Simply Juania Australis

[Hu Palmeras]

4 hours ago, tim_brissy_13 said:

Me imagino plantando palmeras de clima frío en los Jardines Botánicos de la Cordillera del Monte Dandenong en Olinda, Victoria. Tienen una colección de bosque nuboso y creo que Ceroxylon, Parajubaea, Hedyscepe, Lepidorrhachis, Geonoma de altura y posiblemente Juania prosperarían allí. Precipita más del doble que en el área metropolitana de Melbourne y temperaturas mucho más bajas durante todo el año. Cuando lo visité en febrero de este año, ¡hizo 11 °C (52 °F) todo el día con llovizna! A pesar de estar a unos 600 m sobre el nivel del mar, la temperatura mínima rara vez baja de cero. La Archontophoenix cunninghamiana que vi en los jardines era mejor que cualquier otro ejemplar de Melbourne. Temperaturas promedio mensuales:

 

Very cool my friend

[Hu Palmeras]

7 hours ago, Tyrone said:

Quizás un ejemplar más viejo pueda soportar las temperaturas que describes, pero los ejemplares jóvenes no. Además, las condiciones promedio influyen mucho. Si se dan las condiciones adecuadas, el 99 % de las veces, un ejemplar más viejo y establecido en el suelo puede tolerar un par de brotes fuera de rango durante un período prolongado, pero eso disminuye considerablemente para las plántulas. Si las temperaturas están fuera de rango durante más tiempo, las posibilidades disminuyen rápidamente. Habiéndolos probado como plántulas, dudo que en ningún lugar del continente australiano tengan alguna posibilidad. Si vives en una isla alejada del sur de Australia (Isla King, etc.) rodeada de brisas marinas constantes en un lugar perfecto, o en el sur de Tasmania en un lugar similar, creo que tienes buenas posibilidades. Las Islas Chatham, frente a Nueva Zelanda, también serían ideales. 

Very cool my friend

[Tassie_Troy1971]

10 hours ago, Tyrone said:

Maybe an older specimen can breeze through the temps you describe but young specimens can’t. Also the average conditions have a lot to do with it. If the right conditions happen 99% of the time an older established in the ground specimen can tolerate a couple of spikes out of the range over an extended period of time, but that diminishes greatly for seedlings. If your temps are out of range for more than that your chances quickly diminish. Having tried them as seedlings, I doubt anywhere on the Australian mainland would ever stand a chance. If you live on an offshore island off southern Australia (King Island etc) surrounded by constant sea breezes in a perfect spot, or southern Tassie in a similar place you have a good chance I reckon. The Chatham Islands off NZ would be ideal too. 

Tyrone 

I would have the perfect climate for Juanita australis at my place where Leppidorachis mooreana ,ceroxylon and Hedyscepe grow like escapees in the ground 😀 

Unfortunately very little chance of ever obtaining seeds.

[Jonathan]

9 hours ago, tim_brissy_13 said:

I’ve got a vision of getting some cool climate palms up onto the Mt Dandenong Ranges Botanic Gardens in Olinda, VIC. They have a cloudforest collection and I think Ceroxylon, Parajubaea, Hedyscepe, Lepidorrhachis, high elevation Geonoma and potentially Juania would do well there. More than twice the rainfall compared to Melbourne metropolitan area and much cooler year round temps. When I visited in February this year, it was 11C (52F) all day with light rain! Despite being around 600m above sea level, the minimum temperature rarely if ever drops below freezing. The Archontophoenix cunninghamiana I saw in the gardens there was better than any example in Melbourne. Monthly temp averages:

 

Ha! That's basically Hobart in the hills of Melbourne. Eerily similar.

[gyuseppe]

2 hours ago, Jonathan said:

Ha! That's basically Hobart in the hills of Melbourne. Eerily similar.

are these Celsius temperatures?

[Tyrone]

1 hour ago, gyuseppe said:

are these Celsius temperatures?

Yes. 

