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This specimen has been in the ground for about 6 years and is finally starting to flower. I love the crownshaft of this species.

This Hedyscepe is according to my records is 11 years old today from germination in my shade house. Is approximately 1.7 m tall.

This is probably my favorite palm in Leu gardens. Thanks Eric for planting this beautiful plant!

Close to five years past and the palm nursery is getting there. I would say 60 percent was started from seed and the other 40 percent from mostly bare rooted purchased seedlings. When I first started the project I knew it would take around 5 years before you can really do anything with the plants, from planting them in the ground to seller a few of them. It is a love of growing palms and plants that drives me to succeed in such a project, and now there is no stopping all I can do now is grow from strength to strength and build another greenhouse to fill it with more palms. So if you’re wondering how long it takes to build up a palm nursery at least five years. IMG_9723.mov

Aloha - This year, we got off the island of Hawai‘i and travelled to the closest thing Europe has to offer, the Azores, an island group in the middle of the Atlanta that is part of Portugal. I know it is not totally the same, as it is much further north in the Atlantic. The closest in climate (in my gestimates) that Hawaii has to offer is Volcano on the Big Island or the higher cloud forest elevations of Kaloko Drive in Kona (Big Island). Maybe somewhat close to the climate is also Waimea (Big Island). We are staying right next to the Terra Nostra Park (Parque Terra Nostra) in Furnas on the island of Saõ Miguel. That place is truly amazing! It is a 150 year old botanical garden, with several thermal (hot) pools you can take a bath in. Anyway, I will start posting a few (mostly palm-) images below that we encountered. It might be the only place in Europe (Please correct me if I am wrong!) where you can see a fairly dense palm forest as well an abundance of large tree ferns. Furthermore, the garden's collection of huge Araucaria spp. (plus 2 Wollemia nobilis!) as well as their cycad collection are quite neat. I just wish their palm collection was a tad more diverse, their website states that the collection contains 19 palm tree species. In that climate you ought to be able to grow way more different palm species 🙂. Maybe they need to hire a palm-nut from this forum!! Fun fact: The garden was started by US Vice Consul to the Azores Thomas Hickling. From Wikipedia: "In 1795, he was appointed by Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, as vice consul of the United States (a position continued by his son), beginning the oldest continuously functioning American diplomatic representation in the world (in Ponta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel). Sadly, in the current political climate, it was decided that 12 diplomatic posts of the US to be permanently closed, incl. Ponta Delgada.

If anyone would like to see how my gardens doing this year i made a video here on youtube:

A special bit of colour in these plumosa seedlings. They could almost go for being red arecas there that red some of them. The seeds are from my own palm in the garden. It will be interesting to see how long they keep there red colour for, but gor now there definitely interesting as seedlings.

My absolute two favourites . Licuala sallehana var sallehana and licuala triphylia. They take the cool weather well for such little tropical classics. Spring will see them go in the ground. Perfect understory specimens just waiting to go in!

Hard to believe June 21, 2025 is here. What a cool, wet Spring we had. Getting our first summer heat wave here in the DMV zone. The winter was a cold one in my estimation with two nights in single digits(5f and 8f) and corresponding days below 32f. Nights were consistently in the 20’s but day temps did tend to moderate above freezing. A cold winter and spring though. @Allenmy big Trachy got the dreaded single digit pin holes and some segment damage but all in all, had a good, relatively unprotected winter. I did give it some crown lights and black landscaping cloth wrapping but nothing too drastic. It’s neighbor, the Needle, is undamaged as always and is really bulking up some trunks. The Brazoria has always had a really hard time with its fronds in winter. I cut all the damaged fronds off and it’s got two new fronds following the slightly damaged 2024 spear. It’s also sending up spikes. I really like the trunk on it. And it’s fronds are massive…so it’s a catch-up challenge every spring. the small Trachy got lights around the trunk and wrapped in landscaping cloth. The fronds remained uncovered did extremely well unprotected so I have a feeling it’ll do as well as the big one in this south facing backyard. This is the accidental, squirrel planted Butia Odorata. It’s a long story and a very slow grower but as soon as I get a pinnate frond, I’ll be posting it…it gets some lights on the ground and leaf pile cover for now while it is so small. This pair, total protection Chamaerops and zero protection McCurtain are growing in to each other but I like the way they look together. Hard to believe the Chamaerops came back from near total destruction a couple years ago. Then there’s the good old no protection stand by shady Needle. 1/3 the size of the bigger fuller sun Needle but happy just the same. Welp, that’s about it. No winter deaths and I can’t complain about the recovering ones. I’ll have to order some fertilizer and give them a good dose. Before you know it, it’ll be Christmas 😂

This is something i have not seen on Chamaedorea brachypoda with a variegata leaf before. Enjoy

Time for a few winner pics I think!

