I'm in Sarasota and my Queens and Dates look good. I have not seen any dead Palms around my area. I'll pay closer attention now that you brought this up.

Jane

Michael, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the queen palm pretty much way overused and already to the point of unsuitablility over the long haul in FL? Not even sure why I think that, not being resident, but it seems I've read some nativist tracts that pretty much decry the (over)use of this plant. Now from the Fort Myers area, I can state with certainty that royals, cabbages and even things like Bismarkia are mostly alive and well. That is, of course, the only part of Florida that I know a darn thing about.

+oM

Both Queens and Washingtonias are over-used here. When I first started in this gardening/landscaping thing, I actually thought Washingtonias were Sabals due to there being so many of them in the state. My M-I-L has three Queens in her yard and she made mention a couple years ago about having them removed and never planting palms again because other Queen palms in her neighborhood had rotted in the center. I tried explaining to her that it wasn't "palms" that were the problem, just likely the Queen Palms and that other palms would be fine, but she just wanted to remove all chances of having a rotting palm in her yard. She still has the three queens though as they haven't started rotting yet. Part of this, I think, is because they stopped having the queens hurricane pruned twice a year around that time and just had dead fronds removed.

Makes sense. Yes, some folks over-react and wall themselves off from future enjoyment! And considering the sheer number of different palm types growable in FL, that's too bad. For my part, I simply love seeing a big royal palm. And out in the wild, coming across one of these, perhaps in amongst the baldcypress, is a treat for my eyes. Bismarkia are almost too cool to believe too.

+oM

Of all the things I expected to read about in my latest issue of Florida Gardening...

When I first moved here, EVERYONE had Queens, Royals, and Washingtonias as their major palms in the residential landscape. Foxtails took over about 10 years ago and now they've become overused. Sabals, Bismarcks, Phoenix (all the usual suspects including dwarfs), and Christmas Palms were shoveled into the landscape like so many extra bags of mulch. There are hundreds of different and unusual palms that thrive in zones 9 and 10, but sadly there are few nurseries that grow them.

Landscaping for the masses precludes creativity starting at the lowest level - the grower. We're fortunate to have several diverse palm nurseries in Palm Beach County and even more if you travel south to Homestead.

Well, if that short little article is anything to go by, they're going to need to start selling something else in lieu of Washingtonias and Queens before long.

I was doing a ride-along with the Lee County Hort. Extension agent a few years ago-before his people said that was verboten-and we did indeed look at some sick palms. I hardly knew one palm from another then but in retrospect, those were certainly queens. And as I recall, what's been reported in this thread was exactly the case then too-no curative strategy, just get rid of the thing and don't expect a similar plant to grow there going forward.

+oM

UGH. This is too little too late. Our extremely healthy queen palms grown form seed are massive. Three of them are still doing wonderful but this summer the largest of them all showered me in fruit. This palm generated approximately a dozen sets of seed stalks. Thousands of dates. Last week all of a sudden the crown turned. It's dying extremely quickly. Just on the other side of the fence is my pomegranate tree that died this summer. Now I think it's related and the queen was reacting to the disease that the smaller tree succumbed to faster. :-( So far my teddy bear and lipstick palm and even my coconuts (potted) are still doing well. Time to reconsider my landscape I believe.

Lately I haven't noticed too much unusual with queen palms (there are always a lot of them that don't look good, because they aren't fertilized or taken care of right.

I've noticed the last few months that many washington palms have died in the sarasota area, and they are very very tall ones. I wonder if it's related to a type of lethal yellowing.

hi

Queens are by far the most common in my neighborhood. haven't noticed any particular problems though there is a striking difference in the size and spread of them. Same is true for the ones I grew from seed several are at least twice as big and I know they are all the same age even came from the same mother plant.

I tried conjoining them into groups of five with a goal of dwarfing them . While they did grow together they make a sharp V rather than a graceful U as you see with Christmas palms. Interestingly these are the ones that are the largest ,the singles are about half the size and they produce about 5 times more seeds lol The original goal was to keep them under 10 feet using standard "bonsai ' techniques

They are such a messy palm wish I'd tried another type for the experiment .

Hope they don't die out as I use them for supports for my vanda orchid bed though I certainly wouldn't miss picking up all those seeds !! gary