Cold Hardy Palms for North Florida

Palms can be used in many ways in the landscape. They make attractive specimen plants; they can be used in groups, for framing and as background plantings for the home. Taller palms make excellent avenue trees and smaller ones are useful in foundation plantings, shrubbery borders and as an accent.

Unfortunately, here in the Tallahassee area, we are limited in our selection of palms that are fully hardy. The Christmas freeze of 1983 and the January freeze of 1985 killed a number of palms and froze the fronds of others that recovered remarkably later. Recent years have been milder and we now have some palms growing here that will eventually be damaged by cold weather. It is best to plant only palms that are known to be cold hardy in our area.

Although palms can be transplanted at any time of the year, the best time to move them is in the Spring and early Summer. Root development is rapid then and the plant recovers quicker from the moving operation. The size of the root ball of palms that are dug is usually rather small because they will develop a new set of roots from the crown. Because palm roots emerge higher above the root crown, they should be set slightly deeper than the level they originally grew. Palms that are dug should have all but the upper fronds removed and the frond stems should be tied around the bud for protection. Container grown palms can be planted at any time and do not require frond removal and bud tying. If the bud of a palm should be destroyed, it will soon die. Newly planted palms should be kept well watered. Use of a commercial palm fertilizer or 13-6-6 during the growing season will be of great benefit.