I know palm trees look great, but are they a hassle to maintain?

[marrylucas234]

Hello friends

I like Palm trees because it looks great.I have a new home and i am thinking about some palm trees. Someone told me that its expensive to keep them looking nice.It needs more attention and care. What do you think?

[Trópico]

Hello new friend!

Nice to meet you. If you like Palm trees like all of us then you came to the right place! Expensive can be an understatement with most species that we like, although some may be cheap and easy to care yet beautiful to look at. Can you elaborate on your location and climate a little, so that it help us suggest to you a few species you can try?

[Kris]

Dear Marry

Welcome to our forum.And you are right some palms do need little bit of annual maintanence,especially the phoenix palm.Under this catagory we have the regular date palms,canary date palm,sylversteris...These palms do have deadly thorns & spines in its leaves and fronds.So once these palms mature and has grown past 12 to 14 feet in height we must hier a proffesional to trim its old droopy fronds.Since most of these tend to retain their old dried fronds for a long time.And it could look bad cosmetically.And some of these palms are not self cleaning at young age.

And the same applies to Washingtonia Robustas & washy filiferas..

So to clean them we will have to employ guys who can climb on top of these plam trees and clean them.And this work could be expensive if those trimmers are not common in your area.

While small & medium palms are usually self cleaning and easy to maintain.

And here is a link to phoenix sylversteris maintanence thread with lots of trimming visuals..

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?sh...40&start=40

Love,

kris

[calyptrocalyx&licuala freck]

Hi palm friend,

wots your location as it may help

in to wot you could grow......

Cheers Regards Mikey

[BS Man about Palms]

Mikey! Good to see you are back!!!!

[Peter Pacific]

Hello friends

I like Palm trees because it looks great.I have a new home and i am thinking about some palm trees. Someone told me that its expensive to keep them looking nice.It needs more attention and care. What do you think?

Hello Marry, welcome to palmtalk!

First, I have to tell you how much I laughed when I read your post (and I thank you for that)! Second, as other members have said, you´ve come to the right place. Palms are beautiful and to a lot of people on here they are what gives you life, a joy, a hobby, an inspiration. You can find palms that require an enormous amount of effort and others that you put into the ground and forget about. How much time do you want to dedicate to your garden? to your palms? Start there and work backwards...Good Luck, Peter

[palm student]

Hello Marry,

I beg to differ with the other respondents. Palms are easy to care for. If you are young enough, or not young, buy small palms and grow them to 5 gallons and then plant. Palms such as the Queen that are inexpensive and quite common do need the fronds trimmed when they get tall. I have lived in one place 25 years and am able to trim most of my own palms without any problem. Washingtonia palms are supposed to have the dry fronds handing down. I have several phoenix and have been able to trim the fronds with an extended cutter. Just be careful of the thorns. Some of the most cold hardy and beautiful palms have thorns and you just have to be careful.

Palms are much easier than other trees that need extensive pruning. I have shrubs that are a pain to keep looking nice. Palms need a bit of fertilizer but some people don't use it.

When you let us all know your climate, we can make recommendations as to type. Happy palm growing!

Palm Student

[Jose Blanco]

This is really a test, as this is my first post. But....

Palms are rather easy to maintain, at least in south Florida, USA. The main problem people have is planting palms too low, thus rotting the bottom of the trunk. I am excited to be part of this group!