A Yard In Fort Pierce

Eureka!! My Areca Palm Tree ( Dypsis lutescens ) is seeding and they are almost done. I have been waiting for this Palm Tree to seed for a long time now. The Areca Palm Tree is one of my favorite types of Palm Tree. I always smile when I hear someone call it the Eureka Palm Tree. It is a very common mispronunciation. The name is Areca Palm Tree ( Ah-reek-ah). I noticed that the seeds of my Areca Palm are almost gold in color. That means they are pretty much ready to be picked. I will wait a little bit longer before I pick them though. I usually like to wait until they fall on the ground themselves. If you would like to see my other Areca Palm Tree post then click here. For now here are some pictures of Areca Palm Tree seeds.

These are the gold ones that are almost ready to be picked.

These are some new seeds that will not be ready for a while.

These seeds are turning color and should be ready in no time.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Have a great day!

Well it has been about a month and a half since I planted my Areca Palm ( Dypsis lutescens ) privacy fence. You can read all the details of this project in my previous post : Click Here For $36.00 Privacy Fence. I decided it was time for an update so here we go. I am going to say that at the time I have about a 30%-40% success rate. There are a lot of dead looking Areca's but I will not call them dead until they are gone. Until they are gone I will continue to water them in hopes of revival. I also have a few Areca's that look pretty good, and of course some that are in the in between stage, go to the light or come back. Either way whatever state they are in I am still going to take care of them regardless until they all flourish. I have been spraying 20-20-20 fertilizer on them once a week for 2 weeks so far, still to early to report any results on the use of the fertilizer. When I started the project I had no idea that it was going to get so cold this year so I had to battle the cold spurts as well as my dog Boss peeing on them, trampling all over them and he even pulled 2 of them out of the ground, 1 of which was my best 1. I am sure you can imagine how that made me feel. We have to remain optimistic here so I am not worried, with some patience mixed in with some love and dedication I think it will be all right. Here are some pictures of the privacy fence.

Today I went to my mother's house to help her plant some plants she had just brought home from a show in Miami. We were talking in the house and looking out the window at her Areca Palms. I was telling her how much I like the Areca's and she told me that she didn't really care to much for them. She said they were a lot of work clipping and what not. I told her what I do when I clip mine is I take the clippings in the house and place them in vase's around the house. The clippings usually hold up for 3-4 weeks before they start looking bad. Using the clippings is a very affordable way to decorate the house. I went outside to get some clippings from hers to show her but she already trimmed it. That's when I noticed all the seeds on the ground. There were thousands of them everywhere. I started collecting them and noticed a sprout. Then another sprout, and another. I ended up leaving there with 50-60 Areca Palm sprouts that ranged from 1" to 4". Here are some pictures of the little guys.

Here are my Areca Palm Trees ( Dypsis lutescens ). They are doing very well. This is what I have just planted all around the perimeter of the yard. The Areca Palm is native to Madagascar as well. It seems that every cool plant is from Madagascar. I really want to visit Madagascar, I bet it is breathtaking. When this palm reaches the height of 3-6 feet it starts to produce fruit. The fruit is like any other palm fruit with the exception that you can eat the orange fleshy part. It is very sweet, maybe even to sweet.

O.k., so I wanted a natural privacy fence around my back yard. I went to thinking and came up with the Areca palm. It is absolutely perfect for a privacy fence. It can be very thick, it is very easy on the eye, and alot better than a wood fence if you ask me, and not to mention a fraction of the cost. Let me tell you what I did, I went to my local hardware store and bought 3 pots of Areca Palms. The palms were waist to almost chest high and cost $12.00 each. Areca Palms grow in clumps naturally. So what I did was pulled the palms from their containers and separated them. To do this you need a hose handy to spray the soil away and lubricate the root system for separation. Gently pull at the roots until they break free, you will know how hard to pull you can just feel it if it is about to break. You do not want to break the roots because it will take forever to grow. I pulled from 20 to 30 plants out of each pot. Then I planted the individual trees about 1.5 feet apart around my whole backyard. The trees will grow into clumps and form a virtually impenetrable wall for security and privacy that is beautiful and ran me around $36.00. Now that is a deal if you ask me. These are some pictures I have taken of the process, I hope you enjoy!