Foxtail Palm Wodyetia bifurcata

The foxtail palm carries its leaflets radiating right around the frond instead of lying flat in two ranks, which is what gives the crown its plumed, bottlebrush outline and lets it read from the far side of a garden. Below that sits a smooth pale trunk marked with rings and swelling gently at the base, finished with a clean green crownshaft. It is a Queensland native from the Cape Melville country, described only in the 1980s, and it has become the standard feature and poolside palm for open sunny positions.

Heat, sun and drainage

Give it full sun and soil that drains. Sandy coastal ground suits it, heavy clay does not, and a raised or mounded bed is worth the effort where drainage is doubtful. Water is moderate once established, with more attention through the first couple of summers, and growth runs at a moderate pace in warm districts and slows right down where winters are cool. It is spineless and self-cleaning, which is why it ends up beside pool coping and along driveways, and a slim single trunk means it takes very little ground. Plant in odd-numbered groups at staggered heights if you want a canopy rather than a single vertical. The failure mode is nutritional. On sandy soil the oldest fronds develop translucent orange-brown flecking that spreads until the frond looks burnt, and that is potassium shortage, not disease. The trap is cutting those fronds off, which strips the palm of the potassium it is drawing back out of them and makes the next round worse.

Which sun-hardy feature palm

Set against triangle palm, the choice is soft against stiff. Triangle palm is blue-grey, rigid and geometric, and it prefers drier ground, while the foxtail is green, plumed and wants heat plus steady moisture. Against Veitchia joannis, the split is scale and texture: the Fijian palm is taller and heavier with flat two-ranked leaflets, so it belongs on a large site, while the foxtail holds a rounder crown that suits a domestic pool surround. Buyers after immediate height should look at the 200L and larger stock, where a foxtail already reads as a mature palm on planting day.

Feeding it properly and leaving the crown alone

Pruning is close to nothing. Spent fronds abscise and drop on their own, so there is no annual climb and no brown skirt to remove, and green or partly yellowed fronds should stay on the palm because they are still feeding it. Cut off only what has gone fully brown, and only if it has not fallen already. The real work is feeding. Use a controlled release palm fertiliser that includes potassium and magnesium, applied in early spring and again in mid summer, spread over the whole root zone rather than in a ring at the trunk. Keep mulch across the root area, and correct deficiency early, since fronds that have already flecked will not green up again.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 12 sizes, from 140mm up to 600L, priced from $16.95 to $6169.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.