Your Guide to the Best Landscaping Palm Trees in Fort Myers, Florida

There’s perhaps nothing as iconic in Florida as the palm tree. If you’re looking to do your landscaping and you want to increase the curb appeal of your home, you may be interested in adding quality palm trees to that landscaping. These can work with other flowers, bushes and shrubs, or they can be standalone items that transform your outdoor space.

Palm trees can be beneficial on many levels. For one thing, they can bring your outdoor space together and make it into a fun and festive area. For another, they help your home blend in with the landscape around your property, which can be especially nice if the home is a new build. Additionally, palm trees just add a lot of that vibrant green plant life that seems to envelop Florida, so this is a good way to get the same sort of immersion on your home property.

But there are a lot of things that you need to consider if you’re interested in doing this. Here at Landscape Pros, we are experienced in all types of landscaping, and we can guide you to the best palm trees in Fort Myers, Florida.

Types of Palms to Consider

First of all, there are many different varieties of palm trees to choose from. Don’t assume that they are all the same or that they will all add the same elements to your property. Below are a few of the most common types:

The Royal Palm

A tall and elegant palm tree, its fronds resemble flowing feathers. These are massive palm trees that are often used around the pools and other backyard areas. Just a single frond can be as long as 15 feet and weigh as much as 50 pounds.

The Coconut Palm

Coconut palms are certainly iconic, even though they are not native to this part of the state. But they survive well in inclement weather and moist soil, so they tend to flourish in Florida. The coconuts make them stand out easily, and many people choose them simply because they want that to be part of the aesthetic appeal.

Smaller Palm Trees

You can also choose smaller palm trees, such as the Saw Palmetto or the Pygmy Date Palm. These will often only grow to a few feet high, so they are more similar to shrubbery, and they are sometimes used to edge yards. But they still give you that palm tree vibe without the massive investment in a 30-foot Royal Palm.

The Florida Thatch Palm

Finally, you may want to consider the Florida Thatch Palm, which has a skinny trunk and wide fronds. These fronds are often used in tiki huts, giving the palm its name, and many people choose them because of this connection. Their vibrant color and overall width really adds new life to any space.

What Should You Do First?

Once you identify the types of palm trees that you prefer, then it’s time to design your outdoor space. This design should be created before any physical work is actually done. You need to consider how to incorporate a palm tree into your overall design, and you need to think about the other types of plants and landscaping items that you want to use with it. For instance, people will sometimes decide to have a row of palm trees along the edge of a garden path, with solar lanterns or spotlights illuminating the area. Designing everything in advance makes the whole process go smoothly and ensures that everything works together well.

Look at the Drainage Options

Since the soil is so moist and storms are common in Florida, you also need to have property with adequate drainage for the plants that you use. Palm trees will not survive in overly wet soil that is saturated. This can cause rot within the roots and the trees can die.

If you do not have a property that already has adequate drainage, there are ways to create it. But, as noted above, this is why doing the design in advance is so important. You need to consider things like this at the very beginning because completing an entire project and then discovering poor drainage can ruin all the work that was previously done.

Think About the Space That You Need

When you’re talking about palm trees, the space you have is important for more than just the aesthetic appeal or the backyard entertaining area that you’re trying to create. Palm trees need a specific amount of space to be able to grow. Generally, you want them to be 10 to 15 feet away from anything else, whether that’s a garage, a fence or a house. You also need to keep them adequately spread out from one another or from other major plants.

Planning for the space is especially important if you are planting smaller palm trees, rather than mature trees. These are going to grow over time and so the design has to take these changes into account. Some people opt to have mature trees installed, though, so that they don’t have to think about them growing in the future.

Other Elements of Your Space

Finally, you have to consider all the other elements inherent to your space and how they may be beneficial or detrimental to palm trees. What type of soil do you have? Are the trees going to get proper nutrients? How often does it rain? What type of sunlight do you get in that location? How are you planning for the outdoor space to grow and evolve over time?

As you can see, the key is to ask all of these questions in advance and then to make plans that fit perfectly with your goals.

Starting Your Project

All of this is possible when you work with professionals like those at Landscape Pros. We can help with the design, provide expert advice, source palm trees and other plants, and much more. Please give us a call today to get your project started.

Contact us today

If you’re having issues with lawn pest control, fungus, fertilization, dead spots or anything else that is taking away from the pristine outdoor space that you want to have, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. We’ve been doing lawn care in Fort Myers for years, we’re sure we can find solutions and you’re going to enjoy working with our friendly team as you create the lawn you’ve always dreamed of. 

There are a lot of waterfront properties around Fort Myers, Florida, as homes are often located on bays, canals, harbors, lakes, rivers, islands and, of course, the ocean itself. Here at Landscape Pros, we fully understand that this leads to some challenges when it comes to custom landscape design in Fort Myers, FL, but it also leads to a lot of beautiful opportunities. With the right team on your side, you can develop an outdoor living space beyond your wildest expectations.

Whether you already live in Florida or you’re moving there from a northern state, you need to know exactly what challenges you’re going to face and how to get the most out of making a tropical oasis on your property.