What Should I Plant

[NaturallyD]

Hi All. Long time lurker, first time poster. I’m looking for some suggestions on a palm or two to plant. I’m new to this world, but have been putting together a starter collection in my front yard and am now looking for something in the back. The location will get full sun and it backs up to a wall that also retains heat. I have excellent well draining soil and am less than a mile from the beach in North County San Diego.

I planted a couple banana trees about a year and half ago just to get some temporary foliage so I wasn’t looking at a bare wall. My plan is to pull those out once I get a longer term tree or two growing in that spot. I also planted a traveler palm next to that space (pictures below)

Everything I plant back in that space explodes. It seems like a unique little microclimate because of the way it faces, radiant wall heat, and soil quality. You can see in the pictures, my traveler palm is probably 20ft tall and been in the ground less than 2 years. So what I’m looking for is a unique palm that might be challenging to grow in my area outside of the situation I have. Any suggestions? I don’t want anything massive  (like an 80ft Royal or something), I’d prefer it cap out in the 20ish ft range because I’d like the fronds to continue to cover some of that back wall. Open to ideas though!

First photo is from August 2023, second is from March 2025. About 1.5yrs of growth.

[happypalms]

2 hours ago, NaturallyD said:

Hi All. Long time lurker, first time poster. I’m looking for some suggestions on a palm or two to plant. I’m new to this world, but have been putting together a starter collection in my front yard and am now looking for something in the back. The location will get full sun and it backs up to a wall that also retains heat. I have excellent well draining soil and am less than a mile from the beach in North County San Diego.

I planted a couple banana trees about a year and half ago just to get some temporary foliage so I wasn’t looking at a bare wall. My plan is to pull those out once I get a longer term tree or two growing in that spot. I also planted a traveler palm next to that space (pictures below)

Everything I plant back in that space explodes. It seems like a unique little microclimate because of the way it faces, radiant wall heat, and soil quality. You can see in the pictures, my traveler palm is probably 20ft tall and been in the ground less than 2 years. So what I’m looking for is a unique palm that might be challenging to grow in my area outside of the situation I have. Any suggestions? I don’t want anything massive  (like an 80ft Royal or something), I’d prefer it cap out in the 20ish ft range because I’d like the fronds to continue to cover some of that back wall. Open to ideas though!

First photo is from August 2023, second is from March 2025. About 1.5yrs of growth.

A nice tree for there is browniopsis ucayliana, licuala pelata  is a nice palm. Some cocothrinax species would look good as well.  

[Tracy]

5 hours ago, NaturallyD said:

Hi All. Long time lurker, first time poster. I’m looking for some suggestions on a palm or two to plant. I’m new to this world, but have been putting together a starter collection in my front yard and am now looking for something in the back. The location will get full sun and it backs up to a wall that also retains heat. I have excellent well draining soil and am less than a mile from the beach in North County San Diego.

I planted a couple banana trees about a year and half ago just to get some temporary foliage so I wasn’t looking at a bare wall. My plan is to pull those out once I get a longer term tree or two growing in that spot. I also planted a traveler palm next to that space (pictures below)

Everything I plant back in that space explodes. It seems like a unique little microclimate because of the way it faces, radiant wall heat, and soil quality. You can see in the pictures, my traveler palm is probably 20ft tall and been in the ground less than 2 years. So what I’m looking for is a unique palm that might be challenging to grow in my area outside of the situation I have. Any suggestions? I don’t want anything massive  (like an 80ft Royal or something), I’d prefer it cap out in the 20ish ft range because I’d like the fronds to continue to cover some of that back wall. Open to ideas though!

First photo is from August 2023, second is from March 2025. About 1.5yrs of growth.

Welcome to PalmTalk.   Reading your post,  I see you want to "cap out" at 20 feet.  Unfortunately,  it reminds me of my neighbor's recent question about how tall his Howea forsteriana (Kentia palms) will get.  There really isn't a cap out size on palms height unless we are talking about lifespan height before they die.  That said, you can grow slower growing palms which will take a long time to achieve 20 feet in Oceanside. 

I like the previous suggestion of Cocothrinax for full sun and not taking up a large footprint.  One of my favorite palms at this time is Ravenea julietiae which will vet large but is slow here and wouldn't be a problem anytime soon.  Chrysalidocarpus ambositrae is a lovely midsized solitary species as is Chrysalidocarpus saintelucei.  All three are novel except among fellow palm nuts.  We have several fellow members in Oceanside that can provide great input based on the many micro climate zones based on elevation and cold drainage from inland. 

[iDesign]

Hi Neighbor!

Here's a quick & dirty Photoshop mockup of one possibility (excuse the messiness... only had time for a super-rush job).

Shown in this photo...

- Keep the Traveler's Palm.
I think it looks amazing next to the blank wall! The leaves will eventually get wind-tattered, but I personally love the look of it there.

- Lose the bananas.
I'm a fan of bananas and similar large-leaf plants (like white bird of paradise) since they add visual contrast to palms. But I don't see any reason why you would want BOTH a travelers palm and bananas in that place.

