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Looks like quite a few of my palms will be getting the ring this growing season. Here’s a couple: Chrysalidocarpus prestonianus hybrid (consensus is likely x pembanus or cabadae). I believe this is originally from Floribunda seed. It definitely has hybrid vigour just in the fact it is growing here in Melbourne. Next up Chrysalidocarpus baronii Black Petiole/Vokona Lodge. Got a batch of 10 seeds from RPS back in 2018 and all germinated 2019. This is the largest of the bunch but also the least colourful. I’ve got 5 left now and the others are all quite striking in the range from red to black leaf bases and petioles. Always thought they’ve been quite slow, but considering it’s been 6-7 years from seed to producing clean trunk, I’d say that’s not bad.

Merry Christmas

Two of the finest palms from South America definitely worth having. Germinated the bondaria and they have been slow as seedlings. And the socratea purchased a couple of seasons back. The socratea show a little cool tolerance surviving in the ground and in the greenhouse. Two palms worth growing if you can track them down!

Hey all, i’ve had this plant in the ground for a number of years. Located in pretty close proximity to a large Beccariophoenix and amid numerous other plants all vying for water. Up until a year or so ago I had a number of zones irrigated primarily through above ground spray. It certainly always seemed like they should’ve been getting enough water, as most of the other plants in the area had reasonably decent growth rates. But this one just languished. As I’ve posted before, I had drip irrigation put in about a year ago with a fertilizer injector, which has been remarkable. But I was walking by this plant yesterday and noticed the difference in the growth ring spacing “Huh”.. Whether it’s finally getting enough water, or fertilizer, or both, it definitely seems happier.

Here’s another big Dypsis / Chrysalidocarpus with its first ring. This came in as Chrysalidocarpus Sp. Ambanja. 2 different palms have come in with this name. I don't hear about this one much.

I wanted to share something important with fellow palm enthusiasts who have been following the ongoing issue of lethal bronzing. I’ve recently published new research that looks deeper into how lethal bronzing may actually lead to palm death. Instead of viewing the disease as simply “blocking” the palm’s vascular system, this paper explores the possibility that the palm’s own internal defense response may become over-activated — and that this extreme reaction may be what ultimately causes the collapse of the apical meristem. This is not presented as a cure, but as a step forward in understanding the mechanics of the disease. My hope is that clearer insight into what is happening inside the palm will help guide better treatment strategies and research going forward. If you’d like to read the paper, it is openly available here: 🔗 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18027736 Author: Gary Kennemer Title: A Host-Mediated Defense Collapse Model for Lethal Bronzing Disease in Palms (Phytoplasma-Associated Phloem Failure) I know many of you care deeply about palms and the spread of this disease. Hopefully this contributes meaningfully to the conversation and helps move the science forward.

So the storm has passed . The rainfall total here , after 3+ days of rain is 8.4”! We are getting a break after the storm , with another on the horizon for Newyears. I went outside to check the garden out . The typical debris needs to be cleaned up and weeds need to be pulled . The palms look soooo happy with the soaking ! As I did the walkabout , I could almost hear the joy coming from the frond friends. Harry Chambey’s happy as are the others. Technicolor! Sky so blue. Thanks for joining me , on to the New Year!! Harry

I’ve not long come back from a visit to North Vietnam where is saw this species in habitat on Tam Dao. I assumed it was a Licuala initially, it wasn’t until I read Andrew Henderson’s book I realised it wasn’t. This one was a 1300m and it was a cold day at around 11c in mid November.

Filthy hot, more humid than a steam room and intermittent storms. My poor palms are a bit battered and sad after a spate of big hail (roughly egg or kiwi fruit size) so no boastful photos from this part of the world. Peachy

Augusta, GA Zone 8B winter. We just had two cold nights back to back. One was down to 23 or 24 degrees I believe and the other was down to 22 degrees. Showing progression pictures from the before the first freeze of November 11th- 26 degrees for one night , after and after these two freezes. Hopefully the rest of the winter will be gentle for these palms so I can enjoy their true beauty once again when next summer comes around. I also would like anyone else to comment below with some pictures of their palms currently holding up during this winter season. These Washingtonias seem like they may hold better than the Phoenix Sylvestrises that I had in ground last year that were completely destroyed by the end of the winter. Haven’t used any additional protection this time other than christmas tree lights.

