A blue livistona?

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

I had no idea livistona ridiga was supposed to turn into this:

Livistona victoriae looks cool too:

[Phoenikakias]

Also my trunking Livistona mariae I can not call it green, maybe also not icy blue but definitely not green.

[Palmdude]

Gorgeous palms !!!!

[tank]

Livistona alfredii has blueish leaves. Rigida looks like its benefiting from some good lighting.

[paulgila]

those are great pics,axel. whose garden is that?

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Adelaide Botanical garden.

[Mandrew968]

Axel, Livistona carinensis and victoria are silver--have them both. rigida in South Florida is a dull grey, but more greenish than silver, here; might be due to humidity?

[tank]

Axel, Livistona carinensis and victoria are silver--have them both. rigida in South Florida is a dull grey, but more greenish than silver, here; might be due to humidity?

Mandrew, could you post pictures of these two when you get the chance? Love to see how they look in Florida.

[Mandrew968]

Axel, Livistona carinensis and victoria are silver--have them both. rigida in South Florida is a dull grey, but more greenish than silver, here; might be due to humidity?

Mandrew, could you post pictures of these two when you get the chance? Love to see how they look in Florida.

Sure thing--just texted my father to send me a photo of the carinensis and I am uploading a photo with my victoria in the background--the only one I have in my phone, currently.

[Mandrew968]

This is a photo taken on Sunday--I just installed some large telephone poles in the yard, to increase my irrigation efficiency. The Livistona victoria(in the ground just over a year from a 1gal) is the little silver palmate leaf on the right. the little green palm on the left is a Brahea nitida.

Not a 'clean' photo, just a triumphant one--those poles are not easy, lifting by yourself, and I don't practice the fickle fingers course...

[MattyB]

Here's my L. victoriae. Not the easiest grow so far. Seems to need very high heat.

[Mandrew968]

Yep, that's a victoria. They do love full sun and heat and are very drought tolerant, in my experience.

[Mandrew968]

Here is the carinensis and you can see how silver it is.

[Phoenikakias]

It is a stellar exemplary, and this contrast between yellow petioles, black spines and silver blades is magnificent.

[tank]

Thanks Andrew, do you know how old those plants are?

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Here's my L. victoriae. Not the easiest grow so far. Seems to need very high heat.

Matty, I was curious and looked up the climate stats for Adelaide, you're way hotter, I bet the issue is that they are just slow and need a ton of water. You definitely should have plenty of heat for that puppy.

Edit: heck, the latitude of Adelaide matches Central California (34.9 degrees), and San Diego is 32.7 degrees, you should have no problems with growing that.

[Mandrew968]

Thanks Andrew, do you know how old those plants are?

Livistona victoria was a 1gallon I got at the holiday auction, before last, so it has been in the ground over a year. The carinensis I got about 3 years ago and it has been in the ground a little bit less than that time--it was also a 1gallon palm.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Here's my L. victoriae. Not the easiest grow so far. Seems to need very high heat.

Matt if the one in Adelaide can grow like that yours should be fine . Adelaide is alot cooler than your area for most of the year .

[LJG]

Here's my L. victoriae. Not the easiest grow so far. Seems to need very high heat.

Matt if the one in Adelaide can grow like that yours should be fine . Adelaide is alot cooler than your area for most of the year .

This palm is hard to grow here. I have seen a 15 year old one still look like crap. Just guessing but I am sure it is the lack of constant high heat. Cold isn't an issue. Adelaide seems to be hotter is summers then San Diego. Where this palm grows great is the dessert areas. There are some great examples of it in Borrego Springs and Palm Springs but I can't think of any great samples outside the dessert.

[paulgila]

mmmmmm, dessert!

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Here's my L. victoriae. Not the easiest grow so far. Seems to need very high heat.

Matt if the one in Adelaide can grow like that yours should be fine . Adelaide is alot cooler than your area for most of the year .

This palm is hard to grow here. I have seen a 15 year old one still look like crap. Just guessing but I am sure it is the lack of constant high heat. Cold isn't an issue. Adelaide seems to be hotter is summers then San Diego. Where this palm grows great is the dessert areas. There are some great examples of it in Borrego Springs and Palm Springs but I can't think of any great samples outside the dessert.

Len, I think you're mistaken about the climate, although I have no reason to question your observations on where they do well. The climate data I got for Adelaide suggested it was on par with Central California in terms of climate averages except a lot less frost. San Diego and Vista get more heat year around, but a lot less rain. Summer high in Adelaide is 29C, with nightly lows of 17C, Winter highs are colder even than my climate, an average high of only 15C. The key is the rain and humidity. Adelaide still gets some rain during the Summer.

