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This palm would have been planted a very long time ago, 24 hours by train from Adelaide, South Australia, 18 hours from Perth by Train. How it has survived in the desert is a mystery We had a barbecue beside the train in 35c at 9pm while the train got refuelled, from a fuel tank in the desert for that purpose Regards Colin

The coconut tree is soaking up weather in the mid 40s inside its enclosure during a Houston snowstorm. Took a night in the upper 20s this year before I put up the greenhouse around it with only the lower half covered with no heat. No leaf burn! That really surprised me. But man this tree really is tough as nails. The enclosure I made is a 1.5” pvc frame that fits perfectly over t posts. Man it is solid, doesn’t even blow in the wind. I tried making the frame all together and it was such a disaster that I almost gave up. Ended up putting it up in sections and glued all the connections except the cross brace pieces(will store much easier). Put in a 40 gallon trash can full of water and a 600 watt aquarium heater keeping the water at 93 degrees. With this and an no lid, it kept it 15-18 degrees above the outside temp. But it caused a lot of condensation that I was worried would freeze the leaves touching the plastic (6mil greenhouse plastic from Amazon). So I put the lid on the bucket and added a 500 watt external heater. Still holding 15-18 degrees above the outside temperature but with no condensation. Suppose to get into the upper teens to low 20s tonight, but I’m confident it will come out okay!

Pelagodoxa henryana. Actually kind of amazed that they have done this well for having little soil. They must have found fractures in the lava rock. I do keep a lot of mulch as dressing though. A bit of canopy while young and in a somewhat protected spot. Tim

These chamaedorea glaucifolia are about 18 years old and have not grown much because in the last 5 years, because they have been abandoned to themselves

I thought I was planted for my zone……

trithrinax brasiliensis/ acanthocoma This plant is 25 years old, in the last 5 years, in summer, it has never been watered

first time poster. can't be too careful. good luck to you all

This v. Splendida looked great this morning

For posterity. -Matt

A couple of my genoformis in the garden have a few seeds on them. A couple had started show signs of being (starting to dry out) ready, so I thought why pick a few and put a few in a community pot and see how I go. A couple of extra genoformis in the garden would be nice.

Not sure if it counts as "cultural" but in many touristy areas of Greece palms are planted by the local authorities and I suspect it's because they want to make the place look more exotic, more tropical, because northern Europeans will like that. Palms are symbols of the tropics and they are also very photogenic. As an extension, palms have become symbols of dream holidays in warm places under blue skies and on a white sand beach; the perfect escape abroad. This is one of the best hotels in my town. As you can see the pool garden is planted with mainly palms. I counted 6 different species.

I went on a bike ride this morning to catch a little bit of the snow before it melted.

Hey guys let’s not do politics . I come here for a break from all that. I have lived in Southern California for 65 years, I love where I live and we have a weather phenomenon with offshore winds . Every area has weather phenomena and politics or blame will not stop them . Hurricanes , flooding , or high winds don’t care what your politics are , nature has the power to, not us. We do our best to survive , we all want the same thing . Harry

Here is a pic of the surviving queen palm in Bellaire taken this morning to capture its growth between the freezes. Its actually in the early stages of flowering, which is impressive, but the developing spathe is on the other side. I'm hopeful it will be able to brush off this freeze.

My plant in my California garden.

About 6" of snow on Tuesday in Chickasaw. Some of the forecasts had predicted wet wintry mix, but it came down quite fluffy, so maybe it provided some insulation for dieback perennials. I recorded 13°F for a low temperature Wednesday a.m., but my next door neighbor said his app gave him a low of 11°F. It looks like my Chamaedoreas are goners. I'm most concerned about my mule palm, which is now a good size, and the last remaining source of "sitting" shade on the property. This morning's low is expected to be 17°F. The interior temperature of my leaky, partially-restored old house is now a cozy 54°F. (The heating system can't keep up.) My usual upbeat disposition is being put to the test.

