If you’re dreaming of growing your own Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) from scratch, there’s something you should know right off the bat: you can’t just take a cutting or divide the root ball. These palms are grown strictly from seed. It’s definitely a project for the patient gardener, as it can take up to four years before you have a sturdy little palm on your hands. But hey, watching that first sprout pop up is incredibly rewarding!
Harvesting Seeds for Your New Palms
Since Windmill Palms don’t do offsets or cuttings, seeds are your only ticket to new plants. To get viable seeds, you’ll need both a male and a female tree. You can tell them apart by their flowers: the ladies sport bright light-green blooms, while the guys have smaller, more sparse yellow flowers.
To make sure those female flowers actually produce seeds, they need to be pollinated. If you want to guarantee success, grab a small paintbrush and play matchmaker! Just brush some pollen from the male flower and dab it into the center of the female flower. Once the seeds form in the flower clusters, let them dry out right on the tree. When they’re ready, you can usually just shake them loose.
Sowing and Caring for Your Windmill Palm
- Start by soaking your seeds in lukewarm water for about 24 hours to help soften the outer shell.
- Get some seed-starting pots ready with a high-quality seed-starting mix.
- Plant the seeds about half an inch (1 cm) deep.
- Find a bright, warm spot for your pots.
- Keep the soil consistently moist, but not soggy.
- Be patient! It can take up to a full year just for the seeds to germinate.
- Once your little palm reaches about 4 inches (10 cm) tall, it’s time to move it into a slightly larger pot.
- Keep up with regular watering for your young plant.
- Hold off on the fertilizer—don’t feed the plant at all for the first four years.
- Keep your young palm in a container so you can bring it indoors for the winter.
It takes about four years for a Windmill Palm to really establish itself. During this “baby phase,” the plant cannot handle frost and must be overwintered in a pot in a protected area. Once those four years are up and the plant is strong enough, you can finally transplant it into your garden!
