This winter has sucked in oh so many ways. Going backwards from now, my Mom passed away March 12th, the worst by far. But since this is a palm forum, I won't dwell on that.

I think I will make the best of it and a make a guessing game of it. Guess two "rare to get big around here in Southern California" palms that died between late January and early March. Guess the types and what I think most likely killed them. (Len and Josh, you are exempt from playing since I told you.. but are welcome to mislead...lol )

 

I'll post pics of before, then the afters soon enough if you can stomach it.

 

Only clue to start with, few people attempt to grow these two anywhere....

Bill I'm really sorry for your loss...

Bill.....sorry for the loss.

As for the plans.....lets start with Dypsis?

Palms.

Thanks Ando and Jim. I think not taking the time to ask about her youth is what I regret the most.

Jim, as for the palm, not Dypsis(ii)?  They tend to be bullet proof around here.

Really sorry to hear about your mum, Bill. Something I dread having to go through. About your palms, I'll guess Lemurophoenix. Hmm. You're pretty good with New Cal stuff. Can't think of anything else.

Or I'll take a blind stab at Chambeyronia lepidota..

Syagrus glauscescens - 'cause you accidentally drove your truck over it?

Lemurophoenix - I know you lost that one, although not sure that's it (at least people are 'attempting' to grow that)

If not Lemur then Clinosperma bracteale perhaps. Lost it to man-eating parrots?

Edited March 31, 201610 yr by Pando

5 hours ago, BS Man about Palms said:

This winter has sucked in oh so many ways. Going backwards from now, my Mom passed away March 12th, the worst by far. But since this is a palm forum, I won't dwell on that.

I think I will make the best of it and a make a guessing game of it. Guess two "rare to get big around here in Southern California" palms that died between late January and early March. Guess the types and what I think most likely killed them. (Len and Josh, you are exempt from playing since I told you.. but are welcome to mislead...lol )

 

I'll post pics of before, then the afters soon enough if you can stomach it.

 

Only clue to start with, few people attempt to grow these two anywhere....

Sorry to hear about your mom, been there done that.*

No clue about your lost plants, but I lost a nice Parajube cocoides, and a P. sunkha for no apparent reason.

Hmm. I'll guess a Lemuriophoenix. Or two?

 

* Mom and dad; it doesn't get easier after the first time.

Bill, was it your stash of W. robustas you were secretly raising behind the garage? Gets awful cold there.

Thanks Bret and Dave. On a lighter note, Greg, that might make me overly happy!

So a few of you were right guessing the Lemur. Here's one of the last pics before its demise. Now the hard part, try to guess why I think it died.. NOT directly due frost on the roofs around here. I think it survived that fine.

 

Now to guess the other... it was one of my all time favs, but that may have been too big of a clue.

Not your Kentiopsis p; right? Say it ain't so...

all I can say is that I was lucky to see it before it went to palm heaven.

Your Coconut...

2 hours ago, quaman58 said:

Not your Kentiopsis p; right? Say it ain't so...

Sadly you are right.. Here it is slightly before death.. or rapid decline

4 minutes ago, BS Man about Palms said:

Sadly you are right.. Here it is slightly before death.. or rapid decline

Did you do do a fungicide drench? If not do it asap!

Noooooooooo! 

Sounds like it was a rough year, and condolences regarding your mother.  Regarding the K pyriformis, this was mine in late 2014... and it didn't make it through this last winter either.  Not sure what it did it in, but maybe when my neighbor trimmed their King palm and I came out to find the cutting laying across it I should have gotten a clue.  I suspect my B koghiensis decline this last winter was partly due to the same reason, but can't be certain.  I didn't cry, but I did open a nice bottle of wine to drown my sorrows... how did you cope???

8 hours ago, Tracy said:

Sounds like it was a rough year, and condolences regarding your mother.  Regarding the K pyriformis, this was mine in late 2014... and it didn't make it through this last winter either.  Not sure what it did it in, but maybe when my neighbor trimmed their King palm and I came out to find the cutting laying across it I should have gotten a clue.  I suspect my B koghiensis decline this last winter was partly due to the same reason, but can't be certain.  I didn't cry, but I did open a nice bottle of wine to drown my sorrows... how did you cope???

Good plan!

9 hours ago, BS Man about Palms said:

Sadly you are right.. Here it is slightly before death.. or rapid decline

Ouch......that sucks.

Thanks Tracy. BTW it was a Kentiopsis piersoniorum, not a pyriformis that carked. I've actually had good luck with the pyriformis and have 2 in my yard.

Josh, I drenched it right away after I talked to you (Thanks Len! ) but to no avail...

 

Time to see if anyone can ascertain the cause for the demise..

Here's what's left of the Lemur.. it bit it more than a month ago... Guess its cause of death.

