lots of Dypsis species do well in california, Caryota sp. would be cool if you have the space. Chambeyronia macrocarpa would be cool for some color.
are you going to do seeds or buy the palms?

and for the microclimate testing. the only thing i can think of thats similar to a coconut is a coconut lol. coconuts are cheap and easy to get compared to any other palm that might have similar requirements. definitely keep us posted on the testing

How about a Queen Palm?! I love those, but they are on the hardy side compared to a coconut i think. And they are VERY cheap! or a Rhapis excelsa, or Phoenix roebelenii?!

Oh! or how about a Majesty Palm? They seem sensitive to all the things mentioned.

Dypsis maybe, and arn't many caryota's z9b? They are pretty cool looking though. Chambeyronia macrocarpa would be one to get. Queens are too common, majesty's and roebelenii are pretty cool but they also do well here especially near a building or under canopy. I'm hoping to get something to survive that we dont see often here growing outside. But eventually I will get one of each kind :) lol

Thanks guys for suggestions! Have any more? lol So what you guys think about zone pushing kentia's, royals,beccariophoenix etc under canopy or near a wall in californias central valley?

- US_Marine

i think you should deffinately go for beccariophoenix alfredii against a south facing wall or parajubea incase the coconut experiment doesn't pull through lol.

Psuedophoenix sargentii, Hedyscepe canterburyana, Ravanea glauca,Archontophoenix, roystonea, Kentiopsis,and lots of Chamaedorea .sp you could check out.

If you got a lot of space, fishtail palms are definitely a great palm in your climate. The ones I've seen in Orlando look great and they have seen some frosts in the past and still manage to survive undamaged. They arent long lived palms, but they are beautiful!
There are lots of other beautiful palms too.
Chambeyronia's are beautiful and Kentias are common, but also beautiful. Foxtail palms would be a big challenge, just like coconut palms, and they are really beautiful palms.
Australia is home to a lot of beautiful native palms so definitely look into species native to there.

Here are a few nice palms to look into if you want a challenge, or just some nice palms!
- Archontophoenix
- Corypha umbraculifera (impossible to grow in California, but a beautiful palm. Dies after flowering and makes the largest flower infloresence in the plant kingdom!)
- Cocothrinax (probably another nearly impossible palm to grow in California. native to Southern Florida and the carribean, and it's slow growing even there!)
- Foxy Lady Palm (Hybrid between a foxtail palm and Veitchia palm and it's a really beautiful looking palm!)
- Pritchardia (really nice palm native to the tropical pacific. Some species may be somewhat tolerant of California weather)
- Verschaffeltia splendida (really tropical palm with aerial roots. Seems to have success in Florida, but not in cali. Would definitely be a challenge!)
- Copernicia (really slow growing, but eventually it becomes a massive palm. Should be very slow to grow in Cali, but there are some specimens in California so you might have luck with it. There are some really nice Copernicias in Southern Florida).
- Definitely lots of other nice ones too! Chamaedoreas are common, but some species arent as common and are really nice. And the more tropical Sabal species are really interesting, but Im not sure how well they would do in a dry climate. They would probably survive if protected from frost, but might lose it's tropical characteristics (like the petioles that stay green on the trunk for many years instead of turning gray like on most other palms).

Good luck!
-Alex

Hyphaene thebaica,Medemia argun, Borassus aethiopum, Borassus fflabellifer should fit nice in central cali.you must have the heat to support these palms? i think there real beauties!

more tropical stuff i would say Pritchardia hillebrandii,Pritchardia thurstonii,Pritchardia pacifica,Priitchardia hillebrandii var.blue dwarf,Licuala ramsayi,Licuala orbicularis,Roystonea's as mention,Attalea cohune,some Coccothrinax palms,Copernicia's,Gaussia maya,Latania loddigesii,some tropical livistona's,Lodoicea maldivica,Normanbya normanbyi & dictyosperma album is a nice one.

Thanks guys! I'm gonna have to keep an eye out for these palms :)

I'm pretty sure the valley has enough heat. Our summers always average in the 90f's and hit 100f+ often. My coconut palm also grows pretty fast I bet other palms will too. It has just barely started to open its new spear and I see another one already a little above the crown. Since summer started it has nearly grown a frond a month.

- US_Marine

Hi
i thought the majority of palms are rated 9/10?? For a REAL challenge jump to the 11 rainforest types?? fussy about light soil,water humidity, slow growing hate competition. WOW a landscapers dream!!! gary

For a stunning palm you should try Kerriodoxa elegans. Won't get too tall so still manageable when you need to protect it from cold, wind, etc. Black petioles, white underside of leaflets, green topside of leaflets. It's a real stand-out palm but likes its humidity.

