when enough is enough

[peachy]

It's been an usually long winter this year, the plant losses much higher even than in a frost event year. My biggest ever seed buy up from RPS, in preparation for spring, was seized by quarantine, who cant give me a reason as to why they seized them, but just want a bundle of cash to release them. I find it galling enough to buy seeds that dont germinate, seedlings that croak a few days after arriving, or paying out for bigger plants that keel over for no apparent reason, so I am damned if I am going to be held to ransom by the quarantine service as well. This morning I woke up...the scales fell from mine eyes..to quote the new testament (I think), I made a couple of big carboard signs advertising a rare palm clearance sale, and tied them to power poles up on the main road. Came home, made another sign for the gate, palm sale here, and another saying dangerous dogs no children admitted. Sat down, made a coffee or 2 and girded for battle.

Queenslanders never fail to fall below my estimations. First lot through the gate started making faces and whining about the terribly high prices. Honestly if you were charging one cent per plant they would try to get a 3 for the price of one deal. Luckily for me and unfortunately for them, my plants, my house, my rules....and my manners are saved for those who recognise such social niceties. Expensive ? You really think so ? Then you sir/madam are an idiot, get out !! Some tried the old oooh that is so lovely but I really cant afford it. Well then you should have walked here instead of parking a $120,000 SUV outside my house. One of the local nursery owners even arrived....now he should have known better....but he didnt. If you all think I was appalling rude to the other idiots, then you should have heard what and where he was told to go and do. And then I got one of those "what about my children" types. The sign said no kids...whats to argue about. My dogs bite badly behaved kids. You should lock those dogs away. WHY ? My house, my plants, my dogs. Your kids, your problem.

For a spur of the moment sale, everything was gone by 11am. I kept a few palms that were gifts from friends, or the seeds were gifts from people overseas, some that I really like and will live in my ridiculous climate. I no longer care about how much money I lose, after all the money I have spent over the years, I could never hope to break even. On the plus side, I am now down to a meagre 50 or so potted palms and aroids, from well over 300. In work and time alone its worth the financial tumble to be rid of the liability. I also had a handbag full of cash so I went and picked up all my lay-bys, bling, bling and more bling and a gorgeous pair of gollywogs !! Paid for a load of lucerne mulch to be delivered, grabbed some nice choccies, came home and watched my favourite opera (Carmen) on telly while munching on the aforementioned. Have I just experienced a major palm meltdown ? Will I deeply regret my impetuosity later ? Or have I cleared the decks for a less obsessive and more managable gardening experiences in the future ?

Has anyone else ever been totally fed up with the croaking palms, seized seeds, and other assorted palm related catastrophes ? Or should I call the men in white coats now ?

Peachy

[richnorm]

Very sorry to hear that but what I'd give for your climate and access to plants and seed. Have large G&T and an early night! You can't shake this obsession that easily.

cheers

Richard

[BS Man about Palms]

[iamjv]

Peachy, an interesting turn of events... can't say I've ever gone through a palm melt down but on a certain level have had a similar experience. I too had grown tired of battling palms that were questionable for my climate or those that were always problematic to grow. As such, when moving earlier this year I opted to take the opportunity to re-establish my garden with only bullet proof palms as well as complimentary plants such as yucca's and cactus. The rest were given away or just not transplanted from the old garden. I look forward to the lower maintenance level of palm care and won't worry as much when the next arctic blast comes... Jv

[ariscott]

You probably WILL regret it... although it is a good thing to have a break from the hobby every now and then. It can be very frustrating and very expensive exercise to keep on loosing palms left, right & centre... You will be back and then you can decide whether you want to push the boundary, or you just want to enjoy palms that actually grow in your climate. I don't know how any of you can do it... I like to garden to the condition, which is why I am here.

