Which palm introduced you into the palm hobby?

[Brandon39.5]

Hey, for sure everyone has a palm that loves and was the one that introduced you to the hobby. Mine is the royal palm, I went to miami when i was like 10, and those giant white trunks and lime green crownshafts caught my eye and now here I am 😀 what's your palm? What's your story? 

[TropicalGardenSpain]

Hi Brandon,  Mines Bismarckia! went to take photos of a house to put it on the market and they had 2 stunning blue palm trees, the next week I was visiting all the garden centres trying to find out what they were called and get myself one and now I have a few palms in my garden 😂

[Brandon39.5]

9 minutes ago, TropicalGardenSpain said:

Hi Brandon,  Mines Bismarckia! went to take photos of a house to put it on the market and they had 2 stunning blue palm trees, the next week I was visiting all the garden centres trying to find out what they were called and get myself one and now I have a few palms in my garden 😂

Wow! Cool story, bismarckia is for sure one if my favourites!

[Fishinsteeg234]

It was Veitchia arecina for me. Before I got into palms and gardening for that matter, the usual palms I typically saw around central florida were queens, Mexican fans, sabals, and an occasional big foxtail. It was on a visit to Leu Gardens in Orlando about 4 years ago for the seasonal dinosaur exhibit. The gardens are just 20 mins away from my home, and I saw what I remembered as a huge, wide-leaflet palm appearing almost all black in the shade, perfectly symmetrical specimen towering 50ft above into the tall oak canopy. At the time, this was the most exotic looking palm I had ever seen. In awe I read the name tag “Montgomery Palm” and also noticed a few big red seeds laying next to it. I grabbed a seed and pocketed it, and left the gardens thinking, “if they can grow, I can grow it”. That seed never germinated, but it was that experience that got me into a lifelong love for palms and gardening. 

[WagnerMX]

Trachycarpus fortunei. In the 1990s, my computer-ignorant dad bluntly told me he wanted "seeds of Trachycarpus fortunei", and that I had to look for them on the internet, because they say you can find just about anything there. I think my dad wanted a palm after an English garden visit. So I searched and found a German hobbyist page that was hosted on one of those typical free website hosts of the 90s - some of you may remember... I bought 50 seeds and my father had fun with them. Seeing how they germinated and grew into palms triggered my interest, and now that I live in the tropics, I experiment a lot with growing different kind of palms. I always start from seed, because germination is part of the fun for me. I have a T. fortunei "wagnerianus" seedling just to keep the memory alive (T. fortunei is not recommended for my type of climate).

[RichardHemsley]

Another vote for T. fortunei. I had a landscape design and construction business when I lived in the UK and I used to plant them a lot in gardens I built. Once I had enough money to buy my own property it was the first plant i planted when i built my own garden.

[NC_Palms]

Sabal palmetto. Growing up in the northeast and spending childhood summers in NC made this the first palm I was exposed to

[Harry’s Palms]

For me , here in SoCal , it was the queen palm . We moved off our sailboat and bought a house with a pool . My wife and I decided that there should be a couple of palm trees near the pool. I went to a local nursery and the manager was a Palm Society member and avid collector. He tried to talk me into something other than Queens. We ended up with the queen palms but then rapidly started buying other varieties. The house was sold and we bought another home up on the hill and continued with the obsession!  Harry

[Darold Petty]

Growing up in the Sacramento Valley of northern California the only palms were Phoenix canariensis and Washingtonia robusta.  Attending college in Santa Barbara I was stunned to see Howea forsteriana as a landscape plant.  One of my first romantic encounters was a dinner and then a walk around the Santa Barbara courthouse at night.

Well... the girl didn't last, but the palms have !!! 

., 

[Marius]

Mine was Washingtonia robusta. They looked ever so lush and tropical in my childhood town in the Kalahari. 

[3 Milesfrom Gulf of Mexico]

 Mine was Royal Palm.  First one I saw was in Naples Fl.  

[Billeb]

For me it was the Bismarckia. I bought a house in Villa Park, CA and while walking the dog around, I noticed one of my neighbors had this massive Blue Palm tree. I was in awe and never knew palms could look as large and colorful. I literally knocked on the front door to inquire what it was. A few months later I planted one out. That house subsequently had a bunch of “average SoCal Palms and cycads” like Archontophoenix, Wodyetia, Howeas and Revolutas. 
 

After selling that property, I moved to Huntington Beach and also started traveling South to San Diego for work. I knew I had to take advantage of the little microclimate it possessed and was able to get a bunch of unique/rare palms by stopping by all the awesome growers in the San Diego area. 
 

The jungle has begun…..

