Other Names:  Waggie Palm, Miniature Windmill Palm, Chusan Palm

Description:

This robust dwarf variety makes a great garden or landscape accent; tolerates drought and adapts to a wide variety of soils; a very cold hardy palm that can even handle snow loads

Ornamental Features

Waggy Palm features showy panicles of yellow flowers hanging below the branches in mid summer. It has attractive dark green evergreen foliage. The lobed palmate leaves are highly ornamental and remain dark green throughout the winter. The fruits are showy navy blue drupes displayed from late summer to mid fall.

Landscape Attributes

Waggy Palm is an open evergreen tree with a strong central leader and a towering form, with a high canopy of foliage concentrated at the top of the plant. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance tree, and is best pruned in late winter once the threat of extreme cold has passed. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Waggy Palm is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Hedges/Screening
• General Garden Use
• Naturalizing And Woodland Gardens
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Waggy Palm will grow to be about 15 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 10 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 2 feet from the ground, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a slow rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 50 years or more. This is a dioecious species, meaning that individual plants are either male or female. Only the females will produce fruit, and a male variety of the same species is required nearby as a pollinator.

This tree does best in full sun to partial shade. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Waggy Palm is a fine choice for the yard, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its height, it is often used as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.