Post #764718 by Polly_Nesia on Mon, Jun 6, 2016 2:12 AM

Have a few suggestions for this thread. I'm in zone 9, Sunset 14 (SFBay) and always loved the look of the coconut palm. Doesn't grow here but when planning our yard looked for more cold tolerant palms we could use here with a similar look. I'd highly recommend people in this general zone range checking out the cross between a Butia and a Queen (xButiagrus, commonly referred to as a mule palm, the seeds are sterile thus the nickname). It's more expensive than a Queen since it's generally hand-polinated, but young trunking palms do grow pretty fast once in the ground for a few years. The Northern California Palm Society in their Species section indicates it has tolerated 15F--our coldest has been 25F. Gorgeous canopy, quite a large spread so keep in mind when planting near structures. When mature the canopy provides some nice shade. Here's a few photos of two mature ones we have. I can post a photo of a younger one if requested. They love the summer heat of our inland valley BTW.

If you live in an inland hot area like us, we found that SunPatiens, a hybrid of impatiens (shade loving) does very well here. It's an annual for us unless we provide frost cloth protection during our colder winter days. We got an extra year or two from them that way before we decided to replace.

Sabal minors are a great choice for a 6ft range non-trunking fan palm. Also takes our heat and cold nicely.