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So when we do that, the flowers open within about 48 hours and then begin getting some pollination for seeds. Crazy, this is the only species that this is a problem with. Weird. First picture is today’s surgery. The second & third has some surgery that we did about six weeks ago.

Hey all, here’s something I can’t quite figure out. My neighbor and I have a couple of this species and they throw out flower spathes regularly. But they simply never open on their own. So… We’ve taken to performing surgery to free up the flowers.. The thickness of the spathe is just crazy thick. We have found that if we simply allow them to sit, eventually the contents of the spathe will just get moldy-and yet never open. We are generally perplexed at why this is happening, but it is what it is. It actually requires a combination of a sawzall, a vibrating saw, and some clippers deftly used to remove the woody section without damaging the flowers excessively. The walls are thicker than my thumb is wide.

I’ve been observing this palm for probably 50 years now. It was planted at Two Harbors Catalina island around 1920-28. Its looking better now than a few years ago due to the drought ending. It gets only rain, no irrigation.

If you want a palm that’s easy to grow and fit into any reasonable small space, the feather palm, wedding palm or the lytocarum weddlianum is the one. Easy to grow and germinate, single plants will set viable seeds. Quite cool and dry tolerant. Perfect understory or bright light palm. An absolute beauty of a great palm that’s gives a lot of effect for little work!

The bismarck palm is a very fast grower and a good trouble free choice for beginners. This one has 6 new spears at the ready, and will replace the entire existing crown over the next 2 months. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Freshly drizzled Pinanga & K elegans.

Thanks for looking!

I have had received some interest in this elegant Malagasy species that I have been growing, and I'll take a little time to present some pictures and comments. Seeds from RPS were sown in July 2008. Good germination, four plants were planted out in April 2014. Here is a pic of the quartet taken a few days ago: I took another pic (in rare full sun) from a different angle with a lawn chair for scale: The pinnate portions of dead leaves tend to break off, leaving numerous very thick leaf bases that exceed in toughness any other genus I can think of at the moment. Here is the largest one. Smaller palms next to the left are Dypsis (still Dypsis) rivularis. For a while, plants of the two species were of identical height. Two larger palms in the distance are Clinostigma exorrhizums. Inflors are two or more feet long, very straight and vertical, emerging from those tough leaf bases. Three of mine have produced them - I'm not sure which sex they are. Here are two that fell off after dying. This species is among my favorites. They do trunk after sufficient time, as I have seen in published photos. But I am in no hurry for that.

Horridus and Arenarius hybrids are winners in my book. They all seem to grow great. I’m sure yours will be even more fantastic looking in the future. Here’s my cross with the same parents as yours but swapped. It is a very blue plant. Encephalartos Arenarius x Horridus

Royal Palm first ring almost there

@Meangreen94z the Pearland palms are nuts, great work. Amazed by the majesty palm, very jealous of the A. totai. My yard is neglected and much less palmy these days, but a few things are chugging along: Sabal uresana from Barton Springs Nursery. Not as silvery as the John Fairey palms but still pretty nice. I am not sure what this one is. Also bought from Barton Springs Nursery in a 1 gallon pot years ago. I remember the pots and signage had different labels, some said Sabal bermudana, others Sabal domingensis. It has grown nearly as fast as my Sabal causiarum and looks very similar. The causarium is unfortunately dead... a transplant casualty during our yard remodel.

Just having a little wander around after a bit of a holiday. And things are just fine, and dandy for the garden in mid winter! Licuala bracteata licuala triphylla var stenophylla lanonia centralis Areca warhbosabal mauritiformis

Please look at the attached image. These Coconut palms have been growing at the corner of South Orange Ave. and Kaley Street in Orlando for a number of years. As I am sure everyone know, Orlando had not had a freeze of any kind in a number of years. This past February, that all came to an end as much of the area fell into the upper 20's briefly. The outlying areas fell into the lower 20's. My Winter Springs location, Northeast of Orlando hit 24F. These Coconut palms completely defoliated and the coconuts hanging on the larger trees fell to the ground. Well as you can see from the image, these trees survived the event and are well on their way to re-growing their crowns. So, not only will they survive, it looks like they will continue to thrive. There are also a couple of Coconut palms planted on the other side of Colonial Drive from Orlando Fashion Square Mall. I didn't get a picture but, these trees are also pushing out new growth and obviously survived the cold event. So, it's good news for Coconut palms in Orlando, Florida...

