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Florida Gardening

Suitability of Areca Palm as hedge

15 years ago

(This may be a second posting of the same text. I thought I had sent this message yesterday, but I cannont find it posted anywhere. So I am sending it again.)

We just purchased a mobile home in a park in Naples Florida and would like to do a bit of landscaping.

In particular, we would like to plant a hedge-type of screen along a windowed Florida room which faces the east and receives direct sun until about 1pm.

The soil is gravelly and rather light.

We occupy the house only from November to April, so the plants would be unattended during the summer.

Apart from esthetics, the purpose of the hedge would be to screen the side windows from the sun.

At the moment, we are considering Areca palms. We would appreciate the following information:

-Would they be suitable in terms of our soil conditions and watering requirements?

-Do they spread out with time or do they just increase in height ?

-Ideally the plant should reach a height of about 6-8 feet to provide the desired shade. How long would it take for a 4-feet areca palm to reach this height?

-Are there maintenance issues that would be a problem for us, being absent 6 months of the year?

- can one of the side of the plant be compressed ?(the plants would be one foot from the windows, inside a 2-foot strip)

Thank you for any input or advice.

AndrÃ©

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Comments (8)

regine_Z 10 Fl gw
15 years ago
The Areca Palm will reach 20' and also spread into a large clump fairly fast. If you plant it one foot from the windows, you may not be able to find your home when you return in November.I was trying to think of something tall and narrow that will not climb through your windows and Podocarpus comes to mind. The smartest thing to do before you do anything is to go to the Extension Service in your county and get some information there. There are usually Master Gardeners available that can give you some good landscaping advice for your area.

Regina

Here is a link that might be useful: Podocarpus
imatallun
15 years ago
Hi Andre,

Regina is giving you splendid advice. She in fact saved you from a rant about the evils of Areca's that would tire you and anyone who happened on this thread.

Marilyn
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junkyardgirl
15 years ago
Yep, my areca started out 2' wide 11 years ago, and is now 6' wide.
zen_d
15 years ago
The Collier County Extension Website is at http://collier.ifas.ufl.edu/
secretsquirrel007
15 years ago
Plain and simple.Areca palms do not like direct sun.They will burn in direct sun.
maggiepearl
15 years ago
Arecas do have a place as hedge...We planted one about 15 years ago along the lot line between the two driveways. It give us privacy. There is some maintanence, we have to lop it into submission about once a year--or our neighbor does, when they think it is too jungly. The soil is horrible, they don't get watered or fertilized, and they grow like bad weeds. How long will it take a 4 foot Areca to get to 6 to 8 feet?...about 20 minutes!
natives_and_veggies
15 years ago
Spanish stopper grows rather narrow and upright. They're pretty slow growing, but they're native and can survive lots of neglect.
andre_z
Original Author
15 years ago
Thank you all! We are back in Canada for Christmas, and will get back to landscaping studies on our return.

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