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Here it is, and it’s me for scale, Yike enormous!

I have been waiting most of the year for the seeds at Sullivans garden , yes …those huge Decipiens . A trip over there last week told me it was finally time! There were about 20 seeds that had already fallen but were green. My good friend Terry doesn’t live there any more but keeps a house next door . In the rare chance of running into him I decided to knock. I had already been given permission by he and Sevan both but , didn’t feel right just taking them. Terry was there! I showed what I had picked up and he said that they were ripe! They don’t change color like other palm seeds. After looking at all the fruit on the palm he said they are ready for harvest “ take all you want”. Music to a palm collectors ears. I went today and climbed up the ladder to get a few more . I had already picked up the ones on the ground as I was being pelted on the head with more. I was also given permission to take the seedling volunteers that were sprouting up from last year. They came up easily , seed still attached and not root damage . The soil was very easy to work with and these don’t have much root to them when they are small. Harry The parent palm ( one of two), full of fruit! Seedlings from my first visit. Harry

I picked this one out of my seedlings because it had a little variegation on its first few leaves. But I never expected it to continue on as it got bigger. This morning, I saw a new leaf open and was quite surprised.

I normally spend my time posting on the cold hardy forum here, but this time I have some pics and info that might be of more interest here. I did a search through the archives here and found that there no pictures on the forum from Guantanamo Bay. It isn't the easiest place for people to visit, but I still thought someone would have beat me to this topic. I had the chance to spend some time a while back US Naval Station Guantanamo Bay. While I was there I did take pictures of palms, plants, and wildlife when I could. I will post my palm pics here, and I might post on the off topic forum about other plants sometime soon as well. The quick evaluation of palms at GTMO is that the three most common palms are (in order) Coccothrinax, coconuts, and pseudophoenix. There were also some royals, Phoenix dactylifera, and a few odd and end other species. Here you are:

I was wandering around the lake on a sunny winters morn and took this pic.

Your climate is ideal for them. My summer temperatures are a bit higher than yours but nights are similar and my full sun decipiens is vigorous. I have a full shade one too.

Today was quite productive and fun. I potted up 10 seedlings . Harry most still had the seed attached A couple were doubled up as I ran out of containers not a bad haul for about half an hour of fun! Seeds will be sent to @DoomsDave for germination. A huge “ thank you” to Terry and Sevan Sullivan for their generosity. Harry

The hookeriI in my garden seem to be enjoying the cool weather conditions

Come across this orbicularis flowering today in the Coffs Harbour botanical gardens. Not very often you get to see a licuala orbicularis flowering in the subtropical climate.

Well a nice surprise in the garden this morning. Parajubaea sunkha number 2 has decided to pop open a flower. The good thing about this is Parajubaea sunkha number 1 a few metres away has an open flower and the males are virtually finished so that means in a few days the females will be receptive and the pollen will come in handy. Both have flower spathes happening so if they are out by a few weeks they are probably in sync to cross pollinate almost continuously now. They can “get it on” (imagine Barry Whites voice) . I think I’ll give them some privacy.

These four Coccothrinax species have done reasonably well for me here in the Bay Area. I’m tempted to try other Coccothrinax species. C. miraguama C. miraguama C. borhidiana C. montana C. barbadensis C. miraguama

……and over 5yrs of a stalled thread, I’m going to bring it back to life! Let’s see your H. Indica out there. Mine has been a rocket! Pictures are not even 3yrs apart. Planted out at the end of 2022 as a Floribunda 1G H Indica Red variety. It grows amazingly fast but only keeps 3 leaves before the oldest looks terrible. Admittedly it’s too close to the rock edging but oh well. -dale

Another look into the earliest planter I worked on: Chambeyronia Houailou on the left, Cyphophoenix Nucele on the right: from left to right, Kentiopsis Oliviformis, Chrysalidocarpus Sp Ambanja, Chrysalidocarpus Titan: Overall shot that includes some of the Pacific Island planter area with different types of Clinostigma and some dwarf Coconuts in there too. Thanks for looking!

This more caught my ear than my eye. I was at the BBQ below it and heard something overhead to see the old leaf falling and getting partially stuck in the Ravenea glauca. That sound triggered my eyes to it. Chrysalidocarpus leptocheilos.

