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My Favourite Garden Palms

Written by Garden Vince | 26 September 2011

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Fast Growing Palms are Great !

This category just sounds good. Fast growing Palms: intriguing to many simply because gardeners are anxious to experience the growth of their precious Palm seedlings. This category is called Fast Growing because in contrast to other species, they grow much quicker.

The Clustering Fishtail Palm (Caryota mitis) is a stunning clustering palm from tropical rainforests in South East Asia. It forms a clump up to 8m high and about 4m wide. The Clustering Fishtail Palm is a vigorous grower which gratifies it’s gardener with beautiful light green trunks and small fishtail shaped leaves. Fishtail palms are very hardy and can tolerate slight frost. The care instructions call for a shady position with well draining soil and regular watering.

The Bangalow Palm (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana) is a spectacular native palm growing up to 25m tall. The lovely smooth trunk has spaced rings, bright green leaves and pale stalks.The Bangalow prefers a sheltered position which helps defend strong winds. The thrive in full sun to part shade and gains it’s ‘fast grower’ status by growing up to 1m per year.

Top Choice: Self Cleaning Palms

Some Palm trees are 'self cleaning' which means that they drop their old palms. These types have a low maintenance advantage in the home garden.
The Princess Palm (Dictyospermum album) is a solitary palm that grows to 10m tall and is self cleaning. This type also handles very strong wind and is fast growing. Like most palms the Princess is best grown in full sun to light shade with well drained, moisture retentive soil.

Food from Palms

My favourite Edible Palm is the Dwarf Date Palm (Phoenix roebelenii). It is a good grower; a solitary palm which grows to around 3m tall. The old leaves fold downward and form a “Hula” skirt around the trunk. Flowers are cream, and are followed by egg shaped, black, edible fruit. Dwarf Date Palms are best grown in full sun to part shade. Choose a well draining soil. Dwarf Dates are frost hardy to around -5, and are well suited to coastal conditions. This palm is very drought hardy and low maintenance once established. This is a great little palm for every garden, and grows well as an indoor palm.

General Info for Growing Palm Trees

Growing palm trees requires care and dedication. Knowing a palm’s particular species and characteristics will help ensure you provide the right amount of light, water, soil and nutrients. Even the hardiest of palms need attention and by a general inspection of the soil and foliage, you can determine what it needs to thrive. Palms are generally happier in a rich, moist, well-drained soil. Most palms desire, very warm climates, lots of sun and plenty of water. They need plentiful water but palms also benefit when the soil dries between watering.
When choosing a palm, many people nurture smaller palms because a 30cm plant is much cheaper than having a 20m giant, like the Queen Palm, transplanted at full maturity into your yard. These baby palms need adequate spacing to develop and they will need protection from too much sunlight and heavy wind. Once they strengthen by design and become full grown specimens, they will withstand a wide diversity of harsh elements.
Not all species are available at your local nursery and the only option for some palms may be available as seed or seedling. Buying young palms or seeds online from a reputable plant nursery is a common way to get your exact palm and stay within your budget (NationalTropicals.com.au).
The landscape features are important for the future growth of the palm. So, if the plant starts at 1m and there is power lines overhead, it may be a hazard 25 years from now. Most palms will only need several feet of moist dirt and will be non invasive but consideration must be given to the species mature trunk width and the habits of the palms and roots.