Leaderboard

Than, don't be embarrassed. The only embarrassing trait is lack of curiosity.

I think I have 30 and a couple more in pots which I may as well plant!

Some of the specimens in this garden.... Just had to share.

It's C. seifrizii. Very easy to difference them. C. costaricana looks like a slightly smaller version of C. tepejilote. But it's still very robust, and their flower/fruit bracts hang, while C. seifrizii bracts are erect. Also the ligules, only 2 species of Chamaedorea (including costaricana) have ligules. And the location too, to my knowledge, C. costaricana can't grow in Florida's soil due to nematodes or sandy soil, while C. seifrizii can tolerate FLA soil.

Clinostigma samoense in a light drizzle. One of the world’s most beautiful palms. Tim

Well no 2 IDs the same yet from the Palmtalk community so definitely far from an embarrassing question. I’d be very confident there’s P canariensis influence in this one, but I think it’s a hybrid too. John’s P canariensis x reclinata guess seems reasonable to me.

A nice time to be watering the garden, with temperatures set be close to 49 degrees Celsius, water as much as I can now for the humidity, that’s one trick with growing some of the super jungle varieties I have!

I have grown a few batches from these mother palms in south Tampa on Swann. They take cold down to mid 20’s under canopy at my place and in 25gal containers have grown 10’ plus. How does one tell the difference between the two?

. Calyptrocalyx albertisianus. Tim

It is sad to see how my former home me and garden has declined from the present owner, it has been great to see how many offspring of the Hedycepe have grown up around the world from seeds that I dispersed over time. The ones that I have now are 3rd generation grown from seeds of a friend that has 2nd generation palms that I supplied years ago. 50 years ago I planted my first one! So I am planting more now in my 13 year old new home and garden. The passion remains the same as it ever was!

From my trip to Andean Peru in 2013 - a group and a closer-up single:

They seem to be pretty popular with the cool climate growers and just about everyone who grows palms would have one or two around their house. So easy to grow and propagate there fast becoming the modern day chamaedorea elegans. Very tough dry tolerant cool tolerant and fast to grow, is one reason they are popular, from medium amounts of sun to deep shade there a palm that fits into any garden or container!

Frost is not a problem, mine has been frosted a couple times, no effect. Waxy palms tend to fend off frost better than the non waxy ones due to the insulation of the wax. Water transfders heat much more efficiently and leaves are ~70% water. The layer of wax on leaves has very little water, water beads on it. Temperatures are going to be a problem if it stays cold at lower than 26F. In the desert, there will be a radiational cold which means temperatures at 10' above the ground will be a few degrees warmer than temps at 2'. The desert is also a short cold duration. So perhaps a short few hours at 25F or so wont be a problem for a larger palm. I would just protect it till it gets too big then let it fend for itself. Cold or Frost damage can be limited by a foliar water spray if temps are not too low. This is how they save citrus crops in florida.

Here’s a Syagrus x costae (S. cearensis x coronato) in the front garden a couple of years after planting and today, nearly 20 years later. These typically produce massive inflorescence but mine hasn’t flowered yet. It resembles a thin trunked more plumose Queen palm.

49c dear ? We had a 39c a couple of weeks back but mainly mid to low 30s lately. Very humid of course but the rain only comes with nasty storms. I am using the sprinkler again, even though we had so much rain in the past few weeks, the soil just dries out in no time. Your bird nest fern looks good. I had 2 that were enormous at my old house but I can't get them to grow here for some strange reason. Peachy

The trick with golden canes is plant them out as singles, the standard dozen in a container from the plant store doesn’t work well when mature, one great big ugly clump, but plant them out as single ps it’s a different story! Richard

A few confusa that are turning out to be quite happy growing well. They seem to like what iam doing and there microclimate in the greenhouse, iam kinda glad I got another hundred seeds the other week. Another smallish dypsis for the understory in the garden!

I believe that the second species, C. quezalteca has been reduced to synonymy within C. costa-ricana.

Most palms sulk if planted from containers in the ground. But water is one trick in the warmer time of the year, some winters I hardly water my garden and in the nursery I try not to water all winter if I can help it. Richard

You can expect around 3 leaves per year depending on your winter, they are slow in the ground in my climate. And they love water the more the better in the ground with good drainage. And they love warm soil temperatures. But they are slow regardless of conditions, definitely a super hot tropical lover!

Colin, My hillibrandi has much longer petioles, less leaf curvature, larger fronds as a juvenile, and considerably faster growth than the Pritchardia whose identity is in question. I’m leaning toward P. glabrata so far. Whatever it is, I’m enjoying watching it grow, even as slow as it is.

Looks kinda like Timʻs glabrata but Iʻm thinking more like hillibrandi. Many of the Pritchardia in my opinion do not alway show the lepidia until more mature. Have seen many small marti and bakeri in habitat with no lepidia. Could be due to the harsh natural environment at higher elevations here Pritchardia is a very hard genus to figure out when young. aloha

I agree with @idontknowhatnametuse - C. costaricana has very attractive, wide leaflets, closer to C. tepejilote than any of the usual Chams you seen in Florida. Unfortunately the last statement rings true as well, as this one has languished in the ground, I don't know if it's the soil or the heat, since this is a fairly high elevation species. C. seifrizii is from the Yucatan and can adapt to full sun in Florida, although it looks nicer in the shade. I've frustratingly had a lot of fungal issues with this one in the landscape however. They seem to fare better when they get some sun on the leaves so they can dry out more quickly in the summer.

It certainly saves your memory as you age.

I really need to rethink my Hedy quantity. 🤣 -dale

Let them invade!

