Is it possible to cut back/prune palm trees?
Hi Everyone,
Just looking for some advice regarding two large palm trees i have in my front garden.
Over the past 2-3 years the palms have easily doubled in size and are growing so fast, one of which is closely approaching the roof of the house.
The wife and i love them being out front but we're concerned on how tall they are getting and they are also starting to block a lot of light coming in the front window. Dont even start on the flowers, this year we have about 3 large flower heads per palm which gets everywhere! We regularly tidy them up, removing dead fronds, flower heads etc but what we really want to know is...can we cut them down in size at all? A friend advised that cutting the top of the tree will effectively kill the palm, but he wasnt too sure.
Are our only options to leave the trees as they are or bite the bullet and cut down the trees entirely and remove them, so no more palms? : (
Thanks for any advice.
Posts
Another option is to knock down your house and rebuild it some distance away from those lovely palm trees.
Is it this type of tree:-
My friend had one and she cut it right down but it kept sending out new shoots from the base for years!
I would think that if you cut it down you could nurture one of the new stems.
Maybe cut the largest down first and see what happens.If you get new shoots you could cut down the other.
You will probably end up with a veritable forest!!!
I also agree that the flowers scent is divine,I can often smell a tree from some considerable distance and sometimes not see the tree at all.
It's only downside are the fallen fronds which unless you keep on top of them can be a real nuisance.
@madpenguin
Your "palm trees" look more like Cordylines to me. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=543
Yes I forgot to mention that the photo I chose was of a Cordyline,though I know they are often referred to as 'palms'
.
Here is a palm tree!!!
Last edited: 28 May 2017 11:10:36