What is your palm tree hot take?

[sonoranfans]

I love palms with thick trunks and jubaea is one of  the most magnificent of these.  But I am certainly not going to be limited by thick trunks.  I love the colorful crownshafts and various leaf shapes of palms.  Not a big fan of thorny palms, so my only phoenix is a rupicola triple on which I trimmed the hurricane damage off today.  Not one stab removing 30-35 dead leaves, that is my kind of palm.  Another thing about palms I don't like is very unhealthy but "alive" palms that look bad because they are stressed.   I don't blame it on the palm but the grower.  I believe in growing what the climate supports, so the plant can be happy and healthy.   If I could grow a jubaea well I would, but it would just be torturing it here in Florida.  

[miamicuse]

That's what I mean by "pineapple cut varnished sylvester palms".

Is an "interesting" look but not for me.

[tim_brissy_13]

Another hot take:

Washingtonia robusta is a very attractive plant. 
 

Imagine you’d never seen one before. Large, full, bright green fronds. Orange leaf bases. Some of the more common palms are common because they are popular, and for good reason. 

[aabell]

8 minutes ago, tim_brissy_13 said:

Another hot take:

Washingtonia robusta is a very attractive plant. 
 

Imagine you’d never seen one before. Large, full, bright green fronds. Orange leaf bases. Some of the more common palms are common because they are popular, and for good reason. 

I agree with this one. Washingtonia are the prettiest of the 'planted so often in so many places that people hate' them crew. 

As a Floridian I generally dislike Phoenix, without many exceptions. As desert palms they just look out of place here next to the Sabals, Royals, and coconuts. Even the more tropical species like roebelinii and reclinata aren't nearly as nice as other pinnate palms, to me. Maybe I'm biased because I don't like the spines. Huge old CIDP in the right climate are awesome, but you don't see many great examples here. 

Jubaea are stunning in my opinion. 

[Harry’s Palms]

We have so many Washingtonia in Southern California that they have naturalized. Some believe they are native. I have had many just pop up in my yard as volunteers. Its abundance makes it unattractive to many but I like them. I was given a volunteer that was on a neighbors hill so I planted it . It is now very tall , I have it trimmed once a year . Harry

Clearly out pacing any other palms in my collection.

[PindoPalm]

On 2/26/2025 at 3:40 PM, Slifer00 said:

Should I delete it?

No i like to hear some other peoples opinions 

[Arecaceus]

23 hours ago, Looking Glass said:

Putting fertilizer in planting holes…. Long acting high quality stuff.   I do it for every palm and plant.   Noticed many top growers of rare stuff do it also.   Never had a problem except explosive initial growth.

Also, I hate coconuts.  

I have done this before. Usually when I don't mix in a lot of new soil.

[sonoranfans]

I don't like trimming of mature palms, the taller they get the worse it is.  Self shedding palms become much appreciated as they grow tall.  

[FlaPalmLover]

As far as plants go, palms are really fairly useless, on average, and most of their appeal comes from their aesthetic appeal and uniqueness. 

[aabell]

12 hours ago, FlaPalmLover said:

As far as plants go, palms are really fairly useless, on average, and most of their appeal comes from their aesthetic appeal and uniqueness. 

I think "usefulness to humans" is an incredibly poor standard to judge any plant by.

[sonoranfans]

4 hours ago, aabell said:

I think "usefulness to humans" is an incredibly poor standard to judge any plant by.

Humans have very varied interpretations of "usefulness".  Some make dwellings or hats for sun protection, some eat the fruit.  I can say that palms are apparently much more useful preventing hurricane damage to your house than dicots.  Oaks, elms, eucalyptus all were felled by hurricane Milton last fall.  Some fell on houses, some became a mess to haul away.  My 8 closest neighbors had obvious roof damage including leaks, needing new roofing jobs.  My house had minimal damage to 10 feet of the cap.  My place has ~60 mature palms instead of dicots.  The tallest palms took a whooping for sure, but are already pushing out new leaves.    Perhaps you should ask carribean islanders how useful palms are?  After a big hurricane comes through the palms often still standing ready to refresh the crowns while the dicots are often dead and gone.  Dicots are messy when they seasonally drop leaves and twigs, many palms are relatively clean, especially the self shedding ones.   

