Ok..I could of sworn I answered questions yesterday and posted! Where in teh world is it?lol Jodik, thank you so much for that! My goodness, now I can't remember what I said, but it was good..lol I know that the only success I have evr had with roses was a welcome back from winter with dead branches or once I cut them off, to see the trunks hollow! Is this some kind of borer, or from cold? Will it affect self rooted ones. In the citrus world, own roots do horrible in the soil with nemetodes and teh such, and that is why they use grafted ones. I always thought the same applied to roses? I am just grateful I can have a mentor such as you to finally be successful with mine here at home:-) Jojo...My cat is very well behaved, but what I do when I am not there is another story..lol I know he is not even interested in my plants, that is except if I do not feed him first thing in the a.m Believe me, it is only then that he has a way of letting me know that he shoukld eat before I do. But I must admit, I have to keep all palms and spider plants away from him. I never saw a tea rose before? Just what are they? Do they have that distinct very 'sweet strong' fragrance? That is what I would love to smell. Chris..You are too funny.lol Jodik, beautiful pics by the way! I'll bet you look so forward to the solsticand the return of the sun! I am sure counting the days...:-) Purple, great points made! I am not even sure if anyone sells them here. But all I need is Jodik to hook me up:-) By the way, the plants in my room are starting to flower like crazy! They love the cooler temps, breeze, humidity, and lack of bugs! My sister just dropped off three citrus trees, and two jasmine about 3 feet high because she couldn't care for them. Oh, what to do? Cut them way back, spray, and then store them in that room? Or cut them back, and store them in my cellar close to lights and let them rest? Arg! Mike

I see a few near the coast on google. I was told they were planted large fronting a nice and big Hotel. They have the "coconut juuuuust making it look" like what you see in the California desert. Interesting that those Coconuts had tall Howea palms next to them. But,yes,I would trade for the Brisbane climate. Ironic that here in the bay area we also have a city named Brisbane. Its a very cool ,mild climate..not Brisbane like in summer!

time and expense? What expense is there to root a cutting? And time is only a few seconds. If this cutting has more than a few inches of woody material, it is very likely it will root eventually. I have not tried one in water, but I know others have. I just remove most of the greenery at the top (peel away the lowest leaves until only a dozen or more leaves left). Then stick the other end in some rooting hormone (I rarely actually do this and it does not seem to be a necessary step, but might be a bit of 'insurance'). Then stick the woody end 2"-4" into some dry, extremely well draining soil (half or more pumice is nice, or you can just mix some perlite to cactus soil). Put this pot in a place where it does not get any full day sun (morning or late afternoon sun is OK) and do not water for a few weeks.. .then water thoroughly periodically (you can always take the cutting out and see if any roots- if none at all, not really worth your time to water it well yet). I have done this dozens of times now and it really only takes a second. I shove the woody end into a pot with another already established plant in it but one in where there is still plenty of soil (not all roots). That way there is no time or expense taken. But if I notice the plant is established, or rooted, I then move it to its own pot (or it will take over the other plant and out-compete it for water... unlikely really as Beaucarneas have pretty wimpy roots).

Thanks for all of your suggestions on my mystery palm! I'm bummed that this beauty will not stay short(er)! But the roystoneas really are lovely. I may have to cave to a taller tree! Are they pretty quick growing? If it takes 30+ years for it to achieve a height above my desired max, that wouldn't be so bad. It'd give me time to get used to the idea! Also, I found a ravenea rivularis photo on the Palm Society's page that makes it look as though it stays short with a swollen base, not as graceful as my original pic, but still nice. Do any of you grow ravenea rivularis and does it stay on the shorter side? Also, the archontophoenix is gorgeous- it looks very similar to my photo also. Does it get tall quickly? And lastly, for now- do one of these palms do better than the others in a windy, but rainy spot? Thank you so much for the dialogue! Now I've got an eye on licualas and pygmy date palms, too!