Another is Caryota zebrina, zebra striped petioles (C. ophiopellis is similar). Doesn't grow too tall so is manageable as well.

Cyrtostachys renda looks great, needs a lot of sun and water as well, and abhors cold. They will grow tall but take quite a while to do it. Meantime you've got that brilliant red colour.

I think that another palm would be a Veitchia merrilli, but, they are pretty adaptable, and are not very hard to grow from what I've read! i'm gonna get one in the next couple of weeks, and it will grow in an inside window planter in the winter (maybe always if it does well) but its got to be moist, because it can get spider mites if its dry constantly. (apparently)

Veitchia merrillii is a synonym of Adonidia merrillii.

Your climate may have plenty of heat in summer.. .but it is heat in winter that is usually the limiting factor. Many palms do not do well with the long periods of 'cool' (even if severe lows are not reached) that do them in... this is why a coconut is such a hard grow in California while they do well in the 'same zone' in Florida. This situation holds also for Borassus, Coryphas, most Copernicias and several other palms you might come across in Orlando, which is the equivalent USDA climate as much of central and southern California... they actually suffer frequent severe frosts/freezes more often than we do in California... but they also are warmer most of the time in the winter which makes many palms we struggle with in California grow fast and well there.

The list of marginal palms for California is nearly 400 species long and I cannot write them all down here... but you do have obviously a lot to try if you want to do marginal palms... there are over 100 Dypsis species alone you can try out, though I do not know too many that tolerate central California weather (Dypsis decipiens has been grown successfully, though in central Cal).

Microclimate, average lows, average highs, absolute lows, absolute highs and rainfall are all factors in deciding what will grow where. Factoring these all together you might get a better idea of what can grow for you.

Could you overwinter verschaffeltia splendida, bentinckia nicobarica, archontophoenix purpurea,cocos nucifera, ravenea hildebrandtii and pritchardia schattaueri and forbesiana in minnesota for like 3-5 months? just curious. I would do what ever it takes to do so. im currently overwintering 2 majesty palms and they look flawless. (i know my username is hatemajestypalms, but in minnesota all lowes and HD sell are majesties?!)

What do yopu mean by over winter? Outside or inside? Well I have no experience with any of the ones you mentioned above except the coconut palm.

Yes you can over winter a coconut palm inside. Its actually quite easy even though a lot of people don't have luck with them indoors. The secret is you gotta not water much while inside if at all. They do not like cool wet soil temps and can get root rot very easily if your not careful. Treat them like a cactus inside. If you have to water, I'd water with warm water although you don't have to and let the soil dry out before you think about watering again. I'd water maybe once or 2x at most during winter. And when temps are warm again they will do better outside. Outside when its warm you can almost not water them too much, especially if temps are hot and dry.

As far as the others go, I'd say you probably can over winter them in the house. But I aint sure. Never tried them yet.

- US_Marine

I mean overwinter inside. I really like the palms I mentioned and would love to give all of em a try, but the pocketbook comes first.
Ravenea hildebrandtii inside the house overwinter better than Ravenea rivularis, so I think Im pretty much set with the R.hildebrandtii, although any advice would be appreciated. Im guessing the stilters are probably on the complex side to overwinter because of how tropical the palm itself is. I would appreciate any advice and pointers on how to overwinter any of the palms I listed in my first post. Thx

theoretically you could grow all these palms if you have the correct indoor living situation (the closer to a greenhouse situation, the better). In fact, a greenhouse would be an excellent idea... all should do well in a well insulated greenhouse. Most of these you listed need a LOT of light and humidity, something that tends to be lacking inside most homes. I think the idea of treating them like cacti if they have to kept in dark, dry areas is a good idea... they may suffer, but they may at least survive. Most tropical palms when put in home situations stop growing and shut down, and watering such a palm is a good way to rot it. I personally find most indoor palms sad looking plants so I restrict mine to those that do well in low humidity and low light (none of those listed above). I have a friend who grew a Verschaffeltia as an indoor palm for a few years, putting it outdoors when the weather was right... but it sill eventually went downhill and died. Tricky things if you don't have the proper indoor weather conditions... Good luck!

