Upcoming Events
August 3, 2026: Highlights from the International Palm Society’s 2026 Biennial Meeting in Vietnam and Thailand
Please join us for our general meeting. Our guest speaker, the intrepid Horace Hobbs, will guide us on a fascinating tour of northern and central of Vietnam with a wide variety of palm habitats with a great diversity of palms. The IPS tour included visits to four national parks. After 8 days exploring Vietnam, the excitement continued, with a post tour to southern Thailand, to explore the beautiful Khao Sok National Park and Cheow Lan Lake area and ending in Phuket, the “Jewel of the Andaman Sea.”
The meeting begins at 7:00 pm in the Corbin “A” building of Fairchild Garden. It is potluck, so please bring your favorite dish to share. After the presentation, we will have our plant auctions, and all plant donations are appreciated (they don’t have to be palms). The meeting is open to the public. SFPS Membership is required to participate in the plant auctions, so please consider joining and helping support our efforts.
Special Note
Also, we are very grateful to Stephen Jurek, Assistant Director of Horticulture 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
Thailand: From IPS Site
October 5, 2026, General Meeting: Details to be announced soon!
October 2026, Fall Garden Tour: Two beautiful gardens, details to be announced in August. By reservation only for current members and their guests only.
Fall Palm Show and Sale, Nov 28 and 29, 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
Past Events
March 7 and 8, 2026. Our Annual Spring Palm Show and Sale at University of Miami, Coral Gables on Saturday March 7 and Sunday March 8. It was a great weekend, as we had nearly 300 species of palms and cycades for sale, plus 3 garden tours.
February 14, 2026, SFPS Spring Garden Tour at Montgomery Botanical Center.
February 2, 2026, General Meeting. Horace Hobbs presented his travels to Peru and and northern Amazon basin as part of an IPS trip.
December 1, 2025 Holiday Party with Tropical Flowering Tree Society, with a holiday feast, raffle, silent auction and live auction. See link.
November 8 and 9, 2025 SFPS Annual Palm Show and Sale, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
November 1, 2025 Fall Garden Tour, Dr. Block’s Botanical Garden, Coral Gables, FL.
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.
On June 14, 2025, a group of 13 volunteers from South Florida Palm Society, Treemendous and FIU, lead by Steve Pearson, planted 21 palms at the Palmetum located at campus of the University of Miami in Coral Gables. The palms were donated mainly by Montgomery Botanical Center and Redland Nursery. We are very grateful for the assistance of the volunteers and the palm donations. See link
June 7, 2025, General Meeting, Laz Priegues presented his trip to Mauritius, including one of the most beautiful botanical gardens in the world.
April 12, 2025, Spring Garden Tour, Mike Harris incredible backyard landscape in Cooper City.
April 7, 2025, General Meeting, Understanding Peru from a Palm Perspective, by Chip Jones, Jones Landscaping. See Posting.
March 8 and 9, 2025 Spring Palm Sale, University of Miami Gifford Arboretum, See posting.
Feb 3, 2025, General Meeting, MBC Palm Expedition to Acre, Brazil by Dr. Joanna Tucker Lima, Living Collections Manager and Botanist, Montgomery Botanical Center. See posting.
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.
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 Palmetum at University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL in 2025 and hope to continue to expand their collection in 2026.
Any problems or incorrect information on this website, please contact the Webmaster at:
webmaster@southfloridapalmsociety.org