Adding a bit of colour throughout the garden with the monstera, and a nice bit of leaf texture and shape with the philodendron. Give them five years and they will be doing well in the eye candy tropical look!

No budget was spared in this little makeover, with 5 dypsis louvelli and a lovely dypsis minuta as the stars in the makeover. And a trio of chamaedoreas with the usual winners metallicas, adscendens and a few Ernie’s, so a bit seed production in the years to come with this nice trio of exotics. And for a bit colour a nice draceana goldieana along with an anthurium vietchii, there will be no shortage of eye candy in this corner of the garden!

Here are some of the more colorful palm trunks in my Northern California garden. Post yours please! Howea forsteriana Rhopostylis baueri Archontophoenix purpurea Chambeyronea macrocarpa Archontophoenix myolensis Chanaerops costaricana Rbopalostylis sapida ‘Chatham Island’ Rhopalostylis baueri Rhopalostylis baueri Chrysalidocarpus decipiens Wodyetia x Veitchia Chamaedorea ernesti-augusti Howea forsteriana Chambeyronia hookeri Euterpe edulis Archotophoenix alexandrae Phoenix roebelenii Caryota urens R. sapida Hedescepe canterburyana Chamaedoea tepejelote Bentickua condapanna Dypsis rosea Chamaedorea species Euteroe edulis ‘Orange Crownshaft’ Chamaedorea elegans C. radicalis Livistona australis

Yes, it was avocado pot in original

Φυσικά, μια ελληνική συζήτηση πρέπει να γίνουμε πολιτική!

Grow it meanwhile in a deep pot filled in only with pumice. You won't regret it.

A nice bit of colour on the bowenia spectabilis!

Spears are moving, we are back 😊👍🏻

I also have one from thrinax, same size as yours. I won't put it in the ground yet, im pretty sure it will die at this size. I guess it will be another 2 years before I can consider it, depending on how much it has grown. Waiting sucks but so does wasting a palm. In the meanwhile I hope I can find a bigger specimen for sale somewhere (at a price I can afford). They have deeeeeep taproots so keep using deep pots like this one. Good job! How often do you water it at this time of the year? Do you use grow lights?

Great shots!

Wish you a merry Christmas. Here’s Houailou and Hookeri in the background (two, look closely!) after our rainy Christmas Eve. Maybe share a nice palmy Christmas picture, even if the palms are indoors….

The hybrid is here. Took this shot this morning. Curious what the resulting offspring look like.

So, after looking at my Plumosa, the inflorescences are definitely different. The overall look is of Plumosa, the inflorescence has glaucifolia written all over it. Hybrids are always a pain to ID the parents. But a great looking specimen, whatever it is!

There's enough data to begin working on some rudimentary analytics. This post is the first set of analytics showing the number of observations for each species/variety with the number of deaths and survival reports, along with the lowest temperature survived and the highest temperature that caused death, where applicable. Keep in mind that the data hasn't been modified to allow analytics as far as observations where protection was provided, and doing individual climate types at this point is somewhat manual. Either way, hope this helps. 20251226_ObservationSummary.xlsx

Putting palms out before their time normally spells death. Few species will be successful when you put them out too early. It's a shame to work so hard to keep that seedling healthy and then put it out too early. I'm thinking next May for that seedling. First you'll get 2 or 3 leaves with "windows" and then the leaves will go pinnate. As for location, my sun is so strong that a bit of shade starting out is better. Your sun may not be so strong. The California guys have more success going straight into full sun but most of them are coastal and the sun is not an intense fireball like the Greek sun.

