Some palms in my garden in Santa Marinella, Roma

[Tomas]

I have been growing exotic plants for nearly 40years, on balconies, terraces and now, since 2016, I also have a garden, 50 km north of Rome, about 300 m distant from the sea. To give an idea about the climate, zone 9b, there were nice big Ficus elastica trees, some 5-10 m high, but they nearly all got wiped out by two consecutive winter freezes in 2017 and 2018.

Some of the palms you will see were grown in pots on my terrace in Rome for nearly 20 years and then transplanted into the garden

The garden was quite empty so except the Araucaria, these are all new plantings

 

I really like King palms

Bismarckia nobilis

Jubaeopsis caffra

 Blooming like crazy, but no fruits

Parajubaea, lost the spear after being planted and stayed for 2 years without any sign of life, but is resuming normal growth now

Archontophoenix cunninghamiana and Brahea armata

Beccariophoenix alfredii

Copernicia alba

Ravenea glauca

Pritchardia hillebrandii

Caryota obtusa

A Brahea

Another Bismarckia

Rhopalostylis sapida

Jubaea chilensis

Caryota urens

Brahea edulis

A Sabal

Dypsis decaryi

Butiagrus nabonnandii

Caryota ochlandra and Phoenix roebelenii

Edited June 4, 2022 by Tomas

[el-blanco]

Fantastic!!!!  Bucket list to visit your country!

[EPaul]

GREAT collection Tomas!! I've been trying to get my hands on Caryota obtusa and urens for quite some time.  The only kind they like to sell in Florida 9B is Caryota Mitis - but they are not that cold hardy and will die back in a freeze.

[palmfriend]

This is an impressive collection of very good looking palms!

Thank you very much for sharing it with us!

best regards from Okinawa -

Lars

 

[pietropuccio]

Hi Tomas, years ago you told me you had a dream, that of a tropical garden, the dream has become a great reality, my compliments and best wishes to enrich it again as you wish.

[Cindy Adair]

These are just beautiful and I am so glad you are now able to live your dream!

[pohonkelapa]

Wow! Wonderful garden!!! 

[Jadd Correia]

Such an amazing garden. Each individual species looks great and will only get more established with time. I have a lot of the palms that you have in your garden, but only planted in the past 1-2 years so much smaller. Seeing your palms further along is inspiring and I hope you continue with updates. One of the best posts in a while. 

[Kim]

Great collection! Congratulations on the thriving garden. Nice to see the Jubaeopsis caffra and the Ravenea glauca in the mix. Everything looking very healthy.

[gilles06]

Good job

[Tomas]

Thank you all for your comments, yes, as Pietro says, years ago I had a dream, I even had time to abandon it, could not find anything suitable and there were other preferences.  And then it came, unexpectedly, the nearly perfect garden. The more I garden there, the more I realize all the things a good garden must have. And I can say this one is a good one. But still, after nearly six years of battle, I can say only small parts of my ideas got realised, it is far far from being finished. At the other side, as long as I will like gardening, I will never be bored in my life.  

 

Lars, my greetings to Okinawa, I follow your posts and I really like your palms, so different from what is grown in the Mediterranean climate

 

Jadd Correia, I remember Pietro Puccio saying, years ago, that he couldn't wait to be able to walk UNDER his palm trees. When, on the other hand, some of my palms were still in the pots, I could already walk under them, but by transferring them to the ground, they lowered by 2 feet or more, and therefore I have to wait again 

 

Kim, those two rarest palms miraculously ended up in my hands and have survived all years in pots, but my goal is to achieve a look of a palm-filled garden rather than have a collection of rare plants, I feel too old for the second option. In addition, it will also be a problem to make many of my palms live well in a climate where they are certainly at the limit

Edited June 7, 2022 by Tomas

[happypalms]

On 6/5/2022 at 2:37 AM, Tomas said:

I have been growing exotic plants for nearly 40years, on balconies, terraces and now, since 2016, I also have a garden, 50 km north of Rome, about 300 m distant from the sea. To give an idea about the climate, zone 9b, there were nice big Ficus elastica trees, some 5-10 m high, but they nearly all got wiped out by two consecutive winter freezes in 2017 and 2018.

Some of the palms you will see were grown in pots on my terrace in Rome for nearly 20 years and then transplanted into the garden

The garden was quite empty so except the Araucaria, these are all new plantings

 

I really like King palms

Bismarckia nobilis

Jubaeopsis caffra

 Blooming like crazy, but no fruits

Parajubaea, lost the spear after being planted and stayed for 2 years without any sign of life, but is resuming normal growth now

Archontophoenix cunninghamiana and Brahea armata

Beccariophoenix alfredii

Copernicia alba

Ravenea glauca

Pritchardia hillebrandii

Caryota obtusa

A Brahea

Another Bismarckia

Rhopalostylis sapida

Jubaea chilensis

Caryota urens

Brahea edulis

A Sabal

Dypsis decaryi

Butiagrus nabonnandii

Caryota ochlandra and Phoenix roebelenii

Nice collection of palms some unusual ones at that nice gardening skills the older we get the better our palms get 

[DoomsDave]

@Tomas

Belissimo! Or belissima….

[The Palm Nut]

Nice!

[Tomas]

Maybe it is time for some update

The last freeze was in 2018 and the "jungle" is getting nice, maybe a bit out of control

 

Archontophoenix cunninghamiana, with only 1,2 meter of stem, it is flowering continuously

 

Another Archontophoenix, probably x albang

 

Butiagrus

 

Bismarckia

 

Beccariophoenix alfredii

 

Caryota obtusa

 

Brahea armata

 

Chrysalidocarpus decaryi

 

Brahea edulis

 

Copernicia alba

 

I will post more later

[gyuseppe]

Hello Tomas,(Ciao Tomas)
where exactly is your garden? On the Lazio coast?

