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Hi all, Back in late 2017, myself and some fellow palmtalkers took a trip to the big island of Hawaii. We had a number of people there on the island that graciously showed us their gardens, which also included a trip to Floribunda. I remember one of the regulars that we met at Floribunda mentioning something to the effect, “man, you really got Jeff on his A game today“, which I thought was funny. Anyway, the following day we went over and saw the garden of Bill Austin. He was just a wonderful, funny guy. I remember standing by some beautiful clumping Chrysalidiocarpus, and Bill reached down on the ground, grabbed a fistful of seeds and said “here take these with you“. So I dutifully brought them home, germinated a bunch of them, and they turned out to be largely solitary, with a red growing point. At this point, I thought my memory must be faulty, and I poured through all my pictures and could find nothing that even remotely resembled them. I gave most of them away and kept one for myself. It’s been a slow, steady grower, that split a couple years ago, and is still only shoulder high. Lo and behold, I’m looking in the “for sale“ forum a couple days ago and I see some palms being sold as psamophilla x leptichielos, (being called a Sandy Bear palm) that are identical to the ones that I sprouted. Anyway, here it is in all its relatively diminutive glory…Thanks for looking!

A few more red fronds , anyone? Finally some blue sky to show off the colors. IMG_5250.mov …and a backlit Chrysalidocarpus ‘Dark Mealybug.’

You say it's a busy sidewalk. If it impedes walkers, maybe they have a point. As far as I know, a sidewalk is normally owned by a city, and is intended for public use. I remember my days as a young mother pushing a stroller trying to make it safely around obstacles. I never would have contemplated cutting anyone's bushes, but it seemed inconsiderate of some homeowners not to maintain a reasonably clear walkway. You might consider your liability if anyone were hurt by a spiny robelenii. I removed two that were leaning way over the sidewalk at my house. I see my thoughts are in the minority here.

All of the new plantings and some well established palms are tucked in well after a long hot summer. Another couple of years with this lot and there will be quite a few new palms well established in the garden!

Obstruction of the sidewalk is not necessary for mindless vandalism. During my tenure as chair of the Lakeside Palmetum I witnessed adolescent "persons" twisting off fronds with their bare hands, a Juania broken off at ground level, and initials carved into the waxy, white coating on Ceroxylon trunks.

A couple of nice chamaedoreas chose to stand out for a moment in the garden.

Would be really interested if 2 particular Madagascar mysteries could be studied; Ravenea glauca - Isalo vs Andringitra. Are they different forms of the same species or each unique species. Chrysalidocarpus onilahensis - drooping/weeping vs upright/stiff (and vs sp bef/slick willy). PoM seems to lump all together but appearance and seed are very different. In the case of C sp bef, growth habit very different too.

Yeah, Than. I’d do that for your plant and change the potting mix—meaning I’d adjust the mixture to get it just right. I think your plant will appreciate it. And yeah, it always takes some effort, but you’re good at it, and besides, your partner can help out. If I were closer, I’d be happy to do it for you 🤗

Well, that’s kind of a great revelation. I had been to Bill’s garden many times and never knew this hybrid existed. Like so many gardens, the amount of material is so extensive that no matter how many visits, one always sees something new Tim

The Archontophoenix purpurea and C. onilahensis will also rot in my opinion, in your wet spot.

Back at again buying a few for the garden. heterospathe scitula linospadix minor gardenea tubiferaantrophyum callifoliumAll potted before winter gets here, any new tropicals to the collection won’t get potted up from now on, going into winter it’s not good for them!

No hard feelings just reciprocity lol

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWU8yM-Dbgh/?igsh=aTl1a3J2eW93NGg5 Don't get all snooty and act like this is the first post about peeing on this forum. This place used to be fun. Anyway also got myself another Ensete Marrelli and it's already showing the same problems the last one did. This time I took the fabric off the root plug so that ain't it. And I've got 2 sprouts so far of the Musa Acuminata Papua Yellow seeds from @Bigfish - I didn't notice them at first, then saw them and got excited, now they barely move. And it's almost time for me to take another Dwarf Cavendish pup off....... And I've got a lot of holes to dig.

Those will all rot I think.

@Skenny Get the light saber out.

Skenny, yes, cut off all the completely brown parts right away. It needs air for oxygen and the sun’s warmth and light. Be sure to leave the other green and yellow fronds; their energy flows back to the heart. As Merlyn, PalmasNorte, and Harry already mentioned. Yes, fertilizing is good—just as Merlyn explained. I’m not familiar with that brand of fertilizer, but he is and has had good results with it. Keep your chin up—plants thought to be dead often survive; she’ll come back! Good luck! Warm regards from the far north on Lake Constance, Switzerland Mazat

Perhaps you could eat the gopher! He ate your bizzie it seems only fair! Richard

Still going strong, thanks to our mild winter. I'm curious to see how it does above the roof!

