Easy grow and tough grow palms in your area

[sonoranfans]

I though it might be useful to share the difficulty factor in growing palms in y our area.  The tow top 6 lists of easiest and toughest can help others decide what is not only cold tolerant but what will power through and grow consistently in your area.  I will start with easiest 5 common palms.

My zone is a cool 10a, colderst temp I have seen is 28F overnight lows with frost for 2 consecutive days in 2010

1) bismarckia, low water needs, no fertilizer needed.  Easily grown in public areas.  Biggest proiblem is overwatering/weevil attack.  Avoid planting in grass for best results.

2) Roystonea regia, great palms for gardeners that dont payu attention, fast hgrower and adapted to native high drainage soils or wet swampy areas.  These palms want sun and water.

3) sabals: palmetto, uresana, causiarum etc  Tough palms that are very well adapted and dont need much care at all;  Sabals are adaptable tu suna nd part shade

4) serenoa repens silver:  I have not even been able to mulch therse for years they are so big.  I dojnt fertilize them bvecause I dont want them to get bigger, no care except trimming which is not fun).  The grow great in full sun and in part shade.

5) beccariopheonix alfredii is very resistant to weather damage for me but wants a full sun position.  Easy grow from a 3 gallon size, I havent had the same rooting issues others have reported and my largest was fully exposed to IAN wind gusts to ~100mph.  Nutrient deficiencies I have not seen.  I think these palms prefer some clay, not all sand to develop the roots necessary and they want full sun, period.

 

Toughest palms Ive grown here.

I have killed more than 5 (possibly formerly)Dypsis species, aside pembana, leptocheilos, lutecens, cabadae most are better suited to california.  Brahea armata died within 2 1/2 years fungus all over leaves from humidity.  Brahea clara was OK wiht humidity but very unhappy when exposed to winds here and recovery was very slow.  Cuban copernicias deserve a mention as tough to grow.  They are nutrient hogs very root sensitive, and can get setbacks that last years.  My bailey had damage in IRMA and took 3 years to fully recover as it had intermittent spear fungal infections after IRMA broke up the central emerging spear group.  It would be dead but I put peroxide and fungicide on the bud area at least a dozen times over 3 years to kill that fungal infection.   It was rough up in Ian again and will take a few years to recover, no bud issues.  I handled one large hopspita in a 90 gallon container and damaged roots planting it, it never recovered but took 5 years to be overrun by ants.  Those cuban copernicias are sensitive palms. 3 identical seedlings can be very different in size after 5-10 years if there are setbacks to any.

[kinzyjr]

Wonderful thread, @sonoranfans.  Hardiness and survival are one thing, but when you get tired of having to put in a bunch of effort, it's good to have a list like this so it's just drag-and-drop.  You're good list is a good start for here as well.

My easy list (in addition to yours):

• Rhapis excelsa: other species are easy too.  One of the few palms I can cut like a culm of bamboo or sugar cane and root.
• Thrinax radiata: Native and surprisingly cold-tolerant given its native habitat.
• Cryosophila: most of my exposure to these is with warscewiczii and stauracantha.  The "spines" aren't as nasty as other plants that are armed.
• Livistona: especially decora, chinensis, saribus, and nitida.  These are layups.
• Phoenix reclinata: probably the most hated and invasive, but they grow well and I don't see a lot of them completely collapse from lethal bronzing.

My hard list:

• Ravenea rivularis: probably surprising, but these immediately decline when I plant them here.  A mile away, there are flowering adults.
• Phoenix theophrasti (and canariensis): probably due to the amount of fungus and moisture retention in the soil here.  These tend to get an incurable leaf spot when you put them in the ground.  Gave Banrot a try and that didn't even help.
• Copernicia: Same as the original post.  Most of these should be layups here, but they tend to attract pests like ants and mealy bugs.  They grow well elsewhere in the city, but I've had trouble in some cases here.
• Washingtonia filifera: love these, but they act odd here.  They love the rainy season with part day shade and hate the dry season in all day sun.  Obviously out of their preferred climate regime, so not unexpected that they aren't the best looking palms here.
• Medemia argun: another one that acts weird like Washingtonia filifera.  The cold snaps don't bother them at all, but the soil regime doesn't seem to work for them.  They never really establish.

[palmfriend]

 

 

Hi,

here on Miyako island in southern Okinawa the list of the easy going ones would be:

1)

L. chinensis - storm proof, immune against beetle attacks and any diseases

 

2)

S. lukiuensis - completely carefree (when not planted as a road tree) - storm proof and never seen a sick one

 

3)

A. engleri/ryukyuensis - almost weedy in shady (somehow protected) spots, but does well in the open, too

 

4)

A. merrillii - almost invasive, fallen seeds sprout in the 90% range. They do ok, when not completely neglected and look almost perfect with some care.

 

5) 

H. lagenicaulis (bottle palm) - growing well wherever it is planted, never seen a suffering one

 

Closely followed by:

B1)

C. nucifera - just needs a helping hand when young - beetle attacks are the biggest threat for them 

 

B2)

A. alexandrae - this one is already naturalized on the Okinawa main island, here on our island it will soon to be...

 

Toughest to grow for me so far:

T1)

J. chilensis - it definitely doesn't like our rain season and constant heat during the long summer

 

T2)

C. quindiuense - the same with this species, the constant heat day and night for many months makes it impossible to survive

 

T3)

P. elata - I wanted to get this one big (badly) - but no way with our typhoons...

 

T4)

C. renda - this species is quite challenging when still young during our not really cold winters - I have to put them inside at his stage, I hope they toughen up when getting bigger 

 

T5)

C. samoense - their undivided leaves when still young make them susceptible to our typhoons - I have got one left, fingers crossed

 

There is much more to report when my current bullpen hopefulls will be unleashed... - so, this for the moment -

 

regards

Lars

 

 

( ↓ for some unknown reason I can not delete this doube posted image...)

[kinzyjr]

@palmfriend That's a lot of good options!  What a place!

[sonoranfans]

wow @palmfriend great looking specimens, very happy indeed.

@kinzyr agreed, can leave out livistona my chinensis, saribus, and decora(?) are very happy here.  Decora is one of the fastest fan palms Ive ever grown, only sabal causiarum and bismarckia were faster for me.