I suggest you contact the Department of Conservation, Science and Technical Centre, at PO Box 10-420, Wellington, NZ. Philip Simpson is the known researcher and writer on Cordyline, but I'm not sure if he's still with DoC. I'm reasonably sure that someone at this address will be able to direct you further, however.

To my knowledge the International Cordyline Society Inc has published editorials on Tropical Foliage and Tropical Plants in addition to Cordylines in Ti-Talk and The Cordyline Connection for many years. In fact combined events such as the Tropical Foliage Festival (third year) and the Tropical Affair (second year) are both initiatives of The International Cordyline Society Inc. The Tropical Foliage Festival is a joint venture, with The International Cordyline Society, The Brisbane Bromeliad Society Inc, and the Brisbane Palm and Cycad Society Inc. It is therefore inappropriate to use this forum to suggest that some Garden Society in its first couple of month must have started a trend?..................

Hi Tony, Thanks for the recommendation, but I went with Adonidia merrillii - it met so many of my tough criteria, and is an attractive palm (to my eyes, anyway) to boot. Your mention of Livistona reminded me of my earlier post re the Blackdown Fan Palm (Livistona Fulva) and the interest that it generated. Comparing a couple of palms in a yard near my home with photos a mate took up in the national park has confirmed my earlier suspicions - these would stand out like a sore thumb in my little garden. I guess we've both driven past gardens which have disproportionately large palms jutting out from the canopy : I personally find it detracts from the overall effect. We wont mention the two monster coconuts which tower over my backyard - from eye level, you dont even notice them :) Cheers, Artie

I was surprised to come across this site, never had it pop up before, we have been into cycads for some years and thought weÂd share some of our experienceÂs with you. We are on the Mid North coast of NSW have cycads all growing in ground, and as far as the cycas species we have them growing both in full sun and in afternoon sun only and there is no visible difference the only problem you would have with some is that they donÂt like frost. Lepidozamia peroffskyana. We grow them in full sun only and they look magnificent no burning of at all, but even though there is only one species there are some colour variations. Macrozamia. As with the cycas we grow some in the full sun some with afternoon sun only and again find no difference at all, the only one with slight browning on some tips we found was the fearnsidei which is in full sun for tree parts of the day. Hope this is of some interest and help to anyone on this group great cycading to everyone.