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How its going.

My biggest Hedyscepe canterburyana that I grew from seed from the beauty in pogobob old garden is finally setting seed. Last summer when Tim from Hawaii was visiting it flowered but the seed aborted.

A beautiful little dypsis lantzeana!

Well just adding to my blog here. I had my first in person customer today. Sweet lady, home health care nurse. She and her daughter showed up looking for the elephant ears I have on FB marketplace, and they were just kind of in awe of all the stuff I've got growing _out here_. She told me she keeps killing her houseplants, I showed her how to mix coco coir and perlite and stop using potting soil, her daughter was fascinated with the kittens. Sancho didn't make an appearance, and she killed a bee that flew in after I told her I was allergic so I basically gave her the plants for half price and gave her a philodendron. I think she'll be back once more stuff sprouts up. I've got dozens more bulbs to sprout. And then there was a bunch of "ohhhh yeah that's not for sale" 😂

Livistona australis. I've seen them in habitat with their roots pretty much in standing water, so I planted a dozen in amongst the reeds of one of my swampy areas down here in Tas, they're coming along nicely. We've got winter dominant rainfall, so the swamp is super wet and cold in winter, doesn't seem to bother them at all. L decora growing in similar conditions yellows off a bit in winter, which isn't surprising given it's more tropical distribution, but greens up again pretty quickly in spring. In a warmer climate than mine it'd be a beast in a swamp!

One element you need to grow a garden is water, and in a palm garden you can never have enough water especially in my climate. If iam to grow the exotic palms I wish to have I must irrigate them. There are pipes in all sorts of directions, with shifts on top of shifts overlapping each other, I have a bore for pretty well much unlimited water. And every chance I get I water, usually 20 minute shifts. So if you want to get your garden growing get onto irrigation it works. I have over 30 taps throughout my garden most with 19mm fittings for the sprinklers. It’s a game changer!

@BayAndroid's thread inspired this, but I thought it was worth expanding a bit. One of my pet terms is the Palm Water Need Spectrum, ranging from Desert Denizens, through Drought resistant, Drink and be Merry, Thirsty devils, [ethnic] Fish and Swamp Things. Swamp Things are those palms or other plants that will literally grow in standing water. In CA, those include Archontophoenix tuckeri, cunninghamiana (but not purpurea), and Ravenea rivularis. Anyone know others? Where you are. I don't have the blessing/curse of an actual swamp but I'm sure others of us do. Introduce us to your Swamp Things.

Update: the first spear has opened with a nice salmon color. I expect future leaves will look better, not having been stressed in the weeks prior to opening.

Not sure! At least I'm not.

I have a few Butia archeri var. Diamantina available. Seedlings are about a year old 2-3 leaves. I expect a nice growth spurt coming soon. I’ll ship in tubes. 1 seedling grower choice $35 USPS priority shipping $13

I feel your pain. Buy 10 seeds and each one is inspected under a microscope for fungal spores. Meanwhile you can buy a whole ship load of palm kernel for cattle feed.... Makes no sense.

Colocasia Redemption bulbs sprouted. And I checked on the Thai Giants, they're just starting to show nubs but they are ROOTED in 5g pots.

You're a cruel and heartless man Tim.

Yea , it turns out it was a thirsty palm . I couldn’t believe how quickly it drank the moisture out of the soil! Now I have to water over there. Harry

I had an area of my yard that was constantly wet . We had just bought the house ( new ) and the builder installed another French drain but it was still wet ….mosquito wet. I bought a 24” box Syagrus Romanzoffiana for $25 that was on death’s door , dug into the mud , and planted it . It took off like a rocket , problem solved . No more mud over there and we provided shade for my neighbor! Harry

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

I only have one Chambeyronia so I really get excited when a new frond opens. This time it didn’t mess around, the spear showed no signs of opening Sunday when I was watering . Yesterday afternoon it opened . Within 3 days it will be green , it is in full sun. Harry

A nice Joey, followed by a iguanura sanderianum, and a iguanura broad leaf. All three got my attention in the greenhouse.

Allogoptera caudescens opening a new leaf is such an attractive sight.

Also in my transitional from BSh to BSk climate (Köppen classification), artificial irrigation is absolutely necessary. Look what happened to a potted Livistona of mine during mid March , while irrigation still remained shut off.

All sold. Thanks.

Apparently it’s all about the grain industry in Australia, kharpa beetle, there scared it will get into the grain industry and then the government won’t be able collect taxes and not be able to hold too a trade agreement with some foreign countries. So we continue to send our resources overseas and buy them back as a product, how many washing machines and refrigerators do we really need! I’ve had a headache with customs continually. But oh yes lets import the worlds rainforest timber and get a heap of pest in those shipments!

