My favorite is the Sabal Palms too! except i like the Sabal PALMETTO. i have, S. Minor, S. Birmingham, S. Palmetto, and S. Mexicana!

S. Birmingham

S Mexicana

S. Palmetto

Sorry, no pic of S. Minor yet. Ill post one later :)

I forgot to show my young Sabal Minors that I'm growing. Hopefully I'll be putting these in the ground next year.

Great topic! Here are some of mine.
Some S. minors

My little Sabal palmetto I planted in the middle

I have seedlings of S. etonia, S. uresana, S. bermudana, Sabal causariumXSabal palmetto, Sabal palmetto var. Lisa, Sabal umbraculifera but they aren't much to look at for now. Keep planting those Sabals!

Nice looking Sabals! Sabal Minor is my favorite palm! :)

tallafl,
How long do you think it will take my S. PALMETTO to get as big as yours in the 1st pic, to the right? Heres mine:

I love that S. Palmetto on the right in your 1st pic! cant wait til mine gets that big!!!

palmetto-pal:
Looks like yours is getting to the stage where they start picking up the pace, so it'll probably get two fan leaves fully grown out by the end of the summer. One thing about Sabals I've heard from several palm enthusiasts is that the roots are naturally so extensive that having them in a container can stunt them more easily than other palms.

I dug my S. palmetto out of a pine plantation in 2007. I just about had a heat stroke. I think it is probably 9-10 years old, so I'd say another 5 years on yours to get that size. Here's mine after I put it in the ground July 2007 (I cut off everything but the spear).

They grow about 3-4 fronds/year at this age with some good heat.

I think these volunteer Sabal palmettos deserve some pampering after fighting their way through this Azalea indica hedge for the last 20-30 years. The big one on the right is still showing signs of a possible deficiency, or it could just be too crowded by the pine roots? I don't think I can get any more plants per square foot in this area!

Here's my Sabal uresana last fall (3 yrs old). Already showing some beautiful turquoise color. These are supposedly slow, but it is a steady grower and should get some split leaves by the end of summer. I have trouble with the leaves getting spotted during our soggy winters.

I used the extra day off to clear some vines, and finally decided where to put these Sabal minors I've had in pots for too long. I found a volunteer Sabal palmetto when I cleared the vines from this corner last year, so I put the S. minors around it.

Looks great! As you already know, Sabal Minors are my favorite! Looks like 1 of them is blooming to boot!

Sabal minor is one of my favorite palms. The Lowes here had all kinds of cold hardy palms like pindos windmills needles minors robusta and all the nurseries carry windmills. But I got my first like 4 gal sabal minor at Lowes In may 2011 for $ 26. It had about 4 individual plants in it. I planted it in the perfect spot in an area near the house where the soil stays constantly moist throughout the summer months only from a pipe that drips water and gets full sun in the morning shade throughout the day and sun in the afternoon. it's like my little swamp area I also have hosta canna and ferns growing there. But the sabal minor Lowes it it has qui my gave me 2 leaves for each plant and making more spears. I expect manor growth it's only the beginning of June. Will try to post pic.

Since this thread was brought back I thought i would post some pics

Sabal minor and a seedling louisiana (not really visible)

Defoliated sabal minor making growing new leaves

sabal palmmetto (far left) and sabal domingensis (far right)

The first time i run up on this one in the woods, i just had to stand back & admire for a spell! Sabal minor picture perfect in mother natures garden.
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How big / how old do sabal minor need to be before putting out inflorescence spikes? I've had windmills for several years and recently added several 2.28 gal s.minors acquired from Walmart and Home Depot. They look similar in size to Jay's first two photos.

There are several well established s. minors over in nearby Rehoboth Beach, Delaware that have between 2 and 4 spikes each. They produce viable seeds every year and naturalize. I scattered several in my garden spring a year ago and have at least one that sprouted last summer and wintered over unnoticed til a few months ago.

Just curious how big they need to be to produce seeds.

Notice Jay's second pic at the beginning of this post, that should give you a clue.

I have about 20 Sabals in my dinky yard, but most are minors and unknown things... a few are turing into nice plants, considering that Sabals are such slow growing palms here in California (no heat or humidity that they seem to love).

