Plant of the Month – June 2024
Dwarf Sugar Palm
Arenga engleri
As June kicks us off into the warm and rainy summer season, the landscape is eager and ready for new palms to be planted. The Dwarf Sugar Palm, originating from Taiwan, provides a variety of uses, including privacy screening to accenting your yard as a specimen piece. The multi-stemmed, clustering palm presents outstanding buffering abilities while maintaining a lush, tropical appearance. Alone, the palm boasts attractive foliage with the silvery undersides of its large-leafed fronds. During this rainy season, the palm shines, presenting its showy, fragrant bloom, which then turns into a bright orange and red fruit- But please don’t touch or eat! The fruit contains high oxalates that can irritate the skin.
Staying relatively short, the Dwarf Sugar Palm can also be used as an understory plant, forming a soft, arching layer. The palm thrives in full sun to partial shade, giving you the flexibility of where to add it to your home landscape. In full sun, however, the fronds can develop a lime-green tint. Additionally, choosing an area with well-drained soil will provide the best habitat for the palm to grow in. As the Dwarf Sugar Palm gradually matures into its average size of 10’ tall and 15’ wide, it produces basal offshoots as older ones die off, forming the multi-stemmed, hairy base of the palm. Growing into this summer season, we can’t wait to see where you decide to plant your Dwarf Sugar Palm!
Written by: Gabriella Gilliam, Landscape Designer