Plant a juniper, a rosebush, or a red-tip photinia in your yard, and your neighbors will think you’re “landscaping.” Plant a palm tree in your yard and your neighbors will think you’re crazy. “Those things won’t grow here,” is an attitude that most southeastern palm enthusiasts have to live with, unless they’re in a coastal area. The good news is that palms are for the most part, deaf and dumb. There are palms happily growing all over the Southeast and other places where they’re “not supposed to grow.” By choosing the right types of palms and following a few simple rules, growing palms can be much easier than growing many common landscape plants. In this booklet, we’ll offer our best advice on how to do these things.

There are somewhere between 50 and 100 palm species that will take temperatures below 20°F. A few will handle temper-atures below 0°F.Palms are tough plants. In coastal areas of the South-east, cabbage palms are often the only trees left standing after hurri-canes. In Nagasaki, Japan, palms not at ground zero started into new growth a few weeks after the city was leveled.

There are many species of Cold hardy palms that are simply amazing. I have two twenty footers growing in Tennessee. My relatives in North Georgia have over twenty five.

The Rules for Growing Cold Hardy Palm Trees
Plant cold-hardy species.
Plant palms when you plant tomatoes.
Plant palms in large sizes.
Plant palms in sunny spots where they are sheltered from winter winds.
Plant palms in a wide, shallow planting hole.
Plant palms a little deep in clay and deeper in sand.
Add dolomitic lime to the planting soil, unless your soil contains it naturally.
In clay soil, plant dry-climate palms in raised berms of artificial desert soil.
Keep palms well-watered and fertilized during warm weather
Be prepared to provide extra protection during cold snaps.

You can also grow bananas (some take down to -5 degrees F),citrus and Eucalyptus. Here is a guide to show you what you can grow in your area. Click here!