for it's beautiful foliage. Today,I noticed for the first time its tiny flowers. As small as they are,they have a strong smell of nutmeg.Since this was just its first flowering, I decided to play queen bee and see if anything develops...🤞 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Just received my L yannanensis seeds from Charway. Well shipped/packed, no floaters, very happy. Great communication and quick shipping as well. Will update here about germination... Matt

@MoPalm Yes , you are hooked! The canopy you desire will happen faster than you think . I was about your age when I started , moved into my “new “ house in ‘97 and started over after 7 years in the other house. My canopy is mature , and now I have my understory areas to plant the smaller stuff. Still sowing seeds at 71! Harry

San Angelo, Texas Tech

I am 45 so with some luck and if I eat properly and exercise I will see my palms as grown trees! That is, if the cold, the spidermites, the heat and mainly my mistakes don't kill them first. I was interested in plants since my teens, dunno why and cannot remember how it started. My mom would kill anything green within days and my dad was never into growing anything. I received a cocos as a birthday gift from my dad when I became 15 or smth. I knew that as a traditional Greek man born in 1939 he didn't really approve of his son's hobby deep inside. He didn't understand a teenage boy growing plants, and that made his gift especially moving for me. Anyway, the cocos died within weeks. I am kinda proud deep inside that I was into plants before all those new "plant moms and dads" emerged during the pandemic thanks to the Instagram 🤪

Phoenix dactylifera in Big Bend National Park at a former hot springs resort closed in the 1940’s and also Dugout Wells area. I’m sure they’ve seen low teens off and on over the decades .

Today it caught my eye how difficult it is to photograph my Mauritia and how easy it is to photograph my Pinanga.

I wanted to start a thread here to share photos and put a place for others to share as well. The more time I spend in Midland and Odessa for work the more I appreciate what people are growing here and have through many years even 2021. This climate is 8A but after going back through climate data about 90% of our winters are 7b/8a/8b, luckily leaning more heavily to 8a and 8b. However about 1/10 winters the area sees 7a or even 6b lows and each winter there will be about 3 days where highs don’t get above freezing. So it’s amazing to see what these have endured. Unless many were cut down after 2021 it seems like filifera survival was close to 100% here and these seem to be the most common palm here and then sabal, Trachycarpus and chamaerops.

Planted 2 years ago as a 7 gallon. Covered one night each winter but no heat has been applied. Survived 29 for 3 hours last year with two comforters around it. This year and going forward it will get some c9 incandescent bulbs and 12 foot posts around it for an enclosure.

Yes it is a different species. It didn’t have an official name for a while but now it’s lumped in with brahea calcarea I believe. It is a smaller palm than armata, has no thorns and in my opinion not as white as armata. brahea calcarea Is considered a slow growing palm but from what I’ve experienced super silver is not.

On tonight’s show we have some lovely exotics that are straight from a jungle nursery near you! First we see the fabulous packaging from such a fantastic grower of the finest gifts Mother Nature has to offer! Then from the great land of Madagascar we have a lovely little Dypsis just simply known as CLBS. Just looking a picture perfect for this evenings show. Next we have a beautiful little Areca tunku that looks to be a baby! From there we go all the way to the jungles of Panama with a gorgeous zamia nesophila, a lovely understory Zamia. Staying in the understory we have a armorphallus lacourii, followed by a nice anthurium talmancae that’s also perfect for the understory. And to finish of tonight’s show we a lovely Etlingera cornerii aka Siam Rose these would definitely make a wonderful gift for that certain someone in your life! So thank you all for watching tonight’s show and stay tuned for nexts weeks show!

I've always been interested in plants and weather since I was about ten. However, that interest faded for a while, until a few years ago when I moved from the desert-like climate of the Middle East to the California Bay Area. The weather here is nice most of the year, and my interest in plants suddenly came back—stronger than ever. I fell in love with Kentia palms at first sight and started buying them, planting them all over my property. Some got burned by frost or too much sun, which led me to start planting hardier palm varieties as canopy to protect them! The story continues, but my plan from the beginning was to not get addicted and start collecting all kinds. It's hard, though. I spend most of my free time calling nurseries and people to ask about this or that variety! I've traveled over a thousand miles, driven semi-trucks (without a CDL), and taken risks just to get more and more palms! I can't pass up a good deal. I hope I'm not truly addicted, but it's hard to tell. The urge to buy plants in the spring and fall is very strong. I just turned 39 and have started to wonder if I'm patient enough to build a full canopy, like the legendary ones I see around here. I met some great people in the San Diego/LA area who patiently grew very slow-growing palm varieties from seed. All respect to everyone who has that strong love, care, and patience. A truly legendary focus around here! I think not only are the collectors I've met and purchased from dedicated to finding rare palms, but they are rare individuals themselves! Indeed.

