Palm Society of South Texas

Previous Meetings of PSST.  Lots of photos, palms and fun!

• Brownsville, October 2007 -- Mahandran Rajasuriar and Alice Garza
• Austin, August 2007 -- Co-hosts Clay Fisher and RL Frasier, with visits to Joe Montgomery's garden and Zilker Park. 
• Lyford, July 2007 -- Hilltop Gardens, a historical home of aloe, facilitated by member Jim McInnis
• Mercer Arboretum, June 2007 -- Commemoration of memorial bench for Robert Lee Riffle
• Harlingen, May 2007 -- Rick Bassett
• Brownsville, April 2007 -- Romeo and Linda Montalvo
• Weslaco, March 2007 -- Tad and Jack Dyer
• Bayview, February 2007 -- Jim and Evelyn Sommerfrucht
• Markham, January 2007 -- Renate Blocker
• Christmas Party in Bayview 2006 -- Ruth Merrill
• Corpus Christi, November 2006 -- John Dillard and Ed Ladd
• San Antonio, September 2006 -- The Volk family
• Harlingen, August 2006 -- Uvaldo and Gemma Cantu, with an additional garden tour at Rick Bassett's. 
• Corpus Christi, July 2006 -- Jon and Suzie Watson
• Harlingen, June 2006 -- John and Mary Barkkari
• Port Aransas, May 2006 -- Special luau celebration of our 10-year anniversary
• Santa Elena, April 2006 -- Elizabeth Burns
• Brownsville, March 2006 -- Romeo and Linda Montalvo
• Robstown, February 2006 -- Tour of Fox Nursery's palm farm
• Harlingen, January 2006 -- Wally and Lilly Winters
• Christmas Party in Bayview 2005 -- Ruth Merrill
• Corpus Christi, November 2005 -- Darryl and Stacey Smith
• Bayview, October 2005 -- Jack and Linn Keller
• San Antonio, August 2005 -- San Antonio Botanical Gardens
• San Benito, July 2005 -- Esmie Rivera's Pan American RV Resort
• Harlingen, June 2005 -- Texas Visitors Center in Harlingen
• Brownsville, May 2005 -- Romeo and Linda Montalvo
• Harlingen, April 2005 -- John and Mary Barkkari
• Corpus Christi, March 2005 -- Corpus Christi Botanical Gardens
• San Benito, February 2005 -- Charlie and Lana Vieh
• Harlingen, January 2005 -- Wally and Lilly Winters
• White Christmas 2004 -- Recordbreaking snowfall blankets south Texas
• Christmas Party in Bayview 2004 -- Ruth Merrill, our hostess to the mostest! 
• Corpus Christi, November 2004 -- John Dillard and Ed Ladd  
• San Antonio, October 2004 -- John and Blake Volk
• Brownsville, September 2004 -- Mahandran Rajasuriar and Alice Garza
• Bayview, August 2004 -- Jim and Evelyn Sommerfrucht
• Houston, July 2004 -- Tour of Grant Stephenson's nursery and Horace Hobbs' garden
• Brownsville, June 2004 -- Romeo and Linda Montalvo
• Santa Rosa, May 2004 -- Thad and Alice Magyar, home of Mango's Jungle
• Harlingen, April 2004 -- Glyn Whiddon shares his newly landscaped garden
• Corpus Christi, March 2004 -- Jon and Suzie Watson in Corpus Christi, with a field trip to the Corpus Christi Botanical Gardens
• Victoria, February 2004 -- Co-hosted by Will Wagner and Jim McHaney at the Gordon Ranch. 
• Harlingen, January 2004 -- John and Mary Barkkari in Harlingen
• Bayview, December 2003 -- Ruth Merrill graciously hosts our traditional Christmas party and gift exchange of palm-related gifts.
• San Benito, November 2003 -- Charlie and Lana Vieh's Bed and Breakfast
• Mission, October 2003 -- Bill and Marilyn Madsen
• Martindale, September 2003 -- John and Cynthia Tolbert live near the San Marcos River, east of San Antonio
• Hempstead, August 2003 -- YuccaDo Nursery and Peckerwood Gardens
• Staples, July 2003 -- Home of Sheryl Crabtree and "A Plant Sale" nursery 
• Brownsville, June 2003 -- Dr. Romeo and Linda Montalvo
• Seguin, May 2003 -- Frank and Frankie Ketchum
• Mustang Island, April 2003 -- Dr. Jon and Susie Watson
• Palm Sale, March 2003 -- Stuart Place Nursery in Harlingen
• Ingleside, February 2003 -- Gaby and Gunter Schmidt
• Brownsville, June 2001 -- Romeo and Linda Montalvo
• Hobson, Texas, May 2001 -- Jason and Mary Ann Swafford
• Palm Sale, April 2001 -- Stuart Place Nursery in Harlingen hosted its third, and ever improving, palm sale.
• Victoria, March 2001 -- Historic Victoria was made special by James Hill's guided tour and extensive knowledge of Sabal victoria
• McAllen, November 2000 -- Bill Madsen's amazing palm collection, including a coconut with fruit.
• Thad and Alice's Texas Jungle -- Thad and Alice hosted their annual meeting in October and at night.
• Rockport, September 2000 -- Palm auction and visit to the Rockport Art Center Sculpture Garden.
• San Antonio, August 2000 -- John and Blake Volk
• Home of Digital Raingardens, Gary and Jana Meiser -- Side trip to John Anderson's bromeliad collection.
• Lana and Charlie Vieh's Bed & Breakfast in San Benito -- South Texas hosts at their finest
• Carol Farrald's Palm Acres Nursery in Elsa -- home of the Washingtonia grove au naturel
• Brazoria Palm Reserve and Mike Rayburn's Garden -- These are truly hidden treasures for palm enthusiasts. 
• Brownsville, March 2000 -- Alice Garza and Mahandran Rajasuriar's garden
• Bayview, January 2000 -- PSST starts a new millenium in great form with great attendance, new members, guests, and a Caryota mitis that towers over a 2-story house.  Summary in Spanish available too
• Christmas Party 1999 -- The tradition continues
• Beeville, October 1999 -- Jo Adkins garden is 30 years old and uniquely her own style.
• Ingleside, September 1999 -- Visitors from Florida, authors of palm books, and hummingbirds. 
• McAllen, August 1999 -- Our founder Bill Bittle receives award of appreciation from PSST
• Austin, July 1999 -- A tour of the capital, Joe Montgomery's garden, and barbeque at Bill and Norma Baker's
• Santa Rosa, April 1999 -- The annual barbeque at Thad and Alice's
• Brownsville, February 1999 -- A palm we don't see very often is on this page -- Borassus
• Christmas Party 1998 -- The PSST Christmas has become a tradition with the exchange of palm-related gifts
• San Antonio Botanical Gardens in June 1998