Regards, Ari

[Rch65]

Hi Peachy, please dont give up the faith, I think I remember some shots of your garden and it looked beautiful. Believe me, here in the U.K we have a terrible time during the winter and it is dishearting to see so many palms lost but when we see gardens like your own we can see the real beauty of owning palms which makes us persevere. Regards Rich.

[peachy]

Dont panic Rich, there's still plenty of palms here in the ground....mainly because they are too big to pull out.

Ari I am fairly sensible about what I try to grow here, its just been a pig of a winter.

Jv, I know what you mean and if I ever move house I will get a designer in to do a garden.

Richard, I would swap you houses in a minute if it wasnt for the language barrier involved.

Bill, the local peasantry got some cheap palms even they didnt know what they are. I am just starting lent 6 months early.

My reputation for terminal niceness has been shattered...I think that was the most enjoyable part of the day

Peachy

Edited August 28, 2010 by peachy

[Really full garden]

Peachy, I think it is normal to burnout on palms.I think some people get so caught up in collecting as many species as possible that they eventually

get bored.How many unnamed Dypsis does one need?

I am on a personal quest to plant all my potted palms and have drastically reduced the number seeds I germinate.

[freakypalmguy]

I know your pain Peach.

I've recently come to the conclusion that I don't have time for being a plant nursery and have been giving away most of my potted palms, whittling it down to a much more manageable level. I can't do the constant watering, weeding, and potting up regimen, it's sucking the fun right out of this hobby and making it a job. My plan is to get it to where I only have one or two potted plants of any species, at any given time, only to grow them larger and plant them, and they all have to fit in my greenhouse which is set up with auto watering and heat for the winter. I can already feel the weight lifting off my shoulders as the number is reduced.

I've also recently realized, I need to spend more money on mulch, and less on plants, to reduce the amount of weeding. We'll see how that goes

Cactus and Agave are amazing plants that require very little care, an excellent choice.

Matt

[peachy]

I know your pain Peach.

I've recently come to the conclusion that I don't have time for being a plant nursery and have been giving away most of my potted palms, whittling it down to a much more manageable level. I can't do the constant watering, weeding, and potting up regimen, it's sucking the fun right out of this hobby and making it a job. My plan is to get it to where I only have one or two potted plants of any species, at any given time, only to grow them larger and plant them, and they all have to fit in my greenhouse which is set up with auto watering and heat for the winter. I can already feel the weight lifting off my shoulders as the number is reduced.

I've also recently realized, I need to spend more money on mulch, and less on plants, to reduce the amount of weeding. We'll see how that goes

Cactus and Agave are amazing plants that require very little care, an excellent choice.

Matt

Actually Matt I was kidding about the cacti. Years of fighting an aloe infestation has put me right off anything even remotely like them. The in ground garden is practically a full time job and I do a LOT of mulching. No room for a greenhouse (and couldnt afford one anyhow) but now I get my carport, deck and second bedroom back. All the licualas, drymophleus, ptycospermas, dypis etc have now all gone....and good riddance. The people who bought them wouldnt know a bangalow from a bizzie, but at least now they are no longer my problem There's nobody locally who knows about palms who I could have given them to anyhow.

Peachy

Edited August 28, 2010 by peachy

[Tassie_Troy1971]

awww Sorry to hear you are feeling beat by the palms

You didnt get rid of the Chatham Did you !

[palmsOrl]

Peachy, I can totally relate! Last years' cold winter, year-round fungal/bacterial infections of all kinds (killing rare, irreplaceable palms), expensive seeds that fail to sprout, seedlings and small palms that immediately decline, palms that can't take cold or summer heat, pathetic rainy seasons that have me out watering constantly in the sweltering heat, repotting, fertilizing, treating...it has at times seemed as if this hobby has become a job. I have recently contemplated culling the herd, leaving only my rarer, special potted palms, and cutting in half the amount of care that I give my in-ground palms (letting nature take its course). Yet I haven't quite brought myself to do this, besides, the aforementioned problems have largely accomplished this for me. Don't give up on the hobby though Peachy, I always thoroughly enjoy reading your posts!

