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I shall start this thread, this way when I plant a few more things in the garden it will be found here, and what a joy it will be, theres a lot to planted! So the new plants for today are kerriodoxas and chamaedorea adscendens a little reindhardtia gracilis a philodendron hose buono and a Zamia variegata. This little batch should get the garden looking good from the deck.

Another Chambeyronia anyone!

Latania new frond

There are private growers that can help you . I have met them here on Palm Talk. You may have to drive an hour or so but the experience is priceless. I met @DoomsDave here a couple years ago ( has it really been that long?) and made a couple trips to his jungle . He has very good knowledge and experience to share , not to mention some very friendly kitty cats that patrol his garden. Not like going to a nursery , or buying on line( not for me) . He has introduced me to some palms that I would not have thought about on my own . All of them are growing very well . The bonus is spending time with Dave , never disappointing. A few “gems” that came home with me. Harry Cyphophoenix Nucele ‘Dypsis Lanceolata ( now Chrysalidiocarpus) Rohpalostylus Bauri Cheesemania I have 5 or so Chamaedorea Ernesti Augusti that came home Dypsis Basilonga on the left and Chamaedorea Plumosa on the right.

Had a great germination of H. coriacea over the last couple months. I’d read they can be difficult to germinate but this lot did a great +/-90% germination of a selection of 100 seeds, over about a three month period of warmish treatment. I’m doing a bit of a trial to see how many I can get through the first winter. Same with the medemia (100) to see if I can lure out a couple survivors which are a bit more cold and wet tolerant. Interesting ‘corkscrew’ root on some of the hyphaene. Who’s had success in cooler climes with hyphaene?

As I sit on rock in the garden looking at what I have created iam amazed. The garden goes from a jungle canopy understory to a very dry hot intolerable in summer heat garden. Yet it all seems to work and grow in harmony with Mother Nature. You can create a garden of your taste to reflect your personality, it just takes time. All you see was basically carved out of the Australian bush, and we’re not talking about tropical cairns or Hawaii where you throw a plant over your shoulder and grows by just looking at them. Its hard country to garden in just add water! IMG_9785.mov

That same area today. I just haven't had the heart to post photos before now. I haven't looked at the "before" photos until today. I will work on a more comprehensive photo documentation of the wreckage of our garden in the coming days. I apologize for the quality of the photos. That is not my strong suit but it certainly gets the point across.

I am posting one photo of our garden pre-Armageddon as a test to make sure I have formatted it correctly. This is my 1st attempt to post photos here. This is from my wife's phone camera. From 9-30-2025 Happier Times.

I want a center piece tree. Here’s my vision a pindo palm as the anchor. A burgundy cordyline australis, red and orange dipladenias, calla lillies, to the side of the pindo birds of paradise, at the base soft tip agave, burnt burgundy agave. Something like this, this is survives well in my climate. A mixture of tropical and Mediterranean. Im not an experienced palm grower, I would love a royal palm, but I don’t have the confidence that it would survive or look good. I definitely want to grow some more tropical palms in the backyard where I can experiment. Do you guys recommend buying small ones online? That way if they die its not a huge financial burden.

@Bkue + @pj_orlando_z9b + et al. Hope you both get a few Adonidias and Roystoneas to push through. It's looking like I'll be removing one Royal and one Adonidia. The others should be able to pull through. Two of my coconuts are pushing new green growth, so there is hope there. While I was working the booth at the plant sale today, a few people asked me what the pinnate palms were on the east side of Summit tower downtown. My answer of Archontophoenix cunninghamiana apparently caught them off-guard, but when I explained that the building blocked all of the wind, it made sense why they were green.

I removed the winter protection from this Fayetteville NC Washingtonia today. It was growing during it's time while sheltered but without any direct sunlight, the new growth appears a bit yellow and weak ATM. One emerging spear I used a small bungee cord to stabilize it. Overall, the winter was fairly mild, no colder than 29°F overnight.

lol tall butia are common around here . At least to me . I’ve passed these often the huge Spanish dagger next to them Is awesome.

I bought (3) P. rupicola palms and planted it as a triple about 3-4' apart. The rupicola is about 10-12' wide in crown, a bigger palm than roebelinii. As a triple its kind of big(20'+ wide) THey appear more lush than roebeliniis as well, and the thorns are bendy at the base so stabbing injury can be easily avoided when trimming. My (9) roebeliniis(in AZ) stabbed me just about every time I trimmed them, and they put out 2-3 x more leaves a year than rupicola, so trimming is much more work. The palm behind them is an adult beccariophoenix alfredii, about 30' tall, 15 years in the ground from a 3 gallon. That BA was hit by a hurricane milton -up to 110 mph winds- 18 months ago and hasn't recovered to full crown. B. Affredii is a large palm, not for small yard spaces. Here is that BA before the hurricane.

