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San Diego, CA, USA is treating her right

Yesterday was a great day in the garden after encountering this C. ovobontsira reveal. Up until now this young palm was rather unremarkable, no longer. It was gifted to me by Hilo Jason a few years back, you picked out a good one Jason, and no, you can’t have it back. Glad I’m able to share these photos. Tim

The colour of the new leaf on the atrovirens is amazing. An absolute stunning palm, seemingly easy to grow water and humidity, it’s not to fussed on soil as long as it is free draining. But one palm definitely worth growing in any collection. It seems to be a lot brighter red longispina the underside of the leaf yet a darker almost black on the leaf surface.

A little palm that needs no introduction from me on palm talk. They speak for themselves as far as ease of growing, germinating and pollinating. A beautiful little understory palm that I have cracked the growing code, producing hundreds of hand pollinated seeds every year. I have noticed the ones that produce good amounts of seeds seem to rest bi annually not producing large flowers, then the next year they flower with large flowers. Just an observation when I see my chamaedorea daily in the garden, it’s easy to learn the palm and what it does.

This one is at Barnett Park in Lakeland, FL.

A gift from a pal up in North Queensland back in October 2023 (I think). A small seedling when received, it has been bulletproof and a decent grower down here in SE Queensland. Flowering for the first time too.

Here's a larger example in Cairns Botanical Gardens. They don't get big, but are very attractive.

Guess I made the right move by ordering about a dozen species of Braheas for this year.

Both this lot I germinated from seed easily. The Chuniophoenix are a slow seeding taking it’s time to get a move on and the picrophylla seem to be the standard syagrus growth rate from the get go. Now all I have to do is plant them in the years to come.

What’s up with all the leaf damage in this picture? It did not get anywhere cold enough this winter to cause damage to wild Sabal minor like it did in 2018 in some parts of ENC. Perhaps flooding? Or is this just the angle?

Thank you for sharing!

Revisited the Croatan yesterday and took this photo while I was there. Not the best photo quality, but it does show the larger Sabal minor within the forest.

Native Palms of the Croatan National Forest in Carteret County, N.C. May 2025 Update:

Hi, I'm new to the forum. My name is Matthew, and I have a plant collection across many plant families and genera. I especially like rare plants and miniature species. Despite my plant experience, I have never grown a palm tree before, and I've never tried germinating a palm seed, until the story below... A friend of mine sent me one Dypsis minuta berry. I had no clue what to do with it, so I did some research for a few hours and then decided to go for it. I cleaned and prepared the seed per my research, then planted it. I knew palm seeds generally take quite a long time to germinate, but wasn't ready for it in reality. I waited and waited until I nearly went insane and wanted to dig it up to see if the seed was still alive, but I resisted. Finally, I decided the seed had died and I had failed with my one, sole chance. That said, I left the container and just forgot about it. A few days ago, I was totally shocked to unexpectedly see the seedling popping up. It had been so long that I had to check the date it was sown, and discovered it took 13 months to germinate. I danced around like a fool and could barely contain myself, then sent messages to my plant friends about the news. In my years of growing plants, this may have been one of the most exciting successes. I opened the container and put in some fertilizer and supplements. I am considering moving the seedling into one of my rare plant grow tents. At this point I'm going to learn more about palms. I'm especially interested in the smallest species which may be suitable for indoor culture.

A couple of lovely arecas showing off their gorgeous looks. You can certainly see why they’re such a collectible palm. A couple of Mother Natures finest examples of what she has on offer.

An absolute beauty of a palm. I can grow em Harry I just need the seeds. I have a couple of common palms in my nursery but that’s where it ends the rare and exotic ones for me. The slower growing the better as far as iam concerned. Richard

They go deeper green with deep shade and yellow a bit in the sun. I wouldn’t say it has a silver underside but a real healthy one has a velvet look about its leaf. It’s my all time favourite chamaedorea Richard

When it comes to nothernmost potted cocos outside yearround there is the one in Malaga, grown from a coconut (picture by Pindo in 2020).

Thats a great books. Me and my dad still have em.

Attalea, most likely Attalea cohune, it's the most common one in cultivation outside its habitat.

I bought a 50lb bag of Langbeinite or Pulpomag shipped from something like Seven Springs Supply. I doubt you would find it locally. You could maybe find it at a local Ewing Irrigation, or SiteOne Landscape supply. I use Sunniland Palm 6-1-8 from the big blue box store. SiteOne and Ewing carry Lesco fertilizers and might have a good 8-2-12 at the local stores.

Here’s my triple planted one next to. a big Strelitzia nicolai. Happy as a pig in mud. It’s in sand but deeper down is heavier soil.

Mine has taken 5C lows a number of times last winter with no issue. It would benefit from more shade to darken it up a bit, but I don't have the luxury of a canopy yet.

@NBTX11 Your Filiferas are coming along nicely. This HEB seems to like them.

Picture of one in our hood taken today:

this part is also worth quoting from that link (emphasis theirs): "Palm trees are replanted more frequently since the 4 cm thick oak panels can no longer withstand the extraordinary growth of the roots after 7 to 8 years. "The soil is reduced by 10 cm on each side and is then placed in a new or restored box of the same dimensions, with a strong iron or cast-iron frame for the oldest models (1856). "Once the box is closed, a soil mix rich in organic matter is compacted in successive layers inside the wooden panels. The heaviest boxes, such as those for large palm trees (weighing 4.5 tonnes), are transported in the garden using a flatbed carriage. Since 1996, the carriage tractor has been equipped with an electric motor to reduce noise and atmospheric pollution."

