South Florida Style ~ Palms for your Landscape

 Hey there my planty friends, so glad you're back for the next episode of Gardening South Florida Style!

In this post we are going to take a moment to talk about palms in the landscape.  Especially when planning for our potentially extreme weather events here in SE Florida.  Whether it's drought, tropical storms, hurricanes, high winds, salty air, humidity and whatever else Mother Nature decides to throw at us...palms are some of the hardiest plants around!

Disclaimer here before we start: Palms do not replace the importance of trees.  It's a misnomer that they are the same & they are not.  Palms do not produce the same environmental parameters of carbon dioxide to oxygen ratio, nor do they provide the same amount of shade which helps to offset the amount of heat retention from our concrete jungle.  BUT (and a big butt here😉) they do have some positive values in landscapes, especially during tropical storms and hurricanes.

So let's get into some favorable attributes that palms have before we diss on them. Don't worry it's just a soft diss not a hater diss, no one likes a hater & who could hate a palm anyhow?! Pfft seriously no one, that's who 😂  First & foremost, as we all know, they are super pretty & have a very unique shape that is a lovely addition to any landscape design.  Unlike a typical tree shape, palms are strictly vertical growers with all their fronds at the top area of their trunks, which we call the crown or canopy.  Though with that being said there are basically two kinds of palms that can grow here in south Florida: a solitary trunk like a coconut palm which will only grow one trunk & can only grow their new progeny by seed. Then we have, however you want to refer to it, a clumping/clustering/multi-trunk palm like an areca palm.  They propagate not only by seed by also by growing their new progeny out from the root base of their trunk.  Like a baby clone of itself.  We call that suckering, don't ask me why, it sounds silly I know.  Palms unique architectural shapes do a great job of breaking up the continuity of shrubs & trees, offering something interesting your eyes can rest upon.  There is a palm for every area of your garden, from shade to full sun.  Some palms are just so stunning, they can be a gorgeous focal point all on their own. 

 Have you ever seen a red sealing wax palm, Oooohhh my gosh... #1 Stunner fo' sho'!!!

Red sealing wax palm (cyrtostachys renda) is considered a cluster type palm.

So since we just established their structural shape & we know they're just an absolutely beautiful addition to the landscape; how can their placement be used effectively?  Here in South Florida we get our fair share of storms & hurricanes.  Though what people might not know is we also have a time in our Spring as well as in our Autumn/Fall season when winds can ramp up to 20-30mph with gusts up to 40-50mph as part of our season not due to a storm event.  The winds usually blow in from the N/NE to the S/SW.  Aaaand they are non-stop....20+mph for daaayyysss! That's when I bust out the "windy-hair don't care" t-shirt 😂 Depending on how tall a specific palm species will grow (some palms can grow 40-50 ft or higher) they can be great windbreaks.  A healthy palm can withstand most tropical storms, low level hurricanes & constant high winds with very little damage to the palm & little to no damage to your property.  If you understand where any palm species originates from you can see how perfect they are for our weather.  They can grow in the harshest environments.  August 24, 1992 Hurricane Andrew tore through south Miami-Dade county. You know what was the single most successful plant still standing after that category 4/5 hurricane in our neighborhoods?  If you guessed palms, call yourself a winner...you're winning friend!  Though when planting palms just make sure they are planted far enough away from your home or other buildings so when they sway like a drunken sailor in the wind they aren't knocking against the building which can be potentially damaging.

Quindio wax palms growing in the high mountain elevations of Colombia, South America
photo by Thibaud Aronson

You can also use palms as a full sun filter for understory plants which grow best in part sun/part shade to help give them a reprieve from our intense sun.  Palms also cast a long shadow so if you have them towards the edges of your property their shadow can be useful to help throw some shade (in a good way) on areas that could use a cool down, i.e. pool, jungle gym, hammock, shed, patio, etc.  Right place, right palm is my motto & now it's your as well!

Look how beautiful this cluster of cabada palms look as a side yard focal point at one
of our client's homes...simple, elegant, modern & low to no maintenance!

