Favorite Pinnate that I grow is a tie between Solitare palms and spindle palms. Both do great indoors (Solitare palms do especially well) and both palms do great in pots (solitare palms do especially well). Great plants for pots and pretty readily available locally at large sizes. Butias are the only pinnate I have in the ground, but I love that one as well.

Favorite palmate palm is definitely trachys. They look beautiful and are very cold hardy even handling my winters without protection the past 2 years (but they look best with protection). They are the most commonly grown cold hardy palm tree in my area, I know of about 8 within a few miles.
Runner up is probably livistona. It gets damaged every winter since the protection isnt top notch, but the fronds quickly grow back and it looks amazingly tropical from June to December. They are easy to find, cheap, and do well in pots (although I personally find that they grow faster in the ground even around here)

-Alex

Always find it difficult to pick favourites, I've just got a soft spot for most palms. But for palmate I'd say Licualas generally, although closely followed by quite a few others. For pinnate probably Ptychosperma, also followed closely by many others.

Favorite pinnate has got to be my Mule palm. Palmate is Washingtonia tied with Sabal Louisiana.

Does sabal palmetto count as both?

My favorite pinnate palm is pindos. As for palmate over time needles may be a better looking palm. My favorite palms have costapalmate fronds. And I love the look of the fully booted trunk of a sabal palm.

My absolute favorite palmate is TRACHYCARPUS WAGNERIANUS and my favorite pinnate is BUTIA CAPITATA.

Well, I can not grow them in Virginia Beach, but my favorite palm is the Bismarck. Those giant blue leaves are beautiful! Of the ones I can grow here, I guess Pindo Palm is the obvious choice for pinnate. They are a very pretty tree. Palmate I guess is Washingtonia Filifera. The trunk color is a shiny, rich brown and the leaves are a brighter green than Sabals. Trachys are not really a favorite of mine. Certain people like the look of the hairy trunk, but it's not a favorite of mine. It's still better than your average ho-hum tree though.

Here is a link that might be useful: Virginia Beach Weather

I'm with you Chad on the booted palmetto.

My favorites are tracyhycarpus fortunei. I had them in Utah and mailed them here barefoot. They don't care for Tampa and they aren't as pretty as every other palm in the yard. But I think they're so cool. And I don't know why. Maybe because I like the wooly trunks. I have planted foxtails, adonidia, bottles, Sylvester, canary island, and a ton of tropical plants since I moved here. But those two windmills are hands down my favorite.

Oh. And pinnate would be my Pygmy date palms. I can't wait until they grow up with their pups and have those cool bent trunks. They're little. But they're cool.

Yes, I love Pygmy dates as well. The one in the picture lost its bud four winters ago, the first season, it started to recup then it took off and started to flower annually. It about 7 feet tall and have been told that it is a male based on the flowers.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I Moslty like for Pinnates Mule Palms and Pindos and Chellin wine Palms. Palmate... Its too long of a list. But my Favorite two are Sabal and Trachycarpus all of them. Mostly whats in my Garden is Sabals and Trachys.

Im going to go with the coconut on the pinnate. There are hundreds of beautiful palms but to me the coconut palm is the tropics.. Although I've never grown one i think my favorite palmate is the Bizmark. i love that blue color.

Andy
Would think a Bismark would be a good choice. Very tough and slow groing . In a pot I'd bet you could keep them immature indefinitely. They do require quite a bit of horizontal space Bottle palms for pinnate as they are also slow growing and in a pot will really develop the swollen trunk. My neighbors have onr that is 30 years old
still under 8 feet tall and the trunk is larger than the pot. Both IMO are not nearly as striking as mature anyway. gary

Pinnate: Phoenix Theophrasti and Phoenix Dactylifera tied at the top.

Palmate: Sabal Palmetto.

If you include the ones I can't technically grow here, Coconut Palm 'Atlantic Tall' would edge out the phoenix variety by a nose.

Pinnate -- always difficult to pick just one, but today I'll say Clinostigma samoense, because they are so darn FAST, the trunk is a beautiful powdery white with rings, and the crowns are full and perfectly proportioned above a lime-green crownshaft.

Palmate -- I only grow a few palmate palms, and they are all special in one way or another, but I'll say Kerriodoxa elegans for the huge fans with white undersides hoisted overhead on shiny black petioles.

I live in San Diego most of the time but grow both of these in Hawaii.

That Clinostigma is a good choice, and the juvenile fronds are great as well. I don't have any of those yet, but the Kerriodoxa elegens is amongst the top palmate ones for sure. I have only one of those and it doesn't disappoint. But I still like my Licualas. Unfortunately lost my favourite, L. mattanensis 'Mapu' but the others are nice anyway.

I don't even know what they are. :-/

Tropicbreezent -- I've kept my L. mattanensis 'mapu' in a pot because I've heard they can be touchy. Yes, I'm afraid of losing it! Other Licuala I have are fairly easy: grandis, peltata v. sumawongii, and ramsayii. Mine are still quite small, and it's a shock to visit a mature garden and discover how enormous the leaves can get.

Wetsuiter -- more fun palms to learn about. :-)

Catkim, that was the problem with my Mapu, the ants got into the pots and damaged the roots. It was too late by the time I worked out the reason for their decline. Next time (when I can afford it) they'll go in the ground. But on the original question, I still find it difficult to pick favourites, I like most palms. Maybe the question should have been "What's your 50 most favourite?", LOL.

Wetsuiter, you probably did see them on Diego Garcia but never knew their ID. They'd grow well there so most likely someone would have brought them in.

For Wetsuiter, Kerriodoxa elegans:

The three palms in the grass circle with white trunks are Clinostigma samoense, planted from 5-gal. January 2010.