Hi Gary, If you have dappled shade, you have many good choices. If it were me, I would wait for the Searles Brother's sale (Ft. Lauderdale) in the spring. They have many beautiful, rare palms like nowhere else (if you get there early), and are very informative. You are bound to find something you can't live without there. I know I do. I wish it were closer to me. I've only been able to go a couple of times. I have a Kerriodoxa that has been in the ground a couple of years (was very small to start with). It is now still under 3 feet tall, but the leaves are already quite large. It does grow very slowly. Other things to consider for dappled shade: Pinangas (on occassion I have seen one at HD), Wallichia densiflora (I love this one, personally, but it is also slow-growing), caryota gigas, chambeyronia macrocarpa, chamaedoras (I have a very small chamaedora fragrans I would be willing to trade- it is rather interesting. I will plant another in the ground next spring), maybe gronophyllums (I think Ricky has one of these beauties, so you can ask him about this one. Licualas are very slow-growing at first. I have spinosa, peltata, and peltata var. sumawongi. The ones with the undivided leaves rarely look nice, because they get shredded by heavy winds. I don't have grandis, but would imagine any of these would need to be protected from wind to keep a nice look. Another consideration might be cycads. I absolutely love dioon spinulosum and encephalartos ferox. They are beautiful, have that palm-like look, do great in dappled shade, carefree, and always look good. They grow slowly, but in a couple of years turn into a nice looking specimen. Anna

Where do you live? I am chasing licuala peltata var. sumawongii plants or seed. Email me at bretley321@outlook.com Thanks Brett

Gary, the obicularis I would definitely keep very sheltered. They're very beautiful, they're very delicate, and they're very expensive. The ramsayi are a lot tougher. They're rainforest emergents, but while small spend a long time under a virtually closed canopy. While on holidays I went through Mission Beach where ramsayi almost dominates much of the rainforest. Last wet season they had Cyclone Yasi, cat 5, make a direct hit. The ramsayi didn't seem much affected over most of the area I saw. I guess it would be a lack of tolerance to direct sun whilst small, and the fact that it's such a slow grower and stays small for a very long time that makes it too difficult for street planting. My Prichardia pacifica are right out in the sun and whilst a little yellower than I like following a very dry hot winter, they're still going okay. I thought they'd be a bit more touchy than that. I'm having trouble with my Licuala grandis. Planted 3 a number of years ago where they had some cover from some very tall coconuts (probably not a good idea anyway - falling fronds). But 2 years ago a lightning strike took out 6 of the coconuts. Of course, after an initial massive dropping of fronds (they have a hell of a lot up there in the canopy) then there's none. But that took away any shade for the grandis. This past winter has been very dry and the sun blazing hot. The grandis have most of their leaves toasted. Don't know whether I should dig them out and relocate, or just try and plant some fast growing shade. Too hot now to transplant but did get the first rain for this season today. Catkim, thanks, what's not to like about Licualas. When you get those photos sorted be sure to post them. We can have a go at trying to ID them.

No, not get rid of palms. At one end of bed is palm cluster. At other end of bed is agave cluster. These create balance for each others mass. I say "clusters" because only one of a plant in the landscape (one agave or one palm) usually looks skimpy or weak. Avoid too much variety and small amounts of things. Better to have less variety and larger things (or amounts of things conjoined in a cluster.) Why is there a need to "play with the height"? Pick a proper height (a goal ... not a installed height) to begin with be done with it. Many shrubs can be trimmed at varying heights if one picks the proper plant for that range. Or ... use a groundcover type plant that automatically terminates at the proper height so there is no top trimming. Those are the choices. Don't know what height will give proper privacy? Place a stick at each end of the proposed bed area and connect them with a ribbon or flagging tape. Set the ribbon at various heights and observe each from a distance and location where it will matter to you. Keep changing the height until you're satisfied that it's the height that will give you the privacy you're looking for. At each stick measure the distance from ground to where the ribbon is attached. If the bed surface soil will be mounded at all, take that into account in your calculations.