PlantFiles: Pygmy Date Palm, Robellini Palm
Phoenix roebelenii

Great Palm !! I always split up the 3 palms that are sold. One in an area is enough.
I had 2 established Phoenix palms freeze in Houston at 26 degrees never to come back.
I also had a nice size Phoenix in the back yard. When the gardener installed a watering system in the garden, he set the nozzles and spray hit the Phoenix whenever I watered. All at once the leaves began dying. At this point I found out that these palms are susceptible to some type of fungus. It wasn't helpful to spray with fungicide. I ended up losing this 20 year old palm to this problem. Best keep the watering nozzles well away from this palm. It was so sad.

So far my experience is positive! I have 2 that I grew from seed I got from a neighbor's trees. Planted them in sand/potting soil mix and made sure to not let them dry out. They came up easily. That was about 3 years ago. They are about a foot tall now. One is still in a pot, other I planted out last fall. Took no precautions for freeze at all. Despite my front yard being fully open, it's sloped downhill towards a lake and I think that made the difference.

I have a seven foot Roebilinii that I keep in a large pot planted in the ground in my city garden here in Brussels.

Though Belgium is classified as Zone 8, my garden has high walls and is facing south, creating a mico zone, pushing the actual zone to 9 at least.

This past winter, I left it in the ground as usual, wrapping the fronds and trunk, putting down a layer of leaves, and covering the whole plant in plastic.

We had a mild winter, with the coldest night going down to 28 F.

The tree has survived intact, and nary a bit of browning of the leaf tips.

So....one can indeed push the limit with this tree (and many other palms) if precautions are undertaken and the weather is closely watched! I imagine I would have been reluctant to leave it outside if the temperature had dropped below 20, but here in Belgium, we have plenty of warning of a cold spell approaching.

Cheers,

Jason

This is a beautiful landscape palm, but I wish now I never planted it. For the last two winters all the fronds turned brown from temperatures dipping to the upper twenties. It came back last year, but got it again this year. Mine is right up by the house which I know helps it stay warm, so it keeps some green on it and rebounds quickly. I've seen some under the canopy of large trees do well in the cold snaps, but some out in the open never did come back after last winter, or they did and just looked half dead.
If you live where the temperatures are going below thirty it will freeze and if it does rebound it takes almost until the very end of the summer to really look full and good again. All the covering did no good either, they are hard to cover really well with the sharp thorns on them.
Some friends of ours have one inside their pool enclosure and it did fine, I think if they are in or under some kind of protection like trees or screen enclosures, or very close to a house they will be fine, or suffer minor damage.

I have grown several of these since I first got one growing in a tin can when an aunt returned from Florida c. 1960. Spider mites can be a serious problem, but what I want to add to this discussion is that my current one proved to be astonishingly enduring. Stored in the somewhat heated garage in the Fall of 2009, it languished pretty seriously. Growth stopped and all the visible leaves died. When I set it out for the summer with other houseplants anyway, the 3' trunk looked pretty dead. By mid summer, growth had resumed. Green leaf bases pushed out past the brown fuzz at the top of the stalk and then a growth bud popped out. The fronds are not yet full sized, but development is pretty aggressive. I would not have thought this possible in a plant that likes regular watering so much, but there you are.

We have a three trunker (if that is the correct terminology) in our yard here in Central Florida. It has been in the ground for 6 years and is a lovely addition to our landscaping. Could someone please tell me what the white "cherry tomatoe" size clusters that appear are? Are they seeds? Can they be used to propogate more Robellini's? Thanks.

this palm will not survive here, ive seen many planted and they all fry:( but i keep mine on screened porch w/overhang and it does wonderfull out their ,keep it moist and allow brite lite for best results:)

This plant will grow in the Las Vegas area, however it's not as adaptable to our drier, hotter, low humidity climate. It doesn't seem to like our alkaline soil well and can suffer from deficiencies. Plants I have seen in the ground tend to have browning leaf edges. Best culture for Las Vegas would be in a container grown with some afternoon shade. My neighbor's yard is a great example of this. He has a pygmy date palm that looks good in a container near his driveway, and another one planted in the ground ten feet away that is showing significant distress and die back. Personally I have killed two of these plants unfortunately:( Alternate plants for Las Vegas to consider: Sago Palm, Mediterranean Fan Palm, and Pindo Palm. Canary Island Palm and True Date Palms are beautiful but will require much more space!

