What to do about Queen Palms?

[joe_OC]

So I have four queen palms in a planter in my back yard. It is definite a focal point of the garden. Anyway, I want to incorporate other palms and plants into the planter and am thinking about the future. Will I be in a situation where the queen palms (when they seed) will be creating a big mess for me? And are my smaller palms and tropical plants in danger from falling fronds? Also, since they are not self cleaning, am I looking an unneeded expense when they get too large for me to trim myself? OR, have I become a palm snob and these issues are not really issues at all? Here is a pic of the palms:

[JEFF IN MODESTO]

Queens in Hintighton beach?

I would have planted King palms or something exotic.. but that is just my thingy.

I once planted 4 Queens in my back yard, the roots became very evasive that I couldn't keep anything healthy planted near them... so out came the chainsaw. Now I can plant anything again.

Jeff

[joe_OC]

The queens were there well before I knew anything about tropical palms...

[Kim]

Nice hardscape, Joe! Speaking strictly from my own point of view, if that is your main planting area I would dig and sell the queens and replace them with more exotic species. Would that make me a palm snob? Or would that be using my available planting area to my best advantage? Life is short, go for it.

Downside:

-new palms will undoubtedly grow slower than the queens

-work involved (this may be on the wrong list; ask Bo about his definition of work)

-money already spent on queens may not be recovered with sale

-more $ to spend on new palms (be realistic, you're going to do that anyway if you're hanging around here)

Upside:

-more interesting garden

-more fun

-palms in youthful stage longer

-greater degree of personal satisfaction with garden

-your garden becomes a potential site for a future PRA

-seed production becomes a plus, not a minus

Digging out the queens looks like a higher PSQ* to me, unless I missed something.

*PSQ = Palm Satisfaction Quotient: arrived at by dividing # of positives by # of negatives. This is how you turn something totally subjective into black and white numbers that a spouse cannot argue with.

[Darold Petty]

Hello Joe, I would take them out now, before they grow larger. You still have the background conifers to lessen the abscence of the palms. Perhaps some larger Howeas with more unusual and slower growing palms in between. Good luck! (Snobbery?? All palms are not equal!)

[Ken Johnson]

Kim, Your a palm genius!

JO, It shows that you have been studying and will soon be as smart as KIM! You know all the answers even before we help you. Sounds like you just need a little push. OK Here's my foot giving you a Queen kick.

i have a friend that did the queen thing around his pool and he cusses them every time he looks at them. They are so big that he can't even trim them easily and so it is a BAD deal. I am sure your local Palm group and bunches of people here will help you to get the right palms.

BTW it is OK to give them away and in my book it is OK to give them to the garbage men.

[tropicalb]

yes.

you are a palm snob.

i have also become a palm snob.

and that's okay.....because sooner or later, everyone on this board becomes one.

and that's okay too.

it's a GOOD thing.

I'd dump the queens in a heartbeat.

[hulagalnz9]

BTW it is OK to give them away and in my book it is OK to give them to the garbage men.

just bought 5.....man!!! ^{<--kicing the dirt & throwing a tantrum}

Joe what about another corner for privacy some where...alley perhaps? bye the bye, luuv your yard. Nice plumerias.

Hey...can I skip detention if I bought 3 canarys too?

[MattyB]

Joe,

If I remember correctly, these are on the South or South West side of your pool. This is the reason I'd take them out. You don't want your sun to be blocked if you wanna enjoy the pool on a warm fall morning. Put something sun loving and more size manageable so when they fruit you can cut off the flowers easily before they trash your pool. Don't trash the Queens, experiment with an extra close group planting off in a corner somewhere. It won't take up much space on the ground and you'll probably like the dense look it gives. Queens are great palms, they're just large and fast growing, don't be a snob!

Ptychosperma elegans would be nice. And if it got too tall you can easily cut it down because it's so skinny.