Hi, here is my fella, seed grown - as almost always. When I started with palms 13 years ago, I was hooked by this species immediately after seeing one in a photo from @DoomsDave garden at that time. I ordered seeds and I have got one (survivor) left, but this is one is already a beauty... "Can't beat the view." I love it! Lars

My parajubaea cocoides that I grew from seed from Darold Pettys specimen. I remember in 2010 Darold had a few parajubaea cocoides seeds in his Garage and said hey Troy take these back to Tasmania and try to grow them.

I planted this Washingtonia filifera in March of this year here in Albuqueque, New Mexico. So far it's pushed out five new fronds and one more is about to open. Plus I haven't had any older fronds die off yet. I'm really happy with the results so far!

A visit to a public nursery today with the wife to see what was up for grabs in the retail not so big chain store style of nursery. It was great to see an old school nursery still going strong. The usual common stuff but a few goodies mixed in there. Some great landscaping specimens out the back of the nursery. And even a few coconuts up for grabs. And one of the thickest and most robust chamaedorea elegans for sale, in fact I had to question what variety it was but it was a solid elegans and labeled as such.

Nothing lasts or gets saved in Central Florida; historic buildings, houses, forests, animals or landscapes. Its all about $$$ and concrete. Nothing else.

Build one yourself. A very easy one is made out of poly pipe. Place at least 6 star pickets driven into the ground squared up ( used to build fences) get poly pipe and make hoops with them sliding them over the star pickets, run wires along them. Then throw over your shade cloth and bury it on one side, stretch it tight and bury the other side, overlap your joins there easy to build. If you can weld even better iam currently building another greenhouse now it’s easy to do. The same as in the photos only poly pipe is used instead of steel, there quite strong and look good you can brace it with wire anchors if your worried about it blowing away but that won’t happen.

Haven’t posted on PT for a while so I thought I’d post some pictures of my palms I’m growing. Washingtonia Robusta Sabal Minor Regular Trachycarpus Fortunei Butia Capitata Chamaerops Humilis Sabal Birmingham (left) Livistonia Chinesis (middle) and a saw palmetto (right)

Just a couple of joeys fairing up well in the cold temperatures. With the winter temperatures getting down to 3 degrees Celsius the joeys are doing fine in it. Sometimes they overreact with palms in cold weather saying they won’t grow it’s too cold, there to beautiful they won’t take the cold. Well for such a tropical looking palm joeys take a fair beating in the fridge department that’s for sure. Just because there rare doesn’t mean they won’t take the cold, just treat them like any other palm and they grow fine. Mind you though there not rocket ships in the grow department I will say that!

Here’s mine that is loving its location on the wet side of the Big Island of Hawaii. I’ve never seen one quite this beefy. Full sun, close to the ocean size 10 shoe for scale:

One of my favorite Chrysalidocarpus for sure. I got a couple of 25-footers in the side yard. SW Florida. (Bought in Miami). Ladder is to collect seeds.

I really love all the Australian natives. Great range of palms from large to tiny, rainforest dwellers to tolerant of arid conditions. You can make a diverse looking garden just with Aussie native palms. Here’s my collection: Archontophoenix alexandrae Archontophoenix cunninghamiana Archontophoenix cunninghamiana x Alexandrae Archontophoenix maxima* Archontophoenix myolensis Archontophoenix purpurea Archontophoenix tuckeri Calamus muelleri* Hedyscepe canterburyana Howea belmoreana H forsteriana Laccospadix australasica clumping form L australasica solitary form Lepidorrachis mooreana Linospadix apetiolatus Linospadix microcaryus Linospadix minor Linospadix monostachyos Linospadix monostachyos fine leaf form Linospadix palmerianus* Livistona alfredii Livistona fulva Livistona muelleri* Livistona nitida Livistona rigida Livistona victoriae* Oraniopsis appendiculata Ptychosperma sp Black Fruit* Rhopalostylis baueri var baueri *not planted in ground yet So I think that’s nearly half of the natives plus a hybrid. There’s probably scope for me to expand my Livistona collection as most would grow well here, but space is the issue. A few species are very marginal and usually don’t do well down here (Ptychosperma elegans, Licuala ramsayi, Wodyetia, Normanbya) while others aren’t even worth the thought (Hydriastele sp). Here’s a few photos of my favourites. A myolensis A purpurea H canterburyana O appendiculata L mooreana L apetiolatus

