Not all P. Roebelenii are clustering/ clumping in the wild. In their native habitat it is common to see both suckering/ clumping and solitary varieties. However it is MORE common to see them as suckering trees in their native habitat in Laos, but single trees are still not hard to find there. Note the photo from Laos below. Here is another great photo of some growing along the Mekong river as it appeared on the cover of one of the 1994 IPS publications called Princeps back then. Along rivers there they sometimes become rheophytes. Often, seeds collected from wild trees growing in their native habitat will sucker, but seeds collected from cultivated trees will not. To further complicate things, many of the ones you see planted as multiples in cultivation are in fact single trees planted together. This is why you can often cut out smaller plants at the base, and they will NOT grow back. This was the case with one of my P. Roebelenii's. If mine was one of the true suckering varieties, then it likely would have re-sprouted more suckers.

"Any suggestions for palms in pots on pool side deck in zone 8 A which can be left year round !" Probably, NONE. How big are the "pots" going to be? Pots are MUCH, MUCH colder than in-the-ground, soil temps. I think even Chamaerops, Butias, Trachys, and Sabals would not survive pot conditions in zone 8 over the winter. If you could even provide a garage as winter protection, some palms would work (Phoenix canariensis, Washingtonias, Butias, Chamaerops, Trachys, Sabals, and Queens would work). Bananas are also very tropical, but you would have to protect the corms over the winter.

andy I have some seedlings of similar species, some are growing reapidly and others are not, even though they are in the same conditions. My own [unfounded] theory is that perhaps seedlings are not constantly pushing leaf growth, some energy maybe is spent on root growth and starch accumulation for stem formation and other things; when an equilibrium is reached, speed of growth increases. Isn't it true that many palms don't pick up the pace until they begin to form a trunk? The soil temp I'm sure has a big influence, but at the same time a seedling/ young plant in a pot warms up rather quickly. I wonder if watering with warm water helps, vs. cold water from a hose.

M Hello anyone. Here are my experiences. I live in San Diego, California and after the wild fires destroyed my entire house, I rebuilt and re-landscaped with palm trees. After knowing nothing about those plants and some failures, I now have a palm tree "forest" in my front yard. So...king palms look magnificant in "singles"; avoid washingtonians because in a few years they will too tall to cut/trim. Avoid queen palms because they must be trimmed when they get tall. Windmill palms are trouble free but must be trimmed after they reach 15' high or so. I went to Target garden center and purchased several kentia palms (3 plants in each pot) for $19 each and took them home and very very carefully seperated them individually and planted them outside as understory palms. The first 20 months they grew slowly but didn't burn and were fine. Now the sun doesn't bother them at all and they are growing faster and faster. Kentia palms and king palms grow wonderfully and somewhat fast indoors as house plants. Have them but never over water them. Use palm fertilizer and occasionally fish fertilizer. Beautiful house plants....then move them outside when too large and acclimate them and put them into the ground in your landscaping. A good outdoor palm is the fox tail palm...it also is self -cleaning. But good house palms for fast beautiful growth are kentia, king, and cat palms.