[osideterry]

The drainage in that planter has the potential to be so much better than our clay soil. Eventually every palms rootball gets down to the bad stuff here.

Get creative and sketch out a plan for the island, don't just replace each queen with something else. Roystoneas, D. pembana and D. madagagascariensis, Archo (besides cunningham)... there are some faster palms you could plant.

[DoomsDave]

Joe:

You took the words out of (or, inserted them in?) my mouth.

I have the same problem with a bunch of queens I planted. They are clearly sucking up all the nutes and when they start to go to seed, I will be in Seed (followed by Seedling) Hell.

Rnnnnnnnnn

[joe_OC]

Thanks, Everyone.

Yup...I already knew the answer...Like Ken was saying, I needed a nudge to get on it.

[doubravsky]

I dunno. I have a dozen or so queens.. planted for canopy and shade. Maybe cause I'm so far inland and the sun is so hot... but I like that they're fast and provide some shelter. But then again most everything needs a little shade out here.

We put in solar heating panels on the roof. That way no matter how much shade the pool area gets, its nice and toasty in the pool.

[JEFF IN MODESTO]

The quick way would be a chain saw cut them off at the surface... Right now the trunks aren't too thick so you wouldn't have to dig them up.. they would compost themselves.

You could transplant new palms right next to the decaying stump... shouldn't be a problem.

If you wait until the Queens have a large trunk... say in a year or so... they won't rot away so easy and you may have to dig the stumps out.

Just my opinion... Healthy Queen palms are beautiful, but they shouldn't be planted in home gardens where you want to plant anything within 10 to 15 ft of it.

[sonoranfans]

The quick way would be a chain saw cut them off at the surface... Right now the trunks aren't too thick so you wouldn't have to dig them up.. they would compost themselves.

You could transplant new palms right next to the decaying stump... shouldn't be a problem.

If you wait until the Queens have a large trunk... say in a year or so... they won't rot away so easy and you may have to dig the stumps out.

Just my opinion... Healthy Queen palms are beautiful, but they shouldn't be planted in home gardens where you want to plant anything within 10 to 15 ft of it.

Well I suppose I violated the crap out of that rule(greater than 10-15 feet). Almost all my queens have something within 5', other queens, roses, sabals, phoenix, chamaerops, trachys, butias, you name it. My only palms that I keep away from queens are braheas and bismarckias or anything that hates bieng too wet or needs alot of sun to thrive.

Edited September 24, 2008 by sonoranfans

[paulgila]

five feet?!?!?! uh oh...

[MattyB]

But whose feet? Ants have small feet paul so i think yer ok.

[LJG]

I cut down 8 bigs ones this spring. I broke Gary's chainsaw in the process.

[freakypalmguy]

Maybe this has to do with the greedy queen gobbling up all the riches the soil has to offer. I think mulch and fert might help in the case of closely planted palms. I dunno.

Matt

[sonoranfans]

I cut down 8 bigs ones this spring. I broke Gary's chainsaw in the process.

Len,

they need you in brazil to clear forrest, where they tend to grow in groups, naturally. I would suggest a real chainsaw, though.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/182312/

[DoomsDave]

The quick way would be a chain saw cut them off at the surface... Right now the trunks aren't too thick so you wouldn't have to dig them up.. they would compost themselves.

You could transplant new palms right next to the decaying stump... shouldn't be a problem.

If you wait until the Queens have a large trunk... say in a year or so... they won't rot away so easy and you may have to dig the stumps out.

Just my opinion... Healthy Queen palms are beautiful, but they shouldn't be planted in home gardens where you want to plant anything within 10 to 15 ft of it.

OY!

(Smack to forehead with heel of hand, followed by whap with Red Shoe)

NOW he tells me . . . .

[GREENHAND]

The quick way would be a chain saw cut them off at the surface... Right now the trunks aren't too thick so you wouldn't have to dig them up.. they would compost themselves.

You could transplant new palms right next to the decaying stump... shouldn't be a problem.

