My One And Only Sabal...I'm Keepin' Her Though

[Jim in Los Altos]

She's hard to photograph but here she is anyhow. She's a twelve year old Sabal bermudana and is starting to become massive after a slooowww start. Anyone else growing this mighty species, please share pictures. If I had the room, I'd try more Sabal species for sure.

[Sabal Steve]

What's her name? Hard to believe she's single.

[Stevetoad]

Love dem big sabals.

[Palmdude]

Nice looking palm Jim! She looks fat and happy I like to cut the boots long on sabals and stuff broms and orchids in there.

[_Keith]

Do you have a better picture of the lower leaf bases? Are they deeply and widely split?

[redbeard917]

Here is a Sabal bermudana that gets all day sun. Quite a bit younger than yours. Clockwise from it are Chamaerops, Dioon edule, Serenoa repens. I think it is similar to Sabal palmetto but has noticeably stiffer leaflets at this stage. I placed seashells around it since Sabals are often seen growing in old Indian shell mounds, and I figure they like the calcium and/or higher pH.

[Rafael]

Nice one!

[Jim in Los Altos]

Do you have a better picture of the lower leaf bases? Are they deeply and widely split?

Keith, are talking about the leaves themselves or the cut petioles?

[Phoenikakias]

Only 12 years old?!?!?!?!? Pretty fast for a pure bermudana growing in west coast, which suffered additionally during previous years by a serious drought.

[Sabal Steve]

I hear bermudana is a good grower in California, as it dosen't need as much heat to trigger growth as the other Sabals.

[Jim in Los Altos]

Only 12 years old?!?!?!?!? Pretty fast for a pure bermudana growing in west coast, which suffered additionally during previous years by a serious drought.

Water has never been an issue in my area to this point. Nothing in my garden has ever been drought stressed. The worst drought was in 1977 and we had a mandatory 10% cutback in water use which was not difficult to achieve.

My Sabal started out slowly for its first few years in the ground as a seedling and has really picked up the pace in the last three years. It's mostly shaded by a big clump of blue bamboo too.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

I have two small ones that haven't been in the ground long. One had suffered the indignity of having tiki torch oil dumped into the growing point. Figuring it was dead since the spear pulled and all of the foliage turned brown, I bought another. Well, not to be put down so easily, that little palm has survived and has grown all winter long. so now I have 2, and as long as the TPPD doesn't kill them, I will enjoy watching them grow into beautiful trees like yours, Jim. Before TPPD, Sabals were nearly indestructible here.

[Phoenikakias]

My bermudana, of course way smaller than Jim's, but at least I think it is a pure specimen, as originating from the only Sabal in a public garden having large seeds (for a Sabal) and short inflorescences...