February 2010 Plant of the Month —
Windmill Palm

The Windmill Palm is an excellent choice for those who want a tropical feel in their landscape, but who don’t have the luxury of a year-round tropical climate. This selection, 'Bulgaria' is very cold-hardy.
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Submitted by Beth Willis   

The Windmill Palm, or Trachycarpus fortune, is an excellent choice for those who want a tropical feel in their landscape, but who don’t have the luxury of a year-round tropical climate. This selection is very cold-hardy – a specimen in the UT Gardens shows no damage after an extended period of below-freezing temperatures.

This attractive palm has large fan-shaped leaves that spread out from a single stem or trunk. It can reach 20-40 feet in the landscape, and trunk growth of up to a foot a year has been reported. The trunk is covered with a coarse mat made of the leaf bases which remain on the stem even after the leaf has fallen away. The Windmill Palm is ‘dioecious’, meaning that it has separate male and female plants. Each bear large panicles of flowers in the spring. Female plants will develop yellow to blue-black fruits that ripen in autumn.

Native to mountainous areas of Asia, the Windmill Palm has been cultivated extensively for centuries. The leaf sheath fiber of this plant is extremely strong, and it has been used for making ropes, sacks and coarse cloth. Throughout the world, it is highly sought-after by palm enthusiasts as an ornamental. In the United States, it has become a popular landscape specimen in much of the southeast as well as mild areas on the east and west coasts.

Windmill palms prefer a fertile, well-drained soil but can tolerate other conditions so long as it is not in a continuously soggy site. It will do well in part-shade to full sun. It can even be planted in containers. If planting in Zone 7 or above, a sheltered site is recommended. Once established, specimens are fairly drought tolerant, although growth will slow. They are also wind and salt tolerant, which make them suitable for coastal plantings.

The pictured cultivar, ‘Bulgaria’ tends to have smaller leaves and a tighter habit than the species. It has been propagated from specimens in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, which have survived repeated exposures to temperatures as low as 0 degrees F. Other forms and related species are commercially available as well. The ‘Taylor form’, for example, has very droopy leaf tips, while T. nanus is a dwarf form. Any of these would bring that distinctive tropical feel to your landscape, although they do have some variability in cold hardiness.


Beth Willis is the UT Gardens Trials Coordinator.  The University of Tennessee Gardens located in Knoxville and Jackson are part of the UT Institute of Agriculture. Their mission is to foster appreciation, education and stewardship of plants through garden displays, collections, educational programs and research trials. The gardens are open during all seasons and free to the public. Online at http://utgardens.tennessee.edu/

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Contact:

Dr. Susan Hamilton, Director of the UT Gardens, 865-974-7324

Patricia McDaniels, UTIA Marketing and Communications Services,
615-835-4570