Privacy is a priority for many people, especially here where a one-story ranch style home gets knocked down for a mega-mansion to be built in it's place, with zero lot lines I might add.  So privacy is usually at the top of our client's wish list of landscape must-have's.  In most cases solitary trunk palms do not offer privacy due to the nature of how these palms grow.  Their fronds are always at the top as we established & as the palm grows taller so does the crown of the palm.  So for instance, let's say you plant a tall palm on your property to cover either your second story window and/or your neighbor's window like in the picture below.  For the immediate time yes, you'll have a bit of privacy.  Though unfortunately that privacy is fleeting, as the palm grows taller so will the crown. Now it's above your roof line, bye-bye privacy, also your neighbor is now you and/or lord forbid your kiddo's #1 voyeur, eewww!  P.S. Zero lot lines are absolutely ridiculous & those ordinances should be changed but that my friend's is another post! Trust me when I say we'll get into it! 😉

We also see clustering palms used as a type of privacy hedge which can work in some cases depending on the species of palm.  Though most people unknowingly use areca palms for this because they are available everywhere, extremely fast growing & inexpensive but what they soon realize is it ends up costing them way more in the long run.  Areca's are prolific growers & will take over a space very quickly, outgrowing everything around it.  Plus they are high maintenance & as messy as a room full of unattended kindergarteners on art's & crafts day!  They drop an extraordinary amount of palm fronds on a daily basis & sucker like crazy (there's that word again). They are best used on a very large property & with lots of maintenance to remove all their new growth they look really pretty.  But once they are huge & established they are very costly to remove due to the amount of labor it takes to get their gigantic root ballz out.  And last they are the #1 palm super susceptible to the ganoderma fungi which can kill palms & trees faster than flies on a pile of poop.  Unfortunately there currently is no known cure to irradicate the ganoderma mushroom.  Talk about a party-pooper!

You can see the line of arecas along the back perimeter of the property at one of our client's homes.
We had a huge pile to pick up every other week when we came for maintenance.  Luckily we removed them all (due to ganoderma spreading) & replaced them with cabada palms, which is a more appropriate palm for most south Florida yards.

So let's segway into design, at this point you know you want palms planted in your landscape...but what species of palm & what kind of maintenance will they need?  Great question because most people think palms are maintenance free.   Where as most palms are certainly low maintenance, they all need some amount of work.  Like my hair on a hot & humid day!  There are two types of palms in this instance: the palms that we call "self cleaning" and palms that need to be pruned.  The self cleaning palms like sabal palms, Christmas palms, royal palms, veitchii palms, areca and MacArthur palms all drop their fronds once they have used up the food source from them.  They drop to the ground, you pick them up & put them in your compost bin, er I mean garbage can or bulk pick up & you're good to go.  And every so often you will need to trim the seed pods from the trunks.  But palms that need to be pruned like bottle palms, foxtail palms, bismark palms and all the date palms like Sylvester palms, roebellini palms & Canary Island palms will not release their fronds even after they've died.  They need to be pruned...of course isn't that the case, the palms with the biggest pointiest deadliest spines on them need to be trimmed by hand.   My husband still has a piece of a date palm frond spike stuck in his leg that broke off when we were pruning a client's Sylvester date palm.😩 Palms that need to be pruned can usually be done by the homeowner though most people hire tree trimmers like us for various reasons, mainly because it can be difficult & dangerous.  So definitely something to consider when choosing a palm(s).

So what kinds of palms are available?  There are sooooooo many, like thousands of different species & hybrids of palm throughout the world.  Many of which grow exceptionally well here in South Florida due to our tropical & subtropical climate.  Some palms are fast growing, while some are painfully slow yet most are moderate growers.  Some palms have huge heads while others are small.  Even the palm frond colors, shapes & sizes vary from species to species.  Some can grow in full sun while others will burn with the direct sun on their fronds like Florida tourists from the Midwest.  Did I mention there are soooooo there are many different varieties of palms? Hee hee...with that being said, it's all about right palm, right place.  It's a good idea to do a bit of internet sleuthing to find out what requirements the palms you like will need.  Or even just researching what palms will grow best where you live.  Here are some of our most popular palms that can grow here in SE Florida, see if you find one or two or ten that you like.

Licuala elegans in the center with foxtail palms

Sabal palm (Sabal palmetto) - Florida native & state palm - self cleaning, solitary trunk, typically grows up to 30ft in landscapes taller in the wild, slow long living palm, full sun.

Licuala palms - from Vanuatu, Pacific Islands - needs to be hand pruned, solitary trunk, many different species in this family (grandis, ramsayi, peltata, etc) understory dappled shade, fronds get torn from high winds, likes moist habitats.

Alexander palm (Archontophoenix alexandrae) - self cleaning, solitary trunk, grows up to 80+ft in natural habitat but about 40-50 ft in landscapes, fast grower once it gets established, full sun, can handle more water than most palms.

Solitaire palm (Ptychosperma elegans) - from Australia - self cleaning, solitary trunk, can be confused with the Alexander palm, grows up to 20-25ft, full sun to part shade.

Christmas palm (Adonidia merrillii) - from Philippines - self cleaning, solitary trunk, probably on of the most popular small palms seen in landscapes, grows up to 25ft, full sun to part shade.

