Saw Palmetto - Silver

The cold-hardy Silver Leaf Palmetto has fan-shaped fronds, multiple creeping trunks, grows in clay, and looks fabulous year-round with minimal care.

Why Choose a Silver Saw Palmetto Palm?

If you’d like your landscape to have a more tropical feel but your winters are cold, the cold-hardy Silver Saw Palmetto can help make that dream a reality. It can take extreme temperatures without skipping a beat. Maybe you’d like to naturalize a section of the yard, attract birds and wildlife, or just want a hardy, low-growing palm that looks fabulous as a ground cover with its striking silvery foliage. The Silver Saw Palmetto meets all those needs and more. 

The palmetto is a Florida native and found in large populations growing along the state’s east coast. It’s a seed mutation of the Green Saw Palmetto and shares all its green cousin’s hardy qualities although the fronds are a showy silvery-blue color instead of green. This beautiful variety of saw palmetto is highly prized by palm collectors due to its rarity. The extremely long-living, low-growing, evergreen palmetto averages around 5 to 10 feet tall with a spread of 4 to 10 feet, forming dense, clumping spreads of constant color. 

Although typically shielded by the dense canopy of silvery-blue fronds, the stout, brown hairy trunks develop into multiples as the palm ages. The brown fibers make the palmetto cold-hardy, protecting it from severe temperatures. Trunks eventually creep across the ground, giving the palmetto a unique appearance. 

The dense canopy fills with deeply cut, stiff, silvery-blue, fan-shaped fronds that grow around 3 feet wide, and fronds are lined with saw-like teeth. In springtime, 3-foot flower stalks form containing fragrant yellow blooms, which attract beneficial pollinators like butterflies and bees. Small berries form after the flowers fade, ripen and turn black in fall, attracting birds and small mammals.

Silver Saw Palmettos fulfill a variety of needs within the landscape. Besides growing well in pots situated on a porch or patio, they make lush ground covers, their dense growth works well to add privacy growing as a shrub or screen, used to naturalize an area or as understory plants, as well as in pollinator or wildlife gardens. The silvery foliage contrasts well with green foliaged plants and can make the garden area pop. Since they retain their gorgeous and robust silvery-blue good looks no matter the season, you won’t go wrong wherever you decide to use them. 

Is it Cold-Hardy in My Area?

With its stiff silvery-blue fronds and hairy trunk, you can’t beat the Silver Saw Palmetto for cold hardiness. It grows year-round in USDA zones 7 through 11, tolerating temperatures down to 10℉. However, it’s slightly less cold-hardy than its green cousin the Green Saw Palmetto but only by a few degrees. This makes it a suitable and attractive addition to landscapes that aren’t consistently warm. 

You can always give the palmetto a bit of protection if harsh weather conditions are on the horizon. Covering the palmetto with a sheet or blanket also helps with protection. Add some nightly color to your outdoor space by stringing some holiday lights throughout the Silver Saw Palmetto’s canopy. 

How Big Does It Get?

Silver Saw Palmettos are slow-growing (a rate of about 1" per year) so it’s going to take a while for them to reach their mature size of 5 to 10 feet tall and 4 to 10 feet wide. This makes them great selections for containers or anywhere you desire a low-growing ground cover or mass planting. 

How Much Sun Does It Require?

The Silver Saw Palmetto is quite versatile in its preferred light conditions, as it thrives planted in full sun to a location in shade. This makes it a great asset to use in a location that’s too shady for a lot of plants. 

What About Soil and Water?

Another great quality about the Silver Saw Palmetto is that it grows in a wealth of different soil types including Georgia clay. It prefers soils that range from dry to occasionally wet. 

When it comes to water requirements, the palmetto is highly tolerant to drought and will thrive on only rainfall once established. However, after planting and for the first few months while it’s establishing itself in the landscape, water regularly. 

Is It Easy to Maintain?

The Silver Saw Palm is the plant for you if you’d rather relax in your outdoor space than spend all your time doing garden maintenance. You’ll find you only have to prune off completely dead and brown fronds. However, the stems are sharp, wear gloves whenever you do have to work around the palmetto. 

What About Fertilizing?

Silver Saw Palmettos have very low needs when it comes to fertilizing. In fact, it will continue to look fabulous and produce hardy growth if you don’t feed it anything at all. However, you can fertilize with a high-quality palm blend in spring or summer. Follow the package directions on amounts and be sure to water in well after applying.