Palm Nuts in the Garden

We were thrilled to recently welcome two stalwarts of the Southeastern Palm Society to JLBG, on their way to a SPS meeting in nearby High Point, NC. Tom McClendon (l), and Joe LeVert (r), have been two of the folks most responsible for the success of the society over the last few decades. Both gentlemen are teachers, Tom in Southern Coastal Georgia, and Joe, in central Georgia, on the SC/GA line. The wealth of knowledge these two have, and are willing to share, is absolutely incredible. The society meets twice annually, as the meeting moves throughout the region, so if you have any interest in growing hardy palms, or related plants, this is a must. JLBG has hosted the meeting five times (1990, 2000, 2007, 2014, and 2022) and we look forward to doing so again in the next year or two, since we have significantly expanded our palm collection since the last event.

It was great to get the back story on Sabal ‘DeFuniak’, a palm that we blogged about last summer. As it turns out, Tom discovered the palm in 1993, on a road trip with his then new wife. Unfortunately, there were no viable seed available, so it took many more years, until returning SPS members managed to catch it in seed, for the first distribution of seedlings.

For us, it is proving to be one of the fastest growing of hardy the trunked sabal palms. Below is our patch of six year old Sabal ‘DeFuniak’ that we showed Tom and Joe. Tom tells us that the original plant, which is in danger, due to development, now has a 15′ tall trunk, so it remains much more in scale with most yards compared to the much larger, Sabal palmetto. It seems almost certain now, that Sabal ‘DeFuniak’ is hybrid between Sabal palmetto and either Sabal minor or Sabal etonia.

Below is Tom’s original picture from 1993, when he first spotted this amazing specimen.