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/climate/station.jsp?lt=site&lc=23090

In all of the hard to grow livistona, I suspect this issue more often than not is low humidity levels and lack of adequate water.

[SueH_AZ]

Here's my L. victoriae. Not the easiest grow so far. Seems to need very high heat.

Matt if the one in Adelaide can grow like that yours should be fine . Adelaide is alot cooler than your area for most of the year .

This palm is hard to grow here. I have seen a 15 year old one still look like crap. Just guessing but I am sure it is the lack of constant high heat. Cold isn't an issue. Adelaide seems to be hotter is summers then San Diego. Where this palm grows great is the dessert areas. There are some great examples of it in Borrego Springs and Palm Springs but I can't think of any great samples outside the dessert.

Len, I think you're mistaken about the climate, although I have no reason to question your observations on where they do well. The climate data I got for Adelaide suggested it was on par with Central California in terms of climate averages except a lot less frost. San Diego and Vista get more heat year around, but a lot less rain. Summer high in Adelaide is 29C, with nightly lows of 17C, Winter highs are colder even than my climate, an average high of only 15C. The key is the rain and humidity. Adelaide still gets some rain during the Summer.

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/climate/station.jsp?lt=site&lc=23090

In all of the hard to grow livistona, I suspect this issue more often than not is low humidity levels and lack of adequate water.

Rod Anderson has amazing livistonas growing in his north Phoenix yard. This is a young livistona rigida he sold us that he grew from seed. It's in full sun and was planted in the middle of summer last year. Although our winter was extremely mild, it seems to grow happily in our climate.

[LJG]

On 5/2/2014, 10:45:48, Axel in Santa Cruz said:

 

On 5/2/2014, 7:43:04, LJG said:

 

On 5/2/2014, 2:25:16, Tassie_Troy1971 said:

 

On 4/30/2014, 8:23:05, MattyB said:

Here's my L. victoriae. Not the easiest grow so far. Seems to need very high heat.

Matt if the one in Adelaide can grow like that yours should be fine . Adelaide is alot cooler than your area for most of the year .

This palm is hard to grow here. I have seen a 15 year old one still look like crap. Just guessing but I am sure it is the lack of constant high heat. Cold isn't an issue. Adelaide seems to be hotter is summers then San Diego. Where this palm grows great is the dessert areas. There are some great examples of it in Borrego Springs and Palm Springs but I can't think of any great samples outside the dessert.

 

 

Len, I think you're mistaken about the climate, although I have no reason to question your observations on where they do well. The climate data I got for Adelaide suggested it was on par with Central California in terms of climate averages except a lot less frost. San Diego and Vista get more heat year around, but a lot less rain. Summer high in Adelaide is 29C, with nightly lows of 17C, Winter highs are colder even than my climate, an average high of only 15C. The key is the rain and humidity. Adelaide still gets some rain during the Summer.

 

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/climate/station.jsp?lt=site&lc=23090

 

 

In all of the hard to grow livistona, I suspect this issue more often than not is low humidity levels and lack of adequate water.

 

 

I spent two weeks in Adelaide while I was teaching High School by Port Phillip Bay. It was hot as hell there when I was there. Maybe it was just random. Either way I don't put as much credence into what some graph online tells me about one side of the world and comparing it to another. Same info says areas of FL are similar to us too. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to know the places couldn't be anymore different.

 

I don't think low humidity has anything to do with it. Next time I am in Borrego Springs I will stop by Phil Morgans and get photos of his plants growing out in low-humidity hell. Not to mention the hard to grow NT cycads do great out in our deserts. Doubt rain plays into it either. NT has a long dry season, especially where this stuff grows. Just my opinion of course but I think much of the NT stuff is really conditioned upon heat more then other factors.

 

Would love to here what Ari or some of those that live up there think.

[Gtlevine]

My Victoriae is growing like crazy. I just planted it a month ago but I have a good feeling it will love my summer furnace.

Gary

[LJG]

Gary the one I just gave you? Or the old one by the rock? If it is the new one that's crazy. Mine just does nothing.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Here's my L. victoriae. Not the easiest grow so far. Seems to need very high heat.

Matt if the one in Adelaide can grow like that yours should be fine . Adelaide is alot cooler than your area for most of the year .

This palm is hard to grow here. I have seen a 15 year old one still look like crap. Just guessing but I am sure it is the lack of constant high heat. Cold isn't an issue. Adelaide seems to be hotter is summers then San Diego. Where this palm grows great is the dessert areas. There are some great examples of it in Borrego Springs and Palm Springs but I can't think of any great samples outside the dessert.

