Palms are "Oasis" Lovers: What to Plant in Las Vegas

Q. I moved here a year ago and have yet to figure out what my palm tree needs to thrive.  It gets plenty of water. I located and uncovered the drippers to make sure it was getting enough water and even moved some plants away from it so it got more water.

Palms endure the heat. Some not so much the wind but they love the heat. They also love water. I consider palms to be "oasis" plants. When you find fan palms growing in the desert they are near surface water like here in Warm Springs, Nevada, or near an oasis. Mark my words. When you see palms growing in the desert I will bet you $10 you will also find water.

A. Palm trees growing in the desert are “oasis plants”; they need to grow near water but not in it. They like to be surrounded by other plants that also need water. A big mistake to make with palm trees is to grow them alone, out in the middle of nowhere, and surround them with rock. Growing them alone, in full sun, and surrounding them with rock is asking for a multitude of different problems.

Many palms are quite large. They may be cute when they are small but when they get larger...watch out!

A second problem with most palms is their mature size. They are cute to look at when small, but all the palms get larger as they get older. Their growing size forces homeowners to pay more for pruning, and possibly removal, as these trees get larger.

Mediterranean fan palm and Windmill palm look similar except the Windmill palm is much slower growing and doesn't get wider like the MFP does. This is because it "suckers" from its base. It can get quite wide if it is not controlled as this one is.

Probably the two palms that are the best choices for smaller residential lands 

capes are the Windmill Palm and Mediterranean Fan Palm. The Mediterranean Fan Palm can be put into hot windy locations but requires pruning as it gets older. The pruning mostly focuses on keeping it from getting wider. The second choice is the slow-growing Windmill Palm. Windmill Palm should be placed on the East or north side of a landscape out of the wind. Both should be surrounded by other plants and woodchips rather than rock.

This is a windmill palm. Lets see it in five years when the organics in the soil are gone and the rock has impacted the landscape of this "oasis" plant.