[Than]

15 hours ago, Tomas said:

Maybe it is time for some update

The last freeze was in 2018 and the "jungle" is getting nice, maybe a bit out of control

 

Archontophoenix cunninghamiana, with only 1,2 meter of stem, it is flowering continuously

 

Another Archontophoenix, probably x albang

 

Butiagrus

 

Bismarckia

 

Beccariophoenix alfredii

 

Caryota obtusa

 

Brahea armata

 

Chrysalidocarpus decaryi

 

Brahea edulis

 

Copernicia alba

 

I will post more later

Such a beautiful little jungle! Your plants all look so healthy and lush! You are living the dream. Our climate is very similar I see. I am also where Ficus elastica can live but on the verge.. what kind of soil do you have? Alkaline?

Which palms grow the fastest there?

[Phoenikakias]

3 hours ago, gyuseppe said:

Hello Tomas,(Ciao Tomas)
where exactly is your garden? On the Lazio coast?

I think Santa Marinella right on the cross of Ligurian with Tyrrhenian Sea.

[Phoenikakias]

You're Tomas Kubicek right? I think you had been keeping in your apartment a very nice collection of Plumeria. Have you planted them out in your garden and in such case how do they perform? Also is local soil sand? This would be a great asset for this latitude. Have you tried any Heliconia in the ground there?

[ChrisA]

Great to see this update! They all look to be growing well and the lushness is really filling in. Congratulations!🎊 

[Tomas]

The garden Is 50 km WNW of Rome, 42 latitude N.

There is a 30 cm (one foot) thick layer of good topsoil, below a sticky clay, pH 8, but no limestone. I am very happy with it, with the ongoing drought it holds enough water, but sometimes I can give some supplemental water even in winter.

And I mulch heavily 

There is only one plumeria in the garden , potted, when planted in ground, plumerias will rot, also any temperature below 0°C will kill them.

[Tomas]

some more palms

 

A mystery Chamaedorea

 

Ceroxylon quindiuense, not really happy there, I have another one in pot that grows much better

 

Some plants in full shade, Archontophoenix alexandrae, a Tachycarpus, Livistona australis

 

Chamaedorea cataractarum

 

Trithrinax acanthocoma

 

Rhopalostylis sapida, getting too much sun

 

Pritchardia hillebrandii, the smaller one, but more photogenic

 

Jubaeopsis affra

 

Chamaedorea ernesti augusti

 

Another Bismarckia

 

Chamaedorea microspadic with nice velvety leaves

 

Another mystery Chamaedorea, probably a hybrid

 

It has not been freezing for 7 years, so I am flying higher 🙂

Roystonea regia

 

Ravenea rivularis

 

[Tomas]

The fastest palms? Syagrus romanzoffiana and Archontophoenix cunninghamiana

[Phoenikakias]

14 hours ago, Tomas said:

The garden Is 50 km WNW of Rome, 42 latitude N.

There is a 30 cm (one foot) thick layer of good topsoil, below a sticky clay, pH 8, but no limestone. I am very happy with it, with the ongoing drought it holds enough water, but sometimes I can give some supplemental water even in winter.

And I mulch heavily 

There is only one plumeria in the garden , potted, when planted in ground, plumerias will rot, also any temperature below 0°C will kill them.

30 cm top soil constitutes a tremendous advantage. You hear @Than?

[Frond-friend42]

Tremendous job growing the dream.

[guillerman]

love it, insane job Tomas. Didn´t know you could push many of those species in Rome; inspiring

[Tomas]

On 11/22/2025 at 12:18 PM, guillerman said:

love it, insane job Tomas. Didn´t know you could push many of those species in Rome; inspiring

I don't know either , only few of the most tender palms went through the trial of a hard freeze.

In 2017 a newly planted Archontophoenix cunninghamiana lost its spear, but since than recovered perfectly, so it is also a question of frequency of the freezes.  The Roystonea for example is an experiment, it could handle the winters here, but could also be damaged too often and in that case I do not want to look at a palm that will recover just to be damaged again.

[Than]

On 11/19/2025 at 7:24 PM, Tomas said:

The garden Is 50 km WNW of Rome, 42 latitude N.

There is a 30 cm (one foot) thick layer of good topsoil, below a sticky clay, pH 8, but no limestone. I am very happy with it, with the ongoing drought it holds enough water, but sometimes I can give some supplemental water even in winter.

And I mulch heavily 

There is only one plumeria in the garden , potted, when planted in ground, plumerias will rot, also any temperature below 0°C will kill them.

Dang, same as mine! I have 20 cm of sandy acidic topsoil and below there is calcareous ph 8 soil. You're giving me hope! I will cover my plumerias with Xmas lights if the temperatures get close to zero.

[Than]

4 hours ago, Tomas said:

I don't know either , only few of the most tender palms went through the trial of a hard freeze.

In 2017 a newly planted Archontophoenix cunninghamiana lost its spear, but since than recovered perfectly, so it is also a question of frequency of the freezes.  The Roystonea for example is an experiment, it could handle the winters here, but could also be damaged too often and in that case I do not want to look at a palm that will recover just to be damaged again.

What was the lowest temperatures back in 2017?

[Tomas]

21 hours ago, Than said:

What was the lowest temperatures back in 2017?

-3 or -4°C, the thermometer is not really exact. Anyway, the temperature was close to the official record low ever measured in Santa Marinella (1971). Than there was another freeze in 2018 and this combo got most of the Ficus elastica and other tender plants.