I am hoping you can answer this question.I have noticed Roebellinis growing which have not been trimmed back. The fronds seem to stay nice and green and flow to the ground making a very lovely Florida plant.

Is it necessary to do all the trimming back and up the trunk which the local gardeners seem to love doing? The spelling may be wrong.

Thank you for your answer.

Ruth

Ruth,
The short answer is no the "roebeleniis" do not need pruning back.

Palms do not require the same kind of pruning as broad-leaved trees. The only trimming a palm needs is the removal of dead, damaged, or diseased leaves. There is an unfortunate tendency to over-trim palms. Removing perfectly good, green, functional leaves at the same time as dead or dying fronds are trimmed is harmful to the palm, especially those species whose canopy consists of no more than 8 to 12 leaves.

Palms subject to such over zealous trimming are often referred to as “hurricane pruned”. This is term is an unfortunate misnomer as the tree is not prepared for, or safer during hurricane season by this pruning.

Removing green fronds does a lot of damage:

• Green leaves or fronds are the work engines of the plant. By removing them, you weaken the plant by reducing the palms ability to make food and take up water.

• Removing green fronds wounds the palm This wound site invites insects and diseases.

• Green fronds protect the top growing point, the palm heart, from cold temperatures. The old leaf bases or “boots” may also play a role in cold protection - leave them on and let them drop naturally. In the severe 1989 freeze, over-trimmed Cabbage Palms suffered damage, while those left with a normal canopy and full complement of leaf bases were unscathed.

• Removing green fronds reduced the palm’s natural resilience to high winds. Over-pruned palms can develop a “bottle-neck”, a trunk with bulges and indentations. This is likely to be most noticeable on fast growing palms. In high winds, these weak points may snap, and the palm head breaks off, killing the tree.

• Older leaves provide a source of potassium, magnesium, and other “mobile” elements for the growing palm. Unattractive deficient older leaves , common on many Phoenix palms like your Phoenix roebelenii should not be removed until the nutrient imbalance is corrected. If a palm is lacking these nutrients, trimming will “push” the deficiency symptoms further up the canopy. Some deficiencies can quickly lead to death of some palms.

So, please, never remove the green leaves from palm trees.

Thank You Ruth & Happy Gardening,

Carol