Alice. I will check out the new botanical gardens once open, I will be in St. Augustine for a week in Oct. Thanks for the info.

Rena, your palms look very good for being grown indoors, of course all your plants look really great.

Waycool, you posted while I did...that looks so inviting, love all the palms around the pool.

Waycool, I think you should call that a plant enclosure with pool.

Sherri, let me know when you are in St. A, I have a rooted Willii's Gold Ti for you, too big to send.

sunkissed said: Alice. I will check out the new botanical gardens once open, I will be in St. Augustine for a week in Oct. Thanks for the info.

Rena, your palms look very good for being grown indoors, of course all your plants look really great.

So I was reading about these palms. Apparently B. fenestralis isn't really all that rare. They try to grow it a lot in California, but Palmpedia, the source I was looking at, calls the attempts 'palm torture' LOL. The winters are too cool there, the sun is too hot, its too dry, they don't like the wind, and they are subject to crown rot. Its a case of 'many are planted, few survive' there. They will tolerate brief drops to the 20's but suffer for it, so I am thinking that the ones they have in Hastings may be in a really protected spot.

B. alfredii, on the other hand, and the third species, are drought resistant, do okay with frost and cold, are fire resistant, take full sun, and are possibly hurricane resistant.

I had contacted the botanical garden asking if leashed dogs will be permitted on the trails and just got an answer.

Hi Alice! Thank you for your interest in the St. Johns Botanical Garden. Unfortunately, due to the toxic nature of many of our plants, we are not allowing dogs in the park at this time. As a practicing veterinarian for 37 years, I have too many heartbreaking cases of toxic plant injury and death in dogs. I'm sorry for any inconvenience. Sincerely Dr. John Rossi, President SJBG

Alice I was looking at their website. I have some of the palms that they have for sale in the 'Shivering Palms' (I am assuming they named it this because the palms are kind of cold hardy) nursery in my greenhouse. Some would probably be considered hardy here, but I'm too scared to risk it.
Lytocaryum weddelianum, I have 2 in my greenhouse, these have become endangered. They are supposedly hardy to 25F.

Allagoptera arenaria, I also have 2. These are maybe the most cold hardy they offer, 20-25F.

Chuniophoenix nana has a documented cold hardiness to 9B, I am not a 9B so best if I keep that under protection too

Kerriodoxa elegans, the White Elephant Palm, is only cold hardy to about 34F. Although...there is a specimen up on the UF campus in the McCarty Hall palm garden that was planted years ago by a friend of mine when he was a college student here, that has survived all these years. But the microclimate there, between the buildings on the campus with all the radiant heat generated, is undoubtedly helping that out.

Most of the other palms on their site are common here in North FL

Sago palms aren't real palms. They are cycads

Learned something again