Sculpting a green Serenoa repens

[PalmatierMeg]

I have a green Serenoa repens I germinated from local seeds and planted at the edge of my Caribbean Garden about 10-11 years ago. Left alone, Serenoa repens will grow into a mass of leaves and tangled trunks but I decided to tame and contain that sprawling tendency. Periodically, I trim leaves to expose the architecture of their reddish brown trunks. I also limit the number of trunks by removing select offsets. The result is a living sculpture of which no two are alike. A couple of these trunks are 3-4' long. I've also noticed Serenoa leaves also have an architecture. Many of them are not quite flat and not quite costapalmate - more like "wavy." A common palm of uncommon beauty.

Hard to believe that as recently as the mid-80s many people in FL considered saw palmettos to be spiny weeds and trash plants to be exterminated wherever they grew (people believed the same of mangroves). It's good to see many communities using them in medians and civic plantings.

Serenoa repens green form, Cape Coral, FL, 2021

[Josue Diaz]

Excellent photos of an excellent species. I have a small seedling germinated last summer. 

[Eric in Orlando]

Very nice!

I planted a silver Serenoa near my front entrance a few years ago. I am going to keep it trimmed to a single stem and let it grow similar to a Coccothrinax. It is growing in front of a Dypsis pembanana so will have a nice dark green backdrop.

[EastCanadaTropicals]

Must be old specimens, didnt know they could get a trunk like that, Im gonna try one in the spring.

[Neil C]

Looks great Meg!!

Regards Neil

[Rafael]

What an excelent idea and how amazingly it looks 

That will change the way i look into my two 

[PalmatierMeg]

18 hours ago, EastCanadaTropicals said:

Must be old specimens, didnt know they could get a trunk like that, Im gonna try one in the spring.

Not that old for Serenoa: 10-11 years

They love sun and heat.

[EastCanadaTropicals]

1 hour ago, PalmatierMeg said:

Not that old for Serenoa: 10-11 years

They love sun and heat.

They grew faster than I thought, it will be a great palm for my garden, since it's small, and very cold hardy so I can give the palm a lot of heat in the worst freezes of Quebec.