The days we grew up in are long gone. Unfortunately it’s the way of the world now, technology is a great thing, but place it in a government bureaucracy system and it’s a different story. The difficult part is when I was at school we didn’t have computers to learn on. Now they give kindergarten kids a laptop we don’t stand a chance against that kind technology! Richard

Thankfully they can handle periods of drought also - my swamp dried up last summer and we haven't had any rain since December. More work for me now to irrigate by hand! Licuala spinosa seems to be doing well also and doesn't mind full all-day sun or even 27°F freeze without protection!

Lol anything that enjoys cold wet winters with lots of rain and hot humid summers where it almost rains but won't? Sabal Sabal and more Sabal.

Do Rhapidophyllum Serenoa and/or Acelleraphe take swampy conditions? What I mean by swamp things is those that will grow in long-term or permanent standing water.

Thanks for the list of Swamp Things!

Hmmm. Wonder how it would have handled planting in a real swamp that it could not drink dry?

Dendrobium anceps

Bizzy update: We have something emerging other than brown. Its not green or silver, but at least its not brown. Continuing to monitor its progress. And yes, those are frisbees in the background. I will pick them up and move them, but the dogs like to put them back there, so I guess thats just where they will be lol

Time to plant some boulders.

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

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.🤬

Dendrobium kingianum

Paul I see what appears to be a giant bird of paradise in the background. They provide shade but can get messy. Instead, I used banana plants for quick growing shade west of my juvenile palms when planting my garden. They can be removed easier than the bird of paradise when the time comes but still provides some shade and wind break. I don't know how they will perform up there but thought it worthwhile for you to evaluate. Good luck with the Chambeyronia.

I love how nothing I've posted here in months is palm related. I had a yard thread somewhere but whatevs. This is my journey.

Thanks to all! The deed is done. It was still rocking around on those roots a little more than I'd like so I staked it at the base. It gets pretty windy around here in spring. Let the burn begin!

Reinhardtia latisecta. Tim

Iam on my way to sunny Melbourne @tim_brissy_13 to dig that rosea out, it needs a nice subtropical climate, in a nice loving garden with lots of happypalms attention. Not that iam saying you dont give your palms any love, I just can’t bear to see that that poor rosea live in refrigerator, any longer! 🤣

Some 🔥 in the garden recently. Dypsis rosea Chambeyronia divaricata

Nothing special to look at now, but hopefully this Hyphaene petersiana will impress visitors in years to come.

Lovely to see the 3 x Medemia argun doing ok in the gardens. Hoping they will go on to produce a breeding trio.

I was in central Florida for a couple of days and stopped by Leu Gardens in Orlando. The palm and cycad collection is excellent and it was well worth the visit. I thought the labeling throughout was among the best I have seen in botanic gardens. I was less interested in the really exotic stuff (of which there is plenty) and more focused on seeing some of the palms I'd love to try in Z9b Texas if I could ever find them available. They are all clustering species from East Asia that have a chance to recover from our infrequent but severe freezes. Chuniophoenix nana Lanonia dasyantha Licuala fordiana Rhapis humilis - I was hoping to see clearer differences between this and R. multifida. Rhapis multifida Rhapis subtilis I also saw but did not get photos of Chuniophoenix hainanensis (the only one I saw was very small), Arenga engleri (they apparently have some different forms labeled, but I couldn't find them), and Wallichia oblongifolia (can't remember if it was labeled W. densiflora). I was also interested in seeing their Heliconias, but these were disappointing compared with the palms. Very few were in flower, I think because most were in deep shade. Heliconia champneiana 'Maya Gold' Heliconia lingulata? I could not see a label and have only seen forms with yellow or yellow with red tipped flowers before. I'm not sure if they fade through orange as the flowers age. These looked great. Heliconia stricta 'Jamaican Dwarf'. I'm curious how large it needs to be to flower. I doubt much larger given the number of leaves.

Florida is a fantastic place to visit botanical gardens any time of the year. I plan to visit more of the smaller and off the beaten path collections this year. I appreciate the folks who got the collection going many years ago, and the locals that seek to protect the specialness of these places once responsibility needs to change hands. Palma Sola Botanical Park is located within a neighborhood fairly The map shows both exposure to the coast but also good reference for non-Floridians to see other nearby towns referenced in the forums palmasola.org to learn more. I’ll revisit over time and add to this thread. There are a few sections of the gardens I didn’t photograph as i had my dog with me and attention spilt. Very few tags, but the Ptychopsperma was labeled microcarpum. The upright pinnate palm with 2’ trunk was labeled Cyphophoenix nucele I asked for ID on another thread of the very spiny palm and it’s a Metroxylon vitiense. I get excited every time i see something I can’t ID and so glad i got some quick assistance with ID here ! The palmate clumping palm is a Hyphaene coriacea

Here’s a pic I snapped about a month ago at MB Palms’ open house event in Orlando. The owner Mike said these are about 12 years old in ground, planted from 30 gallon container size. He also mentioned these were from the original seed batch. They’re spaced roughly 10-12 feet apart trunk to trunk.

Here is another alfredi, 16 year old from seed.