-Michael

[epicure3]

I don't know but I'm glad I didn't bring my kids by.

[Tampa Scott]

Peachy, I also can relate, and have said enough is enough. I have culled many palms that just do not do well for my climate zone. I am happy to have the palms that I do have and give me the exotic look I wantEveryone is always wanting to have a Coconut, but it really is not any better than any other feather palm in my eyes. Yes I have had two only, to have die after a few years. There is more to life than trying to grow every palm there is. Sit back and enjoy what you do have and keep your humor.

Edited August 28, 2010 by Tampa Scott

[realarch]

Even as wonderful as it is living in Hilo, my major palm acquiring days are over. I've seen so many beautiful gardens here, but

the effort and time spent maintaining them can be a huge undertaking. I'm on an acre and can't imagine 3 or 4 unless most of it's primary forest. Things grow at alarming rates in our climate and if you don't have the time or resources to manage the garden it can look unkempt and messy in no time. My goal was to plant the major sections and then sit back and watch them grow while still being able to maintain what I've got without back breaking effort.

I'm not getting any younger either and being able to leisurely putz in the garden day in and day out is the real joy for me. I still

acquire stuff now and then, but no more truck load buying sprees. With well over a hundred species I may still regret the shear

numbers once they mature, but we'll see and hope I have good genes. Still looks like plenty of room right now and the urge is

hard to suppress, but my palms are still babies and things will fill in quite nicely in a few years.

The container ranch thing wasn't for me, I knew that early on and tried to get everything in the ground as soon as possible.

I do have seedlings, but I give them away as gifts so as not to have to take care of them. Not a grower here and things in

little pots are a pain in the okole.

Peachy, people are the same everywhere when it comes to shopping for bargains, no price is ever just right or too low.

People think they're entitled to things for free, but then that's another topic for discussion over a bottle of wine and some

palmito ceviche.

[Moose]

Peachy - perhaps a consult with THE PALM DOCTOR may be in order?

[Rafael]

Peachy, i just dont believe you!

Kisses!

[peachy]

Peachy, i just dont believe you!

Kisses!

They had it coming,

They had it coming,

They only had themselves to blame.

If you'd have been there,

If you'd a seen it...

I bet that you would have done the same.

[hanapalms]

Peachy, It's all normal. Been through it several times in the last thirty five years. I didn't sell off the inventory, but I did walk away from it for extended periods of neglect. That's why I have had such a problem with identification for more than some of my palms. Besides, I even moved residence in 1999, so some of my prizes are still growing at my old place.

But, time brings changes... somehow palms transcend those changes. You'll get back in the saddle when the time is right.

[Jim in Los Altos]

Peachy, sounds like you just scaled back to a manageable number of plants so you can enjoy what you have better. You had amassed too many palms to enjoy them individually instead of being a slave to them. Sit back, take a rest, then assess and you'll know what's best for you.

[Tyrone]

Peachy, I'm sorry to hear of your pain. You've had it tough, way tougher than me. I haven't really lost anything from my nursery except for one or two things. My nursery is a bit out of control. I had one guy come to my place and smile and tell me I was insane. I took it as a compliment, but I think he's right. I must have a few thousands of pots going at the moment. My wife almost can't hang the washing out.

I started collecting with a view to growing a select number of suitable species up, keeping the strong ones, planting them, then off selling the rest. In the end I realised that some people can't tell a Dypsis from a carrot, and that's even in the palm society. And then there are the Bangalow killers. Am I going to sell my super rare Dypsis to an unappreciative Bangalow killer who balks at the $15 price tag. NO. I'll keep it thankyou very much. Hence I am Noah, with a Noah's ark of palms. Do I fuss over my plants like a mother hen does her chicks. Yes. But not enough, because it's impossible to keep up with everything that happens. You know, when the ants decide to invade and bring their cattle with them (mealy bugs, scale). And then there's the seasons with the sun changing the shadows to expose plants to the sun and 40C temps that they can't handle, then theirs keeping them watered. Am I mad. Yes. Yes I am. Do I not enjoy it at times. Yes, sometimes I hate having to run around before the sun goes down doing this and that. But if I didn't have it all, I'd be lost. I have to do this. Don't ask me why.

