Fan Palms Around My Pool
This time of year, I always display lots of potted tropical plants around my Bedford, New York farm.
The Mexican Fan Palm is native to Mexico, but has naturalized in several states including Florida, California, Hawaii, and Texas. It's a beautiful palm tree with shiny, deep green fronds and a trunk that can reach up to 100 feet tall. I have several Mexican fan palms in my tropical plant collection. This year, I decided they would look great displayed around my pool where they can flourish in full sun.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- My pool was built to run north to south in this space, so I could enjoy all the gorgeous views of the landscape.
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- There were three fan palms that needed repotting into more suitable containers. Pete starts by running a hori hori knife around the inner edge of the pot to loosen the palm’s root ball.
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- Then slowly and carefully, Pete and Fernando remove the specimen from its vessel.
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- Mexican fan palms have large, three to five foot wide fronds that are palmate, meaning shaped like fans.
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- Here is the root ball once it is out of the pot. Fan palm trees, like other palm trees, have fibrous root systems that spread out horizontally.
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- Here’s another view of the root ball. Notice the base of the trunk of the palm. The Mexican fan palm, Washingtonia robusta, and California fan palm, Washingtonia filifera, come from the same family and look very similar. One main difference is the Mexican fan palms have much slimmer trunks that grow taller than its cousin.
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- Ryan places a broken pot shard into the pot to cover the drainage hole. It keeps dirt from falling through the hole while making sure there is still room for proper drainage.
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- The shard need not be large – just big enough to cover the hole. Save shards from broken pots to repurpose the pieces.
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- The planter is filled a third of the way with a good potting soil mix.
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- We use Scotts Miracle-Gro Cactus, Palm & Citrus Potting Mix, which is fast-draining and is designed for both indoor and outdoor container plants. The mix contains a blend of sand, perlite, and sphagnum peat moss, which helps prevent soil compaction, improve drainage, and retain water and nutrients.
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- Ryan also adds Scotts Miracle-Gro Shake ‘n Feed All Purpose Plant Food, which lasts for up to three months.
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- Ryan trims and scarifies the root ball to stimulate growth and to ensure the roots can spread in the pot and absorb nutrients from the soil. Teasing roots apart before planting is a good practice for all plants.
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- Ryan places the fan palm in the container, making sure it is planted as deep as it was in its previous pot and about an inch under the rim of the new pot.
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- Here’s Ryan stopping for a quick photo as he tamps down lightly around the base of the palm to make sure there is good contact between the soil and the plant.
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- Pete wheels the specimen to its location on the other side of the pool.
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- Here’s Ryan removing another palm from its old pot. Notice he is working on a tarp. Doing this helps to contain all the plant debris and any dropping soil and saves a lot of time in cleaning up.
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- Again, Ryan fills about a third of the new pot with soil mix and then combines it with fertilizer.
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- The palm is placed into its new container and Pete adds more soil mix to just under the rim of the planter. This is also a good tip – filling to just under the rim will prevent soil from falling out when the plant is watered.
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- These Mexican fan palms prefer full sun to partial shade – they will do well here pool side until they are brought back into their designated hoop house in the fall.
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- I always arrange and display my potted plants differently eery year. This season, the fan palms join potted Agave bracteosa, or Squid Agaves, around my pool’s edge.
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- I also planted six Ginkgo biloba Goldspire™ Obelisk trees around the pool last month. These trees are doing excellently.
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- Everything is looking so lush and green.
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- This is one of the best spots at my farm during summer – I look forward to any time I can spend by the pool. We’re expecting another warm day here in the Northeast – stay safe, cool, and hydrated.
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