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I like the forum format a lot more, it's too bad they're mostly dying in favor of places like facebook and instagram. It makes looking up old threads and posts a lot easier too.

The official IPS travel begins Feb 23 but those on the Board needed to add on hotel costs to be present for the 8 am start. Then we will move the day after to the hard to believe it even fancier hotel included in the travel cost. Both hotels are surrounded by very fancy stores like Prada and Vuitton, but I was very happy with my USD 50 cents magnet depicting train street which was part of a city tour set up by Tracy. And I had ice cream for lunch as one must buy something to sit next to the train and it is vacation so ice cream for lunch is totally allowed in my opinion. I like the interesting tea cup in our room too.

We can start a discussion with temperature related I reckon, the hotter the shorter they hold the red, cooler climate the longer they hold the red.

Welcome! Hope you got some sleep. Enjoying a sumptuous buffet breakfast at the MGallery hotel in Hanoi which is where the Board meeting takes place tomorrow.

Flying over Tokyo on our way to Hanoi for the start of the 34th biennial. Now we’re really starting to get excited!

Yes, he and his brother operated the nursery off farmland they owned. He invested heavily in inventory but not infrastructure, and unfortunately it caught up to him. From what he had told me any profit they made came from basic cold hardy species sold wholesale to local DFW landscapers. The rarer stuff was a dream of his for the business , that eventually became a massive loss. He spent tens of thousands on seeds from RPS alone, and that was before their shipping went crazy . He traveled to California , Florida , etc and bought every specimen level, seed producing age Cycad, Palm , Yucca , Dasylirion etc. he could get ahold of. From what he told me most of the rare stuff survived in his better greenhouses and he has kept for himself. He has absolutely no interest in being affiliated or caught up in the hobby/industry again.

Every seed and bulb I own is now planted. I'd just like to throw that out there. Please clap. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVAn6WoDTPQ/?igsh=aWgwNHQ4aTJ3a2Y4

There a lonely Coccothrinax crinita sitting in corner, at the Pompano Beach, FL Lowe’s on US-1, for $150, if anyone is interested…… Overgrown in about a 7g pot. If I had a spot in mind, I’d grab it.

Time to get some new stuff in the ground. Since all the leaves are starting to push out on the trees I took a little time to put this chinese fan palms in the ground. Decided to go for a shady location since I think they look so good in the shade with elongated leaves. Can't wait to see what this thing does.

One of my dozen Chambeyronia (Flamethrower Palms) holds a new red leaf far longer than any of my others. Here’s the progression from November 20, 2023 to February 15, 2024. Two other palms in the garden threw red leaves in December and their red lasted just three weeks. Nov. 20 Nov. 30 Dec. 10 Dec. 23 Jan. 10 Feb. 2 Feb. 11 Feb. 22

Cattleya lueddemanniana coerulea. Cattleya lueddemanniana ('Maria Cecilia' x 'Mariaux‘) Purchased last August and first time blooming for me. Takes a few days for blooms to go from white to a slight coerulea look. The smaller blooms on right are the older ones. Fragrant, but not as noticeable as the lavender one I have.

I learned real quick that growing palms is a huge commitment. It's not like you plant something and call it a day. Here in Texas I can't even fully enjoy the winter because my nose is glued to the NWS screen just hoping that we don't get a 2021 Palmageddon winter. It's the uncertainty that bothers me. Every hobby costs money. I'm someone that can easily let go. I don't need to live at a place where I can grow palms. I also don't have the time and willpower to build structures around zone pushed palms just to keep it alive. I see some of our members doing that every year I'm like there's no way I'm going to do that. I work many hours, physically I don't have time for that kind of stuff. I also have my wife . She's maintenance too lol. I'm just a simple palm grower and I'm cool with that.

Just added this guy to a shady part of my yard. Hes been in a pot in the sun too long so I can't wait to see what it does in the ground under a tree.

Paul, I still believe that you have a better microclimate than I, your plants and the short period of your garden are the evidence !

@Darold Petty here is that hookeri you gifted me, probably a year and a half ago. It just threw its second leaf since being planted. All the leaves it had when you gave it to me succumbed to K deficiency, and the first new leaf was attacked by aphids while I was on vacation. This new leaf has faint red tinges so I have hope. Still, it’s so slow and this is a very visible spot in the garden, so I’m not sure it’s a keeper either. Incidentally, I’ve been watching Weather Underground closely during our cold spell and the station closest to your house has been consistently 3 degrees warmer than my new weather station reports. We bottomed out at 36.6 Thursday morning.

these two pics are 1 minute apart. first one is sun at the back, dark red as this p[alms has lots of anthocyanin. Second one shows transmitted light through the same leaf a minute later, like fire, not so dark. High sun intensity led to good intensity tramsmitting the leaf when compared with the first one a reflection which showed lots of deep red but low intensity. The back reflectance of light was low compared with the transmitted light coming through this leaf. first sun at the back of observer: second with the palm between the sun and the observer showing some transmitted light, that is actually a different color. then minutes later with less cloud cover flame on!