I found this one in the greenhouse the other day I had completely forgotten about it. But I was very surprised to see it has survived my winter and sitting in a tray of watert growing quite happily. So with temperatures around 2 degrees Celsius and very cold feet it is possible to have a cordata growing in the subtropical climate, in a container not sure how it would grow in the ground and would definitely need to be planted as a larger specimen than a tube stock. I only purchased it out of curiosity and they say curiosity killed the cat but not the cordata!

Fantastic. This is such a rare palm in habitat. It’s great to see the efforts in keeping this species from complete extinction. Collect and grow as many as you can. It’s a great resource for seed for the US.

And more:

This one experienced a bit of cold burn after a couple of nights of single digits in January and some heat stress after a week of 100 degree weather in July. I still love it.

Hi Marcus, I am growing palms in the northern suburbs of Dallas. Our area is good for palmettos, windmills and pindos. There used to be lots of Washies around here but 2021 pretty much wiped them out except for a few survivors.

Palms are growing like weeds with the plentiful rainfall this summer. The Bismarkia both recovered well from 100% defoliation (15°) F guessing in January my baby mule I brought home from Florida is taking off like crazy and I included a picture of my silk floss 😄.

It has taken close to nine months for the bell seeds to germinate. Patience is the key with these seeds set and forget. A door knock of some free fresh seeds. Coco coir perlite in a styrofoam box inside a plastic nah close to the floor of the hothouse, so not super hot conditions. You don’t remove the flesh of kentia seeds just let do there own thing in time. I would say so far 50 percent have germinated but they are known for being sporadic in germinating. There is also a box full fosteriana seedlings I did 30 months past. They can wait to be potted up there tough. So if you have patience germinate a few Howea seeds today.

Palmettos and a lot of other palm varieties look good when they have a lollipop shape and so do Trachys . Below are a couple of my lollipop Trachys . The one below I didn't show in my last posting of pictures of my Trachys . I did show the one below here on my last Trachy post :

https://palms.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/PALMSv64n1p035-042-Dransfield-Ravenea-cycadifolia.pdf

Truly beasts these palms are. Photos hardly do them justice. Some in my garden and the last photo is one I got for my neighbor as a 10 gallon plant.

A few years ago my ramsayi decided to split into two heads. A bit of a freak I might say so. Oh well as they say two heads are better than one!

30 year old cycas circinalis

Chrysalidocarpus Basilongus are almost glowing right now

A slow growing palm that certainly lives up to its slow growing pace, 4 years old so far. Oh well Rome wasn’t built in a day!

1 leaf of chamaedorea nationsiana

Sabal palmetto and Sabal texana thriving in the north Texas heat. Using papayas and coconuts as annuals.

I have a respect/hate for Christmas palms. Down here, they are fairly tough, tolerating our dry spells much better than other tropical looking pinnate palms. They grow fast, not too big, are messy with their endless seeding, hurricane tolerant, and planted literally everywhere to the point of nausea. Still, they do very well, neglected in literally everyone’s yard and parking lot. I spend hours every month, cleaning up after the 12+ that overhang my yard from my neighbors. I’m sure they look happy and lush in The Philippines. I love Sargentii, maybe to a certain degree because they are less common here. They can be homely, variable, and weird looking, even when healthy. Tough as nails, but many show a lot of battle scars from oscillating rough conditions, and “Pseudophoenix decline” injury.

So often it seems that two or more palms of the same species, age, and planting time, grow at very different rates of speed. Below are pictures of two E. edulis ‘Orange Crownshaft’ in the backyard that were exactly the same size in 4” containers when planted together and one has completely overshadowed the other in growth speed. This has happened so often in my garden with other palms that I have to assume genetics is at play. It’s also why I almost always buy more than one of any zone pushing species. One may fail while the other flourishes. Anyone else have examples like this?

Here’s a recent update on latest mad scientist biology laboratories @happypalms with another 4 orders pending of 1500 seeds on order of all sorts of varieties, iam fast running out off room. Due to no potting up of seedlingsin winter! There would have to be at least 60 different varieties of palm seeds germinating in what you see in the lab there, ranging from batches of 200 seeds right down to just one seed of a known special variety. Will someone send around the straight jacket before this scientist flys over the cuckoo’s nest!

