Queen Palm

[ghar41]

The recent post on the use of a common palm brings to mind an ongoing problem here in the Central Valley.

The availability of the truly magnificent Queen Palm here is outstanding.  Grocery stores often keep many on hand in 15 gallon pots for under $50. Our local Costco recently blew out hundreds at under $40.  From Sacramento to Fresno there are thousands of them ....

Problem is... the vast majority of these trees are poorly planted...some literally inches from house foundations... or planted way too close together, often in unimaginative lines, in front yards....worst of all, they are left to fend without proper amounts of Nitrogen and micronutrients.

Sad to say...they have become weeds.  They are regularly the worst looking tree in a given yard or setting.  The recent cold snap deteriorated already declining trees.  I RARELY enjoy seeing a queen palm other than my own.

Is this a problem in other places?

[DoomsDave]

Here they thrive effortlessly with no care, though they look a lot prettier with regular water.

I never feed mine.  Giving them too much Nitrogen will lead to micronutrient deficiencies.

dave

[paulgila]

i was with you on that,but lately i have been noticing that some are super-burly with more recurved fronds &

beefier trunks.i am enjoying this kind of queen palm!

[happ]

Agree with Dave.  Queen palms are widely planted & always seem healthy though I have noticed that some people don't understand that they need water, once in a while  

Didn't expect to see so many queens growing in the Sacramento valley and am not surprised that they took a beating from last January's freeze  

[spockvr6]

(pohonkelapa @ Apr. 19 2007,17:27)

QUOTE

i was with you on that,but lately i have been noticing that some are super-burly with more recurved fronds &

beefier trunks.i am enjoying this kind of queen palm!

Yeah....those are the ones to have for sure!

[gsn]

Ghar,

I think queen palms get a bad rap!!! The more upright form with a robust crown are truly beautiful,but the weepier form is also quite attractive if taken care of!

It's not the palms fault it doesn't look good ,it's the person who planted it,and didn't bother to take care of it, that is the problem! A well taken care of queen palm is a tropical looking thing of beauty in my humble opinion!

This would be the case of any palm planted, that likes average to more than average water needs. I can think of more than a few palm species that come to mind that look like crap, if not watered and fertilized!!

As to whether they are planted unimaginatively ,that can't be helped,unless you want to be the yard police! These  queen palms that are planted in rows,or haphazzardly (sp) around the yard,a palm here a palm there, look no beter or no worse than if they had planted a bunch of trees or other plants in the same manner. It would have the same effect ,it wouldn't look good to most people on this board who know a little about landscaping!

Unfortunately a lot of people just go out and buy a bunch of plants ,put them in the ground,anywhere there is a space. Don't take care of them,watch them decline then die,then go out and do the same thing 2 or 3 years later!

[ruskinPalms]

Yep, most of the queens in FL look nutrient deficient. But, with palm fertilizer with micros and water on a regular basis these are outstanding. My queen palm is becoming an absolute stunner. So very robust and fast growing compared to most others in my new development. This thing is actually providing nice canopy for some little bottle palms, which incidentally came through this last winter absolutely unscathed

[ruskinPalms]

Some Florida queens in yards that don't look too bad, maybe they get some high nitrogen lawn fertilizer every now and then. Answers the question of whether or not queens curve away from one another:

[ghar41]

Yes, thanks Dave, WATER being a key factor.  I didn't realize I left it out of my original post so I edited it.  Also, yes, proper amounts of nutrients only, as too much can kill.

pohonkelapa and spockvr6- The big beefy queens ARE awesome.  Love those trunks!  Even more so are the Butia-Syagrus hybrids.

Happ, the freezing temperatures here had little or no effect on healthy trees:

[ruskinPalms]

Drainage ravine where queens have naturalized. Truly self sustaining population here. By the way these are recycled pics from a post I put in the travel log section a while back but worth posting again.

[ruskinPalms]

Who can find the date palm in the above pictures?

Better shot of it down in the BOTTOM of the drainage ditch in very WET area:

Sorry for getting off topic

[ghar41]

(gsn @ Apr. 19 2007,18:24)

QUOTE

Ghar,

I think queen palms get a bad rap!!!

It's not the palms fault it doesn't look good

Oh YES, please, I'm not blaming the trees!

I am speaking solely of the manner in which they are being cared for:

[ghar41]

(ruskinPalms @ Apr. 19 2007,18:39)

QUOTE

Drainage ravine where queens have naturalized.