Wishes for a merry Christmas to everyone! Not quite the color exhibited in Dave’s picture, but a wonderful sunny morning in between storms. Couple that with the fact that I’m rarely home in the morning, and it’s pretty nice.

Merry Christmas to all ! Stunning photo and cute Santa @pogobob ! Harry Ernie says “Hey!” Looks like time to repot already.

My neighbor has a couple of these that he left in big tree pots for way too long. He’s in the San Diego area, and it appears they’re both nearly head high. But he’d like to see them go to a good home.

They are fantastic little palms, I will go out on a limb and say a little cool tolerance as well. The minuta I did purchase and in flower, that was two years ago and i managed to germinate all 16 seeds, this is the second lot of flowers, I will be expecting a few more seeds if iam lucky. But iam lucky as I two now that are flowering that produce viable seeds, a good investment. It’s one rare palm that’s wanted and I for one will be selling seedlings soon, and on another limb I will say they too have some cool tolerance.

They look familiar, there super tough just add water, and if your lucky from seed I did manage to get a variegated one. They love shade and don’t mind a little morning sun. I have about 500 in pots and so many in the ground, I have worked them out and are easy to grow. And there are a few different varieties available as well.

Nope, no politics at all, just personal...

Great thread bump! Habitat pics are always good to see on the forum and it’s really useful to understand the climate of the native habitat of palms. I think this explains a lot. L dasyantha are a lot tougher than they look. I’ve never had a spot on mine even down to around -1.5C/29F, and we get relatively long, cool winters with around 10 frosts per year on average. Here my 2 planted up the back of the garden in a cool South facing position. Slow growing for me but the bigger one is starting to put out its character fronds which is exciting.

Those louvelii are gorgeous things Richard! Is that minuta the one you bought with seeds on it? Looks like you might get some more next year!

Who's that?

This what was shipped to me I didn’t change the pot or the soil it seems pretty good to me it drains extremely good and keeps enough moisture as for the depth I think it’s okay for now don’t think I will need to repot anytime soon thanks for the advice though

Here’s a licuala triphylla var stenophylla another leaf variation.

Wow, that's quite often. Mine is under grow lights and I watered it last 13 days ago but the soil is still a bit moist. I'll water again today. Here it is among some tiny colocasias. I just remembered I bought them all from gilian plants, not thrinax!

Judging by the amount of damage, I am guessing robusta or robusta leaning. As long as they don't rot on you, they will grow out of the damage pretty quickly in the spring.

Hey, this will be nice for getting a quick idea on survivability and for the small stuff, what should just get stuffed in the garage. Thanks @kinzyjr

It's in a part of my garden where stuff sits forever without growing. It was about 70cm where I bought it in 2017. . Sat for about 4 years but is now growing like a rocket. It's about 2.6m tall today.

Parajubaea sunkha all decked out. Merry Christmas! IMG_4013.mov

Anytime of the year for a Chambeyronia, cheers to all!

Just a few palms that weathered the heavy winds overnight. They're getting some sun before the next surge.

@mlovecan it's hard to guess how much clearance there is in the photo, but Alfredii get HUGE trunks near the base. This photo was from sonoranfans a couple of years ago, I think it's a bit bigger now:

I’m sure you can get that going. It has a good chance in your care . I look forward to seeing it in Spring! Harry

Ok let it laugh a comedy show will be fun. I was never really interested in them and couldn’t see all the hype about alfredii, so I thought I better get one and see what all the fuss is about these alfredii.

Hard to believe that it's been four years since Alberto started this thread. I just took some shots of the same L. dasyantha that I posted earlier in this thread and they have continued to thrive. They've also grown quite a bit, getting much larger than I expected and still growing. Mottling varies from plant to plant, some spectacular and some not so much. Sometime back, Pete from Australia, had antidotal evidence that fertilizing decreased the mottling, so as a result, I've not fertilized in years. That may change as some are starting to look a bit washed out with a lighter color change. I'll give some of them a bit of juice and see what happens. Tim