Ran by the big orange box today while getting my windshield replaced (ugh). And lo' and behold.... palms (and some neat ones too). First up is the amazing-razzle-dazzle "CLUB BUSTER TROPICAL #12" LOL pretty large Cat Palms: Then found a good sized 5 gallon Bottle Palm! (been wanting one of these this year). Next up was a bit of a shocker! Baby bottles, Baby Ladys, and Baby Latans! So of course I had to come home with a baby red Latan, and Lady palm for $14.98. .

These are both of mine. Central Florida zone 9b

I have what I believe is an odd robellini palm tree that somehow grew three limbs from the main trunk (see image). I've never seen that before. How does it happen? Anyway, my main concern is the limb on the left is hanging way over my pool creating too much shade and I'm afraid the weight may tumble the whole tree at some point. Is it possible to have the leftmost limb (arm) removed without killing the whole tree? How should it be done? In stages (maybe remove all the green fronds first, then sever the limb)? How long to wait between each removal stage? How close should the cut be to the main trunk?

This is mine in Phoenix we have already had about a week of 110+ weather heat doesn’t seem to bother it it’s at the very edge of my jungle so gets more sun than my Chambyronia!!

An original rhapis germinated from seed some 24 years past. It has finally become an adult palm after all those years. Most likely the big rain event we just for 3 months triggered the response. I doubt I will get any seeds it’s rare for rhapis to set seed in my climate, they will set seed but very rarely, I will be hopeful gor a couple of seeds if iam lucky. But still it’s nice to see it flowering after such a long time.

East side of Big Island of Hawaii, 350'; temps never lower than 63 degrees, 150 inches of rain a year.

Here's a blue yarey I grew from seed I collected from habitat in Cuba,2014. Slow but steady. 😄 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

Great topic...although I'm obviously biased! So many Aus natives grow well in my climate, probably a higher percentage of the total palm flora of any continent except Nth America I'd think...oh and Europe, which is 100%! My current list of species in ground: Livistona australis (Eungella Qld form and Durras NSW form, so close to northern and southern extreme of the species distribution. No discernible difference in cold hardiness) L nitida L fulva L decora Archontophoenix cunninghamiana Hedyscepe Lepidorrachis Howea f Rhopalostylis baueri Species waiting to be planted: Livistona rigida L drudei L mariae Archontophoenix alexandrae A maxima Howea b Linospadix monostachya Laccospadix I count 17 species out of 60 total, so nearly 1/3...I'm thinking that I might be able to push that out to around 20 with L lanuginosa and a couple of the highland Linospadix from NQ...but it might be a stretch. Still, a good list considering I live on a sub Antarctic island!

This time of year is especially rewarding in the garden . New growth everywhere! My climate is mild so we do get growth in winter but it really picks up now with warmer temps , usually low 80’s f. I got off work yesterday and checked out my “to do” list for my weekend gardening and watering. I took a few pics of some of the plants . Harry The Rhopalostylus Bauri Cheesmania is opening up! Behind it you can see an “ Ernie” loving the company with a new frond opening. Dypsis Plumosa is on its third frond since it was planted about a year ago. Next to the Plumosa is a double Dypsis Basilonga ( I think) . The loosely tied piece of wire so the petiole don’t break from the weight of the leaflets. This one is slower than the other palms I have planted along my walkway but still growing well. ‘Above pic of my Dypsis Lanceolata . The new spear is starting to show signs of opening up . Below , the stem is swelling and showing signs that it wants to take off! I recently planted this Cyphophoenix Nucele and the spear is growing already , should open late summer at this rate. I can always tell when this Dioon Spinalosa is ready for a flush , the fronds tend to relax downward. Sure enough , here it comes. This has been a real winner for me . My poor little Wodyetia struggled through their first winter in the ground . Now waking up. This Chamaedorea Ernesti Augusti has just been marvelous . I like it so much I bought two more for the other side of the house.

