planning a palm garden in Thailand

[John Eve]

Anyone planning a trip to Thailand in about 5 - 10 years might find this new garden worth visiting.  It should be if I am successful. 

Behind the beach resort of Hua Hin, 2 hours south of Bangkok.

I note how slow growing many palms are for the members in cold climates.  Here it's quite different, so I am confident there will be something worth seeing in about 5 years.
All trees are from seed collected in Thailand over the past 3 years, so they're still small now.  I have about 20 more species that are still too small to plant, and am still planning to expand that.
John E

River L - Palm garden 1 - 5Sep.pdf River L - Palm garden 2 - 5Sep.pdf

[John Eve]

I think this needs JPEG ...

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

Welcome to Palm Talk!!! Wow I can't wait to see pics of the first palms going into the ground. Also the fact your growing this garden from seeds is even more impressive. 

T J 

[John Eve]

The 130 palms mentioned above, and shown by code on the aerial photos, are the ones currently in the ground.
However, the total is now 152 in the ground.  I have been rushing the plantings because we have less than 2 months of rainy season remaining.
I have about 500 more small ones in a green house, all grown from seed collected around Thailand.  When they are large enough, it will give me another 20 species, bringing the species total to over 60 if all survive.

[Kim]

Very interesting. Curious what your past experience growing palms has been? It's great to see this level of enthusiasm and I look forward to your 5-year mark! It's going to be quite special.

 

[Billeb]

Damn….never thought to actually PLAN out the locations!! 😂 The gardens are going to be epic for sure. Good luck, although I don’t think you’ll need it in one of the best places to grow palms and rare plants. 
 

-dale

[John Eve]

Experience growing palms?
I spend a career as photographer and writer in S.E. Asia, and found myself forever framing my shots with palms.  So while I have loved them for decades, I had no experience growing them till I retired, sort of, to Hua Hin, south of Bangkok  and found a nice big block of land beside a small river. 

Started collecting seeds 3 years ago, and now have 61 species, many of them still too small to plant out in their permanent locations.  Eventually there will be a few hundred more palms on the land, with a large lotus pond in the middle, and lots of ferns, my second passion.

And yes, I have great conditions for growing palms here. While Hua Hin is drier than most of Thailand, I do have a river right alongside.

JE

[palmfriend]

John,

your palms should be al right - plant and watch them growing. Be aware of possible threats (eg. deseases, bugs or soil condition to name a few) 

but I am sure most of your palms will do well. There are other palm talk members from Thailand with some great footage that will give you an 

impression how blessed you are when with your area. 

 

regards from Okinawa 

Lars

 

[Merlyn]

On 9/18/2022 at 7:34 AM, Billeb said:

Damn….never thought to actually PLAN out the locations!! 😂

yeah that's one of my problems.  I wanted to plan and diagram everything out before planting anything.  So I ended up with "paralysis by analysis" and nothing went into the ground.  Instead I probably double my efforts because I plant something, plant other things, then realize I don't like the first thing where it is, then transplant it, then move it a second time because I found another new plant that I really want in that spot, then...er...you get the idea!  Add in palm deaths from random winter freezes and you can guess that progress is sometimes slow!

For me, I found that picking a couple of key plants for any area was ideal.  If I can pick one or two that I know I want there, then it becomes a lot easier to fill in the "other stuff."

[John Eve]

On 9/19/2022 at 3:40 PM, palmfriend said:

John,

your palms should be al right - plant and watch them growing. Be aware of possible threats (eg. deseases, bugs or soil condition to name a few) 

but I am sure most of your palms will do well. There are other palm talk members from Thailand with some great footage that will give you an 

impression how blessed you are when with your area. 

 

regards from Okinawa 

Lars

 

Lars,  
Thanks for the encouragement.  Yes, I'm lucky with a tropical climate, but unfortunately I have yet to learn anything about palm diseases etc.  No doubt I will, with so many different species. I hope to expand from my current 62 species by visiting other palm gardens in Thailand, collecting more seeds.  One guy about 200 kms away says he has 300 species. 
So far my germination efforts have been quite successful, with few die-offs, and nothing that I recognize as a disease.

Cheers, John