Cabbage Palmetto
Sabal palmetto
The classic Southern palm: a round head of big fan leaves on a sturdy trunk, native to the coast and tough against salt, storms, drought and flooding. Plant it in sun, water it faithfully while it rebuilds its roots after planting, and remove only brown fronds.
- Mature size
- 30 × 12 ft
- 9 × 3.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 7b–11b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part sun
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- Jun–Jul
Cabbage Palmetto at its mature size
A mature Cabbage Palmetto grows to about 30 ft tall and 12 ft wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, UF/IFAS Extension.
Through the year
What Cabbage Palmetto looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Year-round
Round head of blue-green fan leaves on a gray trunk.
Growing Cabbage Palmetto
- Grows well in
- The Southeast.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Privacy screen, rain garden, and pollinators
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Southeastern United States, Bahamas, and Cuba
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Cabbage Palmetto, that’s about 12 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Cabbage Palmetto in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other palms
Windmill Palm
Pindo PalmCabbage PalmettoAll drawn to the same scale.