A few 9a North Florida Rarities (for me)

[Kailua_Krish]

A few people had mentioned wanting to see some of my palms. All of these are growing in zone 9a with only the Kerriodoxa and and Chambeyronia getting supplemental heat. I'll keep adding more photos over the next few days while I'm home, let me know if you have any requests!

[Kailua_Krish]

Parajubaea sunkha (approx 5 yrs old)

[Kailua_Krish]

C. Nana

[Kailua_Krish]

Tim Hopper Jubutyagrus

Attalea dubia

[Kailua_Krish]

Jubaea x Syagrus (Planted '09 I think)

Leaves plumose at base?

[Kailua_Krish]

Bad photo of BxP

[Kailua_Krish]

Beccariophoenix alfredii (two of them plus the bed one is in; I have another but it's very difficult to photograph)

[Kailua_Krish]

I'll try to get a picture of the Dypsis decipiens in the next few days

[edbrown_III]

Good luck on the palms ! they look great I had the Parajubea for about 5 years and lost it very suddenly hard freeze and wet humid hot summer did it in . Yu might be well drained to take these palms to adult hood --- Dypsis decipiens will take alot of frost and cold but still have the Jubea problem --- Ropallostylis yu might be able to grow --- I tried for a decade --- I got the plants up to 2 meters of leave (still a bud) and the same freeze took out dozen of them and the Parajubea,

Lacospadix australicisca , Ceroxylon alpinum --- Beautiful palms ! keep positng

Ed

[WestCoastGal]

Enjoyed seeing some of the yard! Thanks for sharing and love to see more of your palms. BTW appreciate your adding a planting date when you could. Gives some perspective to growth rates.

[Kailua_Krish]

*All these dates are approximate, Im already forgetting

All of the hybrids I posted above were planted in either late '09 or early '10, I can't quite remember and were planted from those small containers Patric sends (the Hopper one was also roughly the same size). Both the Jxs and BxP had spear pull every winter for the first years and both got cosmetic damage. Neither had any damage the last 2 years and as you can see they seem to finally be growing. The Jubutyagrus has never had any problems.

The B. alfredii were planted 2 years ago from seeds I had started the previous year. Not super fast growers in shade but not too bad!

The C. nana was planted in 2010 but was moved in 2011 to its current location. It lost its tallest trunk when in its original location from a combination of freeze and too much sun exposure (these really do not like more than a few hours of sun)

The Kerriodoxa and Chambeyronia were also planted in 2010 and were protected during the winters of the first two years with heat lamps and tarps. Now that they are more established Im not sure how much protecting will get done. I bought them to enjoy them as a temporary plant but they seem to be doing better than what I would have thought possible!

[Kailua_Krish]

Hi Ed,

At this point everything will pretty much be on its own in 6 Months. Im moving away for residency so it will just be my parents caring for the plants (which I have been transitioning to for a while). If anything dies, it dies, and it will not be replaced by anything else experimental. Seems like the freeze killed the majority of yours which I have resigned to happening here, its the reality of living in North/Central Florida that eventually a major freeze will come and kill everything. Thats why Im using a lot of gingers, crinums, and herbaceous tropicals to fill in the rest of the landscape as these can all freeze to the ground and come back. Im also using a lot of cycads as they seem to be more cold tolerant.

Im confused as to what you mean the "Jubaea" problem? Ive had my Dypsis decipiens in ground for 5 years and have never even had the spotting I had with the JxB F2 that ended up dying (from transplant shock because I moved it to the back 40 bc it was so ugly).

-Krishna

[Alicehunter2000]

Krishna, good to see your yard....it being Christmas Eve and all....don't have much time to comment....but will continue after the holidays....look forward to seeing more of your parents yard.