Here is my Sabal yapa

Sabal mauritiiformis

and another unknown species (either bermudana or domingensis... but lost the tag a long time ago).

Just hard to tell from pix. Any estimate of age, size, number of leaves to flowering would be helpful. Or if anyone has purchased 2.28 gal sized s. minors in the past and have had them flower, I'd be curious as to how many years it took. Thanks.

Wetsuiter, this is minor was purchased as a 3 gallon 2 years ago from lowes. Maybe that will help you some.

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Sorry about the picture quality, camera fogged up on me.

This was the first spike. I have planted others at a larger 7 gallon size a few months after this one and still nothing.

That's helpful, Chad. Thanks!

Great sabal pics everyone! My Sabal Domingensis didnt make it through the winter (for many reasons, the main one being the cold despite being protected). My Sabal minor has been in the ground for 3 springs now and its finally going to flower!! The infloresence is growing at least an inch a day so I should be posting bloom pics soon. I will post pics of my sabal minor later. I'll also post a pic from may 2008 when I first got it for comparison!

Sabals are great palms! They love the summer heat, look beautiful, and many can handle some pretty good cold! My personal favorite Sabal right now is probably Sabal "lisa". Its a relatively newly found form of Sabal Palmetto and it has the cold tolerance of a palmetto, but the fronds of a really tropical looking palm! I think its a must have for people in zone 8's and up!

-Alex

On a March trip down to Savannah, Charleston and the OBX, I collected a few pockets full of S. Palmetto seeds and a few S. Minor seeds in Hatteras. I have a few dozen S. Palmetto seedlings, but only two of the minors sprouted. I have enough of the S. Palmettos that I can really experiment with planting outside -- some in my garden, some around town and a few among the scrub trees and beach grassed along the Bay beaches. I'll keep enough in pots
to bring in for the winter.

In these eyes in order to be a specimen sabal palmetto, a near flawless trunk & a full bodied head of hair upstairs is a must!

Morehead City,NC
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Here was my sabal when I first got it (May 2009)

Here is a pic of it from last night.

Here is the inflorescence as of today! Its growing an inch a day!

-Alex

Alex, that's great that it's going to bloom for you. How big was the pot it came in? Seems like about 2 or 3 yrs from planting to inflorescence is normal. I've acquired a bunch more S. Minors recently.

Thanks wesuiter. It was in a 7 gallon pot when I got it. Im so happy that Im getting some blooms from it! Do these self pollinate at all? I doubt there are any flowering sabal minors very nearby.
-Alex

I think windmills are the only palms that are either male or female. Not sure if they need cross pollination from another minor. Research and find out. If not, you could help it polinate with Q-tips from flower to flower. Most palm inflorescence are pretty attractive to insects, so you should have seeds by winter. Not sure how long of a growing season they need to mature.

A friend over in Rehoboth Beach gets viable seeds from his windmills and s. minors every year and doesn't do
anything. They naturalize under the parents and I have a s. minor seedling in my garden from his plants that came up from a handful of seeds I scattered last spring.

I have over 20 tall ones. This year (beginning of August 2013) they have their fruit stalks undeveloped yet, while other Sabal Palmettos in town have the fruit stalks yellow and hanging, but mine all are still shooting up into the sky so to speak. I wonder what could be the problem?

Wetsuiter, Chamaerops and Phoenix date palms are also dioecious (either male or female, not both). Not sure which others. Must be a list somewhere.

Lov'in our sabal palmettos, Vince, mak'in some progress on the leaf skeletonizer.
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3 sabal minors fight'in their way back from miz Irene.
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Dixieboy you gots the most awesomest minors around!!!

Great to hear, Carl!

How are "my" Birmingham and Brazorias seed crops coming along?

Chad, thanks much, now if those thangs that begin with 'h' will leave us be, we'll be sitt'in pretty!!!

Vince, the SP's & brazoria look like the barren desert this year in fruit production but the birm & minors are gett'in with it!!! I don't know, there were plenty of pollinators around.

