Our fall line-up is great: Oct 5- General meeting, with presentation on Madagascar. Oct 24- Member’s Garden tour, details TBA, Nov 28-29, Palm Sale at Fairchild and Holiday on December 7
Events
October 5, 2026, General Meeting: Madagascar’s Spiny forest and Stone forest. Starts at 7:00 pm, in the Corbin building “A” of Fairchild.
Laz Priegues will be our guest speaker, presenting the second leg of his trip to Madagascar as he ventured further south on the island. The presentation will include the very famous Spiny Forest and Forest of Stone, or Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park.
Spiny Forest, one of the world’s most unique habitats. Extending across southwest Madagascar, the 17,000 square miles of forest (or spiny thicket) contains a wide variety of desert plants including tbe majestic baobabs. This habitat supports many animals including regionally endemic lemurs and tortoises. It is considered a globally distinct ecoregion owing to its high rate of endemism; 95% of its plant species are unique to this area with many showing extreme and usual adaptations to the harsh, semi-arid environment.
Tsingy de Bemaraha park is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It features suspension bridges and ladders built directly into the jagged canyons. The word “tsingy” translates literally to “where one cannot walk barefoot” or “walking on tiptoes”. It refers to the dramatic, razor-sharp limestone karst formations that create surreal “stone forests” across Madagascar. Yet, Laz and Gloria somehow survived the climb, wearing high quality hiking boots.
Our meeting will begin at 7:00 pm in the Corbin Building at Fairchild. It is potluck, so please bring your favorite dish to share. Also, we really appreciate plant donations for our auctions and they don’t necessarily need to be palms.
For additional information: click here.
October 24, 2026, Fall Garden Tour: Two beautiful gardens in South Miami and Shenandoah (near Coconut Grove).
By reservation only for current members and their guests only. Guests of members must pay $15 to help us with expenses. The details will be available in September. We will start asking for reservations a couple weeks before the garden tour.
Nov 28 and 29, Fall Palm Show and Sale, Fairchild Botanic Tropical Garden.
We are returning again! We are always looking for vendors. If you are interested, please let us know at: palms@southfloridapalmsociety.org
Special Note
Also, we are very grateful to Stephen Jurek, Director of Horticulture Operations at Naples Botanical Garden, who posted to the Garden’s website, how SFPS palm sales have helped the Garden diversify their collection. See link below:
The Art of Acquiring Palms
Regular SFPS Activities
There are typically two garden tours each year, one in the spring and the other in the fall for SFPS members. Non-members can join the tour, but they must pay $15.00 each. Meetings are held on the first Monday of the even-numbered months- February, April, June, August and October in the Corbin building at Fairchild Gardens. Meetings are open to non-members.
The December meeting is the Holiday Party and annual auction. It is open only to members and their guests. At recent parties, we have invited members of the Tropical Flowering Tree Society to join us in the festivities. Attendees have an opportunity to outbid each other for a prized plant (not necessarily a palm).
You may join the Society by clicking on the link below.
October 6, 2025 General Meeting: Dr. Patrick Griffith, Executive Director of Montgomery Botanical Center, presented “In Search of the World’s Largest Coconut on the Palmyra Atoll.” See link.
Community Projects
SFPS is always looking for new ways to increase awareness and knowledge of palms in the landscape, botanical gardens and in the wild. We have supported efforts by the Kiem Foundation, Morningside park palmetum and MetroZoo collection of palms. We have added to the diversity of Palms in the Palmetum at University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL in June 2025 and June 2026.
In 2026, we donated $15,000 to Montgomery Botanic Center to support their Plant Exploration fund. This donation was matched 100% by Dr. Lin Lougheed, so a total of $30,000 was contributed. Thanks goes to all the members and growers at our plant sales, who contribute so much!
Any problems or incorrect information on this website, please contact the Webmaster at:
webmaster@southfloridapalmsociety.org