Papaya are weeds in my compost heap as well, so easy to grow, maybe papaya are not an indoor plant regardless of what you do. You certainly got a lot of stuff on the grow good on you, and iam sure a bit of tutorial from happypalms has helped you a bit. But at the end of the day the best student becomes the teacher and you have done well, I have watched your grow improvement over the last few years well done. But you gotta kill a few plants now and then it’s the best way to learn. Spider mites, damping off, and other insects are all part of indoor growing, you learn as grow and grow as you learn!

Iam with you on that one, this one takes forever and a day to open up, it used to be red leaf now just green, and it has three spears it takes that long to open. Although temperature is not cold climate it’s the opposite stinking hot in summertime!

I did plant seeds early, not plants even though I believe they would make it fine even with a 29F period before spring

You never know who you’ll run into at an international airport before a biennial…it’s usually a bunch of IPSers. Here they are in Hong Kong in the wee hours of the early morning.

Watch the Palmcast with Sabal King and Teddy on YouTube. Lots of good info on there. https://youtu.be/tTsJZNSrA-g?si=c7Q42uo-zvi0oeTN

Starting off, Plant in question is a Cordyline, rather than a palm.. With that said, the two types of plants behave similarly in that the roots of both aren't generally considered a danger to foundations / other nearby concrete or asphalt surfaces since they aren't as woody as roots produced by trees ..Plane tree, Elm, Oak ..those sorts of things for example.. That said, ..from the angle of the pictures, it does look like it is planted a touch close to the house ..which might not allow enough room for the trunk to expand ..which could cause issues later. Then again, these ..and look - alike plants in the Genus Draceana, are planted all over the place in California, within 10ft of a houses foundation and i've never heard of anyone having damage - related issues as the bases grew larger. ..Not to say that can't happen though.. As for any concern involving the roof, A: I'd have whomever did the survey prove the branch closest to the roof is causing damage to it ..And i mean proof beyond any sort of refute.. B: You could trim off all leaves below the roof line ..so that the canopy stands above it ( Leaves can't " mess with any drainage from the roof if no leaves are blocking the flow of runoff off that specific area ) If any branches growing near the roof aren't rubbin' against it, then there is no issue ( ..caused by them ) If you are actually forced to remove it, branches of these are very easy to re-root, so, ..while you might end up loosing the original plant, you could stick any branches you save in the ground a little further out from the roof ...Say near where the fences meet, ..what looks to be the far right corner of your pictures. Yea, that might block the view of ..what looks like some sort of Barberry ( Berberis / Mahonia sp. ) a bit but, ..at least you'll still have the plant. As for your neighbor? ..As long as any branches aren't hangin' over their side of a shared fence / wall, they have no say in what you can grow ...on your own property. Sounds like you've gone beyond being a respectful neighbor in doing your part to keep the plant out of their way. Shot in the dark guess but, if they whined about any leaves falling off your plant that would end up in their yard, I'd bet they were the type of people who complained about any / everything any chance they got. Don't doubt you're glad they're gone. I'd throw a party to celebrate, lol.. Good luck.

Hey everyone......been a while and sorry I have not read what has been posted since I last posted but wanted to post a quick update on my palms. My 3 Coconuts are the ones I'm most concerned with. Everything else - while full of brown fronds - look like they are going to pull through, thankfully. And we'll see about the Veitchia joannis. I can't see what's happening with the spear because it's so dang tall...lol... I'm still pleasantly surprised at how well my Ptychosperma and Archontophoenix held up. With the warmer weather I thought I'd hit everything with a second dose of copper all over the crown and soaking the spear as much as possible, so did that this afternoon. Will also do a liquid feed this weekend. I think it would help. Good luck everyone and I will followup down the road when I know more...

Mine have a range of colors from pink to maroon to orange to ruby red depending on the particular palm.

Just my .02 here, but that is a LOT of green on the trunk of that hookeri. I would venture a guess that it was most likely mislabeled. I see that happen more than I would like to see. The midribs also tend to be dark, even after the leaf turns green. A good true hookeri wil have that pale yellow trunk... everywhere.