Incredible color on this palm! I love mine, but it's nowhere near the size of yours

Washingtonia filifera in the ghost town of Shafter, Texas. About a month after seeing 10-12°F in December 2022.

Brahea armata . Chinati Hot Springs

Amazing! Mine is growing like a weed and the progression is exactly the same. Green, silver bottom, now silver fronds. I love the heel and interest mine provides. If I remember tomorrow, I’ll add a picture.

Foxtails survive in cooler climates but never look their best and the slightest of problems kills them. Here they are are so common that I am actually thinking about getting rid of mine for something more unique. Peachy

Wodyetia are a bit sensitive in their roots . It could take more time to recover or it may not recover at all. They can be very hardy or super sensitive , hit or miss . My bet is that it won’t recover , but that is because I have lost two of them for no apparent reason . One was growing like a weed for about ten years , got big , then just started fading . I tried everything to save it but finally had it cut down. Harry

That’s not a rat it’s cappabarra by the size of that thing omg! But that’s a rat on mission by the looks of him for sure!

A nice young burretokentia hapala, had the dancing lady orchid to dance with!

I’ll be 75 next June and immigrated from the Netherlands in 1956 at 5yrs old. Been into surfing all over the world, road racing bicycles on and off until 65 years old. Been a Palm society member since 1977, and now I’m on my second go round with my 13 years old garden in the hills of Vista/ Bonsall area of San Diego. I just finished spreading 36 cubic yards of mulch this week myself. I’m growing cycads, aloes, agaves, plumerias, protea, boojums, and of course palms. The world keeps on changing but I’m still the same cantankerous beast that I’ve always been 😎

Dypsis procera, beautiful smallish palm.

Chrysalidocarpus Lutescens Solitary Form and a dwarf Areca catechu happy with all these recent rain.

@Hillizard + @Meangreen94z + @nachocarl + @Pdmesa + @PalmBossTampa + @Swolte + @Borassus2892 + @fr8train I figure this is a great thread for us to discuss our recent experiences growing this palm. It's long been a desire of mine to have a grove of them here in Florida, but I'm not sure how they'll handle my soil long-term. There seems to be some better luck in Texas and California, so let's share here. My garage needs to be emptied out, so I've started selling or potting the remaining seedlings and figure the discussion can outlast the sale here. ----------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: This discussion is a split topic from the original for sale posting: https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/85671-medemia-argun-nubian-desert-palm/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- For everyone that has asked about how we manage to grow them here, know that they are a little bit flakey when they are young. If you let them get to the point where they root into the ground, it's almost certain death if you break the roots. At that point, you'd do better to go get retaining wall blocks and build a raised bed around it. You'll have less issues in a more sterile environment in a pot. @PalmBossTampa had a good idea about stacking pots. Below is what mine look like when I pot them for individual growth and sale locally. This is a seedling on leaf #2 that was just moved 11/24/2025, and it will probably start reaching the holes by February or March. Water deeply, let it dry, keep a reservoir at the bottom when you water it a month or so later to make sure the soil at the bottom gets damp like an underground stream bed. Note how the soil in the pot is raised where the stem comes above the soil line to prevent stem rot. These are the best tips we currently have here in my region. There are a lot of growers in the desert southwest of the USA that are growing these. Any tips to share for folks struggling with this one in the much more suitable arid climates? In the ground, mine are in a raised bed. They usually don't make it in the various areas of the yard. The soil is heavy and tends to retain moisture. This is probably my best and last shot.

@flplantguy big oaks and pines are expensive to take down when they get too tall and too close to a house. I could have saved a ton of money if I had realized they were water oaks...and had realized they grow quickly to 80ft tall and then die. I would have taken them all down in one swell foop, instead of piecemeal over several years. I have thought a lot about selling and leaving, especially with all the highway noise from the toll road they just finished. FDOT knows that CFX/Turnpike Authority are violating the FL noise laws, and have so far attempted to reduce the noise with short barriers and a fairly dense planting of trees. It's not working so far. I would probably dig up the rare Cycads (Encephalartos, Cycas, Dioon, etc) and leave almost all the palms. I would try and repot things that are actually tough to replace (BxJ, JxB, Arenga Pinnata, etc) or that I think are fairly tolerant of potting and moving (bamboos, agaves, cacti, etc). Most of the stuff I would just leave, knowing the next owner would probably clearcut and put down sod. I've read other people here say "never go back" because the palm death and destruction you probably just don't want to know about...

