Week of June 6, 2021

One plant that truly identifies the Florida garden as subtropical is the SAGO PALM. Of course, sago palms are really not palms at all, but an even more ancient family, Cycas, or cycads. The species we have is C. Revoluta, or the king sago palm. The Florida garden has six large sagos and at least two small ones. They come from Japan and provide a constantly changing character to the garden. In the late spring like now, they are especially interesting as some have new, delicate growth and others flaunt old growth and huge seed heads. Cycads have male or female plants. We appear to have five females and one male. The male flower is a yellow cone providing the pollen. Our male plant had just been pruned so it’s new growth had no cone this year. Three female plants have large bushel-sized seed structures, bright yellow and very intricate. The entire sago is poisonous, but especially the seeds and especially for dogs. It does appear that our intrepid squirrels can eat them, as they carry off the chestnut-like seeds with great enthusiasm. The sagos are afflicted with scale insect. As the stiff fronds get worn down, we can cut off all vegetation and the sago with put out new, soft, and elegant fronds. Otherwise, they ask little for maintenance as they occupy several prominent positions in the Florida garden.