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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.

It’s been a bizarre week. 106f yesterday here in Sugar Land. Ridiculously hot, hottest I’ve ever experienced. Today, we have a tropical storm that was supposed to be a nonevent but winded up causing a lot of rain, lightning, and somehow no wind.

Beautiful beautiful rain totals across the western half of the Houston Metro. Could not ask for anything better! Picked up >1.5" at the garden near Katy 😍. Long slow steady soaking rain

A few R. Sapida in SF

Chambeyronia macrocarpa var flavopicta on a rare sunny Melbourne winter day - this show never gets old. It produces exactly 2 new fronds per year for the last few years. Every late July it will open a frond which stays red longer in the cooler weather than the one that opens in summer.

Hydriastele splendida living up to its name. Tim

Kentiopsis are very slow growing at that stage so it’s gonna take a while to see any results . Here , in my garden , only about one good frond a year in the juvenile stage . Shade and a lot of faith for that one. Good luck. Harry

It’s suffered a bit already, I suggest leave it alone in a well protected area, that is on the dry side. It looks like it’s suffered overwatering. Let it recover then repot it. Or if you’re willing to risk it wash the soil away with a soft hosing. Then repot in a much smaller container and by the looks of it a 70mm tube. A good drainage mix for the medium and don’t overwater it, and only attempt this in the warm months. Dont fertilise it, just let it rest.

Jonathan, I would strongly advise that you sow the seeds in individual small pots. I was the fortunate recipient of Richnorm's generosity and obtained 12 sprouts in a community germination pot. When I separated the small seedlings to install them into small pots 10 of the 12 died immediately.

Yesterday was god awful here in Manvel 102° at my house. That evening we had a piece of the violent storm that came through the Galveston county area . Today we had more rain from boring Bertha and a high of mid 80s quite the difference….

I agree with Harry.

Khou was reporting 105F and 118F with the humidity late in the day. 90F at 11pm. I missed out on the showers that rolled through. I had thunder for well over an hour.

Areca vestiaria new red emergent leaf. When I bought it a few years ago it was solitary, now it seems to be clustering instead. to the left of the Areca vestiaria is a variegated Caryota mitis. it was quite variegated a few months ago, but the newer leaflets are mostly green. I wonder if they will become more variegated later, or this is a sign that the palm as it matures will have less variegation?

Who else is growing this? Seems unfussy in all but full sun but I prefer the less robust shade grown look. of one I planted in the bush with zero aftercare!

Need some help with this one, been chasing an oliviformis for a while now and the specialised palm nursery local to me sold out a year back with no intention of raising any more seedlings. However they recently found this little suffering single stem specimen mixed in with a heap of other palms so gave it to me for free with little hope. Question I have is, what can I do to increase its chances of survival? I’m guessing I don’t want to be pulling it out of the pot and disturbing its roots? Tia.

Calyptrocalyx albertisianus popped a new leaf. Blue sky……a rarity lately. Tim

Mike, I posted some photos of my male Ravenea julietiae and male Ravenea glauca inflorescence and flowers. I have both male and female Ravenea glauca and have had success pollinating the female resulting in many seedlings in the past. Hopefully these visuals will assist you in determining if yours match the male or females of these fellow Ravenea species. The Ravenea julietiae photo actually shows both an actively flowering infloresence and a spent one in the process of dessicating. From March 2025: I assumed that my Ravenea julietiae is male due to similarities between its flowers and those of my male Ravenea glauca. Glauca flowers and inflorescence are much whiter. Both are blooming now.

With no way to photosynthesis, they are doomed!

Not sure if this is winter or a soil disease, giving this dypsis procera a hard time. All the others I have planted and in containers are all doing well. I have had problems with palms dying in this part of the garden before. I was given a trailer load of soil. To help a friend out by taking it. And had nothing but trouble with it. The suckers on the palm are ok it’s just the one stem dying. But it certainly does look like cold damage.

