Top 3 Genera

[ahosey01]

If you had to pick up to 3 genera that are your favorite, which would they be?  Why?

Not specific palms… but the genus as a whole.

Mine are Phoenix, Sabal and Livistona.  Tough as nails, minimal care requirements, limited nutrient requirements except for a couple (i.e. rupicola), lots of species of variable form in each genus, etc.

[tim_brissy_13]

For me probably Chrysalidocarpus, Chamaedorea and Chambeyronia. So hard to narrow to 3 but these genera probably have the widest variety of tropical looking palms that I can grow in my location. Chambeyronia less so, but when a genus contains multiple species which could contend for my favourite palm (divaricata, macrocarpa, lepidota, pyriformis…basically all of them!) then I think it needs to be top 3. 
 

Homourable mentions to Archontophoenix, Ceroxylon, Geonoma, Licuala, Lanonia, Syagrus, Brahea, Dypsis, Basselinia, Pritchardia and probably others I’m forgetting. 

[Xenon]

Hydriastele, Licuala, and Pinanga....so much diversity in form, size, color, etc. As far as growing them...one can dream 😄.

[flplantguy]

Only three? Chrysalidocarpus, Chambeyronia, and probably Pinanga. I love color and bold appearance and they are a zone push somewhat here so that means less common. Others not quite on it: Basselinia, Corypha, Coccothrinax, Coppernicia, Archontophoenix, Hyophorbe and others i have not yet fell in love with. Verschaffeltia for thorns, i could go on lol.  Im the same with orchids and succulents.

[idontknowhatnametuse]

Bactris, Acrocomia and Chamaedorea

[Merlyn]

Encephalartos, Cycas, Dioon.  Er....oooooh you meant palms!  That's a lot tougher.  Looking at where I placed high priority palms I'd have to say Beccariophoenix, Copernicia, and Attalea.  Close also-rans for me are Bismarckia, Arenga, and Livistona.  In reality three isn't enough, because the ones that come to kind are the huge canopy palms, at least for me.  Once I have some shade I would probably go for Licuala and other not-sun-hardy types to fill in the undegrowth areas.  

[Jim in Los Altos]

Archontophoenix because of speed of growth to create rainforest-like canopy and their tropical appearance. 
 

Chambeyronia with their incredibly beautiful foliage, many with vibrant red new leaves and pretty trunks. 
 

A tie between Rhopalostylis and Howea each with its own unique look, DEEP green fronds, and vigorous growth in my climate. 

[flplantguy]

38 minutes ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

Archontophoenix because of speed of growth to create rainforest-like canopy and their tropical appearance. 
 

Chambeyronia with their incredibly beautiful foliage, many with vibrant red new leaves and pretty trunks. 
 

A tie between Rhopalostylis and Howea each with its own unique look, DEEP green fronds, and vigorous growth in my climate. 

Those are the California trifecta for me if i lived there, it would be an incredible garden like yours!

[ahosey01]

54 minutes ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

Archontophoenix because of speed of growth to create rainforest-like canopy and their tropical appearance. 
 

Chambeyronia with their incredibly beautiful foliage, many with vibrant red new leaves and pretty trunks. 
 

A tie between Rhopalostylis and Howea each with its own unique look, DEEP green fronds, and vigorous growth in my climate. 

To me Rhopalostylis and Howea don't even exist because I have absolutely no meaningful hope of growing them within a thousand miles of here.... lol

[SeanK]

Not anything I can grow, but

1. Hyophorbe

2. Licuala

3. Jubaea

[James B]

Archontophoenix, Chambeyronia, Roystonea, but would be really hard to leave out Clinostigma and Chrysalidocarpus. 
 

Would not be able to grow Clinostigma without Archontophoenix canopy. They are a bit of a zone push for me but I have 3 growing under protection. 
 

Chambeyronia are pretty bulletproof for me as long as they are in mostly shade. Not being able to enjoy the beauty of their new leaves would be a deal breaker.

Roystonea is such an impressive palm when mature I don’t think I could give up my 3 that are growing.

[Jonathan Haycock]

Tahina - Whole back story, plus shear scale and beauty of this palm. 

Cocos - I emigrated from UK to Australia to grow this genus. They are THE symbol of the tropics, beautiful, and produce coconuts. What more does one want from a palm 😂.

Chrysalidocarpus - Stunningly unique, varied, and interesting. 

[DTS]

Gotta be Sabal, because every one of the species looks cool. Cocos, because I just started to have an intrest in them. And Latania, because I love the colors on all of them!