Admittedly I can't wait to put in my front courtyard and plant out the advanced plants I've had sitting their for too long and give me some room to have a family BBQ again out the back. But now growing palms is so deeply ingrained in me I couldn't think of doing anything else. Cacti and succulents. Nice, cute, but not in my garden. Give me a Royal Palm any day.

Hang in there Peachy.

It's almost spring and I'll be envious of your weather again.

Best regards

Tyrone

[ariscott]

There is always ebay, Tyrone...lol. Or another solution is actually incorporate those into your landscaping... You can tell the owner..."you can see the mature one at my place". As far as washing line goes, there is always the dryer... Don't worry.. my shadehouse is the worse... ask anyone who has been to my place!!

Peachy,

I actually envy you... It is actually nice to be able to just sit down & enjoy for once... As much as I love the actual gardening, I love not having to do anything sometimes. I have actually cut down on propagation, and reduce buying if I have nowhere to put them. But every now and then, when there is an offer of rare seeds from overseas, I can't resist... and then after I have to germinate them, prick them, and pot them up... etc, etc... I wonder, why am I doing it to myself...

Just do what you have to do. Smell the roses... enjoy your garden... and when you are up to it, you can go collecting again or not..

Regards, Ari

[Rafael]

Peachy, i just dont believe you!

Kisses!

They had it coming,

They had it coming,

They only had themselves to blame.

If you'd have been there,

If you'd a seen it...

I bet that you would have done the same.

I dont think so...

Even singing!

[peachy]

Tyrone I wish I had got $15 for my dypsis. Everything was in 14cm pots and sold them all for $2 each, except for my mapus, them I put

Tyrone, I wish I had got $15 for the dypis....or anything else for that matter. Everything was in 14cm pots and I put $2 on them all. Apart from the mapus, I had $5 on those. The people who were nice got shown photos of what their plants will look like and got a bit info on how to care for them. The idiots paid their $2 and got a palm. I could have loaded Tojo's Revenge and taken them to one of the palm nurseries or even to some of the bigger local nurseries, but it was a spur of the moment decision brought on by the losses, the frustration, a major hissy fit at those unmentionable fiends from quarantine and just general malaise. If I knew any palm people in this part of the state I would have given the damn things away. The reality is that if they all grew up, I would have needed about 150 hectares to plant them all. However, I got to break the niceness image I was always cursed with, had a nice afternoon in a couple of my favourites shops, buying instead of always looking and now have space to move around in. (although hanging out washing sounds a trifle dire) Going for the 2nd blast of chemo tomorrow but I will be able to come home and rest peacefully instead of worrying about what needs watering. Next week a few things are going into the ground, so I only have to put the sprinkler on instead of watering the tubs and urns.

Peachy

[Kailua_Krish]

Good luck with the chemo tomorrow Peachy

[DCA_Palm_Fan]

Peachy,

While I don't love your circumstance, I did love your story! Sound's like you did things right for you and got things back to a more manageable and enjoyable state, which is what it should be. After all, that is why we have hobbies isn't it?

I have to say, I have to agree with you on the kid thing. Its YOUR house, your property, your sale, so you can run it however YOU want to, and those wishing to attend need to either abide by the rules and regulations set forth, or GO HOME. There are usually good reasons for rules anyway, and it was a might bit easier just to put your foot down and say no then to force those entering your property to sign some big legal waiver where they could not sue you if a doggie bit a bad kid. Cheers on that! Hopefully you've got things back to a point there you can ENJOY them again. =o)

Chemo? Does that mean what I think it means? So sorry!

Love from Virginia...

