Atlantic Palms started out of a love for Palm Trees and an interest in bringing more of them to the area. Along with providing our customers with healthy trees we want to help them continue to care for and enjoy their trees for years to come.

Are you looking for some plants that will liven up your yard a little? Something a little different from the next door neighbors. Why not plant a palm tree? Your neighbors may think you are crazy at first but the truth is that palm trees are thriving all over the Southeast. The secret is to choose the right kind of palm tree. By choosing the right types of palms and following a few simple rules, growing palms can be much easier than growing many common landscape plants.

Why are some palms cold-hardy and others not?
All cold-hardy palms have a special adaptation that palms from warmer areas don't have. During freezing weather, palms and other hardy evergreens face the same problem as a car engine. They need water to "run," that is to carry out photosynthesis and feed themselves, yet the water that they need is frozen in the form of ice. Cold-hardy palms solve this problem the same way that antifreeze solves the problem for a car engine. These palms and other hardy broadleaf evergreens can "supercool" water inside their leaves, trunks, and roots. "Supercooling" means that somehow the water inside their leaves stays in liquid form, even though the temperature of the leaf goes below freezing. We say it "somehow" because scientists don't completely understand how this happens. Fortunately, the cold-hardy palm species seem to have it all figured out.

What is a palm, anyway?
Most people in the United States think of palms as those green, leafy things that you tend to see inside when you're at a fancy restaurant, or outside when you're on vacation in Florida. To be very precise about it, the word "palm" refers to a particular group of flowering plants, though palm flowers aren't as decorative as those of roses or lilies. Technically speaking, palms are "monocots," which means that palms always start out life with a single leaf -- as do other monocots such as iris, lilies, corn, grasses, orchids, and yuccas. All palms have large, conspicuous leaves that have a distinctly "architectural" look.