Choosing the Best Dwarf Palm Trees for Small Spaces in Your Orlando Landscape

When you start looking up dwarf palm trees you might get excited about all the possibilities. Bottle Palm! Christmas Palm! Lady Palm! Pygmy Date Palm!

Hold on, please. A chat with Ground Source landscape designer Eric Frisch reveals there are just two types of small palm trees that are solid choices here in the Orlando area.

What’s up with that?

Frisch explains why you need to be cautious when it comes to dwarf palm trees.

The Two Best Small Palm Trees for Orlando

Turns out dwarf palm trees don’t like to be chilly, and that’s a possibility here in Orlando in the winter.

“There’s not a lot of variety to choose from around here with the risk of frost,” Frisch says. “There's only a couple I use that are 'dwarf.'"

His choices for the best small palm trees:

1. Christmas Palm

A nice smaller palm, this is often planted in groups for a multi-trunk effect.

“It looks great by pools,” Frisch says. But not if you have a pool screen. More on that in a minute.

“Christmas palms are low maintenance because they self-prune, but they’re very cold sensitive and need to be wrapped up during a frost,” Frisch says.

A self-pruning palm means that the older, dead palm fronds will fall away from the trunk on their own — no need for pruning.

He uses Christmas palms in properties on the south side of Orlando but avoids using them in northern areas unless the homeowner is willing to do the work of protecting them from cold snaps.

2. Roebelenii Date Palm

This dwarf palm tree (also called Pygmy Date Palm) is often used in small landscape beds. It’s perfect for tight spots where you still want a tropical punch, with its dense, full crown of arching glossy, green leaves.

Downside: it has sharp thorns and needs to be hand pruned.

“Roebelenii grows lower and looks more like a bush when newly installed,” Frisch says. “It takes 10-20 years to get to a point where it's tall enough to walk under it.

“Roebelenii can handle the cold pretty well, but you have to hand prune the fronds off,” Frisch says. “Other than that, it's pretty easy to deal with if you don't mind the thorns.”

Best Small Palm Trees for Containers? Sorry, There Are None

“I try to talk people out of it,” Frisch says. “Palms don't work great in small containers. Just use something like Ti plants or crotons for tropical plants in a pot.”

Best Dwarf Palm for Inside a Pool Screen: Again, Skip It

Lots of pool owners want a palm tree in the corner of their pool screen, but even small palm tree species can outgrow the area in a few years, pressing up against your pool screen and even damaging it.

And if the palm tree’s roots start heading toward the pool, your plumbing is at risk.

“Between the lack of space to plant them and the risk of breaking pool plumbing, it's a no go for me,” Frisch says.

If a client insists, “I'll put it in, but with a lot of warnings in advance.”

Best Palm Tree Species for Privacy: Areca Palm

If you’re considering a row of dwarf palm trees for privacy, reconsider that and opt for Areca palm, Frisch suggests. It’s not a dwarf palm tree species but it has good privacy qualities.

The soft, fine-textured fronds of these self-cleaning palms are full and dense. This makes them great for use as privacy screens.

You can leave the palm fluffy and full to the ground, Frisch says, or thin it out to see more of the trunk.

“They grow a bunch of trunks like bamboo,” Frisch says. “New trunks will fill in the gaps, so it can be very dense at the base with the older trunks getting three to four inches thick.”

This palm tree species is great for privacy screening, Frisch says, but plan to do some thinning and trimming as they grow and get taller.

What Are the Best Palm Tree Species for You? Trust Ground Source

Choosing the right palm tree species for your yard’s specific needs and Orlando’s tricky climate is a challenge.

Choose planting and landscape design in Central Florida with experienced, skilled landscape designers on board who will make sure you don’t make a costly mistake.

Sure, palm trees are a staple of our Central Florida landscaping.

But they’re just one element of a great landscaping plan. An expert, thoughtful design can integrate palms seamlessly into the landscape, along with other Central Florida landscape design favorites like Loropetalum, Crotons, Muhly grass, and Lily of the Nile.

Professional landscape designers know how to keep everything in perfect scale, and how to highlight your pretty palms with expert lighting, so they make a statement even after the sun goes down.

What palm tree species will grow best in your Central Florida landscaping?

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Are you ready to enjoy the vibrant, impressive yard you've always wanted? Request a quote today! We’ll help you review your options and then transform your property.

Image Source | Christmas Palm, Pygmy Date Palm, Areca Palm