BOTANICAL NAME: Serenoa repens
COMMON NAME: Saw palmetto
COUNTRY of ORIGIN: United States, southeastern portions
COLD HARDINESS: Should be good to about 15 degrees without too many worries. Plant this one in a really well drained, raised bed.. provide Saw palmetto with a good bit of sunlight and it should do fine in zone 8a or above.
SIZE AND CHARACTERISTICS: This scrub palmetto is a clumping palm that grows slowly to a total height of anywhere from 3 - 6 feet tall. It forms multiple trunks, each one having from 15-20 leaves on it. Saw palmetto will grow in a varieties of soil, but seems to like things a little on the sandy side. It comes in a green and silver form, as well as blue, the latter usually being the hardest to find in the nursery trade.
Serenoa repens is generally used as a groundcover or understory plant due to it's short trunk size, but nice, big, mature clumps are plenty powerful enough to stand alone in the landscape.
