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One could say that the coronata is a lot of bang for a little buck! Super easy to grow and germinate. A good old landscaper’s favourite palm. It may be common and not as great looking as some other Pinanga palms , but its good enough to stand next to them in the garden and look just as spectacular!

We've crossed the midpoint of the year. The daylight hours for us in the northern hemisphere are counting backwards now. As everything in the garden that didn't die or get removed begins recovery mode, a photo of the Livistona decora and a small Copernicia alba and then @palmfriend's Okinawa Garden featuring Livistona chinensis and Arenga engleri. Happy Summer!

It will probably be fine. There were pictures of wildfire that past through Vina Del Mar in Chile. All the Jubaea trunks and fronds were charred, then within a year pretty much all of them came back to life and flushed

A nice little tray of bells, collected the seeds through a door knock, in my local area. Time is all you need for these to germinate a year or more depending on how cool the conditions are. They are a beautiful palm indeed!

Spot on I think - most look bad because of neglect and not enough natural rainfall rather than it being too cold. Some of the better ones I’ve seen are out in the outer Eastern suburbs in the foothills of the Dandenongs where it gets pretty chilly but receives more rainfall than near the CBD or around Bayside suburbs. Same goes for Archontophoenix. I will say though, that Ravenea rivularis was susceptible to crown rot for me when young in Spring. It’s grown out of it now, but I suspected it didn’t like cold and wet conditions while it was still establishing. I planted in a cooler area of the garden in mostly shade intentionally based on what I’ve seen with specimens that dry out too much, but I think that’s the opposite risk when you go too shady and cold. The best one in Victoria I’ve seen is the one at Geelong Botanic Gardens. It gets morning sun but is well protected from all sides from wind and looks to stay quite moist in that area. There are a few mature specimens around Melbourne - this one down the street from my place looks pretty good. Doesn’t look like it gets extra attention but I assume the roots have tapped down deep now. The tree to its north must help with preventing it drying out too much too. I planted this one nearly 25 years ago. It’s the only survivor of about 5 originally planted in this garden. Soil is nearly pure beach sand and no irrigation. This is the result 🤣. And here’s an interesting planting - Singapore Botanic Gardens have them as aquatics. They like it in there in the tropical climate, but I’m certain it would be a death sentence in cooler climates.

Here are most of the palms I own

A nice dypsis prestonia showing some good colours. And the next generation of seedlings coming behind.

Wallichia disticha leaf.

This species of Coccothrinax, native to a small beach in N. Cuba, is definitely one of my favorites. Similar in looks to the old man palm, (Coccothrinax crinita) but apparently much hardier. Great palm to grow in the desert, even in full blasting sun. Unfortunately, like many others in the genus, it is a rather slow grower. 5 gallon pot grown from seed in Arizona is already 10 years old! 🤯 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

3 years from 3g pots. This turned out to be a nice palm for next to a walkway. The upright fronds stay out of the way. One annoyance is that when fronds age out, they drop all of their individual leaflets one by one, and leave behind a dry brown spike to cut off. I’ve found it’s best to just cut the oldest fronds early. Overall a pretty easy palm and moderate grower here. Hard to see… but bases are quite huge actually. These hold 3, sometimes 4 fronds, so pretty sparse looking alone. A grouping seems to be the best bet, if unaccompanied.

That is the old leaf base dying off . Discoloration is normal as they get ready to fall off . Eventually it will be more and more of a brown color until it just peels off . It is self cleaning but sometimes after they get really brown they can be removed with just a tug where the frond was cut off. Harry Last year on a Roystonia Oleracae . Most crown shaft palms are self cleaning and the old leaf base looks very brown before falling off.

The good news is that Queens are not particularly root sensitive . I usually lay them on their side and tap the pot with my hand as I roll it and then it comes out easily with a gentle tug on the trunk. That Queen will grow much more rapidly in the ground. Update us when you get it planted . I had a Syagrus Schizophylla in a deep pot with roots coming out the drain holes. I did the method I shared with you last weekend and got it planted in about an hour , including digging the hole. Harry This was a deep pot to accommodate the root systems that Syagrus are known for. A much slower growing palm than Syagrus Romanzoffiana but the same type of root system. A little rolling of the container and fist bumping the sides of the pot , it pulled right out .

'Stoplight' is one of my favorite crotons. And after this past winter it seems to be one of the more cold hardy cultivars like 'Genera Paget'. I had about 20 different crotons (mostly fairly common ones) and all froze to the ground this past winter (3 nights below freezing; 28, 23, 28/the 23F night it was below 32 for 10 hours). I had 2 'Stoplight' specimens both were 4-5ft tall. One froze almost to ground level, the other only partial and had a couple stems that didn't even defoliate. Neither had any coverings. And they were the first to resprout and start new growth. All my other crotons froze down and are regrowing but they were very slow to start. 'Picasso's Paintbrush' was killed of course and 'Dreadlocks' was very slow to put out new growth.