If you wait until the Queens have a large trunk... say in a year or so... they won't rot away so easy and you may have to dig the stumps out.

Just my opinion... Healthy Queen palms are beautiful, but they shouldn't be planted in home gardens where you want to plant anything within 10 to 15 ft of it.

Well I suppose I violated the crap out of that rule(greater than 10-15 feet). Almost all my queens have something within 5', other queens, roses, sabals, phoenix, chamaerops, trachys, butias, you name it. My only palms that I keep away from queens are braheas and bismarckias or anything that hates bieng too wet or needs alot of sun to thrive.

I tell you what, that is a awsome Brahea, by your pool, who could even think about a queen with that baby around.

[palmmermaid]

I had 3 queens in my yard when we bought the house. I have 1 left. My horses ate the other 2. I think the leaves are tasty to them. They also like coconut fronds! I throw the ones I cut off in their paddock and they are a sight eating them!

The third queen is behind my barn and is the biggest, most robust one I've seen. The trunk must be 1 foot in diameter and the fronds are easily 8 feet long! It is a happy camper! I don't know if it is a true queen - doesn't exactly look right. I hoped it would blow down in one of the hurricanes but no such luck.

I also had 3 washies in my front yard when we bought the house. You could almost watch them grow. Well, I didn't want 3 telephone poles as the view from my office so I tried to sell them and no one wanted them so I sawed them down and hauled them off. If I don't like it, out it goes.

Be brave! If you can't sell or give them away, saw them down! I didn't dig up the stumps. I just planted around them and as the stumps decayed I planted over them.

[sonoranfans]

The quick way would be a chain saw cut them off at the surface... Right now the trunks aren't too thick so you wouldn't have to dig them up.. they would compost themselves.

You could transplant new palms right next to the decaying stump... shouldn't be a problem.

If you wait until the Queens have a large trunk... say in a year or so... they won't rot away so easy and you may have to dig the stumps out.

Just my opinion... Healthy Queen palms are beautiful, but they shouldn't be planted in home gardens where you want to plant anything within 10 to 15 ft of it.

Well I suppose I violated the crap out of that rule(greater than 10-15 feet). Almost all my queens have something within 5', other queens, roses, sabals, phoenix, chamaerops, trachys, butias, you name it. My only palms that I keep away from queens are braheas and bismarckias or anything that hates bieng too wet or needs alot of sun to thrive.

I tell you what, that is a awsome Brahea, by your pool, who could even think about a queen with that baby around.

Thanks greenhand, wish I could take the credit for the brahea, but I had alot of help from the climate here, they like the dry hot and dry winters. My braheas will always get direct sun, or something else has to come out. I am growing medium sized eucalyptus species nearby the bismarckias to protect them from cold. I have cut down 3 queens, only because they threatened the health of other palms(frond damage) and I have 12 left. I have not had a problem with the root systems of queens close in so far, as long as I dont skimp on fertilizer, and I dont. My best looking queens have roses under them and the roses look great in blooming season. The queens proved their worth by protecting other more cold sensitive and sun sensitive species near their roots(livistona deciepiens(from sun), phoenix roebelinii(cold), a trachy(from sun), and livistona chinesis(from sun). In the future, I plan to plant under or near them with beccariophoenix no windows, phoenix rupicola, and nearby some archontos(bangalow, alex, purpurea, maxima). The queens helped my survival rates in the freeze of '07(20F), I had roebeliniis that didnt even burn right under them.

Joe, if I lived in zone 10a, however, I would not use up all my planting sites on queens, too many other palms to plant. Cutting down a queen with 12'+ of clear trunk is something I would not recommend. Those trunks are heavy and will smash anything they hit. I would take them out now if so inclined.

Edited September 25, 2008 by sonoranfans

[John Case]

The development where I live has about 1100 homes. While walking the neighborhood, I decided to count Queen palms as I progressed. After walking about 1/2 of the development, I stopped counting at 2200 palms, all Queens.

