PlantFiles: King Palm, Bangalow Palm, Piccabeen Palm
Archontophoenix cunninghamiana

I bought 5 king palms from Target stores.One survived.It's 3 ft. in height..It gets afternoon shade. It survived a 118 degree summer day..and a few frost..maybe this one will grow tall.

These palms are native to SE Australia and are some of the most popular accent trees in use around Sydney and Brisbane. To give you an idea of the extent they are utilized you can buy a 2 ft specimen at Ikea for $2.50, this also demonstrates their growth speed. We have 2 in the garden one 8 ft and the other 3 ft tall. This past winters low temp was 28 f and no damage was observed. Many gardeners have taken to planting Bangalow palms as they are natives with several bird/insect species using the blooms/fruits. This has resulted in less demand for washingtonia, queen palms and livistona. There is a town in New South Wales called "Bangalow" that is the Aboriginal word for this palm. Named as this tree covers the hillsides.

I have seen this growing at one house in my area. This house has 3 maybe 4 growing under a canopy of queen palms. I myself have some in pot on my patio. It gets in the 20's here in winter.

The bangalow are grown a lot here in Auckland, NZ. In fact Auckland council is considering labelling them as a "pest" and outlawing them due to their ability aparently to spread so much. Now, that would be terrible- beautiful palms like these all % The bangalow grow faster it seems with brown trunks, while the King is slower, but tougher in the wind with a nice light grey/white trunk. My favourite.

I have seen full grown ones in here in Hayward that were beauts.Dark green fronds,whitish, ringed trunks.They might be the best looking palms to grow in the Bay Area. Hard to get Kentias that lush of a green. I have noticed that they are not as common at the Home improvement stores like they used to be.They seem to have been replaced by Majesty palms.
EDIT 2007: Wouldn't you know it,the box stores have began selling them again -and at larger sizes. Unlike most plants, large King palms are worth the extra money. Adjusting to being planted in ground faster and making an almost instant impact. Mine took the 07 freeze very well-the largest with no frost damage even with a week of 32 ,more or less,temps.
A small trio also look perfect under the protection of a very large Schefflera.

I live in the East Bay Area of San Francisco and have two small King Palms. I live in Zone 9B and they survive the winter here last year and our dry hot windy summers. They are in full shade, during the after noon. I had some King Palms in full sun ounce and they fried in the hot weather here. Hopefully, they will do well in the years to come.

Here in the warmer areas of the SF Bay Area, King palms grow and look fantastic. I have 29 of them on my property in Los Altos ranging from 3' to 20' and they're about the easiest palms to grow. Just give them regular watering and feed them if you want but they are not fussy. We don't get those hot dry Santa Ana winds like they do in SoCal so the leaves don't get desicated and brown tipped. They seem to grow equally well in full sun and full shade.

The King palm is probably the 5th most commonly planted palm in Southern California. Unfortunately it is rarely watered enough and most planting don't look all that great. But for general tropical look, it is the most commonly planted palm that gives that 'tropics' feel.

One of the things that separates the King Palm from other commonly planted palms is its crownshaft, the smooth, encompassing leaf bases that surround the trunk just below the leaves. It's is the crownshaft that makes this palm look so tropical, though the nice green color and ringed trunk add to that tropical look.

One of my complaints about kings, other than their being overplanted but poorly maintained, is they are weed factories. A happy, well watered king can produce thousands of new Kings under it every year. And if you have a nice carefully weeded tropical garden below, this is a real pain. And then there are the falling leaves. Large specimens drop their leaves onto the poor, innocent plants below, often crushing everything in their path. An adult king can shed leaves that weigh several pounds and these are hard to stop falling. Pruning them early however, looks terrible and sets up the palm for infections. Just don't plant anything delicate are hard to weed around below them.

If you are planning on planting this palm in a drier climate like So Cal, please give it lots of water or it will never look good. Underwatered Kings tend to yellow, have skinny, weak trunks and only hold 3-4 leaves at a time. Once established as a tall, sturdy tree, their water needs seem to diminish. They are a fast-growing palm and can create a canopy in just 4-6 years under which more tender tropicals can be planted. It is not itself a very hardy tree, burning at temps in the mid to high 20sF, but usually surviving unless hit by a freeze are really nasty frost.

There are at least 4 other species of Archontophoenix worth growing in So Cal, all actually more attractive than this one. So if you like the look of the kings, find a palm grower and get some other species. They all have similar hardiness (maybe some a tad less cold hardy), but most have better color.