Grows well even though we're going through a drought right now. It was in my yard when I bought the house and it is a little too close to the driveway. I am very allergic to the spikes and I will swell up in a localized area when I get poked by the spikes. No matter how much protective clothing I wear when handling this plant, I always seemed to get spiked. I wouldn't put it near a walkway or where children might play.

leaves burn at around 30°F, but survives. Mine are around 2' tall and were planted from 5 gal. 2 years ago. Very slow growing here.

Pygmy Date Palm grows in Tallahassee, but very slowly and gets not as large as farther south. Here it survives winters best when it grows under the protection of tall evergreen trees, such as camphortrees or pines.

I have had a triple for just over 2 years that is about 3 1/2 feet tall. I live in Northwest Florida(Gulf Breeze/Navarre) and that means zone 8b. I love the look of this palm.

Pro's: aggresive root system(mine made it through the worst part of Hurricane Dennis with no damage), likes acidic soil, loves full sun.

Con's: cold hardy to 25F(I wrapped the trunks with burlap, as instructed, but it was not enough. The temp dropped to 24F for 4 hours and most of the fronds got frost damaged. I was lucky that the trees survived. Some of my neighbors weren't so fortunate. Next time, I will wrap the fronds and cover them and the trunks. I just was able to prune the dead fronds since there are enough new fronds now.

Recommendations: If you live in a place that frequently drops below 30F, you will not like this palm. I wrap it about 4 times a winter. If temperature is not an issue, this is a great palm!
Beware the thorns close to the trunk!

I had two planted in ground and did quite well in Northern California (zone 9a-b) But this winter we had a hard freeze, down to low twenties/ high teens. They died. Dug them up today and returned to Lowe's and got two more. I like them and I hope we don't have a freeze like this one for another 10-15 years(or until I move to Hawaii). LOL

I love this palm. It is having quite a struggle staying green here in Az. This is a particularly hot period for us. The average temp. for the last 3weeks has been 114. Some days it is up to 125. I have been watering it and it seems to be okay but the leaves are turning yellow on the fringes. I hope it survives its first summer!

This palm can easily be container-grown successfully indoors. Give it plenty of light (such as placement close to a south facing window or near/underneath a skylight) and it should thrive - the more light it receives, the faster it'll grow, and the taller and wider it'll get. Under optimal lighting, its growth rate can be quite spectacular; at lower levels of light growth becomes modest. It's root system is neither deep nor spread out - so you'll have the benefit of using a smaller pot. Light fertilization during the warm months should be sufficient to keep it happy. A healthy, young P. roebelenii does tend to get wide (especially if you buy 'em already planted in groups), so here's a tip: buy it as a single plant (directly from a nursery/grower) and grow it as such. Its thin, green, feathery leaves, small-ish mature size, and easy-care nature all combine to make it a winner inside your home or office.

I really love this palm. It's gorgeous in my Tampa front yard. Doesn't seem to require *too* much pruning, which is nice because the thorns will get ya! The thorns are sharp and abundant.

It survives in a fairly shaded area. (I have two oaks in the front yard) I feed it about twice a year with a '9-4-9' 6 month fertilizer. I prune with leaves are turning more yellow than green. (it seems the practice in my neighborhood that pruning should be harsh, but they look so barren that way!)

Mine is about 5 feet tall, and I'm not sure how much bigger it will get considering the shade, but I'm happy with it's size.

The flowers are creamy white and if you mess with them you'll have much pollen on you and the surrounding plant.

I've not seen a seed yet, but this is my first year here and I'm just now really paying attention.

I bought a couple of these nice looking palms this year and planted them in my yard, which is on the zone 8a-8b border. So far I have not heard of anyone having sucess with this one this far north, but the guy in Central Florida I bought them from said he had seen them survive a mild frost, so I'm optimistic. I'll most likely try to wrap them when it gets cold.

This is one of the most commonly grown palms in malls and public plantings in Southern California. It is hardy, despite its origins in tropical Asia, and is one of the more 'user friendly' Phoenix palms, having soft, feathery leaves. However, it still has some sharp, 1-2" spines at the base of each leaf, so careful when pruning. It is actually, for a palm, one of the faster growing palms in Southern California. Though it is the pigmy of the Phoenix, it can grow up to 15' tall (may take 20-30 years to get that tall, though). It is usually not a clumper, but sold in clumps, making it look that way.

This is a small, very slow growning palm. When I bought mine about 4 years ago it was about 15 inches tall. Now it's about 24-25 inches tall. Tolerates most watering conditions, but if it doesn't get enough the fronds will start to turn yellow. A little epsom salt will help feed it during the growing season. Makes a nice container-grown palm, but beware, it has long, sharp thorns along the fronds. Be careful when working around it and wear gloves when trimming off the dead fronds.