Palms get more popular every year, and it's easy to see why.
They're hardy, low maintenance, and create a real feature.
I'm going to show you how to choose, plant, and look
after them at your place.
Palms can be planted any time of the year.
But to give them the best start, plant
them in spring-- the start of their growing season.
Most palms will do really well in pretty similar conditions,
so really it just comes down to a personal choice
and whether you're choosing for inside or outside.
The Bangalow Palm is fast-growing,
and its fruit attracts birds to the garden.
The Queen Palm is also fast-growing
and looks great in pots.
For height, the King Palm reaches a massive 10 to 12
meters.
The Kentia does well indoors or out, but they don't like frost.
If cold is an issue, try the windmill palm,
which is extremely hardy.
The Sago Palm is a stunner but quite slow-growing.
And the Nikau-- our native palm--
also slow-growing and needs very moist soil,
but of course loves the New Zealand conditions.
Ultimately when choosing palms, think
about how big they're going to get,
how long they're going to take, and whether your location
offers up the right conditions.
Now I've placed out all my palms.
I've got my Queen Palm at the back.
It's going to help give me some height
and help frame the house behind it.
But it is going to get quite big,
so I'll make sure to give it lots of room.
I've also got a couple of Dwarf Day Palms.
They're going to be our medium-sized palm.
And then down the front, a Sago Palm, and that's
going to stick to about a meter by a meter.
If you are planting any bigger palms or trees near a house,
make sure you give it a little bit of room
so it doesn't mess with your foundations.
Right.
We've dug our hole for our Queen Palm.
It's roughly twice as wide and twice as deep
as the base of the pot.
We have come across some clay, so we're just
going to put some clay breaker around the bottom.
Be nice and generous with this.
Just work it in a little bit.
This is going to help break that down over time.
Right.
Now is a good time to also put in some garden mix.
Now I'm just going to work that into the edge of the hole.
Right.
Now it's time to cut our bag open and get
the palm into the ground.
Roughly position this the way around you want it,
centre of the hole, and then we're ready to backfill with
more topsoil.
Right.
Now we're just going to top it off with the rest of the garden
mix.
Press the soil down around the trunk,
and then give it a water.
Palms love water while they're getting established.
Then they're good to go.
For your indoor palms, just be careful of stagnant water,
which they don't like so much.
They really only need food during their growing season
in early summer.
It actually does more harm than good outside
of this, so just enjoy how low maintenance they are.
Try Nitrophoska for the perfect balance of NPK for palms.
If your potted palms start to yellow,
they may well be in need of a feed.
Scale and Mealy bugs are pretty much
the only things that'll affect your palms.
And in severe cases, Confidor should do the trick.
For indoor palms, clean the leaves
with a damp sponge every six weeks or so.
But don't use oils, as these can cause leaf spotting.
Whether inside or out, palms will
grow to be as big as the pot they're in.
So only repot if you want your palm to grow bigger.
With palms, it's natural for the lowest leaves
to start to turn brown and droop.
Remember to cut and not pull, and watch out for any spikes.
Palms can be a bit of an investment,
whether it's with your time to grow them up
from a seedling or an upfront cost to buy a bigger tree.
But they're definitely worth it.
Indoors or outdoors, palms are a great addition
to any surrounding.