The Dandenongs make Hobart look warm. 

[Tyrone]

In my experience Juania seedlings do not like dewpoints above 15C, whereas Leppidorachis seem to go backwards at dewpoints around 20C. Unfortunately we can get 15C dewpoints in winter and dewpoints above 20C are common in summer. It’s not all about absolute temps but the level of humidity. The Juanias were problem free during winter even germinating in winter with max temps of 15C and nights close to zero at times. 

[Hu Palmeras]

But it's incredible that in Chile they can withstand extreme cold, rain, wind, storms, and high humidity. It must be because they're already adults. This year in Chile, it was colder than ever before. A polar wave that flooded the entire Southern Cone, all the way to Argentina. An apocalyptic polar wave. Never in my life have I experienced such extreme cold.

[gyuseppe]

1 hour ago, Tyrone said:

Yes. 

The Dandenongs make Hobart look warm. 

Thanks Tyrone for the info 
the maximum temperature reaches up to 22 degrees Celsius! I live in southern Italy on the border with Africa, in the summer here when the heat arrives from North Africa we touch 40 degrees Celsius!
and today I learned something too!

[Mazat]

8 hours ago, Tassie_Troy1971 said:

Tyrone 

I would have the perfect climate for Juanita australis at my place where Leppidorachis mooreana ,ceroxylon and Hedyscepe grow like escapees in the ground 😀 

Unfortunately very little chance of ever obtaining seeds.

That's really very sad and it gets on our nerves here too. Everything is being controlled everywhere. Governments want to control everything, but these institutions are out of control and need to finally understand that they are there to do everything they can to ensure that as many people, plants, and animals as possible are doing well. No, they elevate themselves above everyone and everything—this is contrary to all ethics and logic—because most of them simply cannot resist money, power, and luxury. As soon as a person or government can elevate themselves above others and determine what happens, things usually go badly for everyone else. There are no exceptions to this rule. The entire history of humanity demonstrates this impressively—equality is a fairy tale...
Today, my new cell phone AI assistant told me that she couldn't turn off the phone yet, that this function wasn't operational yet—how absurd...
A friend of mine was fired from her job because she went to the bathroom too often, while others smoked, including the branch manager...
The woman was replaced by someone who, even after weeks, still can't give you the right information in the garden center. She led a customer to what she thought was a Phoenix canariensis—please don't laugh, it was a Howea foresteriana. We heard everything... 

No, my twin sister, who pays a lot of attention to her appearance, said the young woman looks good on the catwalk, but probably won't find her way there...

After the customer left, we gave the young woman some tips so that she could better understand it.
We didn't make fun of her, no, she can or must learn it too...
She thanked us afterwards and it was a little happy ending.

[Hu Palmeras]

That's right, my dear friend Mazat. It's a world ruled by injustice and poor morals. And this is only going to get worse. It's a shame, my friend. The things you're talking about happen here too, Mazat.

[Jonathan]

6 hours ago, gyuseppe said:

are these Celsius temperatures?

Yep, it's a pretty mild climate down here Giuseppe! 

[Jonathan]

4 hours ago, gyuseppe said:

Thanks Tyrone for the info 
the maximum temperature reaches up to 22 degrees Celsius! I live in southern Italy on the border with Africa, in the summer here when the heat arrives from North Africa we touch 40 degrees Celsius!
and today I learned something too!

Those temperatures were the average maximums Giuseppe, not the absolute maximums...we get plenty of hot days as well...we live on the border of Australia, which is also a fairly hot continent! The table below shows our average max for each month and the highest recorded for each month.

 

[Tyrone]

6 hours ago, gyuseppe said:

Thanks Tyrone for the info 
the maximum temperature reaches up to 22 degrees Celsius! I live in southern Italy on the border with Africa, in the summer here when the heat arrives from North Africa we touch 40 degrees Celsius!
and today I learned something too!

