Hi
Curious as to the goal for doing this?? Climate won't allow growing regularly?? gary

The reason why I want to do this is so the palm does not grow huge and drop seeds everywhere!! They are messy when the are Large but when they are kept at a manageable height and are sunk with its pot into the ground, they would look like they are planted in the ground but are kept small.

The palm may be stunted at first, but the roots will break through any pot you may keep it in. If you don't want it to set fruits, just cut off the flower spikes when they appear. I've seen many Syagrus palms grown in containers and they are always a very sad thing to look at compared to one in the ground. They hold only a handful of yellowed, scraggly fronds at a time and the trunk is spindly and thin. There's nothing quite like growing a palm the way it was intended to grow. A mature palm in the ground will grow fronds up to 15 feet long or more, and will hold up to 20 fronds at a time. A well watered and cared for Syagrus is spectacular to look at.

hi
tried for many years for a dwared form of queens . Goal was under 5 feet. Used standard Bonsai practice While
it worked to a degree overall the palm was disappointing .
Interestingly when returned to the ground all but two returned to natural growth patterns lol
I remove the flower stalks as they appear to avoid the mess BUT have noted those treated this way seem to produce twice as many seeds lol
Since there are a gazillion species of palms why not choose from those that fit into your garden plan??
There are many that even though they get large takes a long time and are very slow to mature. in fact with some you may not live long enough lol gary

Hi, if I had the choice to plant them directly into the ground, believe me... I WOULD!! The problem is that my Parents hate the things... They are messy and judging from the neighbours palms, The fruit bats make the mess of the seeds even worse. I love the look of the Palms when they are Large and Old specimens but only if they are Maintained in a proper way which is a large job climbing a ladder and disposing the Fronds and Seed Pods. The little seedlings that germinate under the tree is a large job to rip out and are a pain in the butt to remove and are quite like weeds...

One way or another when they get big, which eventually they will, you're going to have to get the ladder out. In some areas they're banned as a weed. Fortunately, they won't grow in my area, but there are a lot of other palms which can cause as much trouble in that respect. I've got birds and Flying Foxes dropping seeds all the time which they bring in from elsewhere. It's just one of the joys of having palms around the place, LOL.

Keeping a palm potted definitely won't help much. Your idea is great in cooler climates where people take their palms indoors for the winter, but in a warm climate where they will stay in the same spot year after year, the roots will find their way to the new soil eventually and grow like they normally would. You should look for smaller growing palms if you want the look without the mess.

There are some Syagrus palms that mature at much shorter heights (Queen palms are in the Syagrus family of palms).

You might also want to give less messy palms a try. King palms (Archontophoenix alexandrae) are much less messy than Queen palms when they fruit and the old fronds usually fall off on their own so they do not need to be pruned to look nice.

Bottle palms (Hyophorbe lagenicaulis) are much smaller growing palms and have a really cool bottle shape to them). You will be able to keep them looking nice and clean without even using a ladder for many years. Eventually you might need a ladder to keep it pruned, but their max height is only around 15 feet (about 4.5 meters) and that's after many years.

Good luck!
-Alex