I was removing them from habitat, so I guess that makes a difference in percentages that live. And just putting them in a water bottle to carry home wouldnt help them either. I have hundreds of archontophoenix Alexander’s coming up as weeds in the garden and I reckon if I just pulled them out the rich loam beds they would most likely live. But as for habitat I won’t try anymore, just pick up seeds. Richard

Getting a few exotics in the ground, they are doing well for winter. So why not plant them. And a thanks to @Jonathan for the brugmansia. Licuala ferruginiaIguanura wallachiana calyptronoma occidentalisAnthurium vietchii draceana goldieana brugmansia sanguinea Pavetta australiensis

Cocothrinax eckmanii, a slow growing palm, 25 years old!

A nice little Pinanga sarawakensis doing well in winter.

Double unlucky... Those two will eventually dry up once they run out of seed power. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Hard to tell , and no expert here , just a guess . Livistona Chinensis. Harry This is one I have down the hill. After trimming below.

Fresh C elegans

I will have to agree with @happypalms . I had one of those in my old greenhouse and it grew beautifully , and got quite large . When we moved , I had no greenhouse so I tried to grow it in a spare bedroom and it slowly faded away , they will not survive outdoors here . I have not had much luck with indoor palms . Some can make it with proper attention and regular outdoor time in a covered porch or patio. My Licuala Grandis was just too sensitive for my skill level. Harry

Fishtail

More lost time stuff. Crape myrtles are blooming and I'm honestly a little disappointed that my Colocasia Redemption doesn't match. Every woman I've ever dated is like a croton. When all is right, they're happy. One thing goes wrong and they go psycho. Decapitated Golden Crocodile.. I thought i took pics of my alocasia Dark Star and Yellow Dragon. I guess not. Here's a regal shield.

Calyptrocalyx pachystachys

Areca vestiaria "Maroon" seedling

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

Pinanga insignis on a rainy day. Tim

Some color…

I always love these colors on this Caryota with a new emerging leaf.

Just a big old flowering Chambeyronia hookeri today, heading down the driveway!

Yet another photo of Prestoea acuminata var montana in bloom. Opens pure white, then becomes pink, and finally dark red with green fruit. Never fails to draw in visitors to the garden. I'm not sure if the geckos are hunting the many bees attracted to the flowers, or something else. But you gotta love those blue eyelids. Geckos were introduced in Hawaii decades ago and now number in the billions. The Kalij pheasants love eating them, but don't put a dent in the population. Plenty of geckos make themselves at home inside my house. And my first Pinanga speciosa has gotten too tall to appreciate the colorful crownshaft, so I've planted some babies. Just starting to hint at the coming show.

Thank for posting Rich! There’s very few photos of G orbignyana available online. Looks like a nice little palm suitable for small gardens in cool climates! Nice wide leaflets typical of many Geonoma.

Where to buy seeds or palms. The only site i found was rarepamlseeds.com, among us only and 19 year old out of business companies. I'm looking for some variations of Trachycarpus, butia and maybe a butiagrus.

SciELO PreprintsAstrocaryum tucuma: the correct name of a socially and ec...Tucumã is a palm of notable economic and cultural relevance in the Amazon region. Although its nomenclatural status is formally settled under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, a

I got a bunch of very generously gifted R palates seeds a couple of years ago. Absolutely zero have germinated to this day, but strangely all seeds still look solid and unaffected by fungus or mould. Does anyone have any tips on germinating this species? I’m considering starting again and re sowing after a bit of a soak in bleach which has been successful on some other seeds with long viability periods (Brahea sp and some others).

It looks loaded with fruit.

Syagrus nuts are almost as big as my own. No pores on these.

It is one I wish I could successfully grow in the tropics. Just magnificent.

That Jub' is a nice specimen, aye?

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...

@Xenon Those are the kinds of days that make me realize a few weeds in the garden beds aren't as big a deal as heat stroke.

Crazy HOT today, look at that dew point still holding in the triple digits 🔥🔥🔥

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.

Boy Rich, have never heard of this species and the name reminds me of the old Attalea moniker. In-situ must be a cool high elevation location. Tim