Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnN
Appears to be a Sylvester palm, part of the Date palm family. They put out a ton of messy seed pods in spring that drop a ton of seeds. You can pay someone to trim 'em each year, but I got tired of that. They are a very pretty tree, though. Good luck.
|
I agree, that looks like a Sylvester Palm. It is native to India and requires fertilizer three times a year in March, June and September. The best fertilizer is Lesco 8-2-12-4. You can purchase it on line at Fertilizer Direct and they will deliver it or you can buy it at Site One in Leesburg. There is some maintenance with these trees. For appearance sake most people cut off the dead fronds. It is best to cut only solid brown fronds, leave half green palm leaves on the tree. Cutting too much off a palm can weaken the tree and make it look like a “Rooster tail.” You do not want to cut off any fronds above horizontal. No cutting past a “9 to 3” shape. If you fertilize correctly you will have less of a problem with brown fronds as there will be no nutritional deficiencies. This is what makes some non native palms look so brown, a lack of proper fertilization.
There are two sexes to a Sylvester palm, (only two!) male and female. If you are lucky you get a male. The male only has pollen stalks, no dates. The female has dates and some people like to cut off the dates as they can be messy. If you have a natural landscape with bark or pine straw mulch you can just let them fall.