Hi, I don't know if you are talking about date palms? I have planted some seeds 15 years ago and so far had some flowering but no fruit setting on my 2 palm trees: they have a few suckers but have't trunked up yet.
I was told that the coast was too humid; This is dry Townsville.
As far as Canary date palms: I have never seen one up here.
Mike

I did see some growing when I was living in Cairns but personally I wouldn't bother with them when there are hundreds of much more beautiful tropical palms we can grow along the Queensland coastline.

Andrew.

Canary Island dates find their opimal climate across the souhern third of Aust, i.e. Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and the Victorian riverlands. In the US the finest specimens I saw were in LA, some maybe 25 m tall, but they did not seem to be grown in the more humid climate of S Florida. I think the Qld coastal climate does not suit them, whether in tropics or subtropics, though my observations there have been limited I admit.

In some parts of Sydney mature Canary Island dates have been devastated by the Fusarium wilt disease, which appeared about 25 years ago.

I live in the Whitsundays and the some of the five star resorts have them and have been growing fine.

In the USA, the appearance of these palms is far superior in dryer, more mediterranean climates than in humid subtropics. They tend to look somewhat ratty in south Florida, somewhat better in Orlando, and at their best in California. Although they are sometimes planted in hot desert climates, they are not as well adapted to extremely hot desert climates as the true Date Palm.