I’m posting photos of my Bismarckia as it’s looking pretty great these days. This may be the best it will ever look.

No matter what you’re setup is, good viable seeds is the key!

More:

Cocos:

I hadn’t been into greenhouse number 2 for a while so best pop in and have gander! All looking good a few little winter upsets but nothing to worry about all good in there until next visit! The little white band on the Joey seedlings is light bleaching upon transplanting them out of the plastic bag over the styrofoam box.

With the the dry times finished for a while the maxima in my garden. Certainly have taken advantage of all the good rainfall over the past year. Hundreds of seeds are maturing and the flowers are still coming. The best I have ever seen them flower and set seeds. They certainly take advantage of a good wet season!

Me too. I can't wait until they reach a certain hight to provide more shade in the backyard , at least the Butias will take over providing shade at that time when my Washies grow to a point where they don't block the sun anymore . Took some more pictures. Unfortunately the St Augustine grass didn't recover as much as I hoped for but that's just cosmetical for now.

It's been raining a lot lately, every day. The exotics really like it.

Not much longer to enjoy the contrast between the nearly white trunk and chocolate petioles of this Neoveitchia storckii. Once it begins blooming the inflorescences will cover the good stuff. Baby Corypha umbraculifera on the right.

“The former estate of horticultural author and nurseryman Charles Shinn in Fremont, California, is now the Shinn Historical Park and Arboretum. Two massive Jubaea palms at the site were planted in 1878, and they are still prominent” Visited this park yesterday😀

It's always fun to step away from your garden for a few days and see what happens in the meantime. We just returned from eight days in Paris to first blooms on two plants. First, a R. vireya 'Cyril', which has been in the ground perhaps three years. It has grown strongly, with bright yellow leaf flushes aging through reddish and finally dark green, so an attractive plant out of bloom. These buds have been developing for over a year and until now I wasn't sure they weren't vegetative. Super excited to watch this cluster open up and the remaining buds to follow. The bud that opened was almost the size of my fist. Here is the plant sharing space with our Geonoma undata, no longer a baby and doing quite well despite the wind. Next was a Sobralia 'Colin Kaepernick', which I bought hoping that it would be red and gold. It isn't, but I'm still happy it's flowering. It is also an attractive plant out of flower. This has been in the ground almost a year and there are a lot of buds to follow these.

Variegated lanonia dasyantha got a little eye attention today!

Awww Jason, you beat me to it. Looks like the time for C. basilongus to exhibit a growth spurt. Such an interesting palm. Yours are looking stellar. Tim

Definitely not enough water,but another problem you may not be considering is the reflected heat and light from the cement wall. When our daytime temps are in the 112 - 117F range as they are for at least the next week, very few palms would be able to survive those conditions. If you must have a palm in that location, start thinking about Washingtonia, Phoenix dactylifera, or a med fan. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Even here, so close to Cuba, 1/3rd to 1/2 of the coccothrinax I’ve picked up from reputable sources turned out to be hybrids after a few years. At least half of the pics, on various sources like palmpedia, are incorrect IDs for coccothrinax. The nice thing is that many of the hybrids look really cool, and I like them quite a bit. Miraguama leaflets are so hard and stiff and flat, that they feel like plastic. Baby miraguama…. But who cares if you like them. IDing coccothrinax variants will eventually drive you nuts. It’s only for the die hards. Hybrids… Little guy on the ends turned out to be a hybrid… so much for the matching triple. Glad to see them growing well for ya. They love full sun and heat, even at young ages.

Good news - Bad news... While it's impressive to see the Coccothrinax species growing in a cooler climate, everything you labeled as miraguama is probably barbadensis (dussiana). All miraguama variants display wider, thicker, frond segments that do not droop. Undersides have a very thick and heavy silver coating. Here's a couple of my miraguama to compare.🤷‍♂️ aztropic Mesa, Arizona

I like it mazat, visiting your garden in anther county, it’s great to see a passionate tropical gardener no matter where in the world it is! Keep on growing