Out and about Brazoria county last two weeks . I noticed east Pearland was a cold spot this freeze and nuked the queens / cidps . Down in Manvel / Alvin they all look great.Queen palmy yard Manvel freshly planted palmetpigmy’s Alvin HW6 new palms two big queens planted last summer here in Manvel both have 90% green fronds Fresno / Arcola HW6

If that is the only way to get seed from the lonely female , and you are up for it , go for it. I don’t do any of that here in my garden , but it isn’t because of ethics ….I’m lazy!😂. If I get seeds , it is all Mother Nature , let her do the work. Harry

If one were to take the lows that sabal minors have endured at the Denver zoo, multiple times at or below what the 1 time event in Knoxville, that a needle palm endured, sabal minors are the clear winner. End of story.

Sometimes planting in Fall or Autumn is nice . A bit cooler and still time to get settled before cold weather. I didn’t wait for Spring to add soil/ refresh container for Ernie . Yesterday I lifted him out of his pot , not root bound but soil disappearing. I added a few more pebbles to the bottom of the container along with a mix of potting soil and perlite. It seems Ernie likes to “eat” soil, hmmm. Harry🤔

At least 2" here last night, isolated storms popped up late in the afternoon, almost like it was August, and one of them sat over us for a long time. Hopefully more on the way for a wider area, lots of moderate rain chances showing in the 10 day.

Beautiful! Yes , it takes time and effort . It shows at every turn . Harry ”A garden is a show of faith “

My only concern is the space. The Butia needs a radius of 6 to 8 feet. Beccariophoenix, double that. 12 to 15 ft radius for fronds.

Here is Parry’s Chilensis a couple years ago.

@Harry’s Palms has been watering so why not let the elephant have a bit of a bath!

Yes, the summer is the rainiest season.

I imagine it was a somber day. Sorry for you.

Removed a few palms from my yard today. Definitely a somber day, but it had to be done, and a lot of lessons were learned I think. I also trimmed away all of the damaged trunk from my cordylines. Hopefully they will recover. Here's what the coconut that's fairly close to me here in Deltona is looking like now (it's the only nice one I'd seen in town prior to the cold snap). I see some green on the petioles, so not sure if it may have some chance of a recovery. The owners didn't do anything to try to protect it.

It’s not the only Palm from Round Island, but palms from there do great in South Florida. The last native one of these on the Island died in 2024. https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2024/11/last-wild-hurricane-palm-of-its-kind-falls-marking-extinction/ https://palmpedia.net/wiki/Dictyosperma_album_var._conjugatum

Not palms but got my attention while watering the palms on the side of the house where my wife’s Tillandsia wall is . Tillandsia go hand in hand with the tropical effect to show off the jungle created by the palms. Harry First up is this guy . It’s been the companion to this Howea for years and is blooming for the first time. I do not know the names of these , but I have two of this variety . The other one has bloomed every year but this is a first for this one.. I have a whole bunch of these and give them away from time to time . looking very nice with a bit of Spanish Moss that has taken up residency with this clump. Harry

Oh, the damage is really extensive. I hope it recovers well anyway. Such a wonderful species. I'm keeping my fingers crossed—the two of us here at Lake Constance are keeping our fingers crossed.

@palmofmyhand Here's a video from this morning, followed by two sago palm pics. The sagos had a little protection, blanket and a tarp.

My coconuts got absolutely fried last year all came back about half canopy before this freeze. They handled this freeze better than 1 night last year. Healthy palms 100 percent will do much better but it's wild what they grow in California taht just does horrible here

What i have learned over the last 5 years. Coconuts do way way way better than anyone gives them credit for. I uave yet to lose a coconut due to cold. I have lost tons of 9b safe palms. Kentia, teddy bear, dreadlock palm, flamethrower etc Royals foxtails kings coconuts all fry but don't die ever no matter what. Ive learned that if it grows well in California in 9b it will probably won't in florida 9b.

I managed to look in to some of those pictures. They do look like glaucifolia but the too little wax on the upper part of the stem and the petioles. Have the plants been recently subjected to rainfall?

This is why these forums are awesome. I have never thought of this palm. I think it looks very nice. General nurseries don’t carry these, they’re not really palm geeks in my area. I’ve asked multiple people here where to go, but no one responds. I wish there was a list of preferred nurseries. That would make things easy. I think I’m gonna go with the Pindo. Its hardy, survives my climate well and looks good.

