Central Florida hardware store palms

[ThePalmNovice]

I hope this doesn’t come across as an advertisement, but I was just at by my local hardware store in Kissimmee (southern Orlando). It’s a big box national brand Lowes, the kind you typically see everywhere. Today I noticed they were trucking in huge boat loads of new palm trees. This store usually has a good selection, but now the store is the most overloaded with palms I have ever seen.  The garden section of the store looked like a mini palm nursery. There were at least 4 aisles of trees. 

I counted 20 different species, and there might have been more that I missed. Sure all of them were common palm species (except perhaps their Old man palms), but there must have been hundreds of them. I put the full list of species I confirmed below.  For now here are some pics of just how many palm trees they have.  

 

 
 

Edited March 18, 2017 by ThePalmNovice

[ThePalmNovice]

Here are the list of palm species I was able to browse over while I was there. Again these are just the ones I read the tag on. There might have even been some that I missed.

----------------------------------------------------- 
Adonidia merrillii
Bismarckia nobilis
Butia capitate
Caryota urens
Chamaedorea cataractarum
Chamaedorea elegans 
Chamaedorea microspadix/ Chamaedorea seifrizii (couldn’t tell which. Both were marked “Bamboo palms”)
Coccothrinax crinite
Cocos nucifera
Dypsis decaryi
Dypsis lutescens 
Hyophorbe lagenicaulis
Hyophorbe verschaffeltii
Livistona chinensis 
Phoenix roebelenii
Ravenea rivularis
Syagrus romanzoffiana
Thrinax radiate
Washingtonia robusta
Wodyetia bifurcata
 

Dose anyone know if its normal for Central Florida hardware stores to have this many palm trees, or did I just get lucky at this one? 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2017 by ThePalmNovice

[RedRabbit]

That's normal for Lowes and Home Depot around here.

[topwater]

Good grief you guys are lucky.  My Lowes has a few queens and a jillion roebelinis, plus the ever present bottle palm. Since Lowes guarantees their plants for a year, I could theoretically buy a bottle palm and then replace it for free every year for eternity.   

[cm05]

The Lowes I visited in Orlando didn't have a wide selection, it was actually a bit underwhelming. I only saw:

Phoenix roebelleni

Ravenea rivularis

Syagrus romanzoffiana

Washingtonia robusta

But it was July, maybe they were all shopped out by then. The Walmarts I stopped at had no plants at all, just empty shelves.

[Xerarch]

That looks like a pretty awesome selection for central Florida for just being a big box store 

[rozpalm]

Back in the late 2000s in South Florida you could go to Home Depot and find rare palms (and other rare plants) that you would normally find at a palm society sale.  Unfortunately, the nursery selling them to Home Depot went bust in 2010. 

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

On 3/18/2017, 2:32:26, ThePalmNovice said:

Here are the list of palm species I was able to browse over while I was there. Again these are just the ones I read the tag on. There might have even been some that I missed.

----------------------------------------------------- 
Adonidia merrillii
Bismarckia nobilis
Butia capitate
Caryota urens
Chamaedorea cataractarum
Chamaedorea elegans 
Chamaedorea microspadix/ Chamaedorea seifrizii (couldn’t tell which. Both were marked “Bamboo palms”)
Coccothrinax crinite
Cocos nucifera
Dypsis decaryi
Dypsis lutescens 
Hyophorbe lagenicaulis
Hyophorbe verschaffeltii
Livistona chinensis 
Phoenix roebelenii
Ravenea rivularis
Syagrus romanzoffiana
Thrinax radiate
Washingtonia robusta
Wodyetia bifurcata
 

Dose anyone know if its normal for Central Florida hardware stores to have this many palm trees, or did I just get lucky at this one? 

 

 

Similar here in Winter Haven.  With the exception of the Cocothrinax crinata and Leucothrinax morrisii, (which, at least here are mis- labeled Thrinax radiata), were all available last year too.  And we've never had Caryota urens, but we do get Caryota mitis.  

[PalmTreeDude]

Interesting. They will sell palms here as well, Needles, Mediterranean Fan Palms, and on occasion a Windmill Palm.

[mksmth]

Our stores get nothing but majesty :(. Last year a couple of T.fortuneii showed up. I wish they would get more variety but just not include them in the guarantee. They don't even get needle palms or sabal minor. Those are bullet proof here. 

[MDPalm]

Just curious, how much are they?   Like the the larger ones.  

Here in Maryland we get tons of Majesty Palms.  Lowe's seems to always be getting shipments of them, sometimes a few other varieties but if you want a majesty palm in January Lowe's is your place.  People must buy them because I see then thin out and then more come in.  Home depot has the same things but not nearly as many and the prices are higher.

Last week Lowe's got in some Adonidia's, which I have never seen them have here.  They are 16 gallon selling for $119.  Seemed odd that these came in March.

 

Edited March 23, 2017 by MDPalm

[ThePalmNovice]

I think it depends on the size of the pot it's in. The big queens and Areca palms cost anywhere from $30 to $90. The foxtails, bismarcks, and bottles were from $50 to $100. Coconut palms were all above $150. The bigger washies, and adonidia's were all at exactly $99. Everything else was in smaller than 10 gallon pots. All of those were under $20, except for Coccothrinax crinite which was $99. 

The best strategy I found was to buy palms in the smaller pots, but only when they were tall and potbound. There were some close to the same height as the 10 gallon, but because they were still in a 5 gallon bucket their price was less than half. 

 

Edited March 26, 2017 by ThePalmNovice

[QWERTY]

The palm variety at my local big box stores has improved since I bought my house in the Tampa area three years ago.  The first month in my house I went to Lowe's and asked an employee if they had royals and coconuts but was told no because they wouldn't survive this far north.  In late 2015 I did manage to find a coconut on clearance at Home Depot, which is now doing well in my yard.  At Lowe's this morning they had several coconuts and royals.  That's the first time I've seen a royal at a big box store anywhere around me.