[edbrown_III]

I never had any luck with pure Jubea --- tried so many times got some up to 15 gallons then they would spontaneously die. there were ones listed at Fairchild and Leu Gardens but they didnt have the floral characteristics that define Jubea as opposed to Butia and Syagarus -- six male stamens Jubea has 16 plus and the flowers are very distinct. The one at Fairchild had 9 or 10 (I have the monograph plate) Leu Garden Jubea looked like it had a few more ,

Dont get me wrong these were beautiful palms they just didnt look like some CA . Simularly, I have a few hybrids that are propsering but they just dont look like the CA jubeas tho one of them is very massive. --- try to get residence some place where yu can grow these plants otherwise it will bug you endlessly ---

Best regards

Ed

[Palm crazy]

Wow! Nice palm collection and very nice garden. You have one of the best Jubutyagrus pics I’ve seen on the cold palm forum. Love to see the D.D. and more.

[Kailua_Krish]

Ok, so I had some time this morning and thought I would take anyone interested on a tour!

First as you approach the house. This bed is a work in progress, up until a few days ago the more barren part was filled with overgrown azaleas and vines galore. Those all got chopped down and Ive replaced the area with Philodendron bipanndifidum, Shell ginger, Macho fern, Arenga engleri, and Rhapis excelsia. I have plans to put Livistona saribus in clumps in this bed too. Its a difficult area because the oak roots are so thick and they sucker on one of these trees.

As you continue you can see the large magnolia overgrowing this area, a lot of Giant Crinums, and a Magnolia maclurei in the background

This area was until last year the home of a large hickory that was old and diseased. It is now the home of Ghost bamboo, Cinnamomum chekangensis, and Magnolia insignis with multiple trachycarpus (several sp) seedlings and a medium needle palm (other side of mailbox). This area is also a work in progress.

Now as you approach the other end of the property line you can see a bed Im more or less finished with. It was done approx 2 years ago and is filled with L. chiniensis, A. engleri, C. cooperi, Farfugium, Daphnyphyllum, and a nice Cz. Molango. A few other plants are in there too.

[Kailua_Krish]

As you walk up the driveway this bed greets you. I made it a few months ago but the Magnolia veluntina and the Tipuana have been in place longer. Its filled with an assortment of tropicals and my grove of Cz. hildae and a few Cycas hybrids. Also 2 Dioon rzedowskii in the back.

Same position looking back towards the mailbox gives a better view of the Ghost Bamboo and the Cinnamomum. Some cycas hybrids are here too but small now.

Looking across the grassy middle shows the giant crinum bed again with the Magnolia macclurei. On the left I also have a half moon shaped planting adjacent to this with 3 Cycas (rev or tait)xDeb surrounded by Aspidistra "Asahi". There is also a small (supposed) Cyathea medullaris in this area.

This photo seems to have turned out blurry but was the continuation of that other bed beyond the Tipu tree. It has of note one of my Arenga micrantha, several Cz. "Mirador", Crinum japonicum (spotted), and a few assorted other plants.

Edited December 25, 2014 by krishnaraoji88

[Kailua_Krish]

This is the disaster that is the front of the house. Im ripping out the Cestrum nocturnum and Orange Peels (will plant them elsewhere) and cleaning up the rest this spring. It actually has small cycads throughout it including several Cz. Mirador, a hybrid CoontiexCardboard (orange emergent), and a Allagoptera arenarius. The tree/shrub in the middle is a Texas olive which is hardy and has pretty white flowers, I will be staking it this year to encourage a more tree like form.

This bed I showed in an earlier picture, the extension was done this spring and you can see another A. micrantha, more L. chiniensis, and hybrid Cycas

Looking towards the back yard you can see the P. sunkha and a Livistona nitida on the left, queens in the middle, and Washintonia in the distance. On the right are more nasty azaleas that need to be removed.

[Kailua_Krish]

Back to the other side of the house you can see my JxS on the right, a Magnolia maudiae in the middle, Arenga engleri in the distance, and a hint of a L. saribus on the left. There is Cz. latifolia and kusteriana along with a dwarf butia, Trachy princeps, and a cycas hybrid underplanting the JxS.

Looking back on the same bed, from left to right is (BxJ)xS (Hopper), C. cooperi, Syagrus 'Abreojos', Native dogwood (sprouted naturally 25 years ago), JxS, CIDP, and a seedling S. 'Lisa'.

Our tallest palmetto with Red passion flower and edible passionflower growing up the trunk. Bambusa textilis in background for scale.