Another one

First flower on Chrysalidocarpus “Orange Crush”:

Some nice colour for the garden ready to go in the ground.

A few zone push winners and a couple of definite proven winners well worth a try next time you see them for sale. The orbicularis and mapu are two that I thought would never live in the greenhouse, both have survived winter in the greenhouse, not to sure about going in the ground just yet but they are doing ok so far.

There seems to be a myth about how joeys have a reputation for just up and dying for no reason. I have a few and from observation, it seems the weakest in the batches after potting up have the middle new leaf die. It’s not root disturbance, it’s possibly a soil fungus. I call it flagging as you can see basically a flag signal with the new dead leaf. I have broken roots of new seedlings and they will die. But that’s a grower mistake. So I use a foliar soil fungicide once every 3 weeks. So hopefully this gives a reason for joeys just up and dying. Eventually in the potted up batch’s the weakest have been eliminated and you dont get them dropping off dead, with just the strongest surviving.

Love them or dislike them, there here to stay in a garden near you. We all know how tough they are and the yellow colour is what sets them as winner. The only fault they have is drop leaves like a hot potato in butter fingers. But they are proven in the palm kingdom as the magical beauty of a palm up there with the coconut as picture of tropical holiday by the sea or poolside. I still grow a few and will still a few around as pioneer palms to help establish new plantings. Theres even a dwarf form worth tracking downl to grow!

A beautiful Phoenix dactylifera, in my opinion. Great photo, Than 😃 Where is this? Curiosity is always good in such matters.

Its been a while since I've posted anything, and figured I'd step it up and document the life of a copernicia fallaensis in my front yard. Here's when I first got it. It was all alone and looking for a forever home. Grown by Josh Allen at his Vista nursery, it was ready to move out and make a life of its own. Hitchhiked it's way to my house in Fresno back in May. Life's been good to it so far. A good, deep, sandy loam (some 80% sand), a warm climate (many days above 100F) and plenty of water. Some cool, though spiky, neighbors as well. No tantrums yet, though we've been enveloped in a thick fog for the better part of 2 weeks. Seems to not mind the chill.

Super Jungle is a good description. I just love your garden pictures , so many “ I spy” features like the happy Joey and the Dioon Spinalosa making friends with the Birds Nest fern that @peachy pointed out.. Wow , 49c ! That’s quite warm. Harry

This natural hybrid certainly exhibits some variability, but always within the characteristics inherited from its parents, including the short distance between the leaf scars (Henderson, Galeano & Bernal, Palms of the Americas). See also the photos in nature (Larry R. Noblick, p. 86): https://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/images/c/c1/GuidetothePalmsofNortheasternBrazil_LNoblick.pdf Your palm looks decidedly different to me. Regardless, whether it's x costae or not, it's still a very ornamental palm! 😀

Powerful trunk, so thick 🤔🤗

Nice one gyuseppe good looking palms!

Thank you both

I think the gents above have it correct. My neighbor's psuedococos is a bit more robust looking. For whatever reason, despite otherwise growing well, his suffers a lot of leaf burn. Kind of an anomaly in his yard, as he has water and fert pretty dialed in. But the trunk on it is a bonus; a beautiful chocolately color with nice distinct ring spacing.

Jim I think the best I could do is rule out a few possibilities. From the photos it looks to me to be solid green on both sides with leaflets spread about 180 degrees around the petiole. I’d expect species with abaxial surface completely covered in lepidia to start showing at least a little bit at that size, which would rule out P arecina, hardyi, martii (and the old gaudichaudi), minor, perlmanii, flynii, viscosa and maybe a couple of others I’m forgetting. The leaf shape I think already rules out maideniana. I think the blade is already showing it will be significantly undulate rather than mostly flat so I’d say beccariana and lanigera are unlikely (although this is where I’d stop at ruling them out completely). Also the fact it’s still alive probably rules out non Hawaiian species! Not sure that helps much - there’s still about half of the species I can’t rule out. For what it’s worth, P hillebrandii that I’ve grown and seen at that size are similar to yours, whereas P martii, napaliensis, minor and maideniana were already visibly different (although that could be partially due to growing conditions). P napaliensis tends to have smaller fronds relative to trunk size at that size based on mine and others I’ve seen but again I couldn’t conclusively rule it out.

Hmmmm, here’s a shot of P. glabrata about two years after planting from a one gallon back in 2012. It had not yet developed the pendant leaf tips. Not sure if this helps or adds to the confusion. Tim

I agree with @happypalms , a bit more time . Once they go full pinnate they seem to gain speed . I have not noticed any difference in speed on my full shade Radicalis. I have had tight groupings such as that and usually 3-4 will take over and the others will fade. They are easy to separate but it is winter for us now so best to let nature take its course. They will be lovely as they grow. Harry

the seeds are double compared to seeds of radicals forms small

Thanks, the crazy thing is I just purchased another 100 seeds for something to do, I just love them that much!

More from my Latania collection

Just checking in on the hand pollinated Chuniophoenix nana, and it looks like we have lift off! 🌱

Thanks Darold! Hope to recreate something like this in my yard 30yrs from now; a wild and free garden where to get lost

There are lots of crispy dead conifers around me. Fortunately I finally got rain, and two days in a row! I have gotten about as much rain these last 2 days then I have in almost the last 5 months combined. No exaggeration. The first rain came Saturday overnight and even less than 12 hours later all of my plants were standing up straight, many started to flower and lots had already pushed out some new growth. Shocking how fast it happened. It's been raining constantly since the early AM hours and at a nice gentle pace. This is really going to soak in and help things out.