A flash of red getting around the place!areca vestria dypsis lantzeana dypsis louvelli

Saw this specimen today on my way to pick up grandchildren from school:

It was a great trip, we saw some very nice palms, especially the Lanonia's. And really fun catching up with old friends and then meeting a few new ones. Jeff

Plant an Acrocomia

Yea , I have one that would put up quite a fight if I tried to clean the trunk! Harry First year in the ground! It is just starting to harden off after cutting the brown fronds off . Full sun , south facing slope. In another year I will be able to tell you if gophers like them or not.🤬

I’d say in your location the two main challenges will be hot and dry in summer, and cold and wet in winter. Similar to the issues in my climate. As you say, A cunninghamiana is probably well suited, however I’d guess that winter damp soil may be a big challenge for C leptocheilos and B condapanna. Even Chambeyronia macrocarpa would want to have good drainage in winter ideally and also won’t love hot and dry for too long unless you can irrigate. They are pretty tough though so that’s your best from the palms you have. Here’s some other palms I’d think would be suited to the conditions: Archontophoenix purpurea, maxima, myolensis Chrysalicarpus baronii Chrysalidocarpus ambositrae, onilahensis (might need soil ammendment for drainage) Rhapis humilis Livistona australis, decora Chamaedorea radicalis, plumosa

Than, it is mostly our own fault, not the plant's. Usually genetically weak plants die already as seedlings. So doing 'anything' equals to nothing really necessary for the plant's well being. That is plant philosophy lol

Sometimes it is difficult to understand why a plant doesn't do well. We do everything and yet.. If only the plants could speak! I am not sure if digging up the tree and moving it to a bed would be a good idea. I don't know how well Syagrus responds to moving. I'll consider it though if nothing else helps. I have stopped using liquid fertilizer for palms; replaced it with slow release.

Curiosity got the best of me. Let's see if either sets seeds. I'll try to go up on my roof a few times each week to continue crossing pollinating while nicolai is in bloom

Thanks. Good to know. The common denominator is dropping off by themselves.

That’s good that all of your tropicals in your area aren’t dead. personally, it really makes my day when I drive past a zone pushing palm in my area to see it has survived and will keep growing.

Yep, that's an embryo!

Welp the tissue culture died. I don't think the extra 4 days in New Jersey helped it. I cut my Ensete down to a nub. Hoping it grows back from the corm, I didn't notice that it was wrapped in that stupid plug fabric until it was too late. Big blue Java is on the floor, latest leaf is 14 x35 Red Dacca needs to go on the floor now too. I got my first pup off one of the Cavendish and it's already growing. I've been fighting spider mites for a minute now and it seems like (please don't jinx this) the best treatment so far is to get a damp paper towel and dab full strength neem oil and wipe everything down, and keep cutting off any leaves that feel dusty. They're all throwing a leaf a week so who cares?

Hey all - I'm in New Smyrna Beach on the barrier island and have a lot of nice specimens in my yard so naturally am freaking out a bit, as many here are too. I soaked my grounds over 2 days time leading up to the event hoping that along with the coastal location might help mitigate damage. I put some C9 Christmas lights up around 3 of my palms...2 Ptychosperma elegans and 1 Archontophoenix cunninghamiana. And heating pads around the trunk of my Satakentia liukiuensis . I also brought as much potted material inside my home as possible.....palms, bromeliads, orchids, crotons, & misc. So there was still a lot outside and exposed. I have numerous Archontophoenix palms on the property, 2 Royals, a Dypsis cabadae, large Areca lutescens that was here when I bought the place 30 years ago, 3 large Coconuts planted back in 2017 from 30 gal pots, various Cycads including 2 very nice Queen Sagos, some Dypsis pembana - 2 still in pots and 1 planted, a nice Veitchia joannis, a very nice double trunk Dictyosperma album plus some in pots, a nice trio of very mature Foxtails that I planted back in '06, a nice Hyophorbe lagenicaulis, and some other odds and ends including many that are considered cold hardy so I wont mention those. I just came in from a walkabout on my property and am see damage on a few including the Coconuts, Satakentia, Royals, but the Archontophonix are actually looking stout at this time. Some off color but nothing like the others that are showing damage. I realize we won't know the extent of damage yet for a week or so but wanted to share what I'm seeing in my location. Cheers! My Satakentia: One of my 3 Coconuts. They are all the same size: My Veitchia joannis: My Bottle: My 3 Foxtails: My 2 Royals: My double trunk Dictyosperma album"

My first ever tissue culture purchase. A friend gave me an invite link to PalmStreet which came with a few coupons so all in I think I'm out $19, it's supposed to be a golden variegated banana. The fun part! USPS normally sends packages to Memphis then Jackson then my local PO. This time it spent a few days in New Jersey for reasons I'll never understand. I'm glad I bought the insulation and heat pack, but the heat pack was burned out long before it came back into the central time zone. I'm super super super sick so I haven't even opened it up yet, it was super cold when it got here.

