Thanks, I only posted about half of my collection and ran out of gas. I should do my cycads too.

I've been working on the OC construction PowerPoint and now have it on a CD. That was a great thread back in the day. I hope I can make the presentation as exciting as the thread.

I can remember growing giant sunflowers up in Indiana when I was a kid. The birds just loved them.

Jim

I need to learn Power Point. I have no clue.

It's easy, Ken. I learned it in about 15 minutes.

Plus it's good for us mature folks to use those new neural pathways once in a while as well.

Me? I want to learn Italian . . then go to Italy of course!

You have it backwards, Elaine. Go to Italy and learn the language while there!

Ahh, my husband says the same thing. But you see I think that's partly why Americans have such a bad rep abroad, especially in Europe. I feel if I take the trouble to learn at least a little bit of the language before I visit another country, the people respond so much more positively when I speak to them, no matter how badly.

So, I have a little tiny bit of Spanish, lots of French (since I'm Canadian) a little Japanese and a few words of Swedish and German, too. Although almost everyone in Sweden speaks amazing English - our young coffee shop waitress told us it's because everyone watches American TV shows there.

Lost track here, but wanted to show my crazy Lobster Claw Heliconias as they're such bizarre flowers at this stage :

Jim, what an outstanding collection of palms, your property must be like a botanical garden.

Elaine, great looking lobstah (can you tell I lived in Boston once?)

I love those Heliconias!! neat!

Heh, regarding languages, I always wished I had learned Spanish. It would have come in handy on our travels, although being fluent in German has helped a lot. We do understand a few words of Japanese since we have been following Japanese Sumo since the early nineties, so our Japanese is of course Sumo -related . Six tournaments a year, 15 days each and we have followed them all. And there is that bit of Russian - growing up up under Russian occupation, Russian was mandatory in school. It helps me actually nowadays, since my town has a lot of Russian immigrants.
I do agree wholeheartedly with Elaine, it is always a good idea not to refuse to learn something new, gotta exercise that brain too!

Elaine, if you have a grasp of some Spanish, you can learn a smattering of Italian too. I took an adult course of Italian one time, just for the fun of it, most of my classmates where taking up the course so they can prepare for their planned trip to Italy.

It was fun learning some of it..at least the basics of counting, greetings, some simple sentences and basic conjugation. I guess my native language has also helped, since it has rich Spanish influence, and I can understand how to apply it in Italian too. But to be honest, I find Spanish easier But I am bad..sometimes I mix the two

I took up Japanese in college, Ursula! It was truly interesting! Though at first, for about 3 days, I did not understand one iota of what my professor was trying to imply Then it sank on me,got to approach it the way we are learning English in school. But it was more of elementary Japanese I guess, but a good start..too bad we did not have enough time to cover more about the hiragana/katakana or in Japanese characters. Then I took refresher courses in the Japanese embassy in Manila, and later on here in the US, since we were near San Francisco, we found there were Japanese language courses in Japantown, so I took another refresher. Love the richness of this language, really polite if you delve into the formal way of speaking it. Really need good conversational practice to maintain it I guess.

Then another required course in college was Spanish, not as taxing as Japanese, since we have some words as I mentioned in my native language, just in different spelling at times. It was the conjugations that was really unnerving! I am glad our generation there, had the chance to learn Spanish. Found it useful here living in Cali.

Aww..lucky you Elaine! I wanted to learn French! Too bad, I did not have the time to indulge while we lived in Manitoba! I guess got complacent, since we are okay with English anyways. Would be fun to go into French immersion courses.

My Clivia miniata 'Solomone Yellow' is making lots of babies..It is my first year to have it, acquired it in late Fall, got the blooms in late winter. So I am watching how it goes:


My Nepenthes densiflora is finally ready to open up the lid of its newer pitcher! Been waiting for it do so and when it will transition to a deeper reddish hue:

Well, I spent 8 years traveling and living in Latin America and married a girl from Peru so my Spanish is very good. Then the government sent me to a total immersion class for Indonesian at the government language school in Monterey, California, then off to live in Jakarta for three years. The problem with Indonesian is there is no one around to practice it with.

Back for part 2 of my palms list:

Nannorrhops ritchieana or Mazari palm


Rhapis subtilis or Dwarf lady palm


Allagoptera arenaria or seashore palm


Rhapis humilis or slender lady palm


Livistona drudei or Halifax fan palm


Trachycarpus latisectus or Windamere palm


Cyphophoenix nucele or Lifou palm


Cryosophila warscewiczii or rootspine palm


Caryota urens or toddy fishtail palm


Copernicia macroglossa or Cuban petticoat palm


Coccothrinax crinita or old man palm


Chamaedorea microspadix or hardy bamboo palm


Wallichia densiflora or Wallich's dwarf fishtail palm


Hyophorbe lagenicaulis or bottle palm


Washingtonia robusta or Washington palm


I'll bet your glad that's over. I know I am. How in the world did I ever get so many?

Jim

Love that bottle palm!

Good for you learning Bahasa Indonesia, Jim! So true...if not practiced often, it gets hard to remember.

One time I visited my Uncle's place in General Santos City, it is in the southernmost tip of the Phil. and there was this person there, I was trying to talk to in either Filipino or in my smattering of Cebuano..my cousin told me ..oh..sorry.. the person was Indonesian,so will not understand me.

Sometimes I do wish I learned also more of our native dialects..so many there..so I try to get at least the basic greetings and say thank you/welcome in the local dialects if I can.

Geeze, I already found two that I missed:

Chamaedorea cataractarum or cat palm


Licuala grandis or ruffled fan palm


Jim

And another one!

Copernicia hospita or Cuban wax palm


Jim

I hope I didn't drive everyone off with the palm trees. Here is something I found in the ginger bed. I think it is Ginger, Kaempferia rotunda.


Jim

I think my favorite is the Ruffled Fan Palm!
Jim, you are doing a fantastic job keeping these gorgeous palms in wonderful shape. Pretty Ginger too!
Tarev, I like the Nepenthes!

I am trying to organize my palm collection and I thought this was a good way to do it. I was a little surprised to see many of the images were the first ever posted for the palms. I know some are fairly rare but I thought others grew them too.

Jim

Love that Ginger! I didn't know they came in blue.

Tarev my fave is the pitcher. Jim the Ruffled Fan Palm is my favorite too and I agree the ginger is beautiful.

I love the Bottle Palm, I could see that container on my deck.
Do you keep the Licuala in a GH over the winter? I tried to overwinter one once in a well protected container but it still bit the dust.