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Serenoa Repens in NC


NC_Palms

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I think Serenoa repens is the most underrated palm grown in Eastern NC. I have noticed that this palm seems to perform better in our sandy soil and hot summer climate better than Trachycarpus fortunei since most Serenoa I have seen around here look better than the nearby Trachies.

Otherwise, last November I visited the NC botanical gardens in Chapel Hill z7b and I was surprised to see the green variety of Serenoa repens surviving in the NC piedmont. Since then I planted the (slightly less hardy?) Serenoa repens "Cinerea" and it has been doing phenomenal here. I have heard that in extreme cold events, this palm will resprout from total defoliation. I think there are some Serenoa planted in Virginia Beach that came back after defoliation last January 2018. 

fullsizeoutput_127f.thumb.jpeg.4cdd5474822965045050583fabbdd58c.jpeg

 

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Zone 8a/8b Greenville, NC 

Zone 9a/9b Bluffton, SC

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This has also been a proven pot grower for me up in Canada. It’s liking to wetter soils and cooler weather makes it a great choice for me here 

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56 minutes ago, Rickybobby said:

This has also been a proven pot grower for me up in Canada. It’s liking to wetter soils and cooler weather makes it a great choice for me here 

Did you germinate yours yourself? If you did, how did you get the seed to germinate? I have about twenty seeds that I know for a fact are fresh, but they just won't germinate for me, even on a heat mat. 

PalmTreeDude

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9 hours ago, PalmTreeDude said:

Did you germinate yours yourself? If you did, how did you get the seed to germinate? I have about twenty seeds that I know for a fact are fresh, but they just won't germinate for me, even on a heat mat. 

I have recently germinated about 12 seeds that I got fresh from the palm fiend. First I took all the fruit and covering off. Soaked in water. Than baggie method on my furnace which is hot and cool cycles and after a few weeks they started popping like crazy

5D1165CB-D038-4CDA-BEF8-01D4D37E337E.jpeg

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I have read that the silver varieties of Serenoa may be a bit cold hardier than the standard green due to the waxy coating on the leaves. PTDude, give them plenty of time to germinate esp. if you received them over winter. That may take months. They will respond to high heat and swelter of an East Coast summer. Even down here in SWFL my seed germinations slack off to almost zilch during winter.

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Meg

Palms of Victory I shall wear

Cape Coral (It's Just Paradise)
Florida
Zone 10A on the Isabelle Canal
Elevation: 15 feet

I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus' garden in the shade.

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They sprout quicker if you remove the "egg shell" off the seed. I usually pick the fruit ripe & throw them in a paper bag in the garage for a few months. Once they are dried out the flesh comes off easy. Then squeeze the seed hard between your fingers to crack the egg shell & peel it off.

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Do these appear to have the "egg shell" still on them? I remeber taking the fruit off at first, but I am not sure if any shell came off with them. The orchid moss looks really wet since I just added more water since it dried out, it is not usually as wet as it appears. 

20190228_164745.jpg

PalmTreeDude

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After you remove the fruit if you put the seed on something hard like a table you can crack the shell and peel it off and the seed will be inside.  After that just a few weeks

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23 hours ago, NC_Palms said:

I think Serenoa repens is the most underrated palm grown in Eastern NC. I have noticed that this palm seems to perform better in our sandy soil and hot summer climate better than Trachycarpus fortunei since most Serenoa I have seen around here look better than the nearby Trachies.

Otherwise, last November I visited the NC botanical gardens in Chapel Hill z7b and I was surprised to see the green variety of Serenoa repens surviving in the NC piedmont. Since then I planted the (slightly less hardy?) Serenoa repens "Cinerea" and it has been doing phenomenal here. I have heard that in extreme cold events, this palm will resprout from total defoliation. I think there are some Serenoa planted in Virginia Beach that came back after defoliation last January 2018. 

fullsizeoutput_127f.thumb.jpeg.4cdd5474822965045050583fabbdd58c.jpeg

 

I would think they’re do better also. I’m a bit further South than you near Brunswick, Ga. But I’m sure you get just as hot as we do albeit probably not as many days with sweltering heat. Palmetto bushes, being native to the area, flourish here, growing pretty much everywhere. However, most of the windmills down here don’t look that great because of the heat and blistering sun. They fans on them are often really small. The only exception are the ones growing in the shade. But they still don’t look as good as they do, say, in the Pacific Northwest. 

Here’s some for sale near Live Oak, just south of Valdosta. Notice the tops are very small. I know they’re in pots, but even the ones in the ground don’t look as good. In fact, most of the ones I see look worse because they don’t get the care these might get at a nursery. 

D86C069C-E6EC-4172-BE2C-437636E04B1A.png

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Well, apparently the shell was already off, so I just delidded one on accident. I might put it in a moist coffee filter in a plastic bag. You can see the embryo in person, not well in the picture. 

15514052931952299565533652363118.jpg

PalmTreeDude

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55 minutes ago, GaDawg said:

I would think they’re do better also. I’m a bit further South than you near Brunswick, Ga. But I’m sure you get just as hot as we do albeit probably not as many days with sweltering heat. Palmetto bushes, being native to the area, flourish here, growing pretty much everywhere. However, most of the windmills down here don’t look that great because of the heat and blistering sun. They fans on them are often really small. The only exception are the ones growing in the shade. But they still don’t look as good as they do, say, in the Pacific Northwest. 

