Spring in Fresno

[Josue Diaz]

Thought I'd share a few pics from my yard after a rather chilly winter - the Central Valley of California had a record-breaking fog event from late November through about the end of 2025. Temps stayed in the 40s for 360+ consecutive hours - no freezing, no frosts, just consistently cold and wet with next to no sunshine for nearly a month. Most palms grew right through it, but a few of the more tropical species really hated this - I rehomed a few to warmer (drier/sunnier) climates down south. 

Here are a few shots from today - everything in growth mode as we're getting 80s and 90s consistently - racing toward the 100s too! In just a matter of weeks winter will be a far memory as we bake in the 100s until we cool again in October. 

 

Archontophoenix tuckeri - grown from seed from @DoomsDave. I'm pretty sure you threw a handful of seeds at me during one of my visits to your place. Trunking archontophoenix cunninghamia in the back. Seed-grown howea forsteriana & allagoptera peeking in behind tuckeri. 

Syagrus rommanzoffiana - nothing special, but I recently did clean up the trunk, which makes it look 10x nicer. 

A shot of my front yard - the pink Handroanthus is just about done blooming.  Below it I have Brahea Super Silver, Brahea Pimo, and closest to the bottom is a Jubaeopsis affra, recoving from an irrigation mishap in summer of 2024. The irrigation timer went offline mid June while we were out of the country traveling, and this whole area went without water for 2 weeks. Jubaeopsis took that personally. It's been slowly recovering from that 'drought' event. 

Handroanthus umbellatus was in bloom just a few weeks ago.

This is Livistona speciosa. I grew this from seed, and gave the rest to folks in Southern California. Does anyone have any still growing? I think some of them may have gone at palm society auctions. 

Chamaedorea hooperiana - The ficus roxburghii looks so pretttyyyyy in the back with all that new growth

Sabal uresana - looking stretched. This thing is slowwwwwwww

This is the view out our back door. Arcontophoenix tuckeri on the left. The red amaryllis is an heirloom passed down from a neighbor before she passed. 

Phoenix rupicola. You can spot the Brahea Super Silver in the background. The silver-ish palm below it is Chamaerops humilis var. argentea. There's a Cycas deboaensis on the bottom right that will need to find a permanent spot. I have a habit of putting plants in temporary spots, then moving them when I decide on a permanent spot. I feel like plants develop much better in the ground than in pots. They also benefit from regular irrigation being in the ground, and I don't have to worry about forgetting to water them in pots. 

This little corner area is filling in so nicely, and will become very thick with vegetation as plants keep growing. Beccariophoenix alfredii is in the far back. Ravenea glauca is center toward the left. Sabal mauritiformis is off to the right. Cycas revoluta x deboaensis is front and center. 

Lastly, a shot of a Clytostoma callistegioides flower, and a Dendrobium chrysotoxum which I have in bloom. The Dendrobium is grown inside a greenhouse. The last photo is of my plumerias waking up after a chilly nap. I had lots of rot to deal with this winter. 

 

BONUS - see if you can spot the Chrysalidocarps prestonianus... It went into the ground directly as a 4-inch plant from Floribunda some 5 or 6 years ago. Almost forgot the Chrysalidocarpus decaryi as well. Decaryi doesn't like the prolonged cold/wet conditions, but it grows out of damage fairly quickly - and we don't always get those particularly cold/wet winters. Some years we are dry and sunny like the rest of Southern CA. 

 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

Always love to see your garden. That rupicola is really one of the focal points there. I like that you have a good mix of palms,  flowers, and other tropicals. 

[DoomsDave]

You GO @Josue Diaz!

[Josue Diaz]

12 hours ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

Always love to see your garden. That rupicola is really one of the focal points there. I like that you have a good mix of palms,  flowers, and other tropicals. 

Yeah, the rupicola is a favorite of mine. I wish I had kept the handful of seedlings I had about 10 years ago. I sold and gave them all away thinking I didn't have the space for them all. I could've managed to squeeze them in somewhere lol

[Las Palmas Norte]

20 hours ago, Josue Diaz said:

...Temps stayed in the 40s for 360+ consecutive hours - no freezing, no frosts, just consistently cold and wet with next to no sunshine for nearly a month. ...

Sounds very familiar to us in the PNW. 😄 Great pics!

[Josue Diaz]

2 hours ago, Las Palmas Norte said:

Sounds very familiar to us in the PNW. 😄 Great pics!

lol we haven't had a long stretch like that in a while! Usually we'll get a few days of fog before it burns up and things dry up. Long stretches of it cause havoc with a lot of stuff - the tropical stuff stops growing/begin to die off, cacti (which have no issue with the temps) start to have fungal issues and rot. I had a couple of astrophytums just melt - despite being in bone-dry soil. They developed rot and it spread almost immediately throughout the plant. Same thing happened to a big Lophocereus. Luckily I caught it in time and was able to salvage a small piece which I'm now going to root. The whole inside became a stinky, gelatinous mess. 

 

[Las Palmas Norte]

4 hours ago, Josue Diaz said:

lol we haven't had a long stretch like that in a while! Usually we'll get a few days of fog before it burns up and things dry up. Long stretches of it cause havoc with a lot of stuff - the tropical stuff stops growing/begin to die off, cacti (which have no issue with the temps) start to have fungal issues and rot. I had a couple of astrophytums just melt - despite being in bone-dry soil. They developed rot and it spread almost immediately throughout the plant. Same thing happened to a big Lophocereus. Luckily I caught it in time and was able to salvage a small piece which I'm now going to root. The whole inside became a stinky, gelatinous mess. 

 

Honestly, extended foggy periods are rather unusual. I have seen them, but typically a few days and we're done. These occur mainly in the earlier part of Autumn, but can occur at other times less frequently. None of those events or worse have ever affected my xeriscape plantings. Hoping you and others have a great growing season. 👍

 

[ruskinPalms]

Your yard looks amazing! Great work with the hardscaping too 👍

[Harry’s Palms]

It looks like Spring is very welcome in your garden. Amazing plants and palms . Thank you for sharing. Harry

[gilles06]

I love your garden😍