Len, I think you're mistaken about the climate, although I have no reason to question your observations on where they do well. The climate data I got for Adelaide suggested it was on par with Central California in terms of climate averages except a lot less frost. San Diego and Vista get more heat year around, but a lot less rain. Summer high in Adelaide is 29C, with nightly lows of 17C, Winter highs are colder even than my climate, an average high of only 15C. The key is the rain and humidity. Adelaide still gets some rain during the Summer.

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/climate/station.jsp?lt=site&lc=23090

In all of the hard to grow livistona, I suspect this issue more often than not is low humidity levels and lack of adequate water.

I spent two weeks in Adelaide while I was teaching High School by Port Phillip Bay. It was hot as hell there when I was there. Maybe it was just random. Either way I don't put as much credence into what some graph online tells me about one side of the world and comparing it to another. Same info says areas of FL are similar to us too. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to know the places couldn't be anymore different.

I don't think low humidity has anything to do with it. Next time I am in Borrego Springs I will stop by Phil Morgans and get photos of his plants growing out in low-humidity hell. Not to mention the hard to grow NT cycads do great out in our desserts. Doubt rain plays into it either. NT has a long dry season, especially where this stuff grows. Just my opinion of course but I think much of the NT stuff is really conditioned upon heat more then other factors.

Would love to here what Ari or some of those that live up there think.

I don't think the graph lies but depending on how you look at the data, it might reveal something slightly different that would explain the discrepancy. Adelaide is on the coast, the temps close to the water there are much warmer than in California, i.e. equivalent to the temperature conditions found in California several miles inland. If you extrapolate from that and assume it gets hotter as you go inland there as well, I am sure a few miles from the coast in Adelaide may be much like Borrego Springs in the Summer.

Maybe I should stop wasting my time with all the difficult to grow livistona, not worth my time and effort. I've tried a number of them, and I seem to be limited to the standards - Australis/fulva/languinosa/rigida/mariae/drudei/chinensis/nitida/decora/saribus. I won't complain, those are dynamite ones to be able to grow, but I am always on the hunt for the unusual. I am still trying speciosa and mulleri, but it's not looking very promising. More and more of my speciosa seedlings just die off, they can't handle the temperature swings our climate throws at them, whereas the standard bunch just aren't very picky. Or else I am doing something wrong. So far I've killed lorophylla, carinensis and benthamii, and my greenhouse is slowly baking to death the rest of my mulleri and speciosa. My benthamii was actually growing even in the Winter, which is why I am still not convinced NT livistona can't grow without heat, but I failed to notice that the rootball dried out, which is what killed it. Another combo of my own sloppy planting and bad peat moss is really what killed it.

[Jonathan]

Here's my L. victoriae. Not the easiest grow so far. Seems to need very high heat.

Matt if the one in Adelaide can grow like that yours should be fine . Adelaide is alot cooler than your area for most of the year .

This palm is hard to grow here. I have seen a 15 year old one still look like crap. Just guessing but I am sure it is the lack of constant high heat. Cold isn't an issue. Adelaide seems to be hotter is summers then San Diego. Where this palm grows great is the dessert areas. There are some great examples of it in Borrego Springs and Palm Springs but I can't think of any great samples outside the dessert.

Len, I think you're mistaken about the climate, although I have no reason to question your observations on where they do well. The climate data I got for Adelaide suggested it was on par with Central California in terms of climate averages except a lot less frost. San Diego and Vista get more heat year around, but a lot less rain. Summer high in Adelaide is 29C, with nightly lows of 17C, Winter highs are colder even than my climate, an average high of only 15C. The key is the rain and humidity. Adelaide still gets some rain during the Summer.

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/climate/station.jsp?lt=site&lc=23090

In all of the hard to grow livistona, I suspect this issue more often than not is low humidity levels and lack of adequate water.

I spent two weeks in Adelaide while I was teaching High School by Port Phillip Bay. It was hot as hell there when I was there. Maybe it was just random. Either way I don't put as much credence into what some graph online tells me about one side of the world and comparing it to another. Same info says areas of FL are similar to us too. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to know the places couldn't be anymore different.

I don't think low humidity has anything to do with it. Next time I am in Borrego Springs I will stop by Phil Morgans and get photos of his plants growing out in low-humidity hell. Not to mention the hard to grow NT cycads do great out in our desserts. Doubt rain plays into it either. NT has a long dry season, especially where this stuff grows. Just my opinion of course but I think much of the NT stuff is really conditioned upon heat more then other factors.

Would love to here what Ari or some of those that live up there think.

I agree with Len on this.

Troy's comment surprised me as I've always considered Adelaide as too hot for human comfort in summer!

So I had a look at the relative stats for Adelaide and San Diego, and its a no brainer - Adelaide is clearly much hotter in summer, and as Axel points out cooler in winter.

I dont believe that the winter difference is enough to outweigh the the obvious advantage of very hot summers for a heat loving Livistona.

