Leaderboard

Posting a few photos of my Parajubaea torallyi. I planted this palm about 15 years ago from a 5-gallon pot. It currently has about six feet of clean trunk and it’s about 25+ feet tall. This time of year, I tug on the old leaf sheaths to see if any of them are ready to come off. If they're ready, they pull off easily. However, if they aren't, no amount of pulling will remove them. It’s not unusual to find Arboreal Salamanders (Aneides lugubris) under the old leaf sheaths as shown in the photo below. I'm in the San Francisco bay area.

January 2026 update:

A nice summer swim and a walk along a beach, with absolutely no body on the beach for miles, except for a few seeds!

New member, but have been getting some good info from everyone on this site for a while. Started getting some palms a few years back and got inspired to start a bigger garden. In DeBary FL, about 30 miles north of Orlando. Progress so far: 2 B. Alfredii, one on the left planted from a 15g in June 2022, other went in this week from a 25g. Archontophoenix Cunninghamiana planted from a 7g in November 2021. Side yard has a couple of flamethrowers, Chambeyronia Oliviformis, another king palm, Lanonia Dasyantha, Caryota Obtusa, Chamaedorea Radicalis x Cataractarum (most likely) and Chamaedorea Microspadix. Plenty of other tropicals mixed in, big fan of Plumerias. Always run the risk of a hard freeze, but taking advantage of some high oak canopy and looking forward to a dense jungle look in a few years time.

Nothing palm-related here. I sat and watched some squirrel videos with the Yorkie.

Some happy plants in winter after a few freezes, just some chlorosis from sun or chill. The current project is a greenhouse, so no photos of other stuff yet till it's done in the next few weeks. After the summer slaughter things calmed down and the potted plants are mostly happy, so once they are organized into a good look I'll get more photos of them too. In order: cyphophoenix (I think Alba), chrysalidocarpus lanceolata, leptocheilos, basilongus, carlsmithii, B. alfredii, and chrysalidocarpus titan and Prestonianus to finish. All in ground two seasons and starting to get going a bit faster than the start. Losses were all due to heat and wet after the January freeze deaths, so learned to give more shade in summer planting spots, and less water with the high humidity even if they drain super sharp. Not pictured are a bunch of others, cold damaged and recovering from the cold last year, like hyophorbe and chambeyronia. Chrysalidocarpus lastellianus is not a good 10A palm for looks, it chill spots in the low 30s, but could survive a warm 9b event most likely under good cover (like a Christmas palm would do I think). Hoping the two cold events this November and new years are the two this year (average is 1 or so) and we are done but that's a stretch being January 7th.

Doing a spot of landscaping, and as usual I need to plant palms in the new garden. I will see how this one goes all i know is I had choose carefully where this one went, not a palm you plant next to path with thorns thorns that would stop Alcatraz escapes!

Some nice summer seedlings just perfect for potting up in the warm weather. Now’s the perfect time for those tropical seedlings, heat and humidity certainly help tiny seedlings, I might as we’ll take advantage of the warm weather iam sure winter will be a different story!

That looks similar to my seedling mix. I will change things depending on the species and age of the plant. Dypsis and Chrysalidocarpus tend to need excellent drainage so more perlite is put in. Howea, Archontophoenix and even Chambeyronia don’t require much more than a good potting mix with plenty of pine bark and less perlite. Hyophorbe indica actually needs a soil you could grow orchids or bromeliads in as they come from areas of lava flows with incredibly good drainage and humus rich soil over almost solid crumbly rock. So I’ll use the coarse coir, clay balls, coarse river sand a bit of the pine bark from a good potting mix for them. I get much better success than using straight potting mix. I buy Richgro Pro base mix in bulk and add Osmocote 6 month with Scott’s micromax.

Thanks for the "Bible," you're very kind. However, I haven't contributed to the encyclopedia for several years. Regarding the Veitchia, I had the arecina in my garden for many years before it was cut down during renovations. The joannis is growing ever more vigorously. This album contains photos of the arecina and the joannis, which is not recent, it's currently about 1 m taller: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pietropuccio/albums/72177720322877228/

Rub it on Jason! Some of us wonder if we will live long enough to see any trunks in the garden 😅

Another update on this one, sorry. It caught my eye this morning opening a new frond. It’s been growing great. -dale

It's wintertime in Holland with snow and a few degrees below zero C.. Nothing to worry about, just enjoying the view of the garden with some Trachy. fortunei, a Chamaerops humilis vulcano, laurels with winterprotection for the stems and a few date palms! By the end of the week, it will all be over again!

Happy new year everybody. A small update of my coconut palm in Cyprus. It's still alive for another winter. I increased the water in the summer and it started to make a difference in the growth.

I can only imagine your nightmares, if huntsman eggs are that big omg!