Actually I think I found some indoor palms that could make it in minnesota. I live in Shakopee and all that is found in minnesota is junky majesties. Well anyway,here they are:
-Hyophorbe Indica
-Adonidia Merrilli
-Chamaedorea Tepejilote
-Ravenea Hildebrandtii.
On the "Maybe could make it" list is Archontophoenix Purpurea,Cocos Nucifera (i could do it,just buy 2) and Verschaffeltia $plendida(expensive,the only ones available are on eBay.)
It is winter now so now i will wait to get these.
Overall, I plan to spend $100-200

Im going to take hyophorbe indica off the list. Because of the growth rate, i dont think it suits me. Im going to replace it with a Anthurium or an elephant ear. I dont intend on trying Pinanga, Areca (not lutescens),Bentinckia and Verschaffeltia until i get more experience and can find a humidifier that actually works and lasts (think ultrasonic). Right now for the winter im borrowing my parents old one..But until then, im going to stick with adonidia, ravenea hildebrandtii, archontophoenix purpurea and chamaedorea tepejilote. I do mist when i have the time.

have you tried the ones that do great indoors yet? Rhapis, Howeas, Chamaedorea elegans and cataractarum, Cryosophilas, Livistona chinensis, Chamaedorea metallica, stolonifera, ernestii-augusti, Chamaedorea seifrizii, Chuniophoenix, Licuala spinosa, etc.? I can tell you from personal experience and from others that have tried, Archontophoenix are extremely hard to keep alive indoors. They need so much light that they just sulk beyond belief. Anyway, good luck. At least Adonidias are known to do well indoors. Not sure about Chamaedorea tepejilote... watch for severe brown tipping due to tap water, and they are super sensitive to spider mite. They also like humidity.

Im gonna pick up some parlor palms next time i go to lowes. They have em for $5 in a 5in pot. There is a lady palm on ebay that is i think in a 6 in. pot, i do intend to get that later on. I do however like chamaedorea stolonifera and brachypoda. I would also want to grow tuerckheimii in the future.
So on the list of palms i should buy:
-Adonidia merrilli
-Ravenea Hildebrandtii
-Chamaedorea tepejilote, i know about the water, we have better quality water than the other suburbs around us.
-Maybe a cocos or 2.
-Chamaedorea woodsoniana
Im going to put these indoors in november or late october and put em out again in mid march.

Actually i would take chamaedorea tepejilote off. Do you know about chamaedorea brachypoda, i would live to try that. Is it and chamaedorea stolonifera and woodsoniana finicky about water quality? Because if they are that has just reduced my palm tree order for summer 2013 to 2 adonidias and 2 ravenea hildebrandtiis, then i would have enough money to buy some cocos and maybe even some Ver$chaffeltias along with some elephant ears and some anthuriums.

Chamaedorea brachypoda is a very finicky species and hates impure water... but Chamaedorea stolonifera is incredibly tolerant of all sorts of abuse.. .one of the easiest of all the Chamaedoreas. C woodsoniana is a tad finicky and seems very needy of intense light (though I have seen some fairly happy in moderate canopy). Never seen one grown indoors, though. All the raveneas are on the super needy side of sunlight as well, though perhaps hildebrandii might be one of the least. But they all seem to get tatty in dry air.

Many years a go I saw in Sunset magazine(when all pics were in black and white) a indoor living room with C. elegans and C. tepejilote (something that seems to be a common name for large species of Chamadorea) and they looked fantastic. The C.elegans had much larger fronds and a taller trunk then they ever get outside in California...and the C.tepejilote was a tall ringed trunk beauty with 4' fronds in each direction. ALL dark shades too. In just a front room!

Has any had experience growing Pinanga caesia and speciosa indoors? Or the Areca genus? Like ipot, A.macrocarpa,guppyana,vestiaria and catechu indoors either? I would love to try those to if they dont take much work to overwinter like cocos.? I heard guppyana was being raised indoors in socal with humidity of course.

So C. Tepejilote hate tap water? If i got 2 of em, could i water with bottled water instead?

I have a C. Tepejilote. It has never grown really well, maybe it's because I water it with tap water? I dont know, but it continues to survive and hopefully it will start picking up in speed this coming summer!
-Alex

What about my question about pinangas and arecas indoors?

Ive decided that all i want to grow is ravenea hildebrandtii, adonidia merrilli, verschaffeltia splendida, bentinckia nicobarica and maybe 2 betel nut palms. 2 of each is my rule, kill one ya still got one left. So im estimating ill be overwintering 10 palms, no pinangas, no A.guppies, no vesties no other areca or pinanga unless its fast growing. I still have unresolved questions about bentinckia nicobarica and ateca betel. If u people could nicely help me that would be nice.