You may have many reasons for wanting to plant palms around your pool area.
If you currently have a pool in your backyard, planting palm trees will offer greater seclusion or serenity to your area by blocking unwanted views.
If you’re building a swimming pool from scratch, you can add trees to enhance the beauty of your yard. No matter what your intention is, there are advantages to having trees in any swimming pool area.
There are disadvantages of having trees around a pool, too.
Many people, in particular homeowners, like having palm trees around their pool area as they can provide a tropical aesthetic at home.
With palm trees, you can easily feel as if you are lounging beside the beach, especially on a hot summer afternoon.
Even better, there are small to huge types specifically for your backyard oasis.
For a Swimming Pool Area, we suggest the smaller type, as they are simpler to maintain and won’t weaken the pool structure. There are some miniature palms for your pool area here.
1. Mediterranean Fan Palm (Chamaerops humilis)
The Mediterranean Fan Palm is unique because it is the only palm originating from Europe.
As the name implies, the Mediterranean Fan Palm has fan-shaped fronds making it a beautiful addition to your pool area.
They typically have multiple trunks gathered together and look full and plump, adding to your area.
With the robust trunks there large and lush foliage helps make it ideal for ensuring your privacy.
The palms can also fill gaps between larger trees.
Perhaps the best part about the Mediterranean Fan Palm is its hardiness.
Once established, the plant will require tiny amounts of water and can handle long droughts.
Even Better – Cold freezing weather has no effect on this plant. Better still, the Mediterranean Fan Palm is a low-maintenance plant. You won’t be trimming this plant every couple of weeks like other poolside plants.
You can have a stylish poolside by adding night lighting effects.
The palm trees beautiful fronds cast wonderful shadows onto the nearby wall when the lights shine on the palm trees.
These shadows can come in handy when you are creating different atmospheres for different occasions.
2. Pygmy Date Palm (Phoenix roebelenii)
The Pygmy Date Palm has non-invasive roots and doesn’t grow tall, making it ideal for tight spaceThe Pygmy Date Palm has non-invasive roots that do not grow tall making it perfect in tight spaces like decks and patios and swimming pools. You could also plant it in between larger trees.
Despite being native to Southeast Asia, this slow-growing plant adapts well to different climates.
It can tolerate a broad range of conditions from hot summers to freezing winters.
The Pygmy Date Palm has the advantage of being one of the cleanest palm species.
It has no flowers that may drop debris in your pool. The only time you need to prune the palm tree is when the foliage turns from bright green to brown.
Always Good Idea: Whether you use it to accent another feature of your poolside like water features or a deck, or if it is the focal point, Pygmy Date Palms will not disappoint.
3. Sago Palm (Cycas revoluta)
While many people consider it a palm, the Sago Palm is actually, a Cycad, which is quite close to the pine family. It is also one of the oldest ‘palm’ species, having existed for more than 200 million years.
Like other dwarf palm trees, the Sago Palm grows slowly.
Mature Sago Palm are spectacular with their beautiful arching fronds springing from their trunk. The trunk is typically harvested from old cut fronds.
Also, they don’t have any invasive root systems.
This means you can plant them in tight places like:
- Courtyards
- Sidewalks
- And around pools
You can also grow them in pots.
Good news – the other unique quality about this tree is its ability to grow in some shade and full shade.
It can withstand hot summers and freezing winters without any noticeable impact. Remarkably this plant can live longer than 100 years.
4. Pindo Palm (Butia capitate)
The Pindo Palm is a small and not demanding species. They can make a spectacular focal point by your poolside.
Usually small means you can grow it in pots.
A fully matured Pindo Palm has silver-green arching fronds with contemporary, Mediterranean, and tropical characteristics.
Also, it adapts to all climates which makes it suitable for any home.
Several other land plants offer similar benefits, but because it is slow growing you will have little watering regime after it is planted.
If you are a homeowner, it is smart thinking to buy a seedling instead of planting seeds.
It will gutter colorful options in your backyard regardless of where you plant it.
From Experience: the plant produces yellow to reddish flowers that attract beautiful birds to your lawn in summertime. Afterwards, these flowers have the Pindo fruit after fertilization which can make jelly.
5. Bismarck Palm (Bismarckia nobilis)
Bismarck Palm it is an evergreen plant with round steel blue fan-shaped fronds that are popular for their nice, soft foliage.
