Bismarckia palms are one of my favorites! Completely hardy and undamaged by the freezes (26-28F) we have every 5-7 years. This is a series of pictures showing 11 years worth of growth on a Bismarckia. This picture is after the freeze of 2003 (Royal palms still showing burned leaves from the freeze in the background). This Bismarckia was planted in March of 2003 from a 7 gallon pot. This picture was taken in August 2003

Edited October 12, 201312 yr by JimStPete

August 2004 - Royal Palms appear next to the Bismarckia.

August 2005

August 2006 - After Hurricane's Frances and Jean I had to tie up the Bismarckia after it blew over.

Edited October 12, 201312 yr by JimStPete

August 2007

August 2008

Edited October 12, 201312 yr by JimStPete

August 2009

August 2010 - After the freeze and long cold winter of 2010. The Bismarckia was totally unscathed by our low of 27 that winter, unlike the two Royal Palms next to it that are just starting to recover from being 75% defoliated.

August 2011

August 2012

And finally, August 2013.

WOW - fantastic timeline of growth ! Easily see the significant growth each year . The royal either side of the bizzy are super fast in the subtropical heat .

Hell i might do the same thing for my Brahea armata seedling that i planted out today 3 cm taller every year

That's a great series of photos. It's like a flip book.

WOW - fantastic timeline of growth ! Easily see the significant growth each year . The royal either side of the bizzy are super fast in the subtropical heat .

Hell i might do the same thing for my Brahea armata seedling that i planted out today 3 cm taller every year

LOL about the Brahea Armata seedling....if you know you're going to be living there for a while it's a fun thing to do! I take pictures all year long tracking the growth on everything. It's amazing how quickly most of these palms grow! The Royals are definitely super fast!

Nice visuals,And i was just thinking how big will my bismarkia be in 10 to 11 years time.Since its growing in hot topical climate.

Thanks for those lovely visuals.

Love,

kris.

Very very nice Jim! Thank you for the annual growth photos of your Bismarckia and royals! Great to see about what I can expect from mine too

Nice visuals,And i was just thinking how big will my bismarkia be in 10 to 11 years time.Since its growing in hot topical climate.

Thanks for those lovely visuals.

Love,

kris.

Kris, in your very tropical climate I'm sure your Bismarkia will grow much faster than mine!

Amazing! I love timeline pictures of gardens. Those royals were rocketships though!

Um what the heck this thread should be called "Royal palms 11 years of insanely fast growth!".

This is awesome, we were thinking about putting in a Bismarkia and this is such a great example of what we can expect. We also planted Royals that are about the size your's were in 2006. Again it's great to be able to visualize the growth we can expect year after year.

So cool! Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone! It's great to share stuff like this with other people that love palms!

What size were the royals when planted? thanks

What size were the royals when planted? thanks

I bought the Royal Palms from Home Depot in 7 gallon pots. They were put in the ground in April 2005. They were very small, but grew rapidly after a 1-2 month settling in period where they didn't grow much at all. The 2005 picture shows how much they grew from April to August of that year.

Awesome!!

August 2006 - After Hurricane's Frances and Jean I had to tie up the Bismarckia after it blew over.

Wow, that explains some things, the bizzie blew over and had to re generate some roots. That bizzie growth for 11 years in florida was probably less than average, but having the palm blown over by a hurricane, a palm that has sensitive roots, that growth is amazing! I have a small brahea clara that was knocked over next to its "twin" it is struggling to get re established. The royals show how very fast they are in florida, they are rockets! thanks for the series Jim, very nice!

Your largest bismarkia has grown well, but hands down your royal palms (their rocket ship growth) is more impressive to me.

I planted out two bismarkia palms around 2002 (first two I ever planted). They were about five gallon sizes that I bought from the late John Bishock of Sarasota County. Like yours, one of the two got blown over during one of the hurricanes (can't recall which one) and I had to pull it up and 3-point stake it. This set it back, having lots of roots snapped.

I just now measured the trunk of both bismarkia. The one that was blown over has 6'3" of clear trunk. The one that wasn't blown over has 9'-6" of trunk, plus the trunk has a fatter caliper, approaching 3 feet in diameter at ground level.

As for royal palms, I only have one trunked one in the ground. It hasn't grown near as fast as yours, nor as fat trunk. I think I had it brought in in september of 2009 with about seven feet of trunk. Today it only has 10 feet of trunk.

This spring I planted out five 3-gallon Roystonea borinquena palms. I try to water them frequently so as to promote maximum growth, but the sand soil out here on the Lake Wales Ridge is very dry, and water table low. This condition surely inhibits speedier growth potential.

In any event, great post. I like palm growth progression photos.

August 2006 - After Hurricane's Frances and Jean I had to tie up the Bismarckia after it blew over.

Wow, that explains some things, the bizzie blew over and had to re generate some roots. That bizzie growth for 11 years in florida was probably less than average, but having the palm blown over by a hurricane, a palm that has sensitive roots, that growth is amazing! I have a small brahea clara that was knocked over next to its "twin" it is struggling to get re established. The royals show how very fast they are in florida, they are rockets! thanks for the series Jim, very nice!

Very true! It pulled half the roots out of the ground. After making it upright it definitely had a long period where it didn't grow much (I was thankful that it didn't die).

Nice palms, I like the progress. That was a good idea to snap pics of the growth.

Love the bizzy and royals......two of my favorites. I need to take some more photo's, thanks for sharing yours.