After the rats demolished some reinhardtia gracilis seedlings the usual casualties in mortality has happened. So time to clean up the old pots with the soil in them, for various reasons to prevent places for disease, weeds and bugs to live. If you leave them there you always water them for some reason automatically seeing a container and think I should water it. And just to keep things tidy and clean.

A palm that’s not meant to live in my climate (none in the ground yet) but so far 3 winters in a protected hothouse and surviving well. The only 4 alive out of a batch of 20 seedlings I germinated. Hopefully being germinated in the subtropical climate it has given them the cool tolerance they need to live. Iam not sure if they will ever get planted in the ground but iam sure one will go in the ground sooner or later when it’s in a 200mm container if they live that long but so far it’s looking good time will tell.

Luckily we didn't get the 8"-12" weather channel was saying but still got some historical accumulation @ahosey01 @Subtropical LIS

I always loved this statement on the Pacsoa website. (Palms & Cycads of Australia). Written 176 years ago; still applies. "We will begin with palms, the loftiest and noblest of all vegetable forms, that to which the prize of beauty has been assigned by the concurrent voice of nations in all ages; for the earliest civilization of mankind belonged to the countries bordering on the region of palms and to parts of Asia where they abound." Alexander von Humboldt, Physiognomy of Plants, 1849.

New all time record lows in Lake Charles, Lafayette, and New Iberia. Lafayette broke the longstanding record low of 6F in 1899!!!! Looks like nobody is immune to record setting cold even with warmer overall temps, increased urbanization, etc....hammer always looming 😱

In most of the tropics, palms are rather scarce in the wild, but are abundant around human settlements and for good reasons. Palms have enormous ethnobotanical significance. For example the coconut is rather central to many tropical diets. Other palms are used for medicine or for building materials. in the modern world, palms have become synonymous with vacations in warmer climates and thus have become symbols of leisure and status. This is why palms are so prevalent in resorts and towns.

7 inches with another few hours of light to moderate snow to go. Might reach 8 inches or more! Unprecedented. Historic. Generational.

My Norwegian Forest Cat hates cold, too. Go figure Lizzie says, "Bring back spring."

Happy snow day everyone.

A couple of gifted seeds of nitida have proven to be a success. A new palm to me in the collection taking around 8 months to get the one leaf stage and be ready to pot up. I will see how this little batch goes in next few years and plant a nice little grove of them in the garden somewhere.

I went on another drive, south of the city this time. Here are a few photos.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this reclinata hybrid turns out (parentage unknown). It's about the same size as my former theophrasti when it started suckering. Interesting that its thorns are flexible and fronds are soft. Might have some rupicola in it.

Here's a local mule. It's one of the nice looking types. I think it was planted summer 2022? Damaged by two freezes since planting in the mid-high teens but as you can see recovers just fine

Hello, those things that worry you on the underside of the leaf are called ramenta and are perfectly natural, no disease, no parasites.

And here's one of its babies.

A bit of warm weather and some nice rain has the garden appreciating it. Sending back a bit of beauty for all to see.

Forecast keeps getting warmer and warmer 😊The NWS forecast minimum for Houston is now "only" 28F. I'll definitely take snow over freezing rain though. I remember several snow events just below/at freezing in Houston that didn't really do any lasting damage to tender vegetation. Freezing rain on the other hand causes leaf breakage and potential problems when it gets into the crown of palms. My favorite snow pics...royals and coconuts covered in snow in 2017 and 2004 snow events in far south TX/NE Mexico. The plants were not seriously harmed. Hard to believe it did not snow there for over 100 years, but now already 3 times this century 😆. (photos from old Palm Society of South Texas website and pulled from IG)

A glimpse of some South American palms. Wettinia hirsuita on the left and lower center, Iriartea deltoidea on the right with the horned spathes, and the ruffled leaves of Socratea center rear. Tim

Just uncovered my king palm for a bit and she looks ok so far... will re-cover as we will freeze again tonight. Didnt use the handwarmers as I had to be at my other house during the event. So the sheet covers were all she had. Everything seems alive so far. My queens look fine but they take a while to show damage. Little ravenea is fine, not sure about the bigger one as i didnt peak at that one. We will see in a week. 20 was the min at my yard. Im in West Houston and my backyard faces the northeast.