We can help you out here, they are pretty well much one the greatest indoor palms of all time! A bright light area indoors out of direct sunlight, a good aerated soil mix. To repot or not, look at the root ball you have, can you lift the palm up by the stem and not have the root ball fall apart. If it is packed tightly with roots then yes repot in the next size container up. If possible place the palm in shaded area outside for a couple weeks if the temperature is warm enough. Water it once when you repot with sea weed extract, for vitamin B stress relief. And then indoors in a nice spot to be admired. Then every now and then rest your palm in a couple of ways, one outside if conditions permit for a rest. Or indoors place in the shower and a good washing of every thing, this will help keep mealy bugs and insects away. If its life is indoors you will need to control insects. Don’t overwater indoors it’s the biggest killer of palms indoors. Let it dry out a little before next watering. Fertilise only in summer with seaweed extract or whatever that is suitable for palms indoors, but a little goes a long way, go a little under the manufactures directions. Must the leaves with water frequently to create humidity. They look perfect in an old wooden barrel or square homemade wooden containers!

Variegated rhapis, and a nice little dypsis lantzeana!

Small queen palm showing some nice colour.

Good photos to illustrate the difference. I think the only thing I can add is that if it is armed, even slightly, then it cannot be pure B calcarea. Brahea sp can be prone to hybridising and I think there’s still a bit of confusion in general within the genus so I can’t give any more insight.

Stoplight has gotten a bit huge now. Comfortably over 7 feet tall at the peak. I have to think about trimming back at this point. Has enough roots now not to droop too much in the summer heat and sun, and it drops seeds and babies pop up in the mulch.

Welp i was pulling weeds with Sancho (he really does help, he eats this wild mint/clover stuff) and right before i absolutely faceplanted in the yard, I noticed this lil guy! Not only that, but look at the size of this new leaf. Uhh house for scale. Ok that's misleading, but still.

I started a community pot of these to try in southern Germany. So far they're growing strong!

I'll take a picture of mine later but it's almost as identical as yours except the new front starts growing palmate but super slow, at least for now.

So far, G Princeps has grown as planned. With vertical tending fronds that stay out of the way at this size. Pretty happy and easy, with the tips of the fronds about 9 feet tall now. Blight spots mentioned above seem to have mostly gone away on their own.

Hi all, It’s been a pretty good season germinating and growing on seedlings, so I can offer my largest range ever with 63 species (including hybrids and variants) available. Unfortunately these are only available within Australia, and unless labelled ‘Germinated seed’, I also cannot send to quarantine states and territories WA, TAS or NT. Seedlings have been grown either completely unprotected outside in Melbourne or in some cases in an unheated greenhouse, so there may be imperfections in seedlings, but expect them to be relatively hardened. Express Postage available at buyers expense. For further details, growing requirement questions or pictures send me a PM.

Mods: are we allowed to brag/skite/be big headed on this sub forum ?? Never mind...here goes : "Hi Doug, It’s Larissa Romensky from Gardening Australia. Thanks for meeting with us and showing us your incredible garden. I’d love to include you as part of the Darwin episode - we’re filming between the 18th and 29th May. I’m just working out exact dates. What’s your email so I can stay in contact that way, if that’s okay? Cheers Larissa...." Bit of saga for me as I'm in Camden, NSW ( 4,000klm from home in Darwin ) atm, so I have to get my backside into gear to be home a week early so I can prepare as in watering, picking up palm fronds, clean up after the cursed bush chooks that will have moved cubic meters of soil onto garden paths etc... ( cursed things )...lol So anyways, I flew home from Sydney for a week to do the filming... 'Well they wanna film at mine on the 18th May ( confirmed today ) so I will fly home a few days prior and then back down here to finish off cleaning and then disposing of Mum's place. They said they'll be at mine all day filming to get enough footage...and to leave my old busted / broken rusty trailer full of palm fronds in the driveway....lol. I'm thinkin' a few thawed out cane toads from the freezers strategically placed, a coupla fruit bat carcasses and with a bit of luck the resident carpet snake will make an appearance.... oh and I will put a coupla green tree frogs in the downstairs tpilet and washing machine ( if they're not in there already... hehe'. 'The crew from Gardening Australia filming at my place today... Been a long day but of course very interesting seeing how its all done and how it all comes together... I think they needed an old school Darwin palm garden and someone who is fulla B/S and talks crap .... so I fitted the bill....lol The ABC boys hiding the beers I fed them ...hehe, I was under no such constraints... [img] [img] [img] [img] So basically they were filming at my place to show off an old style Darwin palm garden that was planted 35-40 years ago.... the storyline exploring how palms have fallen out of favour in modern Darwin gardens/landscaping. I was able to show them the ravages of the Ganoderma disease, some exotic wins and failures, damage from TC Fina that tore through my place 6 months ago ... and of course the mountains of fronds/green waste that I have to deal with... all on a suburban block of 900 square meters. Oh and the fact that I'm mostly a 'lapsed' enthusiast who has forgotten the names of some of my exotics, and that I never had ( and still havent a 'plan' re plantings ... nowasays if a bird or a fruit bat poops out a seed and it sprouts, I mostly let them grow... as in keeping with the shady jungle theme. Anyways a days worth of filming for perhaps a 5-10 min segment on a national TV show... yeah, I'll calling it a win...lol The show goes to air on 25th Sept 2026 on ABC TV.