Sorry to hear of your loss.

Re the palms I can only guess. Trunk injury for the Kentiopsis and dog pee for the Lemurophoenix.

8 hours ago, BS Man about Palms said:

Thanks Tracy. BTW it was a Kentiopsis piersoniorum, not a pyriformis that carked. I've actually had good luck with the pyriformis and have 2 in my yard.

Josh, I drenched it right away after I talked to you (Thanks Len! ) but to no avail...

 

Time to see if anyone can ascertain the cause for the demise..

Dang Bill!! I cant believe it set back that fast?

I'm guessing it was the gophers that are out of control in the yard adjacent to your K. P. ?

OUCH!

 

SPDS (Sudden Palm Death Syndrome) what a bummer. That palm took no small amount of time to raise to that size.

Ouch.

Well, what I firmly believe caused the deaths

On the Kentiopsis piersoniorum, this palm has been in full coastal sun for years, seen frost in the vicinity, had very dry heat, and temps between 30F and 98F and been just fine. What it HAD NOT seen until about 4-5 weeks ago was a very fast moving brutal winter storm. Where I live I rarely see any winds over 20mph. We had a big storm a month or so ago with overnight temps well into the low 40's..WITH a high wind warning. I had heard predictions of 40-45 mph winds and it sure felt like it!!! I was sitting in my house bracing up and watched several pieces of furniture try to blow off my upstairs deck, tumbling over to the railing! (not plastic chairs mind you!) A neighbor said a week ago he had seen a notice that Oceanside recorded some 70mph gusts.  This palm needs full coastal sun I finally determined years ago and had it at the edge of my property, "pointed" towards the open lot next door (It had an ever so slight curve as many do..) Well, that was the direction of the storm... a couple times I had gone down to look at it and see what I could do just as much as I was curious if it had snapped off. I was worried about disturbing the roots, having a cable slice thru and just decided to hope for the best. I had no severe wind game plan.

Next day was still a little stormy, but I could see it  was still there and looked okay. It had a big spear about due to open and the tip of another peeking out too. The next day I marked the spear. It moved a 1/4" over the next 2 days... (about normal).. then nothing.. I looked close again and noticed the lowest leaf was BROWN... fast. I cut it off and told myself it was because of the new spear was ready to open, but I already had that sinking feeling... A few days later Josh came by and as I showed Josh I could see the end of the next oldest leaf starting to shrivel... Thanks to Len's help I drenched it with some heavy duty fungicides... but it could not help... .  What I am sure happened is the winds lifted and twisted the palm just enough to break some roots, etc. and the cold wet weather was perfect to let the pathogens have their way with my lovely palm... days after the last drench I heard of my moms passing..., not connected, but just a final blow...

Thanks Rich.. I appreciate it. And technically I think you are right on the K.p.

 

On a side note.. as I just posted the above, I rolled up and down to look at the before and after and realised just how much the wind twisted and broke it... internally?

 

While all pics were taken at more or less the same angle, I noticed in the good pic, the lowest leaf to the right is the one I cut that went brown. That cut leaf you can see is now in the center bottom on the "bad pic". The nice "background" top leaf in the good pic is the one on the RIGHT in the bad pic..twisted 90 degrees at least?

 

Now for the Lemur... I'll try to keep it shorter... but as my old tag used to say here... "I do the learning so you don't have to.." 

 

Anyway, as several had noted, it was always an interesting zone push... but as with the K.p. I still think its doable.. anyway. As I noted early Early this year I saw cool enough temps that there was frost on some roofs, but not on the ground. Since I had Lemurs survive the 2007 freeze in the cold frame, I was okay with the frost. HOWEVER in the San Diego area we set an all time record for the warmest February on record! Within a week or so of the frost, my house was seeing temps approaching the 80'sF... sadly the humidity level dropped to the teens or lower. With a forecast of a week or more of temps in the 80's and single digit humidity I was worried. I have traditionally had my best luck not watering in the winter, but the temps scared me. However I knew the soil was still cold.. . I decided to risk it and did some watering in the yard. Within a day or so 85+F was here for a few days... Sadly, by the 3rd day, the Lemur, even though shaded, the oldest leaf started to get the dull brown/green leaf like you left a plant in a hot car too long?? The palm was getting toasted. By the end of of the next week of temps merely only in the high 70's, the other leafs were definitely succumbing to the same "toasted fate".. I held out hope for the spear as it still had some green... but when I finally could see it had shriveled I knew it was gone.. (NOTE all the above weather did not faze the piersoniorum at all and this was prior to the big storm)

So, my takeaway was that due to the cold soil, the palm was still in its "winter hibernation mode" if you will and not prepared or able to uptake enough enough moisture to withstand the dry high heat. (It had gone thru that in the summer more or less okay.)

