Windmill Palm
Trachycarpus fortunei
One of the most cold-hardy palms, bringing a tropical look to temperate gardens with a slim, shaggy trunk and fan-shaped leaves, a striking specimen to frame an entry or path. It grows in sun or part shade and takes some salt. Shelter it from strong wind, which shreds the leaves, and from the coldest spots.
- Mature size
- 12 × 5 ft
- 3.5 × 1.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 7a–11b
- USDA
- Sun
- Part sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- Jun–Jul
Windmill Palm at its mature size
A mature Windmill Palm grows 8 to 20 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet 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, The Tree Center.
Through the year
What Windmill Palm looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Year-round
Round head of stiff dark green fan leaves.
Photos
Growing Windmill Palm
- Grows well in
- The Southeast, the Pacific Northwest, and California.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Privacy screen, small space, specimen, and shade garden
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- China
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Windmill Palm, that’s about 5 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 Windmill Palm in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other palms
Sago Palm
Windmill Palm
Pindo Palm
Cabbage PalmettoAll drawn to the same scale.