PSST publishes a quarterly bulletin. Check out some of our articles.

• Palms with Potential for South Texas
• History of Freezes in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Part II  1895-1962
• History of Freezes in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Part III (the '83 and '89 big freezes)
• Pot Planting: A Revolutionary New Advancement in Palm Growing
• Sunsitizing
• 1998 IPS Biennial in Thailand
• A Tour of Lower Rio Grande Valley Palms

Other palm links:

• Seeds from Montgomery Botanical Center.  PSST receives seeds periodically from MBC in Miami which are distributed at meetings when available.   
• Garden Adventures  A "palm-carrying" nursery in Austin, Texas.  
• Texas Palms and Ponds in Kingwood, Texas.  Houston member Mark Chambers offers cold hardy palms. 
• The Prime Palm Offering a wide variety of palms and cycads, palm and cycad seeds, and related supplies. Located in Oceanside, California, from member John Ingwersen (e-mail at info@palmcollector.com ). 
• International Palm Society home page and bulletin board
• Vieh's Bed and Breakfast in San Benito, Texas.  Guided tours to Mexico, bird watching, palm tree collecting. 
• Robert Lee Riffle has received the prestigious Book of the Year Award from the American Horticultural Society for this book The Tropical Look:  An Encyclopedia of Dramatic Landscape Plants.    Robert is also a gifted photographer and now has on display in cyberspace more than 100 photos of Houston gardens in "Robert Lee Riffle's Tropical Image Gallery."  His newest book is An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms. 
• The highlight each year for PSST is the annual meeting at Thad and Alice Magyar's tropical paradise.  Their military macaw Mango thought this was not nearly enough visitors, so Mango has taken over and is offering tours through  "Mango's Jungle"
• Decorate inside with prints of palms   Over 100 art prints with palm trees available, framed or unframed. 
• PSST member Tony Cerbone's garden in Dallas
• PSST member Mike Burnett's Gulf Coast Garden site and bulletin board
• How do you move a 38-ton palm tree?  To find out, visit the Palm King page by Ed Ladd.
• PSST member Ed Ladd's Palm Tour of Corpus Christi and a list of links for Searching out Palms on the Internet
• The Cool Tropics This is Peter Hueppi's site filled with links, cold rating data base, germination tips and much more. 
• Help save some palms in danger!  Palms of the Moapa
• Fairchild Tropical Gardens -- 83 acres of palm tree bliss in Miami.
• Moody Gardens
• Rhapis Gardens - grower of Lady Palms, King Sagos
• Palm and Cycad Societies of Australia - very informative site
• Lester Pancoast's watercolors

Books of Interest to Palm Enthusiasts

Robert Lee Riffle's The Tropical Look

Palms of the World by David L. Jones and John Dransfield
Hard cover, 410 pages (October 1995). More than 800 species are listed alphabetically, including more than 400 color photographs and 60 line drawings.

Cycads of the World by David L. Jones, Dennis Stevenson
Hardcover - 296 pages (April 1, 2000) Smithsonian Institution Press; ISBN: 1560982209 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.04 x 10.58 x 7.81

Betrocks Guide to Landscape Palms by Allen Meerow
Hardcover 4th edition (September 1997). Color photographs, descriptions of palms, landscaping and maintenance information, and documentation of diseases and nutritional deficiencies.

Palms: The New Compact Study Guide and Identifier by Martin Gibbons.
Hardcover - 80 pages (March 1993). A full color guide at an unbelievable low price.

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