Leaderboard

Seems like PalmTalk has been a bit slow lately and since I don’t post that much I figured now is probably a good time to post more. So here are a few photos of some palms in my garden. We just came out of the rainy season so most look pretty good at this time. First up is C lanceolata and S yapa to the right. A group of H lagenicaulis Another group but of H verschaffeltii This Pritchardia beccariana got planted last year and replaced a coco palm that got hit by lightning. You can still see the cut off truck of the lightning victim.

Itaya amicorum, I really like this one but it probably needs to be in a more protected area. A big clump of Walichia siamensis Caryota zebrina. This one deserves more then one photo. C crinita with C leptocheilos

Here are 2 Allagoptera arenaria planted in the corner of the house. I finally got them to produce seed which are just starting to germinate. P sargentii also producing a bit of seeds. Serenoa repens which replaced another one that got too big and out of control. C proctorii Pinanga javana. This one is too exposed to the sea breeze but is hanging in there. Carpoxylon macrospermum. This one has grown well in this climate.

This one is Zamia nesophilia. The photos don’t do justice to the size of the leaflets so I put my hand in one of the photos for size comparison. New flush hardening off. The color of the leafs are very nice Here you can see how big the leaflets are.

Ponapea and friends in the morn light did grab me.

Moving on to some Licualas. Most I’ve lost the names to but this one is L spinosa. Unknown Licuala. I just noticed it has some ripe seeds I need to plant. Another unknown Licuala This one is seriously overcrowded by a Heleconia. Unknown Licuala This one probably gets too much sun. That’s it for now. I’ll see if I can post a few more palm photos this afternoon. Thanks for looking!

A spot of potting up, the warm weather is pushing the spikes up, so time to keep up with them to minimise root disturbance. It looks like I will get 55 sabinara from a batch of 100. Anthe Oraniopsis still coming up, and as for the masoala there slower germinating than Howea sp there still germinating.

Thank you . Mine is still in juvenile stage , I’m hoping to get a few stems like yours , although it will be a while here . It seems to be moderately fast as it gets going . It has only been in the ground a little over a year . Harry

A beautiful little palm perfect for the understory the triphylla. A real gem of a palm, definitely the miniature look for a palm that fits into any spot that’s beside a path or an entrance way. As we would say in Australia an absolute bonza of a palm!

An absolute monster of a palm my Caryota maxima getting taller the gum trees up there about 35 meters or so.

I agree with Harry and i'll say same of multiple daily posts but its a free forum. We find the time to scroll on other apps, no? Finally winter like temps here in Dallas! It was bone chilling day🥶 and will be putting most summer plants either inside or my little cold frame house tonorrow. Weather models way off as they said we would be dry late Fall but it has been record rains, last couple weeks after a horrifyingly hot early Fall and dry as a bone! We need a break but i hope the rains do not totally foeget us here in North Texas this winter ( like La Ninas can affect)! Here is hoping for a mild Winter '25-26

Hi Steve in 2010 pogo sent me seeds from his biggest Hedyscepe Today I proudly show the results of those seeds as Hedyscepe grow like escapees in the ground in my coastal Tasmania garden. I also have a smaller one from San clemente garden

One of my Latania caught my eye

A nice kerriodoxa new leaf gleaming away.

Just looking at this thread again, was looking at mine this morning and thought I’d post an update. Tim

Nothing better than a mummified rat, you could make key chain out of it suppose, I wonder if the Egyptians did that. It could have been worse the wife screaming on the kitchen chair like a 50s sitcom🤣

Thanks Harry. The lanceolata is clumping although it only clumped at an early age. Here is a photo of the base.

Oh my wife is going to LOVE that with her worm phobia and all... I went up there. There were two of them but they were pretty crispy. They definitely bought it in the past few months- I go up there a few times a year and they were new. Nothing juicy like I was expecting. Darn!

Many of the small licualas I have had now for 3 years or so, were lost in the early spring heat wave. Of the survivors about 6 are now big enough to get planted in the garden. One good thing about small slow growing palms is that its easy find something as canopy for them. My tiny chainsaw has been busily cutting off lower branches on small palms and cutting back Musseanda and monsteras so finally I getting small areas of shaded groundspace. My little carpie that I got as a trade is also going in the ground this week. It laughed at my winter but didn;t like being buried under hailstones late winter.

I'm OK, at least physically. Just busy working most of the day four days a week, plus I have therapy every two weeks. Also busy setting up the plant farm when I can afford it, have the physical energy to do so and am not hindered by cold or rain, and I recently planted red spruces in October (I'm a conifer person too, not just broad-leaved evergreen guy, but I also intend to focus on native deciduous trees/shrubs and wildflowers too to a lesser extent than evergreen trees/shrubs). I also recently attracted an awesome guy from Cook County Ill. that's rushing a move to Murfreesboro in a year without prior communication of what he can manage or my expectations were (I wasn't going to be so mindlessly rigorous), which makes me really nervous. But yeah. I still post when I think of something to say and have the time and mental energy! I just don't force myself to say something or make time for it if I can't think of it or am too busy or drained. I'm naturally much more active on mainstream social media where topics are more flexible than on specialized forums, but it's not a lack of willpower nor me inherently consistently not being OK. I'm just spontaneous about it in general. It means a great deal that someone actually thought to check up on us though! Thank you!

