What is your favorite fan palm

[KennyRE317]

I would have to say Bizzy for me, I've never been a fan of fan palms mostly because first thing that comes to mind is Washingtonia since those are planted everywhere out here and I personally never found them attractive. I've never seen a large specimen Bizzy in person but in pictures they look absolutely amazing and since I've never looked back and find that there's quite a few fans i'm really starting to love.

Most who starts out with palms in California ignore the fan palms for the simple reason that the Washingtonias palms are planted everywhere, and go for feather instead. Most of them are neglected and look like crap.

Once you go further down the line with palms and learn about all the amazing fan palms, you quickly will see the beauty even in a well maintained washingtonia. But the most beautiful fan palm genus that grows well in Southern California is without a doubt the brahea. The most beautiful costa-palmate palm species is bismarckia. The giant sabals and the braheas are also magnificent costa-palmate palms.

i'm really starting to like the sabals and braheas .... i have 3 'super silver' 1g sitting here right now ..... i really need to see how much space i ultimately have for palms/planters since yard space is VERY limited. i think my overall back/side yard is about 1000sqft but it's broken up into 3 irregular shaped areas and one of the 3 areas is a dedicated planting area for the wife and what she wants (roses, flowers, lemon tree, plumeria....) so i'm going to need to cram everything i want to plant in certain areas, i'll probably purchase a couple more full mature (trunked or trunking) specimens to balance out the differences in height and give me a bit of instant canopy.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

I would have to say Bizzy for me, I've never been a fan of fan palms mostly because first thing that comes to mind is Washingtonia since those are planted everywhere out here and I personally never found them attractive. I've never seen a large specimen Bizzy in person but in pictures they look absolutely amazing and since I've never looked back and find that there's quite a few fans i'm really starting to love.

Most who starts out with palms in California ignore the fan palms for the simple reason that the Washingtonias palms are planted everywhere, and go for feather instead. Most of them are neglected and look like crap.

Once you go further down the line with palms and learn about all the amazing fan palms, you quickly will see the beauty even in a well maintained washingtonia. But the most beautiful fan palm genus that grows well in Southern California is without a doubt the brahea. The most beautiful costa-palmate palm species is bismarckia. The giant sabals and the braheas are also magnificent costa-palmate palms.

i'm really starting to like the sabals and braheas .... i have 3 'super silver' 1g sitting here right now ..... i really need to see how much space i ultimately have for palms/planters since yard space is VERY limited. i think my overall back/side yard is about 1000sqft but it's broken up into 3 irregular shaped areas and one of the 3 areas is a dedicated planting area for the wife and what she wants (roses, flowers, lemon tree, plumeria....) so i'm going to need to cram everything i want to plant in certain areas, i'll probably purchase a couple more full mature (trunked or trunking) specimens to balance out the differences in height and give me a bit of instant canopy.

Sorry for the brain fart, I meant to say:

Most beautiful palmate/fan palms that grow well are the braheas. (there are some costapalmate braheas too.)

Most beautiful costapinnate/costapalmate palms that grow well are bismarckia and sabals

Make sure you understand the difference between costapalmate and palmate, it will change how you view palms.

[JasonD]

Which Brahea species are not costapalmate? I'm trying to think of one. B. moorei comes close, but still has a small costa. Same with B. calcarea/nitida.

[sarasota alex]

I voted Corypha umbraculifera only because Mauritia flexuosa was not one of the choices.

[cassowaryhill]

What about Licuala ramsayi? I took these shots in the Daintree a couple weeks back - phenomenal 100+ million year old untouched forest. Absolutely covered in Licualas. They take up the secondary canopy, and do so well that there's almost no light left for anything left underneath them.

Absolutely right!! Im with you on that one mate! The best ever! Just wish they grew to that size in 10 years.. LOL..

Im a Licuala nut.. BUT...... KERRIODOXA and Corphya comes in Second as a tie.. ..