My Ch macrocarpa always had amazing red new leaves until an alleged 'gardener' pruned it with a chainsaw. (insert expletives here) I bought another and a hookeri as well. Both had green new leaves. I tried a couple more times buying from different places but always the same result. Fortunately for me I discovered Calyptrocalyx, always a reliable display and a lovely deep red. They handle my cold nights far better than Chambeyronia too. Peachy.

Welcome aboard our merry ship! How about a picture of your greenie new leaf hookeri?

Noticed this chambeyronia leaf today it’s not a new leaf but a dying leaf you also get a hint of red from the old dying leaf you can’t beat chambeyronia for there red new growth

This is a palm at Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, which I photograph today and cannot identify. At one time I thought it was a Calyptrocalx spicata. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated:

Wow. It resembles standard form Hydriastele beguinii with the leaves and that perfect inflorescence spathe. I can only zoom in on the photo so far at that size, but it looks like it. The lower rachises and petioles appear to have the fuzzy tomentum. Awesome old plant. It seems to have a cold damage scar halfway up the trunk. It looks great considering the cold we just had (and are continuing to get). He and his Chambeyronia neighbor seem to have a protected spot. The species was in Siphokentia (or perhaps even Nengella) when it was planted. Ryan

I actually joined the SE Palms Society, even though I know I will never go to a meeting I just wanted to get the newsletter lol

Some cooler overnight lows of 8 to 9C predicted in the next few days, my station has not seen single figures since a low of 9.0 on 18th Dec and before that have to go back to 17th November. It has not really been a hot February at all save for a few days last week, running about 1C above average but that because the overnight lows have been mild. Weather does its own thing, just because a summer starts well above average tells you nothing about what the second half of it will be like. Fortunate to not be hit my any damaging wind or rain, have to be thankful for that.

Awesome news.

Good news! the new growth is coming up and its green so I'm just keeping it dry until its fully out and back to normal! 🤠

Figured everyone could use some good news. Pritchardia thurstonii was able to weather the storm under coconut canopy and shielded from wind slightly by the lanai. It is opening the damaged leaf in the photo and the another spear is coming out. That said, we do have another front coming and that might finish it off. At least it is still in the game, though.

Mine only lasts about a week but it is in full sun all day long. It was much more impressive before it grew out of the shade. I gave it some E B Stone just a few weeks prior to the last opening , maybe the next red display will hold longer. Harry

Nice one Jim the heading should read when anthocyanins attack 🌱

That Chambeyronia red is really bright in California and Australia. Mine in Florida are not as bright red.

Hi peachy yes the cold weather the curse of the palm grower it deflates many a grower to crying the cold killing such rare and beautiful exotic plants my friend has given me two huge plants in containers that I could only lift with my tractor to plant so the older we get so do our plants in size and we slowly realise our backs can’t lift them anymore have a good Xmas season peachy Richard

This winter just gone was longer than usual and the Veitchias, Hyophorbes, Foxtail and a couple of the Chamaedoreas had cold damage eventually but the Calyptrocalyx, as usual, didn't have a spot on them. I can't remember the plants right now that you have (I saw photos) that I can't keep here. We're getting bad storms here too, poor plants are getting really knocked about. A big frangipani in an urn blew over and I have done my back in trying to get it upright. A bed ridden christmas this year. Peachy

Thanks peachy I have both those varieties hollrungii and elegans most of the calyptrocalyx are temperamental in the cold in my area Richard

I only have 2 here at the new house, the ever reliable Hollrungii and the one in photo was not labelled when I bought it but I had one the same previously. All of the highland species did very well for me, so always check the origins of any Calyptrocalyx species. C. mara was the only one that gave me trouble. Elegans is another tough one too. Peachy

Please visit my Chateau Chambeyronia up in La Habra if you like. I’ve got 20 plus trunking specimens in the ground.

Hi peachy what variety of calyptrocalyx are you referring too thats cold hardy thanks Richard

Expletives screamed!

Hmm. Interesting thought about Houailou; mine both have nice and reddish new leaves. Maybe I have a humid microclimate in my jungle?

Agreed!

Whoa Darold that IS odd. I’ve never had a hookeri with a green new leaf, though young plants aren’t as red as the adults get. Those were nice big plants too. I’ve grown hundreds by now at Chateau Chambeyronia.

They aren't very popular here in Southern California either. I'm growing just this one species, G. princeps but have been happy with it thus far. I can't think of many things I'm growing which are slower but there are a few which equal it's snail's pace.