Cabada palm (Dypsis cabadae) - unknown origins thought to be Madagascar/Comoro Islands - self cleaning, multi-trunk, grows up to 20-30ft in landscapes, full sun to part shade, like more water than most, extensive root system

Montgomery palm (Veitchia arecina) - from Vanuatu/Fiji/Tonga - self cleaning, solitary trunk, grows up to 30-40ft, fast grower, full sun

Roebelenii palm (Phoenix roebelenii) - from Laos/Vietnam - also called pygmy date palm, needs to be hand pruned, clustering habit, grows up to 15-20ft, very popular small palm, full sun, slow growing long living, like all date palms needs to have regular fertilizer schedule.

Sylvester palm (Phoenix sylvestris) - from Pakistan/Himalayans/Nepal/Bangladesh/India - needs to be hand pruned, solitary trunk, grows up to 50-60ft, can tolerate colder temps, full sun, slow growing long living, like all date palms needs to have regular fertilizer schedule.

Elegant palm (Carpoxylon macrospermum) - from Vanuatu - needs to be hand pruned, solitary palm, grows up to 40+ft but it's a relatively new palm to SE Fla's landscapes so will see but so far they have surpassed 25ft, gorgeous bottle shaped trunk & curved fronds, full sun.

Carpentaria palm (Carpentaria acuminata) - from Australia - self cleaning, solitary palm, grows up to 40ft tall, full sun, fast growing, can handle more water than most, fertilizer is a bonus for this palm.

Now that you're a palm pro...can you guess what these two palms are? 

Oh my gosh, so many palms, so little time 😁 We could totally keep going with the list but as you can see there are many different types of palms.  Just remember not all palms can grow in SE Florida's harsh environment unless you have created micro-environments for them.  So once you've narrowed your search, it's all about price.  How affordable are the palms you want.  A rule of thumb to consider is, the slower growing, the rarer, the larger = the more expensive it can be.   My personal opinion is to buy as big as you can afford.  No one wants to wait a lifetime for a plant to grow to an enjoyable size. 

Well y'all I think we went over on our allotted time frame for this post, eek but if you are here reading this then thank you sooooo much, you're a winner! 💕 Hopefully this can help you along your landscaping journey here in Florida especially when is comes to designing a landscape around our hurricane/storm season.  

Until next time my planty peeps!  Happy Gardening!

Much love and best wishes,

Sheri

xoxo

💚

Hurricane Preparedness for your Landscape

 Hey Y'all, so glad you're here!    

Dang, did you see that storm that rolled through last night!   WOW!   Speaking of storms, today we are talking about landscapes and hurricanes...and for those of you new to south Florida, welcome, bienvenidos, and bienvenue.  If you are not familiar with south Florida weather, well heck you're in for a grand surprise, cause it's unpredictably predictable or predictably unpredictable, take your pick.   But what you can be sure of is...at some point, we will have high winds, drought, 'everyday rain', thunder storms, thunder & lightening storms, heat lightening, sun showers, water spouts, extreme UV sun with not a cloud in the blue bird sky, extreme UV with total cloud coverage, scattered showers, rainbows, mist, rain on one side of the street while dry on the other side of the street, humidity that will make you swear you're wearing a wet sweater, no joke heat temperatures that will send you to the ER lickity split  aaannnnd the piece de resistance...hurricanes.    Newly added to this glorious line up of our weather phenomenon's is flooding and tornadoes. For the first time ever, last year on October 9, 2024, Hurricane Milton produce approx. 100+ tornadoes within the hurricane's parameters. It formed in the Gulf of Mexico, moved across open waters, made landfall on the west coast of Florida & crawled across to the east coast. Producing massive destruction from just the tornadoes alone.  Though what you can't be sure of is when and/or where any of these (albeit combinations of these) will happen.  One day we may have a forecasted 15% chance of rain yet it monsoons for hours in the morning with flash flood warnings then sunny in the afternoon and dry as a bone.

So go figure, welcome to Florida! 