With only -1 perhaps those measures would suffice, if they are not 10B palms. I repeat, you are extremely fortunate, that you do not get snow cover unlike central eastern parts, which are affected by the Aegean jet stream.

3 1/2 seems to be about normal for me. I was wondering if they started exploding like most palms once trunking begins.

When I first bought my place in Rhodes, I put in a couple citrus plants and an avacado. When I returned a week later, they were all dead. Before buying even one more tree, I put in irrigation for the entire garden. Maybe not so important today as I have a lot of shade in the back garden where it has been out for a couple of years. But at the beginning, full sun was bloody deadly for everything.

This is a lesson I too have learned this summer, about all my plants! All, no exceptions, wanna be watered every day. I underwatered even my African acacia. Once rains started they started growing so much faster.

Hahaha! No way. I must love a plant too much. I love my Ravenala enough perhaps but the electric socket is too far..... Anyway, I dunno what the future will bring, but if I don't get below -1 C and light frost, I believe simply covering the plants will be enough. I will also add bottles with hot water on the coldest nights (water from the water heater - the sun is not enough).

My cimate is pretty much identical to both yours and Jonathan's (in Malta). I have 20 degrees today with a low of 16 tonight. The coldest night I've had this year has been 9 degrees one night last week. The lowest high was in the same 24 hour period and it was 14. Every year is getting noticeably warmer. I read an article a few weeks back that states the same for Cyprus. I have these 3 right now. The larger one is Green Mayaln Dwarf (third winter outside). The smaller ones were both purchased as Panama Talls. Another Palmtalk member, who lived for some time in Florida, had purchased the same "Panama Talls" from the same South Florida nursery but he is quite cerain they are Jamaica Talls or crossbreeds of the same. Regardless, I love them as they take my full summer heat and sun quite well. The Green Malayans (I've gone through at least a dozen of them) need to spend the hotter part of the summer in the shade or they are too beat up to make it through winter. For that reason, I have started leaving them in pots. I marked the spears on all three 9 days ago. One of the smaller ones has grown about 1 cm since then. The other tow cocos have both grown about 2 cm. You told me a couple of years ago you have a Golden Malayan Dwarf and I believe the other one in Paphos is a Golden Malay as well. It is truly amazing to see photos of that one. Maybe I will put the smaller ones in the ground this year or maybe I will keep them one more year in pots. The Green Malay will only go in the ground when I can leave it in full summer sun. I think that's going to take another 3 or 4 years.

Because there are no other more marginal plants around...Btw bougainvillea can be scorched to the ground and resprout and even flower during following summer. Of course this is not possible with a solitary palm sp.

Lacospadix, kerriodoxa and a nice little dypsis lantzeana all seem to get my attention!

Highly unlikely for Greece in particular, because this system focuses on what can or can not be cultivated in a certain region or area. In other words it uses canaries. But the cultivation of non commercial tropicals in Greece is very limited. You know how it goes, everything that can be eaten is to be preserved and the rest to be dumped. Long story short, there are not enough canaries in Greece for a reliable application. If you create a new topic prompting experienced US growers to assert the special Sunset Zone for your garden, you may get some very considerate replies. Although even those highly experienced people may underestimate the negative importance of poor quality of soil and water for marginal tropical, as almost all of them have in their gardens a quite generous top soil layer and have larger estates, where they can bring in truck loads of compost easily. Now try doing that in a small lot in a slope...

I guess V Joannis is a 9b plant but only if we consider zones the way you suggested: if we're in Europe we must reduce it by half or one. So if theoretically my garden is 9b/10a, in reality I'm 9a..

Planted a 1 gallon pot from FB in November of 2021. It's growing nicely. BUT this summer all the fronds got fried. Just spotted a new bright red today. Had it under shade cloth at planting Took the shade cloth down in February of '23. Looked ok for a few years. Then this summer I noticed the fronds getting "toasted". But it's still pumping new RED fronds. This summer was VERY DRY. From June to Sept. only had 1.48" of rain. Irrigation twice a week at night for 40 minutes each session. Might have to do some weeding and increase length of watering. But I think it was just TO HOT in the full sun this summer.

My Chambeyronia Macrcarpa emerged into the sun 5 or so years ago. It was growing well beneath some other palms . Once it emerged the fronds would burn badly not long after opening . I doubled the amount of water and started a light organic fertilizer . The burning has been reduced dramatically. I’m not sure how large they have to get until they can handle full sun but it seems to be getting better . It now has about five feet of trunk below the crown shaft. Harry

Awful news, but thank you for sharing. The disease seems to have traversed I-75 as fast as it did I-4.

I acquired this lithograph at the Paris flea market, L'Illustration Horticole, circa 1880, It is not labeled but almost certainly is Howea belmoreana.