Adelaide regularly has 5 or 6 day periods in summer of temps over 40C (104F), and in 2008 recorded 15 consecutive days above 35C (95F).

Thats bloody hot, on any scale.

Cheers,

Jonathan

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Here's my L. victoriae. Not the easiest grow so far. Seems to need very high heat.

Matt if the one in Adelaide can grow like that yours should be fine . Adelaide is alot cooler than your area for most of the year .

This palm is hard to grow here. I have seen a 15 year old one still look like crap. Just guessing but I am sure it is the lack of constant high heat. Cold isn't an issue. Adelaide seems to be hotter is summers then San Diego. Where this palm grows great is the dessert areas. There are some great examples of it in Borrego Springs and Palm Springs but I can't think of any great samples outside the dessert.

Len, I think you're mistaken about the climate, although I have no reason to question your observations on where they do well. The climate data I got for Adelaide suggested it was on par with Central California in terms of climate averages except a lot less frost. San Diego and Vista get more heat year around, but a lot less rain. Summer high in Adelaide is 29C, with nightly lows of 17C, Winter highs are colder even than my climate, an average high of only 15C. The key is the rain and humidity. Adelaide still gets some rain during the Summer.

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/climate/station.jsp?lt=site&lc=23090

In all of the hard to grow livistona, I suspect this issue more often than not is low humidity levels and lack of adequate water.

I spent two weeks in Adelaide while I was teaching High School by Port Phillip Bay. It was hot as hell there when I was there. Maybe it was just random. Either way I don't put as much credence into what some graph online tells me about one side of the world and comparing it to another. Same info says areas of FL are similar to us too. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to know the places couldn't be anymore different.

I don't think low humidity has anything to do with it. Next time I am in Borrego Springs I will stop by Phil Morgans and get photos of his plants growing out in low-humidity hell. Not to mention the hard to grow NT cycads do great out in our desserts. Doubt rain plays into it either. NT has a long dry season, especially where this stuff grows. Just my opinion of course but I think much of the NT stuff is really conditioned upon heat more then other factors.

Would love to here what Ari or some of those that live up there think.

I agree with Len on this.

Troy's comment surprised me as I've always considered Adelaide as too hot for human comfort in summer!

So I had a look at the relative stats for Adelaide and San Diego, and its a no brainer - Adelaide is clearly much hotter in summer, and as Axel points out cooler in winter.

I dont believe that the winter difference is enough to outweigh the the obvious advantage of very hot summers for a heat loving Livistona.

Adelaide regularly has 5 or 6 day periods in summer of temps over 40C (104F), and in 2008 recorded 15 consecutive days above 35C (95F).

Thats bloody hot, on any scale.

Cheers,

Jonathan

Eh? Adelaide's average Summer high is 29C, Felton, which is 3 miles from my house has an average Summer high of 31C (87F), and Spring Valley where Matty lives has an average high in the Summer of 86F, or around 30C. Every Summer and Fall, there are several weeks of 100F+ weather. Modesto CA clocks 93F (34C) average high.

What am I missing here?

[Walter John]

Livistona languinosa from Cape River area of North Queensland is another of the blue Livistona mob.

[Jonathan]

Eh? Adelaide's average Summer high is 29C, Felton, which is 3 miles from my house has an average Summer high of 31C (87F), and Spring Valley where Matty lives has an average high in the Summer of 86F, or around 30C. Every Summer and Fall, there are several weeks of 100F+ weather. Modesto CA clocks 93F (34C) average high.

What am I missing here?

Axel,

You're not missing anything, its just an observation that Adelaide city is hotter in summer than SD city.

If you want to start going inland...the same applies for South Australia of course - Port Augusta is considerably hotter than Adelaide all year round, etc.

We could get into Death Valley vs the Simpson Desert eventually, but it's fairly pointless!

If the stats for Spring Valley and the other sites you mention are as hot as Adelaide, but the palm is not happy there, then I guess you have to start looking at factors beyond climate.

Soil types, water quality - who knows?

Cheers,

Jonathan

[Gtlevine]

Gary the one I just gave you? Or the old one by the rock? If it is the new one that's crazy. Mine just does nothing.

The one i got from you Len is rocking, pushed open a leaf real fast.

[MattyB]

How's that first L. victoriae doing, that you got from Bill?

[Mandrew968]

Now that my Irrigation system is revamped in my backyard, my victoria has opened the bluest leaf so far--it does love extreme heat and water.

[Mandrew968]

Here is an update. Not such a blue color--probably because it was shaded by all the weeds it was competing against...

[Pip]

It's great to see interest in growing Australian livistona species.

The discussion about the climate Adelaide enjoys/endures was entertaining.

[Josh-O]

L. victoriae is a cool looking palm for sure!!!