It's a tie between Rhapidophyllum and Sabal minor for me. Both of mine stay green in most winters here in northeastern Middle Tennessee and survived the December 2022 and January 2024 winters in unfavorable microclimates without protection nor any close calls (my dwarf palmetto only lost half of its green leaves each time and needle palm only had mild leaf spotting in January 2024). I feel emboldened to grow Sabal brazoriensis too but haven't done it yet, so I'm not 100% sure how they'll do - but if they do as well as @Allen's experience suggests, having healthy tree-sized palms outdoors like the ones in Dallas and Virginia Beach will be a dream come true!

This is what BS looks like...

My Bismarkia caught my eye

One of my favorite Zamia is Z. Stevensonii. They always look nice and are not too thorny. Ive been waiting now for about a year and a half for some female cones to be receptive but they just don’t open. I’ve heard they can take up to two years which seems awfully long to me. New flush Female cones that don’t seem to want to open Male cone ready to release pollen in a few days.

This Tahina has been exposed to 27°F unprotected (advective freeze) each of the past 3 winters in Harlingen, Texas with little to no damage. Somewhat protected spot with minimal overhead canopy. Same palm survived 24°F in a pot during 2021 and a larger in-ground Tahina also survived. They have more cold hardiness than most would imagine!

Apparently, I have two of them, each was obtained from different vendors as Veitchia species but ID’d here from pics as Carpentaria.

A timely post as I am just about to sow the newest crop in Arizona. Seeds are done soaking and will be planted today. Let's see what happens... This has actually been a great choice of species for the Arizona desert if you are looking for a fast growing, crown shafted palm. Once a trunk has established, they literally gain 3 feet in height every year! My only complaint is that the crowns seem a little sparce growing without the humidity of the tropics. Notice the spacing between growth rings on this 5 year old example in my garden. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Two is not enough, I have six in the ground !

Having @idontknowhatnametuse as a handle is going to make it so difficult for people to send flowers to the funeral. No need to train any poochies either as here is one I prepared earlier.

Bentinkia seedlings thriving under a plastic baggy.

It has been a very mild fall so far and I’m still getting a few flushes. This blue Longifolious I bought as a seedling 2 years ago and now it is blowing up in a 15 gal! It is also the first blue Longi I have owned that was actually blue.

I've been away for a couple of weeks to a place with lots of palms and a lot of desert but uneven internet connections.

Not everyone is on Facebook (me). That site is evil and we need to stick to our own dedicated spaces.

Tomato season has begun in Arizona! Put your seedlings in the ground mid August here, and you should have a crop supplying until mid May. Usually a trouble free plant around here except for the rare occasional year when white flies attack and spread the tomato curly leaf virus. Easy to grow, and the benefits are delicious! Store bought tomatoes can never compete with the flavor of a home grown, vine ripened tomato. 🤪 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

@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.

From what I have seen, it's definitely not a Super Silver. They don't have any droop to them.

If it's blue with short inflorescences perhaps it's a blue form of Brahea dulcis. If there's no petiole thorns perhaps Brahea super silver.

I didn't make any temperature comparisons, but it would be fair to conclude that there's some advantage. I used 1 inch DuroSpan for the 4 walls and a double wall 6 mil poly hinged top. I could then open the enclosure on fair days. On cold nights, I added a fitted foam board onto the top section for added insulation. This concept works fine in my zone 8 climate and may not be advisable in colder zones, at least without added measures like palm wrapping etc.

I visited Dunk Island in 1984, and the closed canopy of Licuala ramsayi fronds made a very pleasing sound as they rustled in the wind.

Looks like the local bobcat population approve of your palm jungle! So cute!

Here we go! These have been under regular overhead irrigation and get full sun from 9:30-10ish until sunset . Trying to maximize for heat lovers Largest has 6 leaves and most are 3-4. Largest has a little frond damage, maybe from 35deg couple weeks ago?

A couple more palms go in the understory, a nice juvenile calciphilla that will look good in a few years time. And now I have worked out how to grow iguanura palms, they are tricky little critters that’s for sure but I worked them out. I had some teething troubles at first with them but got there. So now it’s time to get them in the ground and hopefully no more trouble with them!

Butia x Jubea in Dallas zone 8b back in the day. This seedling grown palm lived eventually for 21 years unprotected

I decided that, after some more reading, they probably won't make it in my 8a climate (effectively). I donated a specimen to JFGardens and gave Craig at Mercer BG a few as well (its about 5-10F warmer). Not sure if they will survive but I'll keep you posted if any of them do. One thing I learned is that they do not like being transplanted into different pots and their roots grow down like crazy. I had made the mistake of growing them as a group in a large pot and they were hard to detangle and separate without damage.

The one I got from you has 3 leaves and looks great. Roots are busting out of a 3g, will be planted in a full sun sugar sand hill in spring

(Butia X Jubea) X Jubea in Dallas 5 years in ground.

So glad we are all still around . I guess this forum is , for me , my only social outlet online. Here , I can go on about palms without eyes rolling ! I can brag about success’s and complain about losses ….” Gopher ate my palm”. Harry

I have not long come out of jail, hence my lack of posting. I occasionally managed to post via a 'burner' phone from the inside. Anyway, it is important that I do not criticise the UK government anymore. 👍

Just a little rootbound lol! Good looking palm and one of my favs! That one you had in San Clemente was legendary🤙 Stevo

Finally I have a good canopy to be able to plant these as they can’t handle the sun in the San Diego hill country