Unlike our unpredictable weather, hurricanes do have a timeline...this timeline is extremely important to us so Floridians can properly prepare.  And when I say properly prepare, it's not waiting until the last minute because you think it's going to make a miraculous turn north, then freak out and buy all the toilet paper and plastic water bottles because "it's heading right for us!"...you know who you are 😉

During this time of year we recommend to all of our landscape clientele to get a good pruning schedule going especially if they haven't started.  It's important for some proper trimming to happen before we are in the thick of it.  And if you don't know what "in the thick of it" means...well it's is when everyone wants their coconuts (aka flying rockets) removed out of their palms & off their property and their trees trimmed away from their houses ASAP because your lack of accountability is our priority am I right?!   And let's be honest, it's because they didn't want to spend the money along the way and now everyone is panicking.  So don't be that slack Floridian. Also don't be that Floridian that removes their landscape because they don't want to pay to maintain it...I would suggest moving to NYC or LA before your neighbors and wildlife hate you.  So yes, now is a good time to have a professionally trained ISA tree trimmer (aka me 😉) to properly trim your palms & trees.  Find someone you trust who  respects & appreciates your landscape as much as you do.

 How do we prepare our landscapes for hurricane season here in south Florida?  

Glad you asked.  Here's a few tips to help you get going.

If you are interested in trimming your trees, my first suggestion is to open the canopy for high winds to move through easier rather than hitting that brick wall of a thick tree canopy which can push the entire tree over due to being top-heavy.  By removing certain branches and trunks it will create more open spaces for wind to move through the canopy allowing the tree root system to say "I got this!"  "Si se puede!" This also helps promote a proper healthy growth habit since limbs that might have been diseased, crossing over, broken, etc were removed in the process.  Second is, if it's necessary, reduce the overall size of the tree canopy.  This also helps reduce the weight at the top of the tree. We call this canopy reduction or corrective pruning, which all trees need from time to time to promote healthy new growth.  Most people don't know all this but now you do, so spread the word.

You can see how top heavy this oak is

If your interested in trimming your palms, my first suggestion, wait no...my plea to you is, please do not allow the palms to be over pruned.  And when I say over pruned, well... just look at the pictures, sigh.  For a proper palm pruning, the palm fronds should always be around 9 and 3 (when referring to the hands on a clock.)  Never ever should palms be trimmed higher than that, NO 10 & 2, NO 11 & 1, NO MIGNIGHT!  Especially never allow your palms to be trimmed like that on a regular basis. It depletes the nutrients the palms need to survive.  The older fronds are the lower fronds, those fronds hold the most nutrients which the palm relies upon for healthy growth.  When those fronds are constantly removed, the palms health declines over time.  Uh-hem y'all maintenance peeps, just stop that nonsense!  Even if someone says oh yeah you can "hurricane cut" them, it's fine, they'll grow back...No, no you shouldn't.  There is no such thing...just say thanks but no thanks & allow them to drive on down the road. (First just tell your neighbors down the road to say no as well)  

A great example of how palms should look like

A prime example of what not to do, poor thing!

 

A professionally trained ISA (aka what we used to call licensed, don't get started on this, ugh)) tree trimmers will suggest what your trees & palms may or may not need.  Never will a professionally trained trimmer suggest hacking, over lifting trees, hurricane cutting your palms or lollipopping your medium to large canopy trees. If they do, they ain't a profesh & y'all know what to do...yes, send them on down the road & tell your neighbors and friends not to use them.  

Lollipopping at it's finest, just look at the trunk diameter 
to it's "canopy" size, tsk tsk...over time the tree will decline

Side note here & yes I'm gonna get on my soapbox for this, so hold on for a sec....Please, please, please I implore you, do not hire the people that drive through the neighborhoods, knocking on doors telling you they can trim your palms for cheapy cheap.  There's a reason for that.  I know first hand that most of them have no idea how to properly prune palms (hence the cheap part) & if they can't even trim a palm properly, don't you dare let them touch your tree!  And almost always they won't be insured, so if one of them door-knockers falls off their ladder and is injured on your property...yes they can sue you! Google it.  So please when looking to hire a properly trained tree trimmer, here are a few questions to ask:  what type of training do they have, their years of experience, are they properly trained to the current industry standards, references so you can see their work (proof is in the work) and do they have liability insurance.  

Hey no one is perfect, if they don't check off every box no sweat, but if you aren't comfortable with their answers, what do we do?  Tell them and the door knockers, thanks but no thanks.  Find someone you trust that will respect and appreciate your landscape as much as you do.

So there you have it...a few easy basic principles to start off your pruning and trimming journey.  If you have any questions, feel free to reach out, I'd be glad to help if I can.

Well with all this prep talk, the next post is going to bounce off of this one with 'what type of landscape plants for a hurricane garden.'    Aaaaannnd y'all know what I'm going to say right?!?  LOL you know me so well by now...yes, yes, two things, 1st - "right plant, right place" & 2nd - use native plants as much as you can!  So subscribe to my blog as this will be in another deep dive post full of nuggets of info you won't want to miss!

Happy Gardening Y'all & Keep Florida Wild!

With much love and best wishes,

Sheri

XOXO