[BS Man about Palms]

Full speed ahead Peach!

[peachy]

Full speed ahead Peach!

Thanks Bill. This morning was much worse than last time, but this continuous vomiting will do wonders for my figure no doubt. Quarantine rang me today, very apologetic, admitting they made a mistake, so in a few days my seeds will arrive here and in a matter of weeks I will be up to my mammalian appendages in seedling pots again !! Like a circle in a circle, like a wheel within a wheel......!! Saw something adorable on the way home this morning....soon as I can face driving I am going to be the proud owner of some life sized concrete meerkats.

Peachy

[Tyrone]

All the best Peachy with your chemo.

and Quarantine apologised!!!!! Quick buy a lottery ticket.

[AggiePalms]

Peachy, sorry to hear about your understandable burnout. I was there in February. I lost nearly a dozen very tropical species last winter, inside my house in the warm, because it stayed near freezing for most of January, and some cold air finally came seeping through a tiny opening around one window next to the plants. Very disheartening; these were palms I really prided myself on growing here in the non-tropics.

But, good thing is, even though I totally swore off palms forever, a few nearly dead specimens came back and are doing ok...not great but ok. And my resolve to never again bring in tropicals just to see them die lasted from the end of January till early April (the first palm society meeting here). Only three palms/cycads purchased (and seven other tropicals). July trip to south Florida...my resolve is still there, no more palms (except those in April)...Ken Johnson loaded my car with 16 palms. Now, I couldn't say no to Ken, now could I? He is too great a guy; and if he and his son put them in my car, I just couldn't hurt his feelings and take them out again. Right? So, mass destruction in winter turned to "maybe something will survive" in March then on to "sure, just a couple at the April palm meeting" to 16 new species. None hardy here, of course.

Peachy, just keep the number manageable, and you won't get too overwhelmed, you can have a palm hobby without getting bugged by it. Hang in there.

[Mike in Nelson]

I'm still in the early days of my palm growing obsession. Perhaps I should learn from Peachy and knock it on the head right now?

[ariscott]

No, Mike.... what's the fun in that??

Regards, Ari

[Tyrone]

I'm still in the early days of my palm growing obsession. Perhaps I should learn from Peachy and knock it on the head right now?

No pain no gain. What's gained by being mundane.

I should start writing poetry.

[palmislandRandy]

Hang tough, Peachy.

Randy

[Jimhardy]

Enjoyed your post!

Just think of the time you'll have for other stuff-

just guessing there may be other stuff besides palms-probably not the place to ask

Anyway,enjoy yourself until you build your collection back up!

P.S.

Go back every chance you get and harass the hell out of those

a$$***** until they give you your seeds back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mike in Nelson]

No, Mike.... what's the fun in that??

Regards, Ari

Yeah, you're right. I still have some 280 potted plants to assemble to catch up to Peachy and then go mad.

[Peter Pacific]

Dearest Peachy,

I just came in from my shade house, the screening is so low it brushes my head when I walk around. The wooden posts have rotted, for the second time, and the wooden table tops have more termites than potted palms. The C. ophiopellis' are being watched for too much sun and my twin Guassia mayas have something munching on the base of each leaflet leaving just the exposed vein hanging from the trunk.

If you love something you have to fight for it. Will I sell off palms to idiots? Hell no. Will I let the cost of keeping and maintaining my garden drum me into the ground? Not yet. When I get blue I walk around and see that after years of nuturing my C. hookeris are giving me new red leaves, I am thrilled to see my seven year old C. crinita is now five inches tall and I celebrate my Pigafetta elata that has finally established itself and is hanging in there after tons of mulch and copious amounts of water. I can't give in just yet.

If I would have known of your sale I would have been on the first flight to Australia, at those prices it would have paid my flight!!!

Keep going love, you're an inspiration to everyone!

Peter

[Erik]

I'll 2nd Peter in joining this thread and wishing you well. Keep us updated. I only log in to read your stories. --Erik