Wondering if anyone has any ideas on palm ID of these seedlings? First two pictures I’m thinking may be either Veitchia arecinas or spiralis. Next two pictures look pretty similar to some foxy lady seedlings but not 100%. Last two photos are a seedling that randomly sprouted. Any ideas help, thanks!

Not another one that you had that died. If i had lost as many palms as you have gyuseppe i would be devastated, to read about someone who has lost almost all their entire collection of palms I can only imagine how it would feel, I feel for you.

That must’ve been such an incredible surprise after waiting over a year - definitely worth the patience. Dypsis minuta sounds like a fascinating choice for a first palm, too. Keep us posted on how it grows, especially if you move it into your rare plant grow tent. Excited to see what’s next in your palm journey!

Germinated these macrospermum myself, easy to germinate and grow. A lovely palm from Vanuatu most of the palms from the South Pacific islands do well in my climate especially the New Caledonia ones. Ones from Fiji are a bit more temperamental a bit like the palms from Papua New Guinea, the highland palms do well but the lowland ones suffer in winter and are not worth growing or won’t grow at all.

I saw this Queen Palm not far from me. It in my neighborhood. I walked down to go McDonald’s. I happen to take a snapshot of it. I am amazed it has thrive in my area. I remember the house across from me bought some young Queen Palms at Lowe’s. But none of them have survived but the Washingtonia palms. With climate rising-I wonder if Queen palms can be viable long term in my area.

Starting to gain some size on that one. Very dark , burgundy look to the new frond , making it stand out amongst the others. Quite the nursery you have there with the sprouts afoot! Harry

It's been in a pot but 24/7 outdoors in winter. Most say planting in the ground significantly increases survival chances.

Some great books worth having as a resource for reference are worth it in any library with vast knowledge from Authors all around the globe who are passionate about the field they work in most of my collection of books I purchased way before I was using the internet and I still go through them for that extra reference point on a certain plant you can learn a lot from a book.

I like Sta-Green 16-0-10 "Natural" Fertilizer from the the blue big box store. The potassium is in sulfate form (lower salt index than cheaper chloride) and the nitrogen is a mix of organics plus polymer sulfur coated urea (slow release nitrogen). It's sold as a lawn fertilizer but I use it for palms and tropicals/citrus. There are micros from the organics/kelp and of course the price is right

Min of 12c/53.6f with a high of 29.5c with 22% humidity. The sky was clear this morning before quite a lot of cloud came in which suppressed the solar heating other wise it likely would have been 30c+. Very warm night for this early in May, the temp here still 18c at 2am. 27c tomorrow forecasted. The average high for April was 18.3c with a low of 8.3c. I recorded 250 hours of sunshine for April and the met office announced it was the sunniest April on record.

Beautiful as usual. The jury is still out on this one for winter for me I got one this year. Time will tell if it lives, a bit like the jury is still out on the mushroom killer time will tell!!

Guys, mu local plant greenhouse had this giant buita there for $80! This time I planted this one up front since there’s more room. Crazy how this one was cheaper then the previous one I had gotten 😭 Also it’s now my Needle Palm’s 3rd year growing in zone 6!

Mark the height of the green spear against one of the dead stems. You will see more easily how much the green is growing. Use a permanent marker

That should be alright. You did the right thing and found signs of life before it was too late. Just do peroxide daily, covering not really necessary unless it’s supposed to be raining soon. You should see the white part start to push up (grow) in a week or so.

I would leave the dead fronds in place to provide support from the wind for the new fronds. The damaged fronds won't turn green again.

Talk like that will land you in El Salvador! Bloody awesome climate for palms though.

@timgwen Welcome to PalmTalk! The good news is that two out of three trunks look good. The bad news is that the one with the brown crown is likely DOA. You're from Texas. If you want, I can move this topic to the Cold Hardy section of the forums. There are a LOT of people from Texas that post there. You didn't do anything wrong by posting it in General Discussion, just want you to get the best and most appropriate feedback possible. For now, I'll let the post here. If you want it moved, let me know and I'll take care of that for you.

One of my favorite grows!

Sooooo, turns out that the nitida survived, I'm shocked and surprised. I thought it was gone, and from the looks of it at first glance, you'd think it was dead. But when I went to pull it to pop it out of the ground to replace it, it was so strong, and I'm like, what the hell? If it was dead, it would have just popped right out. So I dug around the base of it a little with my finger, since the green part was covered by soil, and to my shock, there was green. I was confused, so I checked the middle spear area, and to my surprise, some green was popping out. So I guess I'm not replacing anything. I'm not sure what exact temperatures it saw, but it was tough enough to survive being left out uncovered for a night in December, getting completely burnt, I continued to cover after, then spear pulling and the rest of its leaves died off. After that, I stopped caring about it and left it covered way after the cold was over. I'm excited to see it's still fighting, so I'll be caring for it again, knowing it has a chance at recovery.

Yep fresh seeds will germinate in about that time. A great looking palm that’s easy to grow.

They are quite cold tolerant I have one growing great in my greenhouse in temperatures around 2 degrees Celsius

Thank you! I grow all of my plants indoors, and 90% of them are in grow tents or plastic bins at tropical or subtropical temperatures and high humidity. I think one of my rare plant grow tents would be perfect for this species. I'll share updates, which may be a while considering how slow these supposedly grow.

Congratulations on the baby palm! Dypsis minuta is an understory palm, as you no doubt already know. I've never grown it myself and can't offer any advice except to think it must need high humidity and probably has a low tolerance to non-tropical temperatures. I'd expect it will need a warm greenhouse? Good luck and keep us informed as to your progress.