Another area recently cleaned from Azaleas. In this bed are two hybrid sylvestris, a queen on the left, a 'Brogdan' avocado in the middle, and Bambusa chungii on the right. Underplanted is an Arenga micrantha, Cz. robusta (orange emergent), Dioon rezedowskii, and Cycas diananensis. Still working on filling this bed up

Edited December 25, 2014 by krishnaraoji88

[Kailua_Krish]

Looking back towards the road you can see the other side of the giant crinum bed. Underplanted are lots of small tropicals including Phaius and Farfugium. There is a Beccariophoenix in this bed that is difficult to see. L. saribus on right

Looking back towards road a little to the right of the large palmetto is the bambusa textilis, S. domengensis, several arenga engleri, and Philodendrons

Looking back to the back property line this bed continues with many other tropical plants and palms. I gave up trying to get out the asian jasmine ground cover (invaded from our neighbors) so I just planted R. excelsia, L. chiniensis, and shell ginger.

Looking towards the pool you can see my BxJ and some sort of tropical Trachycarpus. Bordering plants are camellias and vine is Bauhinia

[Kailua_Krish]

Further down towards pool is my L. decora.

These are the Washingtonia you saw earlier with a L. decora in front, and a few Brahea clara

Looking back towards pool you can see Sabal 'blackburniana' that I cannot seem to clear of scale, Butia odorata, Serenoa repens, and seedlings of Brahea (unsure if clara or brandegeii right now)

Looking back towards house can see the trunks of the queens and Mexican weeping bamboo

[Kailua_Krish]

Behind the queens and on the other side of the pool is our pond. Here is L. chiniensis and decora.

Queens

Our two largest Butiagrus. Both are covered in Red Passionflower and are difficult to photograph

Between the pool and pond are Livistona mulleri (right), Copernicia alba (middle), and Dypsis decipiens (left)

[Kailua_Krish]

Here is a zoom of the Dypsis decipiens. It currently has two trunks and the base of the spear is always reddish. Leaves are a nice emerald to dark green. Dykia 'Cherry Coke' in foreground.

This was back in the back but is a picture of my best Brahea clara, probably 4 or so years from seed.

[Kailua_Krish]

I hope you liked the tour. If you have any questions or suggestions please share! I know there are lots of weeds but I can't be home to weed all the time so Im planning on larger plants shading them out. Most of these beds do have ground covers planted but it takes them time to fill in.

As for the area around the pool we are re-doing our pool and I plan on using 9 Butiagrus for canopy and underplanting with cycads, crinums, Streletzia, and gingers.

[Ben in Norcal]

Looks great! So green and lush...

[tank]

Looking good Krishna! Keep us posted on the progress.

[tank]

Didn't you have a kerriodoxa? Does that guy still sell them and other tropicals out of Ocala?

[Kailua_Krish]

Thanks all! I do still have Kerriodoxa, they are in Post 6 last photo. I'm not sure if they sell them in Ocala, I bought mine from Jeff Searle in 2009 I think. He suggested them and the Chambeyronia as test palms for that planting location as I suspect it is an excellent microclimate (until 2010 the pothos covered those oaks, landscapers cut them all off as they thought with the leaves gone they were dead though I suspect they would have lived).

There is also Lytocaryum and Rhapis multifidia there. There are some Chameadorea radicalis from Ken Johnson in there too!

Also I owe a debt of gratitude to Brad in Tampa who gifted me Cz robusta and hildae seedlings (also source for the USF BG cycads) and started me with cycad collecting!

Edited December 25, 2014 by krishnaraoji88

[Alberto]

Very nice Krishna ! Congratulations! Very lush garden and nice combinations of plants! . The Kerriodoxa is big surprise, Looking at your garden and what you planted it seems your climate is somewhat similar to mine. Maybe a little hottter in summer....?

[smithgn]

Bravo, bravo! What an awesome tour, thanks for taking the time to post these. Has your Kerriodoxa ever been damaged at all in the freezes you've had? Any extra added protection that you've added when it gets into the low 20's? It's been a dream of mine to plant one and to baby it since it doesn't get too tall, but once it gets very large it'll be a bear to completely cover.

