Palms at Sunnyside Nurseries in Tsawwassen are cheap. I suggest that you find one with a foot of trunk if you are going to the lower mainland. I found their palms cheaper than other locations. The nursery at Elk Lake or Marigold Nursery have the better prices around Victoria. Happy Palms Nursery sells small specimens for $8. It's been a while since I saw the range of colour in your garden. I'd like to take a look at it this summer. Mine is still under construction but it has interesting trees such as a Lantern tree, Desfontainea spinosa (sold by Don the Brugman in Saanich), variegated Fatsia and an evergreen tree from New Zealand that flowers white. The Desfontainea has leaves like a holly tree with orangy trumpet flowers that can appear at anytime. I use it for post-summer colour. I potted a Vanderwolf pine that had been planted by previous owners. It's just too big and too fast for my garden. I'm getting rid of bananas next spring and you're welcome to take some canes. They remain in the garden as I expect bananas on two canes. Palms, bamboo and yuccas will replace them next April. I find that palms & yuccas produce less garden waste and I don't need to rake leaves like owners of oaks & maples. Image link of Banana Joe with a Brahea armata on Salt Spring. Cheers Here is a link that might be useful: Brahea armata on Salt Spring Island, BC

Not sure of which Sabal you have (S. palmetto, minor, or another). Assuming it's the standard Florida Sabal (S. palmetto). You do realize that Sabals (even in the tropics) are notoriously SLOW--ESPECIALLY WHEN YOUNG (growth seems to pick up once they are more mature). There are relatively faster growing Sabals. I find S. texana to be a much more robust plant (sorry Florida). Mine has maxed out in the largest container I have.--A wonderful species! (Sabal louisiana is also faster growing--compared to 'palmetto'.) A more tropical species, S. mauritiiformis is also relatively fast and attractive (but hard to find.) I got a little bored with the slow growth of my containerized S. palmetto so I planted it in the ground (my first Sabal experiment). If you think S. palmetto is slow try growing S. minor. I got so bored with this one I threw it into the compost pile!

Potted Cordylines over here are on sale for around £5 each for a decent plant of say 2ft in height, once in the ground they romp away and look very similar to a 'proper palm'. A tree company a few miles from where I live sells mature Jelly Palms at £699!! as well as Dracaenas, Agaves and Phormiums and other cold hardy palms and exotics. Tree ferns are now 'the UK in thing to grow' and can also be found in large DIY stores locally. Other 'true palms' such as Jelly and Chinese Windmills can be seen in London as the city areas create a micro-climate that provide good conditions for them. The Edinburgh palms are probably growing at the worlds most northerly limit according to what I've just read. Cordylines are also known as Torbay Palms in the UK and have been grown for decades in the south coastal towns around Torquay, and in many others, so much so it has been adopted as the tourist symbol for the Torbay area. Canary Isl palms also grow there. As I said, in almost every place here you will find a Cordline growing somewhere and maybe other true palms if you are lucky. Gill Here is a link that might be useful: palms in Scotland's Logan Gdns.

wait. It's a slow grower and slow responder. Sonny of Timberlake Nursery in Livingston TX told me transplanted Sabal palmettos can sulk for up to a year. Northstar Mall in San Antonio planted several dozen over 18 months ago that were 20+ feet tall, and they still don't have full crowns, although nearly all have survived and many of them are flowering.