Introduction

If you're like most Californians, then you would probably regard palms as rather mundane. After all, they are pretty much overplanted all over the state and for many gardeners, weeding in the garden includes pulling out palm seedlings. The most commonly found palm in California is the California Fan Palm, which comes in two forms, Washingtonia Robusta, and Washingtonia Filifera. For some, these palms are better known as "trailer trash" palms. While I don't believe any native California plant deserves such a terrible surname, I will admit that until I discovered highland palms. the word "palm" used to conjure up images of Washingtonias and shopping center parking lots. On top of that, all the washingtonias planted in coastal regions of central California just don't look very nice. Out in the desert or in inland areas, Washingtonias have beautiful, large drooping fronds, but out in cool coastal areas, the fronds remain rather small and pointy. The only palm that I would have even remotely considered to plant was the canary date palm, which looks beautiful in even the most heat deprived coastal microcmimates, but they're way too big for most average size yards, including mine.

So why the big fuss about palms anyways? Well, in my search for rare fruits that can be grown in our heat deprived climate, I stumbled across the Quito palm, also known as Parajubaea cocoides, which bears mini-coconuts the size of walnuts which not only look like miniature replicas of a tropical coconut, but also have the same taste and consistency of tropical coconut flesh. Well, this is a must have in any coastal central California rare fruit garden. I immediatly started conjuring up culinary delights such as Coquito Cookies and higland fruit salads with Cherimoyas and coquitos. Ummm, Yum!

Of course, finding plant specimens wasn't easy, and the only way of obtaining any was to contact the Palm Society. And of course, everyone was eager to introduce me to absolutely spectacular palms I had rarely even noticed before, all of which thrive in our cool coastal climate. While I would rather not plant anything that won't bear any fruits, I will make an exception for spectacular palms such as the Quindio Wax palm, Fishtail palms and other exotic, tropical looking palms which make the coast look a little more hospitable.

With that in mind, I have put together some fact sheets on various palms that I believe are really worth planting on the central coast. While my focus is really on highland palms, I have also included several cool growers from the South Pacific such as the Nikau palm from New Zealand, the Kentia palm from Lord Howe Island, and the Majesty and King palm, both which thrive in our cool climate. Those of us putting up with a heavy marine influence get the benefit of relatively frost free microclimates. If you thought King palms where best grown in Santa Barbara, then maybe this picture of a 7 year old king palm in the Sunset District will convince you otherwise.

The links blow are grouped into two sets, one being highland palms, e.g. which originate in the tropical highlands such as the Andes and the Himalayas, and the other being "Pacific palms", e.g. palms from the South pacific that thrive in a cool, marine influence. The latter tend to be less frost hardy, but have shown to be quite well adapted to the regions with the heaviest marine influence, which are thus also the most heat deprived, yet most frost free microclimates along the coast.

Highland palms

Pacific cool growing palms