Iguanura sanderianumAreca rabaul Dypsis orange crushAreca mandacanii Licuala polyschitsia All are doing well considering the low temperatures around 5 degrees celcius.

Dioon edule x argenteum

The coconut palms at the old Smashburger across from Orlando Fashion Square on Colonial Drive also look really good...

Our selection here in big box stores is just common variety palms . That said , I watch the clearance rack for flowers , and occasionally , palms (not often). A short while back there were two 3 gallon Majesty multi on the rack with very minor leaf tip browning . The palms were in good shape so I put t]hem on my cart . The clearance rack is marked 50% off and the palms would be great in pots along my fence line , original price $20 and about 3-4’ tall. When I got to check out I reminded the clerk that they were “clearance” items. He replied “how does $3 sound?” I repotted them and they are doing precisely what I wanted them to do. If you need fill in palms to maintain a tropical look , they are perfect . I will , at some point need to keep repotting them as they grow pretty fast here , eventually rehome them as I already have a huge one in my yard and the trunks get rather large. Large , corporate places have little concern over pricing when they want to get rid of old stock. Unfortunately , in my area , they will not stock anything of interest to collectors . They used to have many varieties but now it’s just the generic stuff. Harry

Thats great, I hadn't been by those yet to look. I'm amazed at how many coconuts are growing back after lows of around 24-25. I had 23F (below 32F for 10 hours) at my house in Altamonte and my Green Malayan (with about 3-4ft trunk) was totally defoliated, it was not protected or wrapped. It had no spear pull but once it warmed it started putting out new growth. Its on its 5th leaf now. So far every one has been shrunk/deformed but each new leaf is bigger and better. The new spear looks even bigger now. Theres another a few blocks down from me and it gets no care/irrigation. Totally defoliated but its also growing back. Theres a house a few blocks from Leu Gardens with 2 trunked specimens and they also have good growth coming out.

I like too see someone who recognises a bargain when they see it. Great value top palm!

The clinostigma samoensis aren’t looking to good for this time of winter, with a couple casualties and one that will most likely show some hope of living only to eventually succumb to winter and die! And I knew that the brassiophoenix schumanii were doomed from failure before with them. You just gotta come back for more suffering and try again with some varieties! 🤣

There are some very unique microclimate pockets up there for palms, as you know! And as a lot of growers know it’s the cold and wet conditions that do the damage. An old SAPS booklet writes even back then in 1987 they were onto it way before us. And another winter strange one is out of the Areca Rabaul I have one is packing it in for winter and out, while the other one is growing stronger. So it’s it’s disaster for tropical palms in the cold . possible it’s soil temperature to add to the factor when wet and cold conditions all meet with all three conditions

A couple nice trays of trachycarpus princeps and sitijong. Showing there cool tolerance as seedlings!

A bit of winter colour in the garden today.A couple of Chambeyronia hookeri and a nice Japanese variegated rhapis kannonchikushima

A couple nice ones enjoying the cool temperatures. Dypsis saintlucei Crysophilla warscewizianus

Keep us updated if you get viable seeds!!

They were very fast. Started in like a week. I found the flesh somewhat difficult to remove. Trying to get it off I think I accidentally stumbled on a good preparation technique. I used pliers to remove the last of the flesh and accidentally cracked the endocarp on one of them. I exposed a very clean hard kernel so decided to do it for all seeds. From that point, I put 10 seeds in a fertile potting mix I’ve been experimenting with for germination and 10 seeds in 70/30 coco coir/perlite. I put both containers on heat mats set to 26C. Within a week both containers started sprouting. After a couple of months now I’d say I’m up to 10-15 out of 20, evenly split between both containers.

Good advice here . I would wait it out now . Continue watering , as long as the palm isn’t sitting in muck and the watering is reaching the entire root ball. I have had palms linger for a year before showing good turn around. I would add wood chips to the surface to help insulate from the heat and reduce evaporation. I have wood chips everywhere around my palms . Don’t give up just yet! Years ago I would get “dead” palms and revive them . As long as I saw green at the growth point , I would try. I had many success stories! Harry

I ended up planting the E. munchii and the E. Horridus x Arenarus.