For those of you from NOLA east through the panhandle; something to consider is this : (1) the temps are comparable to what TX saw in 2021 (2) the amount of snow is comparable to what TX saw in 2021 But (1) There was very little ice in this event. TX had ice, followed by snow, and then more ice (2) The total duration, or consecutive hours below freezing will not be the same as what TX saw in 2021 (3) The 2021 event was in Mid-February where some plants may have been seeing more growth activity as early spring was about to hit. (4) This cold snap came 1 week after a previous cold snap. Some plants may have "hardened up" a bit from the prior cold snap. The 2021 event came on the heels of a long period of normal to above normal temps. I am not trying to lessen this storm in any way; it's still a historical and significant storm no matter how one cuts it. I am simply pointing out some distinct differences that may have an impact on the extent of damage (I hope). -Matt

My brother is working in Pensacola and sent me these... Youngest daughter is in Tallahassee and said it's starting there as well.

After a December with lots of nights in the 20’s F and days above freezing, the palms have been able to acclimate to what we are having now…nights in the mid to low 20’s…some days right at freezing and some days nearer to 40 F but definitely a week plus of some real challenging freezing temps. Of course, damage is not necessarily noticeable right away so we’ll see but no obvious damage yet like I had in that ‘22/23 winter that had the moderate temps drop to single digits overnight. The tried and true winter troopers look good and get to thaw out a bit today and tomorrow. The older Trachy and the Brazoria (behind the older Trachy) are too big to protect but the smaller Trachy has lights around the trunk and layers of black landscaping cloth to hold in heat around the trunk. I checked its leaf segments a few days ago and they looked great. The Needle and Sable minors at the base of the large Trachy have always been on their own and done great: The Medi is shrouded with black landscaping cloth that draws in the sun’s heat and it’s lit as well with incandescent lights. I lay them out like a carpet at the base and wrap the trunk. So far, it looks really good. If it’s not doing good it will show the damage right away. The McCurtain is never of any concern. I think our sunny days, even though in the 30’s, it seems to be giving them the recovery time they need to fight the low to mid 20’s at night. Hopefully we can avoid teens and single digits this winter! One last look at the Needle…a cold hardy palm grower’s true friend…

The winter wonderland of Florida....

Here are a few more I forgot.

Harlingen coconuts ready for a freezing night with 27°F as the forecasted low.

I chickened out and protected but it’s all passive, just frost cloth. Everything aside from the queens and the Bismarckia should be ok but because it’s their first year I covered a bunch of them. The bismarckia got some Christmas lights. Tomorrow I’m going to stuff some frost cloth into the crowns of the Washingtonia. Citrus were covered in frost cloth as well, the rest of the non palmy things will have to fend for themselves.

Short video from yesterday before I started wrapping. Everything had gone unprotected so far this winter...thought this was going to be the year . (sorry I didn't realize I shot it vertical till after LOL)

Laughable at best, and a really bad arm chair take on the situation.. #1: California does PLENTY of prescribed burns, every year.. #2: You do realize that when you have 100MPH winds and ember storms created by those winds, On top of the fact that many areas in S. Cal haven't seen any rain since ...last APRIL, anything that catches on fire of this magnitude is likely destined to burn ..To the foundation.. #3: Is this really your opinion? 🤦‍♂️ Might examine footage a bit more closely. PLENTY of " Street Palm " specimens went up ..and contributed firebrands / ember cast into the fire itself.. in both of these fires, and countless others, over and over again.. After this experience, Guarantee discussions among various municipalities out there about inclusion of palms in future landscaping, esp in the really high risk WUI zones will come up.. As far as the vegetation type itself, yes it is dense.. that is called " Chaparral " ..it has always been there, and experienced periodic fire ...Forest vs. Chaparral? Totally different vegetation types... Completely different behavior during... / response after a fire.. Please educate yourself on California ecology..

one more

One of the more versatile Chamaedorea , sun , shade , even wind. They produce copious amounts of seed that germinate freely around the garden. I had a neighbor that dug one up from her garden. She had been rearranging a flower bed and found it growing happily among the shrubs! She brought it to me , “ I think one of your palms got out” . We laughed as she handed it to me . It is now living in a nice pot by the deck. I don’t know how the seed got down there but it sprouted . I have given some young ones out to anyone that wants them but this one was a volunteer in a palm free garden. She is not a palm lover but she is kind to plants. Harry A 3 year old that sprouted next to the Pritchardia . It is already producing seed and just starting to trunk.