[Dwarf Fan]

Chamaedorea

Butia

Phoenix 

Cold Hardy Pinnate Palms!

[ASHCVS]

I will stick to what I can grow in coastal SoCal:

1. Hedyscepe

2.  Chambeyronia

3.  Rhopalostylis

 

andy 

[ahosey01]

4 hours ago, SeanK said:

Not anything I can grow, but

1. Hyophorbe

2. Licuala

3. Jubaea

I wonder if there is a place somewhere that a Jubaea and a Hyophorbe could be grown alongside each other.  I think I remember reading that @kinzyjr has Trachycarpus and Roystonea growing together, which blows my mind.

[Billeb]

Not in order of preference: 

 

1) Chambeyronia (Pyriformis, Piersoniorum, Lepidota, Houailou etc)

2) Chrysalidocarpus (Presto, Majorianus, Mananjarensis, Loucomala, too many to list) 

3) Hedyscepe (Canterburyana, Belmoreana, Howea, Lepidorrhachis mooreana.) 

 

-dale 

[rizla023]

No order and which ones I’m growing;

syagrus (sancona, pseudococos, romanzoffiana, coco queen, schizophylla, picrophylla). Fast growth (mostly), I think they look regal if properly cared for.

Archontophoenix (purpurea, cunninghamiana, tuckerii) again, fast growing, self cleaning and dependable 

Those are the two that have worked best for me, so I’m gravitating to them from a practical standpoint, but I’m also growing a handful of Chambeyronia and Hyophorbe that I’m excited for. 

 

[Navarro]

Si tuviera que elegir tres para hacerme un jardín con un clima perfecto para ellas serían chriysalidocarpus,clinostigma y licualas 😍sería perfecto 

[Jonathan Haycock]

14 hours ago, ahosey01 said:

I wonder if there is a place somewhere that a Jubaea and a Hyophorbe could be grown alongside each other.  I think I remember reading that @kinzyjr has Trachycarpus and Roystonea growing together, which blows my mind.

South East Queensland, Australia. I’m growing Adonidia, Roystonea, Hyophorbe, Cocos, Jubaea, Trachycarpus, Parajubaea, Rhopalostylis, Brahea, Medemia successfully amongst many other species ranging from temperate to Uber tropical. 

[ahosey01]

37 minutes ago, Jonathan Haycock said:

South East Queensland, Australia. I’m growing Adonidia, Roystonea, Hyophorbe, Cocos, Jubaea, Trachycarpus, Parajubaea, Rhopalostylis, Brahea, Medemia successfully amongst many other species ranging from temperate to Uber tropical. 

What in the hell is your climate like lol 😆

[flplantguy]

That area and here are quite similar outside of advective freezes. I have a bottle palm and japanese maples growing together. You can get some weird combos in a warm subtropical spot.

[tim_brissy_13]

48 minutes ago, ahosey01 said:

What in the hell is your climate like lol 😆

The Hyophorbe/Jubaea combo wouldn’t be overly uncommon I wouldn’t think. Even I’m growing H indica and Jubaea in Melbourne, so I’d say every Australian mainland capital city is growing both genera in combination except Darwin and Canberra. I’m sure many Californian gardens would contain both too.

Equally Trachy and Roystonea - Perth, Sydney and Brisbane and even Adelaide (marginal for Roystonea) they can grow alongside each other. California too and a fair chunk of the Mediterranean like Southern Spain. 

 

[Jonathan]

Livistona, Chamaedorea, Ceroxylon...yesterday 

Howea, Archontophoenix, Rhopalostylis....today

Tomorrow, who knows!

[NorCalWill]

Brahea - This is my first favorite genus. Brahea armata in bloom may be the most spectacular blooming palm of them all. The other species all have interesting qualities as well. Orioles build hanging nests in Brahea edulis.  Brahea decumbens and Super Silver have stunning white leaves. They're cold hardy, drought tolerant, and can add a tropical look to a garden, plus I can grow them where I live.

Washingtonia - No, I don't like Washingtonia robusta at all, but filifera I love. When grown in the desert, they are ruggedly beautiful, and sitting under a grove of them is magical.

Mauritia - The first time I saw a M. flexuosa, I literally stared at the leaves blowing in the wind for over an hour. I even took a video of it...lol. Then I took a nap under it. Then I left the garden it was in but had to go back to look at it one more time.  An unbelievably beautiful palm that I think about often.