 

-dale 

[JubaeaMan138]

Caryota gigas !!! After seeing them at the San Diego zoo

[Moose]

Phoenix caraniensis - saw them growing along the railroad tracks by the University of Miami 

[D. Morrowii]

Mine was Adonidia merrillii when working in Miami in late 2020. There were a bunch planted next to the sidewalk off Coral Way and they were dropping seeds like crazy. I was curious what the fruit was, was it edible? Then I found out I could grow more palm trees with the seeds and my journey began 😄

However, I do suspect I had some subliminal affinity for them before that since I had bought several nick nacks and decorations with palm trees on them for my wife over the years. When I started going nuts on the palm trees she asked me if thats why I kept buying that stuff for her but I hadn’t connected it before that. 

[tim_brissy_13]

Hard to pinpoint just one species. I grew up around Archontophoenix cunninghamiana, Syagrus romanzoffiana, Howea forsteriana and Washingtonia robusta which influenced my interest from a young age. I’ve still got vivid memories of trips up to Wueensland where particular species just captured me due to their enormity; Roystonea regia, Arenga pinnata and Attalea cohune. Once my interest grew, it was Hedyscepe canterburyana which turned my interest into obsession. 

[kinzyjr]

The first time I saw a palm was in North Carolina on my first trip to Florida.  There was a line of Sabal palmetto near I-95 as we were headed south.  From that point, it was fun to keep an eye out for more of them.  When we got into South Carolina, it was fun to notice the different types that started showing up in landscapes.  The ones that really got me were Phoenix dactylifera in the pre-Lethal Bronzing era.  That was the point when I started getting Medjool dates from the supermarket so I could grow the pits.

[rizla023]

Moved to SoCal in 2020 from the Pacific Northwest. Bought a house with 5 mature kings. Fell in love with palms then and now have over 35 species in the ground. 

[DoomsDave]

50 minutes ago, rizla023 said:

Moved to SoCal in 2020 from the Pacific Northwest. Bought a house with 5 mature kings. Fell in love with palms then and now have over 35 species in the ground. 

Come visit my place in La Habra and witness real insanity!

[James B]

For me it was missing palms I took for granted growing up in Florida such as Cocos Nucifera. Haven’t been able to replicate the specific species out here but being able to grow dozens of other palms makes up for it. 

[rizla023]

20 minutes ago, DoomsDave said:

Come visit my place in La Habra and witness real insanity!

I really need to! I’m right in OC

[ASHCVS]

The coconut! Although I certainly didn’t know it.  I was just a little kid visiting his grandma in Miami. 

[DoomsDave]

30 minutes ago, rizla023 said:

I really need to! I’m right in OC

Send me a PM. I work from home, so I’m flexible with notifications.

[idontknowhatnametuse]

I have 2 species, Syagrus romanzoffiana and Cocos nucifera. When I was like 3 years old I liked pretending S. romanzoffiana seeds were tiny coconuts and I used to collect them, though I never tried to sprout them. I have liked palms almost since I was born because I grew around them.

[Brandon39.5]

 Very interesting stories! Loved to read all of them!

[Brandon39.5]

20 hours ago, Darold Petty said:

Growing up in the Sacramento Valley of northern California the only palms were Phoenix canariensis and Washingtonia robusta.  Attending college in Santa Barbara I was stunned to see Howea forsteriana as a landscape plant.  One of my first romantic encounters was a dinner and then a walk around the Santa Barbara courthouse at night.

Well... the girl didn't last, but the palms have !!! 

., 

Wow! Your story sounds very familiar, could've been that Gary gragg uploaded a video of your garden?

[Brandon39.5]

8 hours ago, idontknowhatnametuse said:

I have 2 species, Syagrus romanzoffiana and Cocos nucifera. When I was like 3 years old I liked pretending S. romanzoffiana seeds were tiny coconuts and I used to collect them, though I never tried to sprout them. I have liked palms almost since I was born because I grew around them.

Your story reminded me to a childhood memory of mine, I used to do something similar at that age instead of S. Romanzoffiana seeds I was collecting cypress seeds that kinda looked like coconuts

 

[Palmiz]

Back in 2011 when I first moved in , I came across Chambeyronia Macrocarpa on the internet somehow and ordered a seedling on ebay but lasted a few months a died. I was not into palms and wasn't too thrilled after the loss. I wish is would have because I would have a large mature collection by now but unfortunately I didn't. So what I ended up with was 6 Cunninghamiana my dad grew from seed and planted in the front. I wasn't too impressed with them back then.  I am now and since covid and my bad habits were kicked now I'm hooked. Also in between that time period I also purchased a Wodyetia, Caryota and coco nucifera when I didn't know I loved palms. Yes of course coco died.

[EJPalm05]

The palm that got me into palm growing was Phoenix Canariensis because of how cool they look when mature.

