GROWING PALM SPECIES AS "MULTIPLES" USING SINGLE TRUNK PALMS - MORE THAN ONE PLANT IN A POT

From a trunk point of view, there are two types of palm trees:

1. Single trunk: Species that only have one trunk
2. Suckering species: “Suckering” means that the primary trunk makes additional trunks, usually at the base of the first trunk.

Two examples of classic “single trunk palms” are Roystonea (Royal Palm) and Archontophoenix (King Palm) are “single trunk” species. Examples of suckering species would be the Bamboo Palm, the Senegal Date Palm, the Areca Palm and many others.

Nurserymen will sometimes put multiple single trunk species into one pot and grow them as a “multi” or multiple. This term means that more than one single trunk species have been placed and grown in one single pot. This is done because many customers prefer the look of several together. The most popular number of plants to grown as a “multi” is three. Next most popular is a “double”. But, sometimes growers will put five or ten plants in one pot. Often, in my opinion, more than three is too many.

As a novice, you may see a garden palm that has many trunks. It could be a suckering species or mutliples of a single trunk species. This can confuse growers who don’t have experience. The Pygmy Date Palm is a single trunk species natively, but is almost always grown as three in a pot. It looks aesthetic as three together. This makes consumers think the species is a suckering species but it is a single trunk species. A triple Pygmy will always just be three plants. No more trunks will ever appear unless one got the rare, truly suckering form of this species native to Laos. But, the latter is essentially never available.

I am going to show below photos of some plants that are single trunk species but being grown as multiples. I’ll show both nursery and garden specimens. Obviously, in habitat, you’d only see what appears to be a multiple of a single trunk species if multiple seeds happened to drop and germinate in the same location.

Certain species do look good as multi’s; others don’t. In general, I don’t like to do multiples on bigger species like Canaries, Sabals, Bismarckia, etc. But, sometimes customers ask for them. A triple Queen Palm to me is ‘too much”. But, everyone has their own preference and taste.

Below I show two photos of plants that are single trunk species but being utilized as “multiples”. One nice feature of growing “multiples” is that trunks tend to arch away from each other. The photos below showing this trunks illustrates this phenomena. At our nursery, we do grow multiple species as “multi’s”, especially if they are tall, thin palm species. Chamaedorea plumosa and glaucifolia are great examples of palms which look better as a group of three (or more) than as a single plant.

SHOWN BELOW ARE SINGLE TRUNK SPECIES BEING GROWN AS MULTIPLES

Veitchia – Adonidia merrillii triple in garden	Triple Pygmy Date Palm in garden	Triple Pygmy Date Palm in garden
Triple Foxtail Palm, Wodyetia bifurcata in garden	Triple King – Archontophoenix cunninghamiana	Triple Foxtail Palm, Wodyetia bifurcata in garden
Triple Pygmy Date Palm in planting area	Triple Chamaedorea tepejilote in 15 gallon pot	Triple Canary Island Date Palm in garden
Double Canary Island Date Palm in commercial garden	Triple Pygmy Date Palm in 15 gallon pot	Chamaedorea plumosa triple in 15g pot
Foxtail Palm Wodyetia bifurcata triple in garden	Triple King Palm in garden	Triple King Palm in 24 inch box at Nursery
Triple King Palm in 15 gallon pot	Rhopalostylis baueri triple in nursery pot	Kentia Palm, Howea forseriana, triple nursery plant
Triple Queen Palm in garden	Triple Canary Island Date Palm	Triple Queen Palm trunks
Triple Chamaedorea radicalis in nursery pot	Single trunk Roystonea oleracea in garden	Roystoneas regia, Royal Palm, doubles along walkway
Roystonea regia, singles along walkway	Roystonea regia planted as multiples	Washintonia robusta – Mexican Fan Palm – multiple