11
votes
Anyone here grow palms?
I went to college in Massachusetts, and after awhile the winters began to get to me. A study-abroad trip to Paraguay helped me fall in love with palms. After I graduated, I explicitly looked for work in areas of the Southeast where I could grow palms, eventually settling in the Midlands of South Carolina (USDA Hardiness Zone 8a), which can grow a reasonable variety (our state tree is the cabbage palmetto, Sabal palmetto, and it is incredibly common in the area). I’ve currently got two potted palms: a European fan palm, Chamaerops humilis, and pygmy date palm, Phoenix roebelenii (the latter needs to be housed in the garage during the winter).
I live in Los Angeles, and we have a palm variety in our back yard. It's one of the smaller, bushier varieties, though I don't know the exact species. Our next door neighbors have two 40 foot palm trees in their back yard. We love them! We can see them out of our bedroom skylights. We do occasionally end up with the husks on our roof after a strong wind, but we've never had any damage from them.