Palm Newbie - Queen Palms

[KDubU]

Hi everyone. We recently moved from Kennebunk, ME to Amelia Island, FL and while have always been a gardener and tree lover, my knowledge has been of the coniferous kind. Well now I am diving into tropical gardening and want palms. I already bought two small queens and planted them but have a landscaping company coming Friday, Dec. 4th to install a large Pindo, Mule and three queens along with a beautiful Loquat. I have since read about some people’s disdain for Queens and am rethinking my plan. Should I change out to the Queens to ??? - this is my dilemma of being a newbie. We are zone 9a here but frost does happen as many of you know and while I am okay in pushing the limits, I don’t wish to have to wrap trees for weeks at a time. They either make it here or don’t is my attitude so would prefer palms that will do well here with minimal protection (I’m willing to do some but would prefer a natural canopy to help).

Just for context, our property is .75 of an acre and has several tall pines (60-70ft+) and young live oaks (20-30ft). We have ful sun by around 10am with dappled sun before that and then by around 4pm, dappled sun again due to the pines. There are some shady areas and have no idea what if any palms do well with limited sun.

Open to suggestions and willing to learn!

Tks

Kyle
 

 

[JLM]

Queens can look good if taken care of. From what ive seen is that they are becoming invasive. In order to keep these queens from dropping seeds everywhere, you would need to have flowers cut after a little bit before they start growing seeds. Other than that, it sounds like a good plan to me!

[Ben in Norcal]

Nothing wrong with well-grown Queens - they are one of the only really solid canopy options here in 9b/10a (at least in terms of palms.)  And, they can be beautiful.

Not sure they will be long-termers for you though - they are very marginal in 9a depending on what your ultimate lows are.  I might go with more mules if I were you?

[Fusca]

Hi Kyle, welcome to Palmtalk!  Everyone has their own opinions regarding palms - if you like queen palms why not plant them?  There are pluses and minuses for all palms.  Pluses for queen palms include:  inexpensive, grow fast, easy to find, edible sweet fruit.  Minuses include:  water and fertilizer hogs to maintain attractiveness, fruit can be messy (and lots of fruit!), susceptible to fusarium wilt disease.  These can be managed as @JLM pointed out.  And they can be killed or severely damaged at temps below 22° depending on duration of cold and humidity.

There are plenty of alternatives to plant in 9a but mule palms are a great choice and pindos are a personal favorite of mine.  Plenty of Phoenix palms you could plant also but most are quite spiny.  Arenga engleri would do well for you also as well as several Chamaedoreas for shaded areas.  And many fan palms you could plant as well such as Sabals, Livistonas, Trithrinax, Chamaerops and Rhapis excelsa.  And if you have overhead canopy such as mature live oak that will help with winter protection for more sensitive palms.

Edited November 26, 2020 by Fusca

[KDubU]

Thanks everyone! Yes I like Mules and plan to get another couple, just need to decide on size and location in the yard. Can’t wait for next Friday when they are installed as then I can further plan out my plantings.

@Fusca now I have more homework to understand all these palm varieties! Good lord I am such a newbie to all the Latin names. Eventually I will get there.

[Fusca]

2 minutes ago, KDubU said:

I have more homework to understand all these palm varieties!

An excellent source for palms is Palmpedia http://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/Category:PALM_GENERA

A lot of technical info but also a lot of excellent photos.