Here’s some for sale near Live Oak, just south of Valdosta. Notice the tops are very small. I know they’re in pots, but even the ones in the ground don’t look as good. In fact, most of the ones I see look worse because they don’t get the care these might get at a nursery. 

D86C069C-E6EC-4172-BE2C-437636E04B1A.png

The healthiest windmill palms I have ever seen were in the foothills of North and South Carolina. In the Charlotte area, there are some windmills that are decades old and have survived the freezes of the '80s. I would imagine that the cooler summers and clay soil allow for windmills to thrive there. 

I am surprised that people still continue to plant windmills in peninsular Florida. I doubt that this palm would be able to thrive long term anywhere south of Orlando. 

Zone 8a/8b Greenville, NC 

Zone 9a/9b Bluffton, SC

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I don't have much experience germinating Serenoa repens. Last fall a friend of mine in the Florida Panhandle sent me seeds (with fruit intact) but the smell was absolutely horrendous so I just tossed them under some bushes. Hopefully they'll germinate this spring when everything warms up. 

Zone 8a/8b Greenville, NC 

Zone 9a/9b Bluffton, SC

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2 minutes ago, NC_Palms said:

I am surprised that people still continue to plant windmills in peninsular Florida. I doubt that this palm would be able to thrive long term anywhere south of Orlando. 

They don't exactly thrive in north Florida either, just like GaDawg said. They may look good for a while after planting. But it won't be long before the slow downward spiral begins and the crowns start to shrink until they look laughable with these big and long hairy trunks and tiny yellow crowns. Only in deep shade can you have nice looking Windmills here.

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There are a few isolated nice specimens down here: Trachycarpus in Lakeland

 

Lakeland, FL

USDA Zone 1990: 9a  2012: 9b  2023: 10a | Sunset Zone: 26 | Record Low: 20F/-6.67C (Jan. 1985, Dec.1962) | Record Low USDA Zone: 9a

30-Year Avg. Low: 30F | 30-year Min: 24F

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2 minutes ago, Estlander said:

They don't exactly thrive in north Florida either, just like GaDawg said. They may look good for a while after planting. But it won't be long before the slow downward spiral begins and the crowns start to shrink until they look laughable with these big and long hairy trunks and tiny yellow crowns. Only in deep shade can you have nice looking Windmills here.

Same thing here. Windmills will go a few years thriving then randomly start to decline. The ones in the shade look really nice though. 

 

Zone 8a/8b Greenville, NC 

Zone 9a/9b Bluffton, SC

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3 minutes ago, kinzyjr said:

There are a few isolated nice specimens down here: Trachycarpus in Lakeland

 

Thanks for sharing this. I completely forgot about that thread and the windmills in Lakeland. 

I don't think my original statement was correct about windmills not being able to thrive south of Orlando. My bad for that inaccuracy.  

Zone 8a/8b Greenville, NC 

Zone 9a/9b Bluffton, SC

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Just now, NC_Palms said:

Thanks for sharing this. I completely forgot about that thread and the windmills in Lakeland. 

I don't think my original statement was correct about windmills not being able to thrive south of Orlando. My bad for that inaccuracy.  

You're a lot more accurate than you are inaccurate.  It seems like it takes a perfect storm of a lot of concrete, some shade during the day, good soil, and good luck! ;)

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Lakeland, FL

USDA Zone 1990: 9a  2012: 9b  2023: 10a | Sunset Zone: 26 | Record Low: 20F/-6.67C (Jan. 1985, Dec.1962) | Record Low USDA Zone: 9a

30-Year Avg. Low: 30F | 30-year Min: 24F

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1 hour ago, NC_Palms said:

The healthiest windmill palms I have ever seen were in the foothills of North and South Carolina. In the Charlotte area, there are some windmills that are decades old and have survived the freezes of the '80s. I would imagine that the cooler summers and clay soil allow for windmills to thrive there. 

I am surprised that people still continue to plant windmills in peninsular Florida. I doubt that this palm would be able to thrive long term anywhere south of Orlando. 

Agreed, They don't look as bad when they're younger, though; shoot, I have 4 smaller ones, but they're also protected under a Live oak and magnolia. I think shade generally makes palms fans/fronds bigger anyway, so hopefully when they reach 10' they won't look odd.

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You're right about the clay, too. I think the sand and nematodes of south Georgia and the whole of Florida aren't very favorable for Windmills either.

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10 hours ago, PalmTreeDude said:

Well, apparently the shell was already off, so I just delidded one on accident. I might put it in a moist coffee filter in a plastic bag. You can see the embryo in person, not well in the picture. 

15514052931952299565533652363118.jpg

Back to Serenoa lol for a while I left my germinated seeds in the baggy back on the furnace (or somewhere warm) just to establish it. Than I put them all in a community pot. Since that pot is deaper I knew it would be harder to get heat up to the starting roots. That’s why I let them establish for a week in the. Baggy still. This week my first stem has broken through the surface. 

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Serenoa repens does great in Augusta, GA.  It loves the Sandhills as long as some water can be provided during drought.  Trachycarpus in sand is susceptible to nematodes in the South.  Plant them in clay or water the ones planted in sand with a slurry of red clay or a kaolin 'milkshake' and they do much better.  Also, keeping the roots shaded on Trachycarpus is necessary for keeping the nematode population down.  The nematodes don't seem to bother any of the other palms:  Sabal, Brahea, Butia, etc.

 

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Joseph C. Le Vert

Augusta, GA

USA

Zone 8

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