It's making such good progress and I can see new changes in growth everyday and its beautiful, I also cleaned it up a bit

I've been there and collected seed from McCurtain county minors in the past. I was given directions from another palm enthusiast in the Tulsa area who had been down many times. I thought I would start spotting them on my own when I was in the general vicinity, especially when the environment looked like good habitat. I really didn't spot any outside of the area he told me about though Once I got to the area he recommended, there were minors everywhere. They were in the creek beds and roadside ditches, under heavy canopy and in the open pastures. That was back in late 2011 though, and I probably couldn't point out now exactly where it was. I have only been in that area of Oklahoma once since then, and it wasn't a palm safari. I didn't see any of them in or around the town of Idabel on that trip. I would describe them as "locally common." There are are lots of them in the places they are found...and seemingly none outside of those immediate areas.

My little Dypsis Plumosa . Harry ‘This is the third frond since planting it about a year ago. Each frond is increasing in size but the stem is not getting much larger….YET!

I think we’ve all seen Chamaedorea elegans grown as 20 to a pot that we’ve forgotten what they look like when kept separate and happy. Actually a great looking little palm!

Thought a few pictures of some Miami Beach palms would please everyone...

A trio of some nice Calyptrocalyx, first up a kainlas followed by a micholitzii and lastly a benga dawn mericlone. All doing ok in the greenhouse for now. I brought the kainlas into the front verandah enclosed area for a bit of winter protection. It’s such a small seedling facing its first subtropical winter after growing up in a tropical climate. It’s held up fairly good for the first 3 weeks of winter and temperatures down to 5 degrees Celsius in the greenhouse. Time will tell how they do in winter.

I built my own about 30 years ago at my old house . I found a book at a thrift store , an old Sunset book about building greenhouses with plans . At that time there was a big box store that was changing vendors and I scored a bunch of corrugated greenhouse panels for a very reduced price . I used redwood 4x4 for the sills and about 4-6 inches of pea gravel for the floor. It was a gambrel roof design . The plans in the book were easy to follow , step by step. I scaled it to 12’x12’ with the ceiling about 12’ tall in the centers . The panels were slightly tinted for UV reduction and I hung shade cloth in sections on the inside . It was great , wind never phased it and I grew so much stuff in there . I hated to leave it behind . I have no room here or I would build another one , it is a game changer! Harry

I definitely have confirmation iam a palm addict, when I sold a carpoxylon to a retail outlet that had a nursery I never thought i would buy one of my own palms back. The one lone carpoxylon I couldn’t resist knowing how good they are I just wasnt going to let it go to any old garden, it can come back home with me. I was in there with the wife buying her some flowers and thought omgbit hasn’t sold yet. Right I thought I will buy the dam thing for my garden again. Yes I know rocks in my head and I have a therapist booked in next week for an ocd palm buying session, go figure!

Great looking palm, Ray! I think mine’s about the size of yours, maybe a bit smaller, but leaf bases are persistent right down to the ground. I want to see some trunk!

Pretty hardly down here with lots of food and water. These are 4 years from 3g pots.

I live in the hot and humid (9 months of the year) subtropics. I planted a little windmill nearly 4 years ago and it is now reaching the eaves on my house. I water it on hot days, mulch it well and it has thrived. \Peachy

Building the new greenhouse so why not start a bit of landscaping. A couple of rouge macrospermum in the greenhouse and a kentia should do for a start around the new greenhouse. It seemed to have worked planting a few palms around the old greenhouse. At least I will see them grow up and be part of a feature in the future.

These were from dwarf seed but as you can see are not dwarf. I call the middle one a semi-dwarf which was the look I was hoping for in this planter: Here are a couple of true dwarfs (with he dogs for scale): All of these above were planted about 4 years ago from 3 gallon pots. Big Island, Hawaii

One of the last photos taken of the Chrysalidocarpus letpocheilos at Lakeland City Hall before it was removed.

We have a few at the RTBG in Hobart.

I used to dig a big hole and chuck in all the compostables, when it eventually filled I would put soil over the top and leave it. Couple of years later I had an easy to dig spot to plant stuff. People build special things or buy plastic compost bins, all require turning and mixing and a degree in advanced pharmacopeia. Although to my surprise I found there is a mobile compost pile too, after a ride in a friends car and trying to find where to put my feet. Peachy