Just a few midsummer yard shots from today: Starting with the biggest and the fastest...my filifera continues to grow larger by the day: Next, we will see the smallest and slowest growers I have in the ground, a couple of Trachycarpus fortunei x waggies: Both are growing fine...just quite slowly. They sit on the east side of my home and I am planning to remove the grass in this entire area in the fall to create a nice bed. Right next to the back porch I have a corner with 3 C. radicalis in it. One mature non-trunking form, a juvenile trunking form, and second year from seed non-trunking form: The rest of that same bed is occupied by my Rajapuri bananas and some dypsis lutescens that I grew from seed my daughter collected on a past vacation: My Sabal mexicanas that both spear pulled last winter after 20F and freezing rain (had to trunk cut the second one) : My Butia that also had to be trunk cut after the freezing rain: Silver Chamaerops, P. sylvestris, and second year mule seedling: From left to right C. radicalis seedlings, BxJ, and S. mexicana community pot. And the mule that replaced my Butia in the ground after the spear pull and trunk cutting: I know it should be less hardy than the Butia, but it is definitely getting established quicker. Fingers crossed for a winter or two of zonal average lows and no freezing precipitation so it can really get going strong.

Por que no los dos My causiarum is getting big, guatemalensis is falling behind. Loving the rain (Just no palmettos please. They are hideous)

Another one of my Sabal uresanas . This one sourced from NTCHP right before they went out of business

Very warm and very dry start to summer. Multiple days over 100F, and long stretches between rain. I fertilized a month or so ago, and been watering a couple times a week. Getting some beautiful green growth. All discoloration was from transplant shock last year, and will probably trim it all off next spring. So far, just been clipping the burnt-ends. It’s putting out its 4th frond of the summer, and all the new ones at over 7ft long. Easily my favorite plant in the yard, and very exotic looking for the area. NC Zone 8a.

That’s a beauty! Can’t beat the price. Harry

In my experience with mushroom compost , it is a very nitrogen rich or “hot” mix . I used it to seed a lawn once and it worked great but palms , not so sure. Harry

@Bradgray check out the PM (Private message) I just sent you. dave

This is a tropical palm that requires a tropical climate . If I were to try it, I would keep it in my greenhouse and it would require heat in our 10a/10b winter. Also I’m not sure how root sensitive they are . Some palms are very sensitive to root disturbance . Perhaps some of Hawaii members can lend some advice for you , good luck. Harry

Great to see these palms survive colder winters . Too many bad winters in a row could be detrimental to the longevity of. That one looks like it’s been there quite a while . Harry

The new price list just came out and Floribunda is sold out of Lemurophoenix now. They used to ship to Europe but no longer do. Lemurophoenix is difficult to grow outside of the tropics without a lot of special care.

Floribunda Palms & Exotics has one gallons for $30.00.

My house has changed after 5 years on this forum…. It’s a jungle out there. (After many holes dug, a truckload of fertilizer and mulch, and a zillion gallons of water) Thanks for all the assistance.

Thanks for the background story, that palm has a lot to live up to. May, ‘The Force Be With You’, Lars. Tim

Hi Lars, Also amongst my first purchases. I have probably 20 but here is their leader, about six years old. This first batch from RPS, then I got some more to grow from Josue.

Hope it grows well for you. A healthy Jubaea is a great statement palm.

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.

Yep then they face the winter around the corner, that’s the test, the most critical stage there first winter as babies if I can get them past that there in with a chance. Richard

You gotta do what you gotta do sometimes, man. Plus you're set on mulch for a while.

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.

A little chronicle of the day. It held up well on hwy 40, and I got it in ground right as it started to rain. Thanks @Joe NC

Actually I find my causiarum is catching up to my bizzie. The bizzie started as a 4' tall 15 gallon palm in early summer 2010 while the causiarum started out a strap leaf seedling in summer 2011. I think the whole speed of growth is not so relevant, A small bismarckia looks like what it is. A small causiarum may look like a number of other sabals. I do think the market is driven by big box store choices and bizzies sell.

Even the experts get confussed about Sabal identification, unless they are found in habitat. I suspect they probably hybridize eaislly in clutivation where many species are growing together. Probably a DNA check on S. Riverside would solve the mystery. Hell, we can't even pronounce Sabal. The S. Califonians call it "Say-BALL" and on the east coast it's pronounced "Say-bul." Dick