But if I understand correctly, you have planted three groupings of roebellini separated by several feet. I would not attempt to separate further each cluster. In answer to your question, many of these palms sold at HD (all over the country, if not the planet) seem to be individual plants potted together. I don't think I would risk this surgery. In addition, to make life more complicated,, I have read that Phoenix roebellini does have some individual palms that can produce sideshoot pups. Guessing that being from HD, it's a multiple planting and not a clustering individual. But only guessing here.

That sounds about right to me, as well. The one's I've gotten from places like Lowe's and H.D. seem to originate as a cluster of seeds thrown together into a pot. I know this because often I can find residual seed coats, which are very typical of the genus Phoenix (look just like a pit from an edible date, only smaller) still in the pots. Also, many of the smaller plants in the cluster, the weaker ones that didn't grow as fast, retain their seedling strap leaves.

But, the larger ones that do grow fast definitely will sucker.

Honestly, I kind of think it wouldn't be worth it to risk "separation surgery" on these "Siamese twins". Because they're pretty cheap at the mass market outlets, a 3 gallon usually goes for around $12, a 5 gallon around $30. I would just buy more and plant those.

I agree-and-if you are set on separating them you may
be better off chopping off the ones you don't want rather than
possibly killing them all by separating...

Okay, so they are more than likely multiple trunks. But separating them is risky. So for someone new to this sort of thing, probably not something I should mess with as all three of you have said.

It wasn't so much that I really wanted to separate them, but I figured if it was a fairly easy and safe thing to do, I might split them up next spring to encourage quicker growth. As it stands, it is not. So I won't. You never know until you ask, right?

Thank you for the information. Perhaps some day I will order some seeds and sprout some individuals on my own.

(This gardening/landscaping stuff can get addictive, can't it?)

It would seem that you should be able to purchase individuals in Florida, no? I have one seven foot roebellini but cannot remember if it was originally bought as an individual or a clump as it goes back some years now. But do they all in fact sucker, denninmi? I have my doubts. My solitair has flowered for the past few years and is doing well but no suckers. I have a second specimen that is a cluster (individuals or suckering, I don't know). The individual one does seem like the stronger grower though.

If you separate them you will only stunt the growth because they grow very very close together and you will definitely lose roots and palms hate when they lose their roots. If you want a single palm then your best chance of doing it is by cutting off the rest, its the only way that you wont damage the palm that you want to grow.
-Alex

Around Miami, a triple with 4-ft of trunk is under $100.
These palms look better as doubles and triples because of their thin trunks. Even Mediterranean Fans are sometimes planted that way or left to sucker into multiple trunks.

Njoasis, I think what Denninmi meant, or at least how I understood it, is that a larger trunk may sucker off the roots of the other two or three and grow faster, but I could be wrong.

Okay, while looking at my palms yesterday, again, which I tend to do every day, but that's beside the point, am I rambling? Oops, but anyways, something just hit me that was so obvious but I never really applied it to my pygmies.

"Palms grow from the center. Duh."

So looking at them with that thought in my mind there were some very thin 'branches' as I kept thinking of them previously. But...

"Palms don't have branches. Duh."

So with Denninmi's words about suckers still echoing my head, I stooped down and grabbed the thinnest, youngest 'branch' and pulled. Next thing I knew, I was holding a young palm in my hands with what looked like three fully intact tap roots still attached. So I moved to the next largest and, taking a tad more effort, I had another young palm, again with three tap roots. And no obvious signs of real breakage.

After all was said and done, I ended up with five young palms with intact tap roots. One has been potted and the other four are being temporarily housed in a large planter until I can get them their own pots or figure out where to plant them. I don't know why, but considering the condition of the tap roots I'm feeling fairly optimistic about these little guys making it.

That said, I took a picture of the last one that I pulled so that the experts can rain on my parade:

{{gwi:1145856}}

There are still three much larger trunks left in each of the planted palms.

That's great! Worth a shot. With stuff like that, I have good luck if I pot it and keep it in the shade for a while. I think it helps the little guy get some strength going before I put it out on its own in the yard. It really seems to help most of my little guys, whether they're pups or grown from seed. Anything that small usually dies when I try to put it right in the ground where I want it. If I leave town I put a plastic bag over it to help keep the little pot from drying out so quickly. But we're finally getting our rains so you might be fine.