Queen Palms!

Ooooh, you really don't want those. Queen palms do seed themselves everywhere so you can expect every one of those to germinate. They're large, messy, fast growing, and disease-prone. Unless you have a golf course, or own a huge estate I wouldn't want one, let alone that many.

Just my opinion.

I have someone who has already claimed the seedlings once I get them to a certain size.

They aren't that easy here, even in a greenhouse. Most palms tend to be pretty messy with their fruit, see Washintonia, Phoenix canariensis, Butia, Erythea, Archontophoenix, Caryota, and I would imagine Coconuts would be dangerous as well.

I guess you could say this is a trial run for the real thing. There are 2 Sabal Palms in the front yard. My mother wants a few for her future retirement home and she loves the idea of starting from a small size, especially the price tag (or lack thereof). Unfortunately, they fruited months ago. I have to wait till next year to get some seedlings going for her. But, I did find a bunch of Queen Palm fruit in the parking lot at my local garden center just waiting to be swept into the trash.

Besides, Florida doesn't have any neat and tidy trees. None of the plant life here has heard of the concept.

Coconut palms are actually illegal to plant here, because the government bureaucrats are terrified of getting sued if someone dies by falling coconut. Idiots.

I think the only "neat and tidy" trees are plastic or imaginary! Take this from someone who used to sell them in nurseries. Trying to get non-gardeners to accept that everything drops something, sometime, has got to be the most frustrating way to make a living. That and trying to convince people that the cute little 3" Oscar will grow up to be a 12" fish-vacuum.

I love germinating seeds and have been known to start the seeds from MedjooI dates that I bought at Costco. It is fun, But, as Elaine says, the Queen palms are thugs in S. FL. Less so up here where the seedlings are rare. I love their graceful look and was amazed when I saw good sized ones, about 4', for $5 last spring in the Punta Gorda area. When you can get an instant tree for 5 bucks, I would play with other seeds instead, maybe for something harder to find.

I'll see if I can find some dates. That would be a cool palm to have. I didn't think of that.

Not sure you'll have success in fruiting a Medjool date palm here, though. They are a desert plant, probably not well suited to humid, wet Florida.

As far as coconuts go, there are coconut palms all over Siesta Key as street features, and in many other places in this area. They just are very diligent about removing the coconuts when they're getting big enough to fall. You never see one lying on the ground, unless it's in a private garden. It's not illegal to plant them, but you do have to maintain them.

Yeah, but a date palm would still be a cool thing to have. I might even stealth plant it in my cousin's yard in northern florida, a drier location, just to see if that does any good.

I think there is a large palm grower somewhere near you that IS growing date palms. I read about it in a nursery magazine years ago. Yes, I believe he got seeds from date growers here in Indio. I think the sandier areas have good enough drainage to grow them. I wouldn't try to grow them in a muck soil, but if water doesn't stand too long after a rain it should work. One caution though, the leaflets at the base of the fronds are modified into spines about 6" long that hurt like MF when they go into your head (or any other part of the body but the head is really bad).

I just got a kick out of growing it,it was a pretty cool looking plant when it was young. I planted it out and it lived for several years along the coast in SC. I left the palm when we moved and I often wonder if it is still alive.

It probably is.

There is a queen palm growing outside my front window. Messy palm. I am really allergic to it's pollen too.

Not recommended, but to each his/her own.