Next up is my Syagrus Romanzoffiana (Queen Palm). I bought this one in June 2006 and it was about 6' tall and skinny. It is now about 10' tall and big and heavy.

On the left, in front of the window is a picture of my Livistonia Chinensis (Chinese Fan Palm) 3 years old that I started from seed. In the middle is a Chamaedorea Cataractarum (Cat Palm) and on the right is a Phoenix Roebelinni (Pygmy Date Palm). I've had the Cat Palm for 2 years and the PDP since June 2006. They all do very well indoors.

Thats very nice foxtail I may get one of those . The palms look happry nice job

Nice Chinese fan palm. How hard was it to start from a seed?

Kent,
Wow, have they ever grown.
I remember the foxtail livingroom pics from last year; it really shot up!
Clever light arrangement.

Great "threesome" too; my cat palm died this year, then learned it needed to be consistently moist but not soggy.
I had let it go bone dry for a couple of weeks.

Nice looking Queen, looks great there (probably the last year it'll fit) 😆 😆
Thanks for the pics.
Barb

Thanks for the photos. Nice arrangements, too. Mine are still sort of shoved in a corner under one fluorescent grow light and by a west window. I'll have to do more for them. And the human living space. 😆

Thanks for the comments. we are a little retentive (if you know what i mean) at our house. My wife has to have a place for everything. I bring them inside and she spends days looking them over arranging and rearranging etc. I only have about a dozen palms that stay in the main house the rest spend the winter in a basement bedroom under fluorescent lights and survive suprisingly well in the basement.

Carl, the Chinese Fan Palm seeds are easy to germinate and easy to grow. Good luck with yours.

The foxtail has been surprisingly easy to grow indoors with just 2 CFL's.

Barb, I didn't notice until I just looked at my pic but my cat palm looks horrible. It must have been a little dry because it looks much better now. I must have watered it after I took the pic. Oh well.

Good luck to everyone this winter growing palm trees and tropicals inside. May your winter be a mild one.

double post. sorry

a little retentive

😆 😆
Kent, your wife's not the only one...I do that too before Christmas...the decision is: room for palms? or people? end up trudging/dragging most of them upstairs.

Hard to see your cat palm up close but I'm glad it's better.
Just don't let the soil dry out, even misting the top of soil as it dries out is good when the rest is still wet enough.
Bit of work but you'll be rewarded...with it not dying.

This shot shows what I think is really great about Cats...how the leaf segments attach...with a little upward twist on my cat palm (RIP).
<img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="DSC00990" />

Just looking at your pic, can I make a suggestion?
The cat palm and pygmy date could change places.
PDP can handle lower light than the Cat Palm.

Barb

Can I overwinter a palm by just putting it in a dark corner of the cool basement.? There is no room left at the window on the sunporch.

Cool-winter loving palms would be OK in a cool basement. Warm-winter loving palms no.
But dark isn't great for either type.

Maybe "make room" on the sunporch.
Barb

Barb,
while you're offering advice, can I show you what we did with our potted palms?
Photo #1 shows the "ballroom" (=converted garage for semi-heated storage; always above freezing; good windows plus lights on timers). In there are Washingtonia, seedlings Sabal, and a dozen other plants.
Photo #2 shows the triangle palms in the living room. They get afternoon sun but other than that they rely on houselights. The near one managed to put out a new leaf regardless, which surprised me.
Photo #3 shows plants clustered by the west-facing glass doors + a grow light on 24/7. Palms here include Caryota and Bismarckia and a few others. The PDP that was left out too long is there. Spear pull on all three, so don't know if it will survive my error.
Any thoughts on what I can do to keep them healthy?

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My one cent worth, Erik:

Photo #1, great bright window (open the shade 😉 ). The mirror is an excellent way to "spread" bright light across a room.
I'm forever moving furniture, bookcases, shelves around. I would put plants on that window wall (but not on the floor). Either move the table or add unused bookcase shelving, etc. And if you put enough plants on the shelves, smaller ones closest to window, larger towards room center, you won't need to pull the shade, except at night to prevent heat loss (barely-heated room). The palm closest to camera (robusta? filifera? can't tell) is too far from the window, and you likely wouldn't have a light bulb on during the day, so move it closer to natural light. And the Washy in front of the mirror is too high. If room were rearranged, it would get natural light on its fronds as well as a bit on top of its container. Palm leaves need light, the root zone doesn't (if the window isn't tall).

Photo #2. Great Triangle!!!! bigger than my 3 triangles. To me, winter is a time to rearrange plants for their benefit (versus my decorating choices)...i.e. closer to a light source, preferrably natural, or a grow light. Looks like he's happy there, or is that bright light just the camera flash? I would never go to the expense of buying a light meter for a camera, but I use a guide...if it's too dark for me to read a book on a cloudy day...it's too dark for plants to sit there all winter. Pretty general "info" but it works for me...my plants both in the cold building and in the house are all within 3 feet of a window (even a little closer on north windows...very few plants there!). Winter light is best, naturally, on a south facing window, next would be east and (in my view, west a little less preferred), then north.

Photo #3. This is worrisome because of the plant choices there and the fact that plants have to "wait" all day for west light (east is slightly better, and never overheats a plant). You can readily see from pic that (fishtail, orange? olive or oleander?) get natural light sufficient for 3 or 4 plants there. Actually the orange and PDP could be in the ballroom (they like a cool bright winter). The Bizzie needs a lot more light, the fixture would be more effective suspended horizontally over the plants (I know...I know! it's a pain in a living space...). If I recall, you kept the Bizzie in the ballroom last winter, but in the house is best especially since you said its spear pulled. Just not up against a natural gas furnace vent. Homes normally have windows with heating vents under/beside them, which can be a problem with plants. They hate the blast of hot dry air when the furnace kicks in. My orange is in the cold building, my PDP is in the house in medium light (which they don't mind...often used in offices etc). But with PDP spear pull too...don't know whether keeping it really cool would be better...

Come on, folks, Erik's plants need more input than this (pooh-poohing my suggestions is OK as always!) :argue: 😆

...you're forgiven if you're out buying your wives a nice Christmas present!

Barb

Edit...should'a said my grapefruit is in the cold building, I forgot that my calamondin oranges are both dead. 😐

Cool-winter loving palms would be OK in a cool basement. Warm-winter loving palms no.
But dark isn't great for either type.

Maybe "make room" on the sunporch.
Barb

Chinese fan palm? Not a hardy but not in the ubertropic class either.