Spring 2023 To Do: Plant Out Palms!

[Hillizard]

Partial list of palms I need to find room for in my already overcrowded garden: Syagrus sancona, Caryota gigas, Brahea moorei, Chambeyronia macrocarpa var. hookeri, Syagrus kellyana and Dypsis onilahensis. Where I live in 9B NorCal, protection from summer sun and winter cold are always considerations when determining where to plant each palm based on its species tolerances!

 

[Billeb]

…..”find room in my already overcrowded garden” and speaking of Caryota Gigas is a funny statement! Good luck to you! 🤘

-dale 

[idontknowhatnametuse]

Spring is indeed the best season to plant palms. Here's an Acrocomia Mexicana I planted 2 weeks ago. Almost done opening a new spear it had. I also planted an Attalea Butyracea and a Cocos Nucifera 'Panama Tall' I still have to plant a clump of thrinax Radiata, some Sabal Yapas and another Acrocomia.

[Hillizard]

17 hours ago, Billeb said:

…..”find room in my already overcrowded garden” and speaking of Caryota Gigas is a funny statement! Good luck to you! 🤘

-dale 

I figure that in a decade or more if my C. gigas has outgrown the space I've planted it in, it'll be something the next owner of this place will have to deal with. At my last house the new owner removed all the palms I'd planted over ten years, with the exception of a Trachycarpus and a Syagrus. Regardless of how much I enjoy my garden, everything is temporary, at least that's the way I've learned to see it.  

[PalmatierMeg]

Got 4" of rain earlier this week so it's time to plant. Yesterday we planted a Satakentia, Kentiopsis oliviformis, Pritchardia vuylstekeana (from Jeff Searle's sale in Naples) and two variegated Sabal palmettos (from @Bigfish). Homegrown palms still to plant: Carpoxylon macrospermum, Dypsis lutescens 'Fused Leaf' x2, several unknown Ptychosperma spp and more I haven't decided on yet. The heat is on and growing season is here!

[Fusca]

Just finished planting a couple of new palms this week after work.  First up Phoenix rupicola:

Next our native Sabal mexicana:

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by Fusca

[ruskinPalms]

Found a few 1 gallon Leucothrinax morrisii at a local nursery here. Couldn’t resist them so bought them. Put them in the ground this morning.  Used one to replace a C. argenta that croaked and then put 2 in my back corner landscape bed because why not lol. As a bonus a couple pics of my surviving C. argenta and T. radiata to round these little Florida natives. 

[ruskinPalms]

I do hope all these palms make it.  I have found out that just because something is supposedly native doesn’t automatically make it easy. These palms are “native” to Florida but might not like my crappy builder fill soil or my local climate. They may have an advantage on diseases though.  Anyway, I like them for their slower growth and truer palmate form without thorns. 

[ruskinPalms]

I’d love to rock some Pritchardia here but they are harder to source anything that might actually take the cold here. So, these Florida natives fit the bill well. 

[ruskinPalms]

Bring on the heat to make these palms sing. 

Edited April 21, 2023 by ruskinPalms

[ruskinPalms]

I usually don’t endorse any nursery but Sweet Bay nursery in Parrish Florida has ALL the native palms you might be looking for. 

Edited April 21, 2023 by ruskinPalms

[Merlyn]

So far I've had good luck with L. Morissii and Cryosophila Warscewiczii in my borderline 9B/9A climate.  The Morissii only took about 25% leaf burn at 27F with frost, while nearby Thrinax Radiata was killed, and Coccothrinax Barbadensis and Argentea were defoliated but eventually recovered.  The Warscewiczii in the backyard was severely damaged at 24-26F but also survived.  These are good 9B options so far!

[aabell]

16 hours ago, ruskinPalms said:

I usually don’t endorse any nursery but Sweet Bay nursery in Parrish Florida has ALL the native palms you might be looking for. 

Was just there a few weeks ago and picked up a little 1 gal Coccothrinax argentata, along with a a bunch of other non-palms. Noticed they even had Sabal etonia, which I've never seen before. Nice people and the best selection you'll ever find at a native nursery. 

[amh]

I planted 4 Sabal mexicanas, 4 Sabal louisianas and a washingtonia today, and I'll probably plant a Sabal brazoriensis next week. Hopefully it will rain this year.

[aabell]

Silver lining of hurricane Ian and the destruction wrought in my garden (live oak destroyed, along with half of the garden which was all shade loving plants) is that there is now actually room to plant out some of the palms that I've been growing from seed. Hopefully these one year-old Archontophoenix alexandrae will form part of my future canopy. I've been debating whether or not to space them out evenly or plant them in a few informal groups. For now the most vigorous one goes right in the middle of this mulch bed. Second photo was one of the same batch of seeds, taken on 4/26/22.

[ruskinPalms]

On 4/18/2023 at 5:26 PM, PalmatierMeg said:

Got 4" of rain earlier this week so it's time to plant. Yesterday we planted a Satakentia, Kentiopsis oliviformis, Pritchardia vuylstekeana (from Jeff Searle's sale in Naples) and two variegated Sabal palmettos (from @Bigfish). Homegrown palms still to plant: Carpoxylon macrospermum, Dypsis lutescens 'Fused Leaf' x2, several unknown Ptychosperma spp and more I haven't decided on yet. The heat is on and growing season is here!

So, I read a little about Pritchardia vuylstekeana and it seems like they are supposed to be able to take a little more cold. Anyone have experience with these in subtropical warm 9B/cool 10A?

[Zeeth]

9 minutes ago, ruskinPalms said:

So, I read a little about Pritchardia vuylstekeana and it seems like they are supposed to be able to take a little more cold. Anyone have experience with these in subtropical warm 9B/cool 10A?

I'm growing P. vuylstekeana that I collected at the Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu. So far they seem very similar to most P. pacifica I've grown, but I'm planning on giving them a fair shot at testing their hardiness. I left a community pot full of them out all winter and their level of damage was similar to my P. thurstonii. I think the Hawaiian species are a better choice for us in Central Florida.