Just a 19 inch leaf on a 4 foot Blue Java.

Yeah ok. It might be time to put stuff on the floor and buy more chains for the lights. The corner by the fuse box - I found an old round wobbly stool and screwed some scrap wood to the top and bottom to level it out and let it hold a clear tote with 2 buckets. WELP the lights on that end have been raised and raised and raised and are only a foot and a half from the ceiling now and WELP Anyway here's some pics of some massive (considering they were pups a few months ago, the Blue Java I literally bought in October) nanners

The 2 tallest Cavendish and big Blue Java are ~4ft tall and the Mekong Giant (2nd from left, unmarked white bucket) isn't far behind.

2 more buckets to go, another curtain to hang, and some more light mods. LITERAL WALL OF BANANAS. Wall to wall bananas. Lol spider mite paradise, what the hell am I thinking?

A friend of mine sent me an invite with some coupon codes for Palm Street so I ended up with a Musa Aurea tissue culture. I was kinda hoping it was a 2 pack, since I didn't seem to understand the fast paced chaos at all but anyway John is gonna learn how to grow from a plant in goo.

Since it got brought up in another thread and to answer @Fusca without threadjacking here is the wall of bananas that still needs 4 more potted up, trying to talk myself out of placing another Wellspring Gardens order to get this week's freebie, still needs the ghetto light refractors hung and made (I'm using 2 white 7 foot shower curtains and cannibalizing some grow bags for panda film supported by cardboard and duct tape if anybody cares). And I apparently need to raise the lights up, maybe just put the tallest 3 in the middle and go from there.

😂😂😂😂😂 This, sir, is a very fair and good point.

Well, you'd think I'd learned my lesson. But I spent another $3 on banana seeds. I have absolutely no clue what these are, they're just listed as "golden banana" with some stock photos. Anyway, maybe I try the baggie method with coffee filters next time.

@metalfan that's cool info. Before this, my knowledge of aroid supply chain crises was uhh... Literally nothing. I had no interest in plants at all until 2020 to be fair, and living where I do it's either big box or online shopping for the most part, and it was even more recently that I started paying attention to anything other than palms. Now that I'm trying to set up a nursery myself, I'm looking at what sells, how to propogate, etc

I didn't dream this, did I? Maybe it was just because it was 2020 and people were getting crazy into houseplants (myself included) because nobody left the house? Prices were obscene for these. Or is the aroid community full of homey hookups like we have on here?

Kinda like how the variegated monstera were $1000 for a cutting 5 years ago and now they even have them at Walmart here in BFE Mississippi

The problem is the seeds are only viable for so long and if some big seed seller has had them sitting in a drawer for 2 or 3 years they're probably trash. Then there's the whole thing of breaking down the seed since by nature they're literally designed to be pooped out by a gorilla, and that's kind of hard to replicate. But I soaked them in hot water, I filed them down to soften them up, they're in sealed moist boxes and I'm cycling the heat mats on and off every day just like the whole Internet says to do. Still not going to put them in orange juice and let them soak in that on top of a heater for 3 days like this one YouTuber did. Whole house gonna smell like prison toilet wine and fungus everywhere. Barf. All I've seen here is some 1g dwarf Cavendish and it took a lot of willpower to NOT buy them since I've already got 4 or 5 of them. I want to get some more exotic varieties once it warms up, maybe even dabble into buying some tissue cultures and starting those off. I think it's the only way I'll be able to get my hands on the pink and white Musa Nono and Musa Florida variegated.

Is that the Musa Velutina? I bought some seeds off of Etsy that are suspect at best 😂 God only knows how long customs would hold them and what the tariffs would be at this point. I'm down to try but I really think pups are the way to go with bananas now. Watch me say that and leave him a bad review and then watch all of these sprout overnight 😂

Yeah, I have no idea how the tarrifs and international crap are affecting y'all. Mine came from a dude on eBay called like sd darkman or something out of San Diego, but I've become a big fan of Wellspring Gardens. Again, you're facing issues I'm not though. But yeah, unless you can reproduce the process of something coming out of a gorilla's butt, pups are the way to go.

I've got one growing in a bucket. I bought a pup off of eBay. Man, honestly - banana seeds are so unreliable, the germination rates are garbage when they're fresh, you can't trust anybody. I had 2 sellers block me when I asked how old their seed was. Then you've got to get your prep on point. You've got to remember that these seeds are designed to be eaten by, and subsequently, come out of a gorilla's butt. It's hard to duplicate process of being pooped out by a gorilla. I've seen people do stuff like boiling water and then soak seeds in orange juice on top of a heater for a week and there just ain't no way I'm gonna make my whole house smell like prison toilet wine for, at best, 30% germination. Spend the 20 or 30 bucks and buy a pup. Most of these growers are doing tissue culture clones now anyway. I really want a Musa Nono but they're all created in a lab in Thailand and they're not cheap.