Winter Seeds

During the same time that i was trying to get the lotus seeds to sprout i also tried growing some other plants. First i ordered a banana tree online for $4. It showed up in the middle of winter and looked pretty hopeless.

But since then it seems to have recovered. It shoots up with 2 new leaves every 2 weeks.

Also i tried planting garlic and an onion. They are both growing great so far in a small pot by the window.
I also brought home palm tree seeds from when i was in Las Vegas and Phoenix. I'm not sure what type of palm it is, but here's what it looked like. You can see the seeds near the bottom and on the ground.

I couldn't get the seeds from the really big California Palm trees, they were too high up and most of them weren't ripe yet.

But i took the smaller palm seeds home with me, then removed the outer "fruit" part.
I soaked the seed for a day in water then put it in a plastic bag with a damp paper towel. Out of probably 15 seeds that i did this with only 4 sprouted. The rest showed no signs of doing anything. But it turned out that they just took longer, around a month and a half they began to sprout.