[Kentuckypalms]

Washingtonia Robusta, in 20220 when Texas had a major freeze, my parents palm tree looked dead. I wanted to replace it but in my effort to find out what type it was I started becoming interested in palms. Once I found out what it was, I decided I would grow it from seed, then I wanted more so I got sabal seed since there are hardier. In that whole process my parents palm tree was coming back very slowly, it took like 2 years to regain a full crown. So that’s how I got into it, I never would have imagined that I would eventually be working in Kentucky taking care of palms. Crazy

[Jack Lord]

Not my favorite, but I would have to say the Saw Palmetto. My grandparents took my cousin and I on the Autotrain to meet our great-grandparents in Ft Lauderdale. I was 10 and had never seen a palm in the wild. Starting in South Carolina I guess, there were fields of them.  Amazing. By the time we got to Disney and later Ft Lauderdale, I had seen numerous kinds. Been obsssessed ever since.

[DoomsDave]

45 minutes ago, Jack Lord said:

Not my favorite, but I would have to say the Saw Palmetto. My grandparents took my cousin and I on the Autotrain to meet our great-grandparents in Ft Lauderdale. I was 10 and had never seen a palm in the wild. Starting in South Carolina I guess, there were fields of them.  Amazing. By the time we got to Disney and later Ft Lauderdale, I had seen numerous kinds. Been obsssessed ever since.

You've come to the right place! Continue to be here - Aloha!

[aabell]

Similar to others - I remember when I was 11 or 12 driving down to go to the beach from Ohio, and somewhere in South Carolina seeing my first ever palm trees along the interstate. I was already pretty interested in trees and plants then, and this felt like a big deal. For all I knew at the time, Myrtle Beach was the most tropical place on earth. Later on I jumped at the opportunity to go to college in the deep south, and while I appreciated being among palmettos and loved the weather, plants weren't my main focus and I made the mistake of moving back north after. Thankfully years later, circumstances landed me way down in southern Florida, and immediately felt the need to know the names of all the different palms around town - and once I had some space of my own, thought it would be fun to grow a few as well. So I'll always have a soft spot for Sabal palmetto, and whenever I see them now think of home. 

Edited January 6, 2024 by aabell

[JohnAndSancho]

I moved into an apartment and thought I needed a plant to liven it up. Bought a $12 Majesty at HD and named it Groot. Then the COVID shutdowns hit, along with all that crazy COVID unemployment money. Spent a lot more money and bought a lot more palms, but it started there. 

[Tyrone]

Back in 99 we bought our first house. A mid 50s ex rental in Belmont in Perth. Back then I was into growing vegetables and tomatoes etc. In the corner of one of the garden beds was a stunted small half dead Bangalow palm. Around the same time I got the old bore pump working and starting watering this poor palm. I was intending to rip it out and grow  vegetables in the same area, but I didn’t. Every day after work I watered that Bangalow and it almost responded to every drop of water I gave it. I wanted to see how hard I could make it grow and then I was hooked. That Archontophoenix cunninghamiana luxuriated in growth. In 2000 I travelled to Queensland to Mt Tambourine and saw what my little poor Bangalow could eventually turn into and I  was amazed. What I saw in a real rainforest blew me away. After that in 2000 I ripped out all the lawn in the back yard and planted a rainforest of palms.  The bug had bitten and nothing stayed the same. Our holidays are always palmy now. If there’s no rainforest or palms or at the very least a good botanic garden I ain’t going there. The holidays we’ve had since have been amazing.  That one Bangalow palm changed me, and when we sold that house 19 years later it was about 10m tall and fruiting constantly. I still love a well grown Bangalow palm now. 

[Pal Meir]

This palm grown up from an Algerian date on Christmas 1958:

[byuind]

Have to say the Royal. Got stationed in Miami 18 years ago and they were everywhere. They were so big and they had these beautiful, almost white, trunks and scales. 
 

Being from Western New York, the only palms i ever saw were in the movies and those were generally what I assumed were coconuts. There is a very real possibility that I assumed all palms were coconuts for the first 18 years of my life…

Now I live in Florida and I spend way too much money on these things

[Rivera]

I admired the neighbor's numerous Washingtonia robusta and Phoenix canariensis as a kid, but I never planted either.

These are a couple of the palms that captured my interest and are now represented in my own garden.

Howea belmoreana and Chrysalidocarpus baronii.

@Darold Petty

[Trustandi]

Brahea armata for me. I first saw it at my local Lowe's store. I was amazed by its blue and rigid fronds. Since then, I become a palm addict. 

[Billeb]

3 hours ago, Rivera said:

 

 

Oh man, I love Belmoreana. Yours is an awesome size and is only going to look better from here on out as it gets height and you can see the crown overhead. They should be used more. 
 

-dale