Happy New Year to everyone here and continued joy, health, happiness, success, and love in 2026☀️ Best regards from Lake Constance from the two of us

Happy New Year and success growing palms in 2026 ✌🏻😎

Well, here’s an update on mine. The good news, it’s still growing very nicely. The bad news, as if it didn’t have enough room already, we installed rain gutters a couple years back, which extended the eaves of the house out another 8 inches. So, it’s doing its best to bend like a pretzel and conform. Nonetheless, it seems to be healthy and has been flowering for a number of years, even producing a few seeds that are in the process of ripening. I would attempt to dig it up, but I’m wagering that I would kill it if I tried it. So there’s a choice between almost definitely killing it or letting it live a reasonably good life as best it can. Been a great grower for me though…

Once you get hooked on palms there’s no turning back the only therapy you can get is buying and planting more palms it seems to work for me

Welcome to the palm addict support group. Looks like you are off to a great start for a new garden and it will soon be fabulous. Plumeria will survive a bad freeze. About 15 years we had a freak event and it went down to -5c overnight. The whole city was a dead wasteland but many things I thought were goners came back in time. Keep up the good work, you are on a winning streak already. Peachy

@gyuseppe this ones for you keep an eye out for those craftwork beads!

Went thrift shopping for som fishes for the kitties when I saw this set of four. Hadda have em! How about you?

Many thanks, Stelios! The arecina's trunk is indeed quite slender, thinner than that of the joannis, but its structure allows it to withstand the wind well, like all tall palms. This is the cross-section of my arecina after the "accident". As you can see, it has a thin but compact outer ring and an inner portion where the vascular bundles are immersed in spongy tissue (parenchyma). This non-rigid structure, similar to a hollow tube, makes the trunk resistant to bending due to the wind.

So was I, all I got was a coconut 🥥

Part of the mix is Sta-Green Vegetable & Flower Garden Soil, and the rest of it is a unknown mix from a palm that was shipped to me in November. Top layer of soil is the unknown stuff.

This is what I would do. No clue if it’s the correct thing or not. -dale

Beautiful. One of the nicest torallyi I've seen! And what a cool little salamander.

Sure, I can do, but keep in mind, it’s $7.80 shipping for even a minimal weight. Highway Robbery

Comeon down i4 lilbit towards Tampa! Ive gotta 15gal sitting in my driveway rightnow I can meet somewhere along i4 if need be

That is so true. I have spent hours working (and lots of cash) lately to protect my plants. However, it honestly makes me happy; the process of removing weeds, exposing the soil, applying mulch (and removing it when I realized it was a mistake), setting up the fleece and the geotextile... all this lifts my mood.

Below are some photos from the meeting: I had a great time and got to check out a potential future meeting site after the meeting, courtesy of @PalmBossTampa!

I was in google maps some weeks ago and found what seems to be the only Sabal yapa specimen (Besides the ones that I have and the ones I have gifted to locals) living in the state of Nuevo León in northeastern Mexico. Apparently it survived the 2021 freeze. The smaller palms beside this one are Thrinax radiata, so I assume that they brought these palms directly from the Yucatan peninsula and they weren't bought in a nursery, I've never seen nurseries here selling Sabal yapa but they do sell Thrinax radiata very often. In the 2021 freeze it should have faced around -2°C to -4°C. Many people in the forum say this is a tender species but a lot of people don't know how to difference Sabal yapa and Sabal mauritiiformis and I assume that brings more confusion. My Sabal yapa that I sprouted from seed and brought them from Quintana Roo don't seem to be bothered by the cold, never seen cold damage on them. In 2023 they stayed in the 3rd floor of my house completely exposed and it was around 3°C that day but they never got damaged and they kept growing. I also gifted two of my Sabal yapa's; one was given to a gardener that I've known all my life and the gardener sold it to a lady and the lady planted it in a park, he said that the palm had doubled in size very quickly and was no longer struggling to grow due to lack of space. The other one was gifted to a lady that is a friend of my mom and she says it's doing fine though she hasn't planted it in the ground yet. Here is the palm in question: https://www.google.com/maps/@25.7345024,-100.3925779,3a,24.4y,349.21h,85.27t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sLTct5hEOaOeN9Lb9eZC_jw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D4.729849313079853%26panoid%3DLTct5hEOaOeN9Lb9eZC_jw%26yaw%3D349.2129568770232!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTIxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

@RiverCityRichard Welcome to PalmTalk! Hope that the jungle continues to take shape for you.

Your weesh’ ees’ my command sire! Here’s one from north to south and same palm from opposite direction

Guys, hard to believe that you can not discern a Brahea edulis from a Pritchardia with only a short glance Test:

I always assumed that seed dispersal in Hawaii was from birds; just a guess though. For example, common wisdom is that coconuts float around for long periods of time before landing wherever. But they actually have a pretty short viability when exposed to seawater. Can't remember how long, but it's days, not weeks. I can't envision small seeds like Brahea or Washingtonia making that ocean going trip.