[FlaPalmLover]

10 hours ago, aabell said:

I think "usefulness to humans" is an incredibly poor standard to judge any plant by.

When did I say anything about being useful to humans? I’m well aware of the benefits mentioned by Sonoranfans (which are really centered around usefulness to humans too) and will probably never buy another house with large trees that shed leaves because they’re a pain and a concern with hurricanes but as far as providing shade and/or helping the environment palms are fairly useless. Some have fruit with certain useful properties, sure. They consume an inordinate amount of water for the amount of space that they occupy. Once they mature that aspect is less of an issue, though, I’m sure, or when they’re in tropical, rain-heavy environments in which they’re surrounded by canopy or water. Many are fairly drought tolerant such as sabals, which need no supplemental water at all, or otherwise are native to an area and its climate. However I see some people on here irrigating their palms with what I’d consider to be an exorbitant amount of water even as there are well-known groundwater shortages all across the world. Without that irrigation those same palms wouldn’t make it, would grow much slower, or would look far worse.

[Banana Belt]

On 2/28/2025 at 3:43 PM, sonoranfans said:

I love palms with thick trunks and jubaea is one of  the most magnificent of these.  But I am certainly not going to be limited by thick trunks.  I love the colorful crownshafts and various leaf shapes of palms.  Not a big fan of thorny palms, so my only phoenix is a rupicola triple on which I trimmed the hurricane damage off today.  Not one stab removing 30-35 dead leaves, that is my kind of palm.  Another thing about palms I don't like is very unhealthy but "alive" palms that look bad because they are stressed.   I don't blame it on the palm but the grower.  I believe in growing what the climate supports, so the plant can be happy and healthy.   If I could grow a jubaea well I would, but it would just be torturing it here in Florida.  

I like your thinking, well said.  When a palm is growing well I like it, trying to grow something in a climate it does not like is both frustrating and sad but consider all the plants people have grown and improved over the many thousands of years, adapting, cross breeding, selecting and working to improve a plant.  Successes and failures, it takes its toll and is time consuming.  Every so often a success is achieved and a new variety or plant emerges, so my hot take is Hat's Off to any Palm grower who is working to cross breed, and work with palms to come up with something wonderful.  Who knows, some day someone in the future will not only be able to grow beautiful Jubaea in South Florida but Antarctica as well, nothing is really impossible just harder to do.

 

 

 

 

 

[Rivera]

On 3/1/2025 at 6:26 AM, Harry’s Palms said:

We have so many Washingtonia in Southern California that they have naturalized. Some believe they are native. I have had many just pop up in my yard as volunteers. Its abundance makes it unattractive to many but I like them. I was given a volunteer that was on a neighbors hill so I planted it . It is now very tall , I have it trimmed once a year . Harry

Clearly out pacing any other palms in my collection.

They've been naturalized in northern California for a long time as well, and there are dense stands in some locations. However, I've never seen a Washingtonia bear an infructescence in my cool seaside neighborhood in San Francisco even though they reproduce easily and prolifically in every surrounding county. A modicum of seasonal heat seems to be the missing bit. 

[Matthew92]

Hot take: Phoenix dactylifera shouldn't be planted on a mass scale in FL.

[Matthew92]

16 hours ago, Matthew92 said:

Hot take: Phoenix dactylifera shouldn't be planted on a mass scale in FL.

To clarify: I am ok with them being used a little more in N. FL because there aren't really any other palms that size that make such a landscape impact that are as cold hardy (yes P. canariensis is just as bud hardy or more so but it's leaves will brown before P. dactylifera). And at least from my observations: further south in FL they are more likely to look ratty/the humidity seems to take its toll more (although I know there are still many that do look good): which leads to the root issue of them being a desert native palm and is out of place/not climatically suited for best appearance in much of FL. I mean even in North FL, I still think they should be used more sparingly.