That's exactly why some neighborhood associations in SoCal ban the. The skirt of old brown fronds attract rodents. When they get too tall for the home owner to remove the dead fronds it can get very costly to hire a company to go up there and cut them off. My friends in San Diego call the young Washys that sprout and grow in get garden "weeds". I wish I had that problem!

wetsuiter,
Thanks for your comments. Based on what I'm hearing, I think I'll have the palms removed. That will be expensive, but probably less expensive in the long run than having to hire a professional company to do maintenance.

There are two types of Washingtonia, Washingtonia Robusta, which grows to 90 feet maximum, and Washingtonia Filifera, which is a slower grower and maxes out around 60 feet. If you have filifera, you can more easily maintain the tree yourself for longer. Just thought you might want to know before you have them removed.

Islandbreeze,
You bring up a good point. However, I think it's best to have the palms removed now, as it will be more expensive to have them removed when they are larger. I will find other attractive plants to replace them.

Barbara-
Many parts of California can grow palms MUCH nicer than Washingtonia. Those are the cheapest palm trees sold. Find out how cold it gets there based upon what neighbors have planted outside, then go from there.

If you can grow Archontophoenix, why bother growing a Washie?

That being said, many of us wish we could grow one in our climates!

I got one a few days ago and it looks awesome. I just signed up to this site to get help in it's care. I live one hour north of Detroit in Canada.

I tried to leave mine (i have a filifera) in a big pot hoping that it will stay small but alas, the thing wanted to grow desperately and it started yellowing its leaves in protest.Since i raised it from seed i couldnt let it die so i transplanted it in the ground.So much for mantaining a compact plant eh?.....