If you’ve got a few Windmill Palms in your yard and they’ve started blooming, you’re in luck! You can actually harvest edible fruit and collect your own seeds to grow even more of these beauties. The catch? You’ll need at least one male and one female plant, and you’ll likely need to play “matchmaker” by pollinating them yourself.
What You’ll Need to Get Seeds
- Mature plants (at least four years old)
- At least one male and one female palm
- A little DIY hand-pollination
- Patience to let the flowers dry out right on the tree
- A harvest of dried fruits
To get those seeds, your palms first need to flower. This usually happens once they’re settled in a spot they love and have reached maturity—typically around the four-year mark. Since Windmill Palms are dioecious (meaning individual trees are either male or female), you’ll need a pair to get the job done.
Wondering how to tell them apart? Take a close look at the blooms. Female plants produce bushy, yellowish-green flowers, while the males show off flowers in a much more vibrant, bold yellow.
How the Seeds Develop
The blooming season usually runs from April through June, and that’s your window for fertilization. To ensure success, I recommend doing the pollination yourself. Just grab a small paintbrush and gently brush back and forth between the male and female flowers a few times.
Once fertilized, the flowers will transform into dark purple or black fruits. These are actually edible and have a nice sweetness to them! If your goal is seeds, though, don’t prune those flower stalks. Leave them on the tree until the fruit has completely dried out. Once they’re dry, you can harvest them and pop out the hard-shelled seeds. You’ll notice the seeds are kidney-shaped, measuring about 11mm long and 7mm wide.
Sowing Your Seeds
When spring rolls around, it’s time to plant. Pro tip: soak the seeds in water for about 24 hours before sowing to help them wake up. Just a heads-up—don’t expect overnight results! It can take up to a full year for a seed to germinate, and you’re looking at about four years total before you have a fully established, mature palm.
