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Originally Posted by Hummintwo
You can go by the Sumter County extension service with a photo and seek answers but most have learned the hard way that queen palms cannot tolerate our climate year round, fertilization of lawns that include your landscape designs and our once or twice a week watering of our lawns. Queen Palms thrive south of Orlando. Last year, a palm tree specialist visited the villages at the request of the Sumter Extension service. I talked about the different palm trees that thrive in the Villages but he also said our homes are too close together to plant tall growers. He suggested and provided slide presentation images of an assortment of palms. Then he said, "some of you have the queen palm." That got most of the standing room only crowds attention for what was coming next. He suggested, "if you have any growing in your yard, it started dying the moment it was planted." He then positioned his hand like a stop sign to the nervous crowd and suggested if you have any, have it - them removed to avoid the tree coming down (usually at the base). A landscaper pointed correctly to what we heard that these trees can and do die from its inner core and its only a matter of time. I know that to be true for us because we had the best looking queen palms on our street and admired for their appearance. Our palms were three feet tall when planted and grew steadily 3 - 4 feet a year. Once they reached 10 - 12 feet I was concerned that wind, storms, etc. would bring any and all on our home or our neighbor's homes. We had them cut down and sure enough at the base of each palm within its most inner core each was rotted. Our trees showed no signs of distress so we were surprised. My neighbors were disappointed but I was relieved.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hummintwo
Redwitch posted accurately the info provided by the specialist at the monthly meeting I attended before we had our trees cut down. We cut the trees down approximately 2 1/2 years and 2 1/2 years to go before we can plant any other plants. He said it is best to have the tree and roots removed or at the very least cut to the group and stump ground. One other thing, he also said we should not select any tree that exceeds the roof line in full growth. Unfortunately for many the oak is a state protected tree and cannot be removed or cut down unless it meets certain requirements and then you are required to plant a replacement oak. Yuk!
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Hummintwo,
Thank you for sharing this excellent information and especially for reporting on the meeting.
I have learned a lot from those meetings provided by the extension office and would suggest that those who are new to owning homes in TV, check the Rec News or The Daily Sun, find a meeting, and attend. Even those who are not gardeners, by nature, can learn things that will keep them from making bad and costly landscaping decisions.
We bought a pre-owned that had been beautifully maintained and landscaped. The Queens were beautiful and healthy and oh soooo Florida-looking. And I saw to it that they got even more beautiful and healthy.
I schlepped big bags of fertilizer to them. I had guys who climbed up and trimmed the the yellow fronds and cut off those scary seedpods. (I foolishly thought I could prevent yellow fronds if I carefully fertilized. Turns out, that's just the nature of the Queen.)
And.....the bigger the tree grew, the bigger the seedpods. -- pointy, heavy things -- precariously hanging up there.......
I was getting pretty tired of all the maintenance.........
AND THEN -- Queenie's fronds grazed our roof.......EEK!.......
DONE! GONE!
I missed how pretty......I missed the surprising amount of shade that had been provided (who knew?). I missed those queens for maybe 20 minutes.
If you are putting in new landscaping and you are thinking about Queen palms or being "sold" on them, please think some more.
And, if you already have Queens, watch 'em.
Boomer the Transplanted Gardener