Free royal palm

[ruskinPalms]

My father works as a grounds keeper for the Charlotte County School Corporation (his name is Willy - grounds keeper Willy....) and he recently dug up a young royal palm for me. He stuffed it into a 3 gallon pot, the tallest frond is about 5 feet in length from dirt level to top leaflet. It doesn't have a heck of alot of soil in the pot, but it is pushing a new frond regardless.  Seems surprisingly healthy. Should I plant it in the ground even though it is november or should I let it ride until february in the 3 gal pot? I really don't have a good place for it but I can't resist planting out a royal since they are probably one of the better choices for a long term crown shafted palm for this area. Also, I don't feel like repotting it because that means I will have to dig a bigger hole later to plant it in the ground . This means it will be spending the winter in its cramped quarters unless I plant it out. Please advise

[fastfeat]

I'd keep it in the pot 'till Spring. Now that it's cooled pretty significantly, I doubt it will do much growing anyway, in the ground or pot. Might as well be able to move it into the garage or elsewhere should we get cold weather this Winter. At least it'll be ready to go next Spring.

[MattyB]

I don't know the specifics of your climate but I can tell you that these can handle quite a bit of transplant abuse and the one that Paul and I moved in his arctic garden in California came through our nasty freezes and long cool winter and is looking like it's gonna be a healty palm by next year.  I was very pleasantly surprised.  Plop it in dude!

[DoomsDave]

Bill:

I'm with Matty on this one.  You're pretty far south, so I think you'll have a great chance at it getting a roaring start for next spring . . . .

[redant]

Keep it in the present pot till March, then into the ground. These are much happier in the ground then in pots but as ken said you can avoid a freeze this year by waiting a couple of months.

[ruskinPalms]

I weighed the pros and cons and I decided to plant it out. It was already getting so incredibly pot bound with many roots coming out of the drain holes that I figured I would gamble with a freeze. This will one of the few palms that I protect this year given that it is not being planted at the right time, it is pretty small and it is one of my favorite types of palms that is actually kinda hard to find a replacement for in this area. I also have a couple royal straplings that will be spending the winter in little pots in a south window if it gets real cold. It was a little hard finding a good spot for this. I just ended up putting into an existing landscape bed. I was going to plant t by itself as a specimen palm but my wife does not want any more new landscape beds in teh back yard.  

Planted with a gangsta lean - it will right itself out I think since it is pretty young...

[ruskinPalms]

Since I had the camera out and it was a nice day I took some other random shots of the garden. Please excuse the grass, I have been having technical difficulties with my st. augustine...

Sunny Bizzie

[ruskinPalms]

Papayas anyone?

[ruskinPalms]

My oldest foxtails are growing up:

3 gallon triple planted about a year and a half ago - getting pretty big too:

[ruskinPalms]

Community shots:

The new royal again:

[ruskinPalms]

From the dark side of the house (east):

[ruskinPalms]

Some of my wahy hybrids:

Fast - from a 1 gallon this spring:

[ruskinPalms]

My good old A. alexandrae:

[ruskinPalms]

Lovely red hybiscus of some sort. The grow so damn ridiculously fast. Have cut them back so much over the short time they have been in the ground. Anyone know what type this is?

One with an A. alexandrea frond in the foreground:

[Jeff Searle]

Bill,

   I think you made the best choice by planting the royal now. You could of waited but, your really not going to gain much by that. Keep it well watered.

    Also, I see some of the palms are planted really close to your house. You ought to consider planting these out further. Your just asking for problems in the near future. Other than that, your yard has grown alot since your last pictures.

Jeff

[Jeff Searle]

Also, how cold do you get there?

Jeff

[redant]

"Please excuse the grass, I have been having technical difficulties with my st. augustine..."  :laugh:

Don't we all at one point or another. Looking real nice.

[palmmermaid]

Looks good.  I plant all year and hope for the best!

BTW what did you do to kill that awful St. Augustine?  I want some of that!  I hate that stuff.  It is the bane of my existence!

Pictures look really good.  I do agree with Jeff about being so close to the house.  I always have to remember to leave enough room or a path to get a ladder and shutters to every window!

[ruskinPalms]

Sigh.. You guys are right, I am starting to realize that I planted these too close to the house... I would like to move them out about 2 to 3 feet from the house. I need to move out a couple multi foxtails, V. arecina and the single A. alexandrae. These are not exactly small palms, the V. arecina are about 9 to 10 feet tall from ground to top of fronds. To put things into perspective I think it is about 9 feet to the roofline of my house. I am not sure if I would be able to dig a big enough root ball and still be able to manage the weight of the palms to move them without killing them. How tolerant are these palms to transplanting? Should I wait until spring to move them if I attempt to do so? Will they eventually arch away from the house if I don't move them?

By the way, Jeff, it gets pretty cold here. It is no doubt bordeline 9B/10A. I would suspect the vast majority of the winters, if I could find the records, would have the lowest low within the range of 29F to 31F, so very much I can count on a freeze each winter with 3 to 5 nights of frost at least. The area I live in is very rural so the tampa heat island effect is not real strong here. Tampa Bay is not too far to the north of me here so that can provide some protection during the advective events but I seem to suffer a lot from radiational cooling here due to the lack of canopy (new community) and the presence of several wide open, dry agricultural fields in the area.  However, ruskin has always been a big agricultural area in part, in my opinion, because of its proximity to tampa bay and in historical times it was probably a bit warmer than tampa proper, which before massive urbanization and heat island effect really did not have any natural protection from cold northern winds, and ruskin is certainly warmer than inland central FL until maybe you get to the top of the ridge that runs down the center of the state.

Kitty, I have no idea what happened to the grass. It may have been weedy or gotten a fungal infection of bug infestation. Not too sure. At least it is in the back of the house hidden from the eyes of the HOA. I am trying to slowly grow it back. If I really had my way, I would just remove it and make a paver patio extension from my back porch. I have really been getting anoyed with the grass anyway.