Massive Filifera north of Dallas in Carrollton. There used to be a nearby hybrid of the same height that survived 2021 but it has died now - was alive a year ago but just drove past and saw half the trunk left…. Unfortunately lots of the Washingtonia that survived 2021 have since died, most in the last year even though it didn’t get that cold last winter. It’s been a tough few year stretch here. But thankfully Sabals are basically naturalized here and you see volunteers everywhere.

@PalmatierMeg thank you so much for reaching out. our fort is holding tight although we are located in a very high risk area. the last week has been like walking on eggshells. the minute one fire is put out, another would pop up. literally a whack a mole scenario ... it just begs me to think that however the ongoing investigations are to so many of these fires, you can only speculate as to which ones are arson. we are in another low of humanity where despite our extreme weather change, we have to further protect ourselves from the lowest of the lows that would further inhibit our community's safety by lighting purposeful fires to wreak havoc at our extremely limited firefighting resources. i hurt for all who have lost their houses. i cant even begin to contemplate recovery for them as the real estate market prices here are astronomical and now with the huge influx of homeless families, i am not sure how one can move forward. below is where i live in proximity to the fires. i am located in an area where the mountains channel the Santa Ana winds through a corridor right where the Hurst Fire is located. we experienced 80+ mph winds here last week that were so loud at night that i couldnt sleep ... winds that fanned the Hurst Fire from 50 acres to 500+ acres in a couple of hours. ive been through many hurricanes since i am from miami and it transported me to my childhood except these were dry winds that i thought would bring my house down. gladly, i must say, i was forced to chop a tree down because of insurance only to realize now that if would have probably felled last week and onto our house causing significant damage. regardless, people do not realize that LA and its surrounding area is a desert. we are not supposed to be living here growing lush gardens with tropical palms and plants (Pacific Palisades). we have over a hundred years, transformed this desert landscape to something that "we" wanted mother nature to conform to. i have said in previous posts that mother nature is just taking it back and then some ... for all the additional destruction "we" have done to the environment. i believe there is an equilibrium that earth must reset and we am just living in a period where we are starting to feel its change. with that being said, thank you for your concern Meg! i know of friends of friends that have lost homes. i used to live in Altadena so i am so saddened seeing all the neighborhoods leveled by the Eaton Fire ... just as when i see hurricanes ravage the Kendall areas of Miami where i grew up and my mother still reside. for any socal palmtalkers in the directly affected areas of the fires, i only pray for your safety and your family and hope you were spared of any astronomical loss. i have started to imagine my yard minus the palms and if that is necessary to minimize the risk of losing insurance for our home, then this is a thought i am already starting to entertain. the insurance protocol around my area as they make the rounds is that they want any vegetation at least 5 feet away from the roofline. that would basically be 90% of all my trunking palms unfortunately. it would be heartache to level all the mature palms but i have prepared myself to envision a yard of only cycads, agave, and aloes. they can take away all my palms but i will refuse to chop down my jubaea chilensis which luckily is planted exactly 5 feet away from my roofline from its mature palm tip leaves. 😉 be safe and thank you to everyone that has kept all of us in your thoughts. tin ps @Harry’s Palms hope you are holding tight buddy!

I have this one with fruit (seeds in them, I presume.)

Here that neighbor would be liable for replacement and transplant of fully adult trees of the same size, and perhaps separate criminal charges. The trees wouldn’t be expensive, but the flatbed, crane/backhoe, and installation would. Those trees will never heal and are likely a fall risk now.