Pigme date palm?
Very slow growing, and attractive in my opinion.

bdobs, actually I have ten of those already, along with a triangle palm, and eleven king palms. My backyard is tropical and I guess I was looking for something that perhaps was not as common. :)

K.

How bout a Trachycarpus Wagnerianus? Or maybe a Butia? Not sure how butias are with seeds, but they don't seem like they'd be as common in California as they are in the deep south.

How about a Sago?

Jay

Chambeyronia Macrocarpa might be a choice. They are relatively slow and can take sunlight or shade and grow just fine and they are not extremely expensive. As for the seed pods, you can cut those off.

Cat palms like water, and might do well in the right sun condiditons. You didnt mention if this was sunny or shaddy area, did you want tall or short? I like the cardboard palm but this needs lots of shade. I havent a clue about how to grow any palms from seeds.

I don't know if I would plant a cardboard palm near a pond. The seeds are highly toxic and can harmful to wildlife. They are a nice cycad though.

I second Jay's suggestion of a sago. Seems like the perfect choice, and if cycas revoluta is too slow growing for you, there are a ton of other cycas choices such as Taitungensis that grow faster but don't get huge, not to mention they're very low maintenance.

You might also consider Mediterranean Fan Palms. They are very slow growing.

Spindle Palms, Bottle Palms - both slow growing to a terminal height of around 15' at one foot a year under optimum conditions. They are also self-cleaning.

Cat Palms - only if you have heavy shade! Ditto for Majesty Palms - terminal height 20' at better than one foot a year. Self-cleaning by the fifth year.

Teddy Bear Palms - you can find these grown in shade and partial sun. They will do best in partial sun (shade at noon). One of those, "hey, come feel this" plants you can put in the garden and really attract... well, whatever it is you seek to attract. Terminal height - 25' at better than one foot per year.

These are easy to find but at a level where you don't really see enough of them in the landscape. There's another dozen I could come up with if I grabbed the palm book, but I've had great success with this list.

Don't know of any palm that will not seed. What i do is to try to cut the flower stalk. The less cold hardy one are slower growing like dypsis varieties,licualas,etc. therefore seeds are postponed in zone 9 but eventually they die if not under the canopy of some structure or tree due to either over 100 degrees F or too cold under 32 degrees like last year. I do have a 15 yr. old, 5 ft livistonia chinensis that has not flower yet.