Sago Palm

Follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season to establish a deep, extensive root system. Watering can be reduced after establishment. Feed with a general purpose fertilizer before new growth begins in spring.

Not a true palm, this plant is a living fossil that is technically part conifer and part fern! It is stiff and broad, making a reliable palm-like effect in shaded gardens where space is limited. Ideal in Asian compositions or in a fern grotto. Super in tropical gardens with other foliage plants and hot- colored flowers. Grow as a single specimen and avoid crowding as it destroys its symmetry.

This very unique plant may be the most primitive living seed bearer on the face of the earth. Although it is called sago palm and may even look like one, it is classified as a gymnosperm along with the conifers. It inhabits its own family, Cycadaceae which contains but one genus, Cycas was classified by Linnaeus in the 18th century. He named it from the perpetual misnomer, from the Greek for palm tree. The genus contains about 40 species from the tropics of Southeast Asia and the Pacific. This species, the most commonly cultivated by far, is native to the southern Japanese islands of Ryuku and Satsuma. Its discovery and classification is attributed to Carl von Thunberg 1743-1828, who collected some of the first plants from Japan while there at the end of the 18th century.