Yeah, as Jonathan said these are averages not extreme maximums. 
In line with this topic about Juania, I bought seeds from RPS in 2018 I think it was because when I looked at the average temps on Juan Fernandez island where Juania comes from, the average minimums and maximums were almost identical to my location and the latitude was similar too. However the climate on Juan Fernandez is quite stable because it’s a little island miles from the nearest continent sitting in the Pacific Ocean in a cool ocean current. My place is nowhere near as stable in climate because I’m at the bottom of a continent that’s mostly desert sitting mostly in the dry tropics. While the climate is controlled by the Southern Ocean, with sea breezes and cloud cover the climate remains stable and mild and Juania stand a chance. However when a heat trough forms up in the north it pulls down super heated dry air from the interior and temps in the 40s C are then possible. I’ve had a 44C max here once. Awful heat. Generally once the heat trough moves east it sucks in warm air off the ocean which is humid with dewpoints around 20C plus which most cool climate high altitude palms don’t appreciate. Also instead of the ocean currents being cool currents like off the coast of California, the current off our coast is the warm Leeuwin current which follows the coast down from Indonesia until it finally cools down (normally) around South Australia. However this current has been warming up (which has caused algal blooming and mass fish kills in South Australia) which has meant that the humidity and dewpoints  have risen and minimums at night on average have risen, which is great for subtropical palm growth but not good for my Juania. I lost the lot despite my best efforts within a year. I will not try again unless I move to an offshore island which won’t ever happen. 

 

[Hu Palmeras]

Friend, how many seeds did you manage to buy? And if you still have the palm tree alive?

[Tyrone]

I can’t remember the exact amount but they had been kept at 4C for years and Toby assured me they were viable which they were. I seem to recall that I had 23 germinate unfortunately none made it past one year of life. 😔

[Hu Palmeras]

Yes, I'm very sorry, my friend. Remember that delicate palm trees must be kept in a grow tent so they can acclimatize properly.

[Hu Palmeras]

I'm sharing some photos from my friend Gastón, from Argentina, when he visited Chile last year. He was able to take a photo with the Juania Australis palm tree in Viña del Mar.

 

 

 

 

[Hu Palmeras]

I hope you like it, friends.

[Tyrone]

2 hours ago, Hu Palmeras said:

I'm sharing some photos from my friend Gastón, from Argentina, when he visited Chile last year. He was able to take a photo with the Juania Australis palm tree in Viña del Mar.

 

 

 

 

I think that is where RPS got their seed from. Hopefully they keep going and provide seed for the future growers who may be able to succeed with it. 

[Mazat]

12 hours ago, Tyrone said:

I think that is where RPS got their seed from. Hopefully they keep going and provide seed for the future growers who may be able to succeed with it. 

Yes, that's really to be hoped for by everyone who's interested here. If so, we'll give it a try—unless it's far too expensive to obtain in the first place, but at another location that offers many of the same conditions, according to our research.
Or maybe we're just a little stubborn... Let's see what the future brings 🤔😃

[Tyrone]

Sometimes if you really want to experiment with rare palms you just have to spend the money. My experiment was a failure but the information I gleaned may help others succeed. 

[DoomsDave]

On 10/9/2025 at 9:14 AM, Hu Palmeras said:

But it's incredible that in Chile they can withstand extreme cold, rain, wind, storms, and high humidity. It must be because they're already adults. This year in Chile, it was colder than ever before. A polar wave that flooded the entire Southern Cone, all the way to Argentina. An apocalyptic polar wave. Never in my life have I experienced such extreme cold.

How cold did it get?

[Hu Palmeras]

Hace 6 horas, DoomsDave dijo:

¿Qué tan frío hizo?

It was an apocalyptic year.

It's true that I'm of European (Celtic) descent, but no human being can endure that much. It was a very harsh polar winter. I passed the limit. I think I'll endure even more next winter.

Temuco  (-7,9°C)

Lautaro (-8,2°C)

Curarrehue (-8,0°C)

Lonquimay -14,2°C

Victoria (-7,8°C)