AWESOME!!!!  Queens in a large naturalistic setting!  

Thanks for the pictures!

[ruskinPalms]

What the heck, here are some more from the same area:

[paulgila]

they look great in groups!

[Central Floridave]

I"ve been seeing a lot of dead queen palms around town.

New Disease of Queen Palms (Syagrus romanzoffiana) in the South Florida Landscape

May 2005

Monica L. Elliott, Ph.D.

Professor of Plant Pathology

University of Florida – IFAS

Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center

http://prohort.ifas.ufl.edu/pubs/QueenPalmDisease2.pdf

[SubTropicRay]

Queens yes.  Pothos NO.  Please no Pothos.

[happ]

Fantastic photos, Bill  

Healthy specimens one & all  

How about some bottle palms?

[feef706]

The queens making their own habit is a beautiful thing. I'd love to have palms such as these germinating around me, rather than the Sabels that I see day in and day out. They just dont have the tropical look of the queens...

[ghar41]

(Central Floridave @ Apr. 19 2007,21:05)

QUOTE

I"ve been seeing a lot of dead queen palms around town.

Thanks for the article Floridave.

The caption and picture showing "Dying lower leaves do not break or droop and hang parallel to trunk," looks eerily similar to a couple of queens I photographed today.  

http://prohort.ifas.ufl.edu/pubs/QueenPalmDisease2.pdf

[ghar41]

Another in the poor planning and misuse of the majestic Queen palm is the owner of this pool/spa.  He told me the queen palm pictured here was "small, cute and droopy," when it was planted  in this approx. 2 ft. diameter opening five years ago.

As you can see....in it's quest for water and nutrients it has buckled and split the cement deck.....

[TikiRick]

Yet another example of the lack of education about palms. I have seen the same thing with Wodyetia's planted around a pool's edge. The palms were planted as nice, small 3 gallons, but within 3 years, they were breaking the sidewall of the pool's marcite. The owner's now have to get a jackhammer and "root prune" the roots away from the pool side to keep the wall intact. How healthy can that be for the palm??

[ghar41]

...but much more troublesome is that the roots have separated the spa from the deck causing leakage and major damage.....$$$$$.......  

[Scott]

I often see this around new apartments, etc where they give a palm no space at all- just concrete. What do they expect?

How would it get nutrients and irrigation?

[SunnyFl]

(Scott @ Apr. 20 2007,14:40)

QUOTE

I often see this around new apartments, etc where they give a palm no space at all- just concrete. What do they expect?

How would it get nutrients and irrigation?

And those will be the first to go over in a storm!  

 

I agree - queen palms get a very bad rap, which is entirely undeserved.  They're beautiful - when treated well - and have good cold tolerance, esp. considering their lush tropical appearance.

I've seen a lot of declining ones, though.  Probably falling victim to whatever that disease is.  OTOH, around here, there are a lot of well-grown queens that seem to be thriving.

[NBTX11]

A lot of the queens around here suffered about 30-50% leaf burn last winter, but now they seem to be growing out of it.  The official low was 24F but my area probably saw 22F.  I thought they were a little hardier than that, but oh well.

Some queens suffered major leaf burn, while I have seen others just a couple blocks away that weren't touched one bit.  I wonder if these were the hardier variety (silver queens?).

I have a smaller 7' queen that had severe leaf burn, and the spear pulled in March.  But now it is growing out of it and shooting up a new spear.  YES!  I guess I learned my lesson, I will protect next year, if it drops below 25F.  I offered no protection to it last year from the one night we had in the low 20s.  From what I have seen 25F does little harm, but below that they go downhill fast.  Low 20s seem to cause a lot of leaf burn, or might not touch them depending on the variety and health of the individual tree.

[Alan_Tampa]

That looks like a crappy pool job more than palm root damage.

Alan

[wendisplantation]

Ok, I have to  agree here, I think they are beautiful when grown well and taken care of!!!!!

The pic above showing the seeds sprouting all over is just killing me, as I can't seem to get these beautiful palms to sprout at all. This pic is of a palm next door to my Mom's house, this lady takes very good care of her yard, all looks great- and the queens....deep dark leaflets, big fat healthy trunks....gorgeous.

She said I was welcome to all the seeds I wanted....no sprouts.....  

Anyway, the majority in my area look terrible too.