The Simple Facts of Sabal Palm Tree Care

Florida is not only known for its orange trees, but also for its palm trees. In fact, Sabal Palm trees are our state tree - and with good reason. With their beautiful green fronds fanning out from the tops of the overlapping network of bark-like covering that runs up from their base, Sabal Palm trees – also known as Sabal Palmettos – grow to a stately height of 50 to 70 feet tall, topped with a small crown spanning from 12 to 18 feet wide. As a native Florida tree also common to other areas of the southeastern United States as well as Cuba and the Bahamas, the Sabal Palm is extremely drought and salt tolerant. They grow most readily in Hardiness Zones 8 through 15 and are cold hardy, tolerating temperatures as low as 15 degrees Fahrenheit in winter. They’re also pest and disease free, and Sabal Palm tree care is relatively simple, making them an ideal choice for use in any Florida landscape.

 

Easy Care

An important part of Sabal Palm tree care is realizing that growing them is a long, slow process. They require a great deal of patience as they grow to full height but their beauty is an undeniable part of what makes the process worthwhile, and they’re relatively maintenance-free.

Sabal Palm trees are advantageous to the harsh conditions of Florida in that they thrive on whatever rainfall is available and maximize the lack of dense nutrients found in Florida’s sandy soil, making them perfect for sustainable landscaping. They also endure the devastation of fire, floods, hard freezes and hurricanes, and they recover extremely well from the trauma of being relocated from their natural environment to a new location. For Sabal Palm tree care in sustainable landscapes, preserve any existing Sabal Palms onsite by using them in your landscape design, building the plan around them rather than removing them. Also important to their care is trimming palms, as green frond should never be pruned or trimmed, and brown fronds must only be pruned when completely necessary.

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Simple Sabals

Water newly-planted Sabal Palm trees two to three times per week for the first six months, making sure that the water soaks the soil around the roots to a depth of 18 inches or so. Established palms, by contrast, require only deep soaking around the base of the tree once every two weeks during periods of drought or dry spells. Otherwise, these tough but beautiful trees rarely require regular watering.

For Sabal Palm tree care that ensures the best possible health of your tree, mix 2 ounces of palm tree fertilizer per 1 inch of trunk diameter into the soil at planting time. Feed the newly-planted palm 1 ounce more per tree inches of trunk of the slow-release palm tree fertilizer immediately after planting it so that the tree receives the nutrients it needs while it establishes itself. Established Sabal Palm tree care does not require the application of fertilizer. However, if the condition of your soil requires some sort of fertilization, apply slow-release palm fertilizer between two and four times per year. The application process is relatively simple and shows great results.

Because Sabal Palm tree care is so simple and minimal, the fact that they’re so naturally beautiful makes them an even more attractive option for landscape design in Florida. At Executive Landscaping, Inc., we love incorporating Sabal Palm trees into our clients’ properties, knowing that their aesthetic compliments the look of a well-designed space and that their hardiness ensures their enduring beauty. In our decades of working with clients across the Gulf Coast, we’ve taken barren spaces and reimagined them into stunning masterpieces, and the quality of our work has earned us a reputation we take pride in.

To learn more about pruning palm trees, read this article from the University of Florida.

Call the landscaping experts at Executive Landscaping, Inc. to learn more about Sabal Palm trees and the landscaping services we offer today!

 

Common Native Trees in Florida

Cypress TreeBottle BrushDahoon HollyLigustrum TreeJuniper TreeMagnolia TreePersimmon TreeSabal PalmSand Live OakRiver BirchNative Florida Trees