Now to the really bad part.

1) all of these palms have been in the ground from 1 to 4 years.

2) Most of them are yellowing at the ends of the fronds, probably due to lack of feeding, fertilization and water, not LY.

3) Many of them are grouped, weakening the rooting structure.

4) We get 50 MPH winds around here, on occasion. I may be able to offer the rare Flying Queen (to the dismay of our good friend, Dr. Toolital).

5) I expect the healthier ones to start seeding next year, with the accompanying mess.

6) Many of these people who planted them paid a large sum of money for them, not knowing the large amount of money it will take to have them removed once they fall, or make a mess on their stained concrete.

7) And the most bad, those that will call me, wondering what to do. I published an article 2 years ago regarding the fate of Queen palms.

One home has 21 Queens in his yard.....

Looks like fun!

[sur4z]

to the guillotine with all queens!!

[bubba]

Texas Chainsaw Massacre!

[Hollywood Palms]

Chop, chip and forget!

David

[JungleGina]

I just removed 3 Queens myself after hearing so much about their negatives and having so many other babies in the greenhouse waiting for a good spot. They served their purpose to act as protection for some smaller guys but I decided to take them out while it was easy enough to do myself.

[FRITO]

this thread is a 'hard read' for a plam nut in zone 8b/9a pushing the limits to get queens to grow to perfection.

/sigh

but if I lived in more tropical region I would plant other rare palms also.

[_Keith]

this thread is a 'hard read' for a plam nut in zone 8b/9a pushing the limits to get queens to grow to perfection.

/sigh

For me too. I treasure my one queen, on of the few palms I have that has grown past adolescence, and one of a small number on the palette to choose from in this climate. I hope to add a few more this fall when the fall sales hit the big boxes.

As for tropical palms, I'll have to be happy with reading about them and visiting gardens on vacations

[joe_OC]

OK...Gonna get rid of the queens!

I don't like the idea of selling them on Craigslist or something like that because I don't really want total strangers coming to my house and digging in my yard.

I will offer them to friends and family first. If no one wants them, then I will have to take the chainsaw to it.

Investment in these palms are not an issue as I project that I would spend a lot more money to maintain them in the future.

[mpiodi]

I don't understand at all all those aggressions against the Queen Palm. Is only the extraordinary beautiful and worth to be grown? I can imagine that somebody who is a beginner with palms and possesses only some "simply species" like the Queen may be a bit shocked

[sonoranfans]

this thread is a 'hard read' for a plam nut in zone 8b/9a pushing the limits to get queens to grow to perfection.

/sigh

but if I lived in more tropical region I would plant other rare palms also.

Yep, One mans trash is another mans treasure. Such is the human race. I still enjoy my queens every day.

[Mark Heath]

Man, i wish i lived closer, i would gladly take those Queens off your hands!!!! I have alot of rare stuff here and some large fruiting Cocos Nuciferas, but i still love my Queens!!!! I have many here at my place and w/ 4 acres i have room for more!!!!!

[mpiodi]

Thanks Tom and Mark! I enjoy my eight Queens too. And, by the way, I have never seen others in whole Kinshasa.

[sonoranfans]

Thanks Tom and Mark! I enjoy my eight Queens too. And, by the way, I have never seen others in whole Kinshasa.

Maybe you can sell them for some more milkmoney, and then you can buy more Meeelybuggs! Wow, yers truly Bob

Yep them queen palms are weeds to some palm growers. Come to think of it the malagasy people cut down dypsis like they are weeds so they can farm. Funny how some palm enthusiasts cut down their weedy queens, then go to madagascar to collect seeds and get to see how the malagasy cut down their beloved dypsis as weeds. Its a strange world, "one mans trash is another mans treasure": But in this case the dypsis are both the trash and the treasure, not the queens.

Edited October 2, 2008 by sonoranfans

[mpiodi]