This is a perfect time at latitude 26.71°(north of the Old Monkey Jungle) to chime in on this subject! This area of SE Florida is definitely not within the tropics (23° latitude) and we just experienced a cold event that it is necessary to travel back thirty-seven (37) years to find a cold event more severe. However, I would argue from the perspective of what grows and the overall warmth of the climate, that in many manners, it can be considered tropical-like. I detailed at the very bottom of the thread titled "Historic East Florida Freeze, February Screenshots" the climate data experienced during this cold event. At PBIA, on February 1, and February 2 of this month, low temperatures of 31°F were recorded for a total of three hours below freezing. This certainly does not dovetail into an easy discussion of a tropical like climate. That stated, I also detailed how the end of the month tally for the month of February 2026 at PBIA was a cumulative median temperature of 64.84°F. This eclipses the 64.4°F required in all months for a technical tropical connotation under Koeppen/Trewarthia. January 2026 had a cumulative median temperature of 67.01°F.. December 2025 had a cumulative median temperature of 71.84°F. All of these temperatures were recorded at PBIA. Parenthetically, even in our coldest event in 37 years, we met the tropical criteria for Koeppen/Trewartha. That was not the case during the December 1989 freeze. During that cold event, the cumulative median temperature for December 1989 was 57.48°F. The cumulative median temperature for January 1990 was 66.37°F. The cumulative median temperature for February 1990 was 70.04°F. All of these temperatures were recorded at. PBIA. In my other post above described, I detailed with specificity the weather underground station in Palm Beach referred to as Device One-KFLPALMB 251. During the February 2026 cold event, this device recorded an ultimate low temperature of 38.3°F with a cumulative median temperature of 67.8°F. That taps into another theory that I have based upon observations regarding a micro climate experienced in this area because of proximity to the.Gulfstream/Florida Current. I will not open that door in this conversation. More to the point, the obvious question becomes what grows? I have posted pictures in various threads of the tropical vegetation and palms in this area and how they have been affected. Ultimately, what can be grown in an area, particularly after a cold event, should lend some perspective regarding the tropical character of a place. Anne Norton Sculpture Gardens is adjacent to the Intracoastal and my knowledgeable friend Felix, who is the real man on the ground taking care of the palms, testified to me that AN did not experience a freeze. Please find some recently photographed specimens at AN: Neoveitchia storkii, which is indigenous to the Fiji Islands:

Another 12 months and I reckon the large Tahina will have a full crown. Smaller one also coming good now.

Yesterday we had a great hike in Phong Nha National Park. Licuala bachmaensis Dr. Bill Baker explaining morphological differences between Lanonia and Licuala Close up for Lanonia centralis demonstrating a small bump just before the center leaf split. Rhapis excelsa Lanonia centralis Hiking up a waterfall to end the hike

My Ravenea glauca has an inflorescence about to open female flowers. Meanwhile, I have not found a female companion for my Ravenea julietiae male. Should I try using the julietiae pollen on the glauca? What say you?

Breathtaking, Richard. I would also take several walks there; every time you see something new and every moment is different.

Some very interesting and unique rainforest tree seeds in this batch. Rainforest seeds are new to me but some commonsense propagation techniques will be applied. Still learning about the process but it’s good to challenge the mind now and then. I seem to do ok with the palm seeds so it will be interesting to see how I go with this batch, either way it’s a good thing to learn!

It may. They really should treat with fungicide if they haven't. It is stressed and just figuring things out.

🌴🦜

Jonathan, you're doing a really great job. I'm pretty sure they'll recover well. We're keeping our fingers crossed for you here.

If your winters indeed are mild, why not put it in the open ground where it will grow much faster?!

A few more from Pearland. Everything palmwise survived. The Queens fronds look great for 22-24°F. Bismarckia nobilis Medemia argun Butia , Copernicia alba, and Livistona nitida Phoenix theophrastii ‘Golkoy’ Copernicia alba #2 Butia x Parajubaea var. torallyi Mule palm Livistona decora Ravenea rivularis and King palm Queen, seed supposedly sourced from a hardy parent. Beaucarnea recurvata starting to form a thick caudex Acrocomia, possible totai Sabal uresana Beccariophoenix alfredii

It obviously was a good idea to get more than 1 to 'hedge your bet' so that you would at least have an example to plant in your garden. I only bought 1, but enjoyed it very much before it died after a couple months. I believe the shipment had been exposed to freezing temperatures in the early February transport from Florida to Arizona as I know of a few buyers that had their trees get crown infections and succumb. I ended up replacing mine in that prime location with a Coccothrinax miraguama that I grew from seed that has performed wonderfully for the last 3 years. Nowheres near as large yet, but someday...😄 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Been meaning to get back to the gardens for a while now, but I've been busy building a retaining wall at our place most weekends since the turn of the year. It rained first thing this morning with more threatening so laying blocks was out, and a visit to Mt. Coot-tha was on. We certainly picked a lovely spot for the Jubaeopsis afra.

Great thread Richard. Here’s my contribution of Merc germinated palms I’ve planted. Pritchardia napaliensis Pritchardia martii

Almost EVERYONE on Palmtalk including myself will say QUEENS ARE NOT LONG TERM in Houston, never were and probably never will in our lifetime. Those are unicorns, got lucky nothing more just like a 100 year old person. A very very very small percentage survived my friend but I like your positivity.

not a public garden but always welcome palm nuts