I still have a couple more in 2 gal pots to try, but I think these need special requirements difficult to provide here as the dry high heat in winter is not terribly uncommon in these parts...

1 hour ago, BS Man about Palms said:

Well, what I firmly believe caused the deaths

On the Kentiopsis piersoniorum, this palm has been in full coastal sun for years, seen frost in the vicinity, had very dry heat, and temps between 30F and 98F and been just fine. What it HAD NOT seen until about 4-5 weeks ago was a very fast moving brutal winter storm. Where I live I rarely see any winds over 20mph. We had a big storm a month or so ago with overnight temps well into the low 40's..WITH a high wind warning. I had heard predictions of 40-45 mph winds and it sure felt like it!!! I was sitting in my house bracing up and watched several pieces of furniture try to blow off my upstairs deck, tumbling over to the railing! (not plastic chairs mind you!) A neighbor said a week ago he had seen a notice that Oceanside recorded some 70mph gusts.  This palm needs full coastal sun I finally determined years ago and had it at the edge of my property, "pointed" towards the open lot next door (It had an ever so slight curve as many do..) Well, that was the direction of the storm... a couple times I had gone down to look at it and see what I could do just as much as I was curious if it had snapped off. I was worried about disturbing the roots, having a cable slice thru and just decided to hope for the best. I had no severe wind game plan.

Next day was still a little stormy, but I could see it  was still there and looked okay. It had a big spear about due to open and the tip of another peeking out too. The next day I marked the spear. It moved a 1/4" over the next 2 days... (about normal).. then nothing.. I looked close again and noticed the lowest leaf was BROWN... fast. I cut it off and told myself it was because of the new spear was ready to open, but I already had that sinking feeling... A few days later Josh came by and as I showed Josh I could see the end of the next oldest leaf starting to shrivel... Thanks to Len's help I drenched it with some heavy duty fungicides... but it could not help... .  What I am sure happened is the winds lifted and twisted the palm just enough to break some roots, etc. and the cold wet weather was perfect to let the pathogens have their way with my lovely palm... days after the last drench I heard of my moms passing..., not connected, but just a final blow...

I forgot about those winds. We got nailed hard up on the hill at my carlsbad garden. My foxylady got shredded bit has pushed a new leaf since.

I know of two other people who lost really nice dypsis just the way you described it Bill.

I nearly lost my one and only (and irreplaceable here)  Slick Willy to wind damage.  The oldest leaf was prematurely ripped off and rot set in.  Fortunately I spotted it early enough and H2O2 applied to the soft spot in the trunk twice daily for a week seemed to do the trick.

Sorry to hear about the Kentiopsis piersoniorum Bill as for the Lumer i am surprised it lasted as  i would have guessed it to be very marginal in Oceanside as they wont grow in coastal Sydney that has an overall warmer and more humid climate.

Is the Leppidorrachis still alive and kicking Bill ?

9 hours ago, Tassie_Troy1971 said:

Is the Leppidorrachis still alive and kicking Bill ?

Just had to kick a man when he was down Troy? :)

10 hours ago, Tassie_Troy1971 said:

Sorry to hear about the Kentiopsis piersoniorum Bill as for the Lumer i am surprised it lasted as  i would have guessed it to be very marginal in Oceanside as they wont grow in coastal Sydney that has an overall warmer and more humid climate.

Is the Leppidorrachis still alive and kicking Bill ?

That little guy saw a little too much sun and a few 95F 5% humidity days and it couldn't hack it. I think I could get one to go in a few spots in the front yard now... fairly shady out there..

Ouch sorry BIll re Lepi

You still have an amazing palm collection and the Big curly has to be  a landmark in the area by now ! We have all lost favorite palms at one time or another.

cheer Troy

Sorry to hear about your Mom Bill, and your poor specimens, Ed

Thank You Ed. 

 

As an addendum, I was talking to Cardiff Bill last week and he had a lot of damage and death from that same high wind storm also. (Bill is about 15 miles south of me) Anyway, he also said his neighbor is a weather buff and his monitoring station registered 68mph winds before it blew it off the roof!

9 hours ago, BS Man about Palms said:

Thank You Ed. 

 

As an addendum, I was talking to Cardiff Bill last week and he had a lot of damage and death from that same high wind storm also. (Bill is about 15 miles south of me) Anyway, he also said his neighbor is a weather buff and his monitoring station registered 68mph winds before it blew it off the roof!

For us here in coastal San Diego these winds at this speed are not normal. Inland mountain passes and peaks yes this is normal. I have also observed lots of damage in the local Gardens along the coast. I have two foxy ladies that are growing over the second story of my roof that were shredded from this windstorm. Luckily they are growing back with quickly.