- Add a pinnate palm.
I added a palm known as being pretty sun-tolerant... Dypsis (or Chrysalidocarpus) Onilahensis "upright" version. I'm showing it at a middle-size... would be smaller initially but eventually clear the roofline. You mentioned full-sun, so I'm assuming you could only put sun-tolerant palms there, right? Still lots of great options, and you'll be glad you went with something more unusual.

- Add a fan palm.
I'm showing a rare-for-our-area "old man" palm (Coccothrinax crinita) but there are other Coccothrinax types that would work well in that spot. I didn't show it in my mockup, but if you can, I would "bow out" the front of that planter to allow a little more depth at the center of your planter. That would give you even more options.

- Add color.
I used the trellis you had in your photo, but if that's not staying, you could add Hawaiian Ti plants, bromeliads, and other color sources.

Hope that gives you some ideas!

 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

What about arenga engleri, or is it too hot and sunny there? Also maybe med fan could do well too, similar idea to putting an old man there.

Oh and also not a palm but maybe you can put like a yucca there, most of them are very slow to gain height. 

[NaturallyD]

Wow, thank you all so much for the advice! @iDesign, really going above and beyond with the Photoshop work, thank you!

Great points about the "cap out" request. Slow - medium grow would work as well. As anything started to grow, I could always fill in below so the yard doesn't become all trunk and no green.

It is too hot and sunny for arenga enleri, at least right now. I do have some shade loving plants in there now, but they're under the banana trees and traveler, so maybe in the future I could plant that as one of my lower fill-in trees.

I like the look of licuala pelata, very unique! Does anyone have a recommendation where I could find one of those?

Same question on the Dypsis Onilahensis that's a very cool looking tree as well. Any locals with connections or recommendations on nurseries?

Agree with losing the bananas and adding some color. For now, it's full sun only plants, but hoping that once I get the palms going, they cast some shadows and I'll be able to open it up to at least some partial shade.

Thank you all again for the responses! So fun going through pictures of all the suggestions.

[Foggy Paul]

On 4/10/2025 at 8:26 PM, NaturallyD said:

Same question on the Dypsis Onilahensis that's a very cool looking tree as well. Any locals with connections or recommendations on nurseries?

I got my onilahensis from Phil at Jungle Music which is in your neighborhood. He just moved to a new location and I’m guessing most of his stock made the move. 

[Tracy]

On 4/10/2025 at 8:26 PM, NaturallyD said:

Wow, thank you all so much for the advice! @iDesign, really going above and beyond with the Photoshop work, thank you!

Great points about the "cap out" request. Slow - medium grow would work as well. As anything started to grow, I could always fill in below so the yard doesn't become all trunk and no green.

It is too hot and sunny for arenga enleri, at least right now. I do have some shade loving plants in there now, but they're under the banana trees and traveler, so maybe in the future I could plant that as one of my lower fill-in trees.

I like the look of licuala pelata, very unique! Does anyone have a recommendation where I could find one of those?

Same question on the Dypsis Onilahensis that's a very cool looking tree as well. Any locals with connections or recommendations on nurseries?

Agree with losing the bananas and adding some color. For now, it's full sun only plants, but hoping that once I get the palms going, they cast some shadows and I'll be able to open it up to at least some partial shade.

Thank you all again for the responses! So fun going through pictures of all the suggestions.

Phil and Jessie at Jungle Music here in Encinitas,  Josh at Fairview Nursery in Vista, Joe at Discovery in San Marcos I believe, are all close options.   If you are willing to travel around Southern California,  you have many additional resources. 

Additional palms I have grown in full sun either here in Leucadia or in southwest Carlsbad are pictured below.

Clinostigma savoryanum

Pseudophoenix argentine

Gaussia princeps

Chrysalidocarpus ambositrae 

Ravenea julietiae 

Chrysalidocarpus saintelucei 

(The Chrysalidocarpus I mention were formerly part of the Dypsis genus but many still use the older genus name for all the species now under Chrysalidocarpus).

 

[DoomsDave]

Nice to meet you @NaturallyD! You’ve got a great start on a wonderful garden!

[idontknowhatnametuse]

Some suggestions:

Astrocaryum alatum

Astrocaryum mexicanum

Bactris mexicana

Bactris setosa

Chamaedorea tepejilote (Clumping Form)

Chrysalidocarpus decipiens

Chrysalidocarpus lanceolata

Chrysalidocarpus plumosa

Cocos nucifera (As an experiment, they don't get too tall in non-tropical climates)

Syagrus stenopetala

[awkonradi]

Would that location be too hot for Hedyscepe?  I think they are beautiful, and increasingly available.

[Tracy]

On 4/16/2025 at 7:37 AM, awkonradi said:

Would that location be too hot for Hedyscepe?  I think they are beautiful, and increasingly available.

I would not plant Hedyscepe in that full sun position in Oceanside.   They are very fickle here, said as someone batting only 20% out of five tries over the last 20 years.   My one survivor receives filtered late afternoon sun as it sits on the northeast corner of my house in southwest Carlsbad.   I know others have had success nearby but my recollection of every one is partial shade here, not in a position of sun and radiated heat from a wall as backdrop.