Vince, look at the pic of the volunteer sabal i took on 7/18 & you can see the inflorescences & how they are just before the cream colored flowers are to develop......now the second pic taken today.......barren is the word.
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I wonder why all the inflorescences do not develop? All my 20+ sabals did not develop blooms, just the stalks, which seem to be green, but without seeds or flowers. Yet the sabal 400 ft. away the one in the high school it's got inflorescences and they are all hanging. The other sabals in town also got inflorescences. I wonder if chemtrails got something to do with it. Or how about coal in the soil? I discover pieces of coal all over my yard, but none so far at the site where sabals are planted. By the way, the Pindos that I planted about 4-5 years ago now are developing fruit -0 this is the first year they are developing fruit, and right there where I discovered coal. Perhaps mid SC climate is too dry for them or perhaps need to water, but the established sabals should not need watering unless its a 3-4 week drought.

Yep, I just looked up all the inflorescences on Sabals in my yard and at the school and even the hanging ones look terminated. The only "life" I noticed on them were those chem strings which are hanging everywherre, n grass, on trees, on cars, oin your face, fences, especially well seen on a black fence at 6 AM during a heavy fog. I urge everyone to take this matter seriously and make an exhaustive research on the term "chemtrails" (avoid debunkers and debunking sites) by googling the term and search Youtube videos for "chemtrails". Many gardeners and growers are complaining that they plants are beginning t terminate, not growing well or are dying. Many healthy pines suddenly collapse for unknown reasons. Because of my 15 years research I suspect chemtrails is the cause. The aluminium oxide (possibly barium and arsenic as well etc.) is accumulating in the soil and it will reach a tipping point after some years, where there will be no return, but only to use Monsanto seed. Youtube search "monsanto" as well.

Another issue is Virginia Creeper seeding from airplanes all across the Southern States, wherever it grows. Why I suspect it's been seeded from airplanes, because my properties that are miles apart they never had Virginia creeper growing there for many years, none. Then last spring 2012 big boom of Virginia creeper on all properties. One would suspect wind, but on the tallest 30 foot palm there was Virginia Creeper growing, but then months later, it's all dried up. Which means the seed came from above, tried to grow on the palm tree and declined. Naturally it does not happen. Why would they seed VC all over? It's known to absorb CO2 and make shade, but it also kills trees by shading and suffocating them. No trees no life. There are certain entities interested destroying life on Earth and controlling food and rain supply. Thus now we get either weeks of rain or weeks of drought.

I forgot to attach the images and videos to illustrate my above posts:

Massive chemtrail strings on the ground in Australia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvtD_dizuDE&feature=player_embedded#at=191

Massive aerosol chem strings in USA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48J6F4PLOlU

Also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a96JVww2BLY

Right here in the surrounding area i've noticed the same thing but 20 plus miles inland from us the palmettos are developing fruit, i don't think it's anything to worry about, next year they most likely will be back to normal.

Dixieboy, where exactly is that?

It just surprises me that all sabals in my yard (and not only as I see) have terminated inflorescences. Perhaps 2013 is their infertile, barren, sterile, unproductive, abortive, vain, fruitless year. Last year I got some seed on the ground and new seedlings are being raised in a pot. Act ually seedlings are growing everywhere in the soil and they survive the winter.
Attached pindo 2013 inflorescences.

Our butia produces fruit to the hilt & has been do'in so for many years, we are in eastern Beaufort county, NC.
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Yours has a huge trunk, probably 30 year old. Mine the largest are under 1 ft. trunk recent transplants. You must be almost zone 8B there. I lived for 8 years in NC. Tell me why NC feels so much different than SC. :-)

I attached a couple sabals, new transplants in 2012. Nothing to look at, just barren fruit stalks.

Our large bodies of water help out with moderating our low temps in winter but we are no Charleston either!!
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Oh wow, you've got a waterfront lot. You must have friends in Bermuda. Is that a Washifera palm? Charleston is now a solid zone 9A. Sometimes I think we in SC are zone 10A for 355 nights a year. I see OBX is z8B but I found a tiny coupledot on water near OBX marked as z9A on the new USDA zoning map. :-)

That is not our property but is close by, there are 4 washingtonias there but mostly get roughed up in January even though they have been there a goodly amount of years now, further out nearer the immediate coast they do a little better but all it will take is another winter of like we had during the 80's & they more than likely will be dead toast instead of light toast!!