It seems like there are some sort of critters in every corner of the globe that do damage. I guess Donald Duck had the right idea about squirrels poor old Chip and Dale!

Yeah rats live in gangs. You can be rat free, then bang, 30 can just rock up from nowhere and cause trouble. I bait them. I don’t like doing it, but, I’d rather kill a few rats than let them breed and then need to kill 200 of them. When you live in rural properties they are never too far away. They love chicken coops too. So if you have chickens they won’t ever be too far away. They will burrow underground in a chicken coop. Sometimes you will get university trained rats that won’t take a bait and know how to take the bait from a trap. They teach others. If you have that problem you need to get the intelligent first. Simply put poisoned bait on the trap. I had super intelligent rats in my previous garden and if I had a gun I would have sat out in the garden at night with night vision goggles. Anyway the only thing that worked was using poison on the trap. Job done. Rattus rattus is best Rattus deadus.

Once off of the caprock, and with the high winter insolation, palms with mass become "more" doable. Nice!

A second flower has emerged on my queen (first pic), so that's cool. Second pic is the one that emerged in October. Hoping to see this one open up soon. Not sure how long they grow before they open.

Hello, my friend Jonathan! He's adorable! I'd adopt him right away! I don't understand how some people mistreat animals. Fortunately, here, rats and cats don't cause any harm, while my brothers' dogs, who live across the street, have damaged so many of my plants. Hitting them wouldn't do any good; they wouldn't understand. Please, let's love all living creatures, animals and plants, that our creator created.

This is unfortunately the solution. We have an absolute feral cat plague here at the moment, haven’t seen a rat or mouse for over a year. Usually the rodents move into the greenhouse in winter and wreak havoc, this winter not a single one. The downside is that the bloody cats have killed everything else as well - bandicoots and all the ground nesting birds, lizards, etc. So the solution to the cat problem is this little cutie who's coming home with us on Friday! If she's anything like our previous shepherds she'll chase the cats away and leave everything else in peace. Yep, we'll end up with rats and mice again but that's a small problem compared to the devastation cats cause.

It flushes green,but even after 20 years, it still has never coned. Leaves do turn bluish after hardening off. Parent used to flush consistently every November,but now, usually waits till spring. I did remove 3 pups off the parent several years ago that now have their own pups growing in 5 gallon pots.😄 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

I am 51. No big deal. you could just probably google me and my bday pops up. Like many on here, caught the bug when I purchased my home and said no way I want my yard looking like all these boring ones around me. In any case, that was during the days when HOA were more laxed. My new neighbor next door got a HOA citation for planting one lonely bush in the front of his barren yard while next to his house is a jungle LOL. I must say I was fortunate to ride the Palm Wave through my brother. Met so many awesome and gracious people (through my brother) and visited so many gardens only to realize later that palm gardening is not a sprint but a 15+ year marathon. You just have to visualize your garden in the future and be very patient. I also realized that for every beautifully grown palm in mine or someone else's garden, there were probably many other palms that were sacrificed in that garden as a means of learning to achieve said palm. More importantly, you may have the most rare and beautiful grown plant in the world but if you have no one to share it with, to talk and reciprocate your love of plants, then it mine as well be a "weed". Just some things I wanted to impart from my experience. I have also witnessed some amazing friendships evolve through the palm community. Palms were the catalyst just like any other niche interest but the sharing of this knowledge and see it expand and manifest has been priceless for me. I wish I had the palm bug earlier in age but seeing a nice baseline in the survey in the 30s trending is amazing to see. Cheers Tin

Thank you Not right now as I have been swamped running my coffee shops. It took all my time. Writing was a full time job. Plus, I would never want to use new tools like ChatGPT - which so many bloggers now do.

One of my Washingtonia filibusta caught my eye

A nice dypsis remotifolia and a very nice licuala triphylla var stenophylla. Loving the heat of 39 degrees Celsius today.

Here's a Corypha sp. at Kopsick loaded with fruits with lots of seeds to be collected later and a big removal to come as well!

My 1.5yr old Borneo Giant has flowered! Never really found any of the Alocasia flowers impressive imo.

L weddelianum today.

Skippy the bush kangaroo in amongst the palms.