Some nice examples there Tim, although I'm a bit concerned about the ethics of your bonsai experiment! Having said that, the realities of dry sand have been all too real for me for the last 20 years... Question: how does R rivularis compare to Phoenix reclinata in terms of cold tolerance?

Yes I guess the continent of Europe’s geography and Africa allows for us to get unusually high temps as an island compared to other parts of the world. Very warm last night min of 74.3/23.5c. It’s currently feeling like Miami right now this morning! All that thunderstorm rain is just evaporating into the air.

Cold is there only enemy, the rest they can handle. A true aquatic the burringbar example!

Yes the Burringbar one is a great example. Not quite as extreme as the Singapore BGs example, but proof that they enjoy being saturated in the subtropics. Different story I think though when the winter average temperature is more around 10C like in my area. Would likely just invite rot.

Nice one John!

They love there water, and sandy wet soil is the they love almost hydroponically. I have seen on growing at garden in a dam, up in burringbar. In a garden you have seen. And the one in Geelong botanical garden is proof that they will live in that microclimate.

They don’t like wind as you say, they get a bit tattered looking. That is one thing, the trunks on these palms get a big space restrictions as to where you plant them, they are a bargain the ones you got. They outgrow a container quite quickly and are robust container palms that need to be controlled! Richard

They are really a great palm, especially for what you’re using them for, they will create a microclimate that will be perfect for understory palms and garden that love shade, and if you have wet soil even more perfect, for the understory plants. Take out those pines, we talked about that one, and the damage they have done for you. Oh and you just snuck in the hybrid palm, the hybrid palm police are watching you, we have ways of making you talk! 🤣

I do remember Colin saying something about the yummu do well for him. So grab a few when I could and they seem to being quite well. There aren’t many dypsis that dont do well in the cool, they all do well, and so does most stuff from Madagascar in my climate, New Caledonia stuff loves it here. So I really hit the stuff from both countries as I have the sweet spot for growing them.

@Foxpalms It is so hard to believe an island at 50+ degrees north latitude can get and stay that hot. Wow!

Min of 20c/68f with a high of 34.6c/94.3f. Much higher humidity than usual whilst it got down to 38% in the afternoon most of the day was very humid. Partly caused by a supercell thunder storm last night that practically appeared out of thin air. Extremely powerful positive cloud to ground lightning as well. The max dewpoint was 72f/22.2c. Some areas got 31mm of rain in 2 hours. currently 77f/25c at 2am.

There’s some photos from Colin of C yumutumune on Palmpedia so I’ve always assumed it must be one of the hardier Calyptrocalyx sp. Would be good to know how it is going now further south in NSW @palmtreesforpleasure . I think many Dypsis species are actually relatively hardy to cool conditions as long as they aren’t subject to frost. I know heaps are thriving in Sydney so no surprise most grow well for you Richard. I think I’m near their limit here in Melbourne; my D rosea is relatively happy and fast growing but gets a bit burnt by both sun and cold each year. My D ‘Yellow Seed/Wilsonii’ seedlings from Colin are actually finally coming along too, but I’m not sure how much further I’ll get into the genus. Hard work for palms that may never thrive but I do enjoy a good zone push.

One on the grounds of the Hacienda Santa Engracia just north of Cd Victoria Tamps, circa 2003. Last time I was there (2021) I did not see any Acrocomia

This is one in Laredo from late 2017, it’s not there any more on Google Street View

Actually it’s on the north side of Harlingen. But there are some in Weslaco (and a very old totai if they haven’t cut it down)

I planted these Veitchia joannis as small 4" pots last year and they are rockets in our cool montane tropical conditions growing next to our coast redwood trees.

The hybrids of these can look really nice. This hybrid is probably my favorite cocco in the yard.

They look great Richard. Winter for you still gets to at least 20C with sun during the day doesn’t it. The rebounding day temps really make a difference coming from low single digit minimums.

Right in the 🎯 bullseye. You could not ask for a better natural frame Tim.

Metroxylon amicarum gaining size while the feral hogs mine the adjacent landscape.

Dypsis louvelli, Geonoma atrovirens.

A faster growing option with similar looks, is a hybrid with a borhidiana parent. Not quite as hairy, but way faster growing and just as hardy. This compact species fits in well with today's smaller gardens. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Here’s a better picture of my large one; it’s starting to rival the ones in Hawaii, at least a bit

My Licuala ramsayi growing in Loxahatchee Groves.

Just found this gem- clip from the Weather Channel during this event. Check out those temperature maps starting at the 4:38 min mark.