The species is dioecious, which means, as you might have guessed, it is defined as male plants and female plants that are separate.
And the palm can regrow at sub zero temperatures (up to -4 degrees), and has great drought tolerance.
It’s a really bold color, and look can be an extreme accent piece for your poolside.
When Pruning This Palm Tree – Don’t prune leaves that are partially dead. It is worth mentioning that this species is weaker than other palm trees in wind storms.
6. Dwarf Palmetto (Sabal minor)
Dwarf Palmetto is one of the hardiest palm tree species. Primarily trunk-less but some plants will have trunks.
Rather in place you have petioles that hold fan shaped leaves up to 90 cm wide.
Around maturity, the plant will produce creamy-white flowers that carry a nice scent. The flowers thrive & grow to the max of 6 feet forming black fruits.
Sabal minor is hardy enough to survive -10 degrees before leaf damage is visible.
Unlike other species, is easily propagated by seed. Once the seed is established, it has great drought tolerance.
7. Bottle Palm (Hyophorbe lagenicaulis)
The Bottle Palm comes from the way trunk looks which is shaped like a bottle.
As well, it is a beautiful evergreen plant with a pale grey to white trunk.
That being said, the bottle shape from the trunk will ‘fade’ as the palm grows and elongates.
Atop the trunk, a canopy with at least four glossy-green feather like leaves are formed.
The fronds are born from a pale green crown shaft.
The Bottle Palm will show tolerance to saltwater and drought. Not to mention it can also survive at sub zero temperature conditions.
Which Palm Tree Species Can You Grow Near Your Swimming Pool?
Factors that affect plant selection for palms by the pool:
- Climate.
- Size of the tree.
- Invasiveness of roots and how to mitigate it.
- Seed production and how to deal with it.
Generally, most small palm species will survive varying levels of climate, from extended hot drought to freezing cold.
In general, it is imperative to keep the palms watered before they wilt.
The distance from a plant to your swimming pool is determined by its root system.
Generally, a large root system can damage the pool or piping system.
Palms are a good option because they have non-invasive roots.
While it may be true that planting trees by a swimming pool adds privacy and shade, there are negative implications.
The negative implications of dropping leaves and seeds from the plants are that they will dirty the pool and require you to clean it with more frequency!
For this reason: you want to choose to avoid trees that produce a lot of seeds; examples would be Medjool Date Palms and Queen Palms.lms.
How Do You Grow Palm Trees in Pots?
First, fill the pot with a good draining soil.
Next, take care when handling the roots since a plant can perish if the root tears or break.
In an ideal situation, you should not touch the roots when transplanting the plant into the pot.
Lastly, when planting palms, you want to be careful that their roots not go too deep.
Once you transplant the palm give it a good watering right away. The water fills all the air voids remaining in the soil around the roots that, if left alone, can create rotting and disease.
After That – You can start to cut back on watering but the palm trees should be fertilized at least four times per year. Usually for the first application, the palm trees are ready after two or three months of planting.
The biggest advantage of growing palms in pots is mobility as you can move the palm plants whenever you feel like changing the appearance of your backyard.
Alternatively, you can move the plant inside before any windstorm or any other weather if necessary.ndoors if there’s an impending windstorm or any other harsh weather conditions.
How Does Drainage Affect Palm Trees?
Different soils provide different levels of drainage. Sandy soils have great drainage and clay soil does not.
When clay soil dries out, it dries into an impenetrable solid mass and palm trees cannot extract nutrients from clay soil.
In this case, you have to dig up the clay and mix it with other soil types to be able to utilize it.
Another thing about clay soil is that water tends to clog around the clay as it does not drain well. This can lead to root rot when left alone for excessive periods.
Ideally: Water should not take more than two hours to travel through the soil if you want your palm trees to thrive.
Does Chlorine Affect Palm Trees?
Chlorine is essential for maintaining clean pool water and preventing pathogenic life.
That’s a great property of chlorine and palm trees are resistant to chlorine.
This is partly due to a thick waxy coating on their fronds that prevents any bit of chlorine that is splashed on them.
Wrapping Up
Modern swimming pools can have a touch of creativity from dark-looking interiors to ambient lighting to all the other accessories to engage all senses of the swimmer.
Palm trees such as the ones highlighted herein, can provide a considerable and positive contribution to the overall ambiance surrounding your pool.
They can even become the focal point of your backyard.