[Alicehunter2000]

Geeze Krishna. ...your going to force me to go back and list everything your growing to see how much stuff I'm missing. What a big yardand great collection you have going. What are you going to do when you are interning and no longer living there? Do your parents share any of your same zeal for the botanical treasure you got going?

Now I got to make it a point to get down and see your yard......maybe bring you something you don't already have.

[Kailua_Krish]

Alberto- So my climate has approximately 52 inches of rain a year with the most from June to Sept, Some Jan to March, and very little in Apr-May. The average temp in the coldest month (Jan) is 71F High and 45Low and during the hottest month (Aug) is 93F to 72F. Winters are moderate except for the fronts. These bring frigid weather from the arctic and I believe the all time low was 14 degrees in the 80s (before my time). Yearly lows are around 22-25 though we've had two very mild winters the past two. We still have not had more than a frost this year.

Smithgn- We've covered them in the coldest weather (i.e. when forecast less than 25) with a tarp and placed heat lamps underneath. If not forecast to go below it we just put out heat lamps aimed at them. If only forecast to 27+ we leave them alone. Ive never had any damage and there was one time it got (reported) down to 25 while my family was on vacation and there wasn't any damage on the Kerriodoxa but a few fronds on the Chambeyronia showed some damage. A disclaimer though it that this area they are planted in is a very warm microclimate due to the oaks and the concrete along with 25+ years of rotting oak leaves that make up the mulch.

[Kailua_Krish]

David,

Ive basically fixed it where it is self sufficient with only basic landscape management. It was my goal the entire time to create a nice tropical paradise for my parents who do enjoy the landscape (many of the plants my dad had growing up in India, and my mom likes the beauty of it). Honestly in this part of Florida tropicals are easier to care for than the often planted azaleas, shrubs, and grass because the soil is so rich here that the weeds grow non-stop. The worst are the vining weeds such as smilax (native) and skunk vine (invasive) which love azaleas. In general gingers, ferns, and philodendrons have evolved to resist the rampant growth of vines and grow quickly themselves. Another advantage is that even with the 1980s style freezes these will just come back from the roots and can do so in a single growing season here. As far as listing what is planted I kind of gave up on doing that as I was posting because there were too many small things, for example I realized afterwords I didn't put any pictures of my Allagoptera leucocalyx (strongly suggest getting several of these, seems to be very cold tolerant for me and even tolerated being butchered as it was moved, beautiful silverfish foliage), Encephalartos whitlockii, and Acrocomia (probably I missed many more).

In one way Im actually looking forward to leaving for a while because it will finally allow the landscape to grow. I have a bad habit of continually digging up plants to divide them and fill in the garden more which prevents the gingers from flowering and the landscape from every achieving that 'mature' look. Only being there to visit once a year or so should help with this!

**A note for everything, the largest planted palms were from 5 gallons and was the CIDP & SDP; the large queens, the A. leucocalyx, washingtonia, kerriodoxa, chambeyronia, and the butiagrus in the front were 3 gallons, most of the rest of the palms were planted as 1 gallon (including my largest Butiagrus) or seedlings. Ive found that the smaller I plant things the better they've done for me in the long term... if they survive.

Edited December 26, 2014 by krishnaraoji88

[Rafael]

Krishna, i have enjoyed a lot this tour!

Excelent choices! Loved specially the sylvestris and the jubutyagrus

Congrats and keep on doing such a good work there!

[tank]

Here is the fellow in ocala's website. Appears to be out of all of his palms:

http://www.eldontropicals.com/PALMS.html

Picked up some stuff from him several years ago and it was all really nice.

[Kailua_Krish]

Thanks Rafael! Unfortunately the Sylvestris are a male and female so I have tons of seeds sprouting under them

Jason, Ive almost bought from him before but we never could set up a time for me to go out there. I was interested in some of the rare hardy tropicals they have...

[Josh-O]

[JMBreland]

Very nice tour! Serves as an inspiration for what to plant at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens!

[Kailua_Krish]

Thanks!!! I have lots of smaller plants that don't show up well on the photos yet and a lot of seasonals are dormant right now so if you ever want to know what else I'm trying just ask!

[MOlivera]

Hi Krishna, how has your C. "El mirador" done during the winter? Does it get defoliated? Is it under canopy?