[Jonathan Haycock]

6 hours ago, ahosey01 said:

What in the hell is your climate like lol 😆

Sub-tropical. Typically warm wet summers, cool dry winters. I moved to SE QLD specifically to grow many temperate species as well as tropicals. Much further North, I couldn't get away with a Jubaea. 

[DoomsDave]

On 6/5/2024 at 6:04 AM, tim_brissy_13 said:

For me probably Chrysalidocarpus, Chamaedorea and Chambeyronia. So hard to narrow to 3 but these genera probably have the widest variety of tropical looking palms that I can grow in my location. Chambeyronia less so, but when a genus contains multiple species which could contend for my favourite palm (divaricata, macrocarpa, lepidota, pyriformis…basically all of them!) then I think it needs to be top 3. 
 

Homourable mentions to Archontophoenix, Ceroxylon, Geonoma, Licuala, Lanonia, Syagrus, Brahea, Dypsis, Basselinia, Pritchardia and probably others I’m forgetting. 

Me too. 
 

Not like I’ll stop there!

[bruce Steele]

Jubaea, Parajubaea, and Jubaeopsis.  Because I can find seed , and that they germinate . They are all nice and graceful as they grow but luckily the parajubaea are fast enough to see what an adult might look like in a garden I planted. 
 The Jubaea are not head high yet after ten years in the ground but they look like they will be happy and live long. The Jubaeopsis is more or less a pipe dream but if I can get a few more of them to germinate they may find future care on the more tropical side of the Coast range in Santa Barbara . 

[kinzyjr]

On 6/5/2024 at 11:49 PM, ahosey01 said:

I wonder if there is a place somewhere that a Jubaea and a Hyophorbe could be grown alongside each other.  I think I remember reading that @kinzyjr has Trachycarpus and Roystonea growing together, which blows my mind.

Trachycarpus and Howea coupled with Roystonea, Veitchia and Coconuts   I still haven't cracked the code on Jubaea and some of the other desert palms, but that's the fun of it.

I couldn't really pick a top 3 other than if I had to start a clean slate here and only use 3 palms, they would have to be Serenoa repens, Acoelorraphe wrightii, Roystonea regia.  This way, my garden is all natives and I get an understory palm, a clumping mid-size palm, and a large crownshaft palm.

[PalmatierMeg]

Chamaedorea, Chambeyronia, Coccothrinax

 

[Hurricanepalms]

Cocos, Calyptrocaylx and Pinanga. Tough to pick only three. Maybe a top 10 would be easier lol. 

[meridannight]

I don't think I could narrow my palm preferences down to just 3 genera, but here are the first 3 that come to mind:

Raphia
Latania
Basselinia

I so want Latania palms, any of them. Didn't succeed in germinating L. verschaffeltii, but I will try again once I see fresh seeds on the market again.

 

[Marius]

Parajubaea 

Brahea

Chamaedorea

These three do really well in my climate and they have lots of species ( especially the last two) (also Sabal, Livistona, Phoenix, Trithrinax and Syagrus)

[ruskinPalms]

Chrysalidocarpus, Coccothrinax and Sabal. I think there would be enough variety within those genuses from big to small, clumping to solitary, pinnate to costapalmate to palmate, plumose to planar, green to blue, trunking to non-trunking etc.  And, there are plenty within those genuses that actually do well in my area. 

[sonoranfans]

I had a yard with only 4 total genera in zone 9a(desert).  I am happy to not be limited like that now, though there are surely many hundreds of palms that wont make it here in (cool) 10a florida.  I think where you live has a lot to do with what will survive and happy growing there.  If I was to ask which 3 I would miss the most in my yard, it would be copernicia, satakentia and chambeyronia.  

[Cindy Adair]

So glad I am not limited to growing just three genera!

Tonight I am picking Licuala, Cyrtostachys and Johannesteijsmannia. 
 

 

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

3 genus I can grow : Sabal , Chamaedorea , Patric hybrids. 

Wish I could grow : Dypsis , Beccariophoenix,  Attalea 

T J 

[bubba]

Cocos (nucifera), Roystonea (regia) and Copernicia (fallaensis). Great thread/topic!

I would like to be able to grow Rhopies and Ceroxolon. Climate envy!

Kopsick Garden in St. Pete had a Jubea caffra growing next to a Cocos nucifera for years. Not certain if it is still around.

This is a local juxtaposition that I posted recently. Chamerops growing next to a Cocos nucifera: