"How much is a palm tree?" is a question with two very different answers, because there are two very different products: a palm dropped in your driveway, and a palm standing in your yard, staked and watered in. From Sarasota and Bradenton up through St. Petersburg and Tampa, here is what separates them, what drives the price, and how our quotes are built.
Delivered only: what you get
A delivered palm arrives on a truck and is set at the curb, in the driveway or, if the ground is firm and the gate is wide enough, near the hole. For container palms up to 15 gallons that is a plant you can move with a hand truck and set yourself. For a field-grown Sylvester, sabal or Canary Island date palm, the root ball is wrapped in burlap, weighs several hundred to several thousand pounds, and needs a machine to move it the last thirty feet. Delivered pricing makes sense when you have your own crew or equipment, when you are a landscaper buying in volume, or when you are planting a few small palms in an afternoon.
Delivered and planted: what changes
Delivered-and-planted covers everything between the truck and the finished bed: marking the spot, digging a hole sized to the root ball, setting the palm plumb, backfilling and watering it in to remove air pockets, staking a field-grown palm with braces that do not nail into the trunk, forming a watering ring, and hauling away the spoils and the burlap. It also means the palm was handled correctly, which matters more than people realize. A palm dragged by its crown, dropped on its root ball or planted too deep can look fine for months and die in the first summer. When we plant it, we control the handling from the truck to the hole.
Prices are quoted by size
Palms and trees are quoted by size. For queen palms, sabals and Washingtonias that usually means overall height. For Sylvester and Canary Island date palms it means feet of clear trunk, because the trunk is the part you are paying for. Container palms are quoted by the container: 3-gallon, 7-gallon, 15-gallon and up. Two palms that look similar from the road can be a foot of clear trunk apart and hundreds of dollars apart, so when you compare quotes, compare the size line first.
For the smaller plants that usually go in with a palm, our delivered-and-planted pricing runs about $25 per 3-gallon, $50 per 7-gallon and $110 per 15-gallon, with volume pricing at 50 and 100 plants. Every order carries a $500 minimum, and addresses outside our Cape Coral home area carry a trip charge, which for Sarasota, Manatee, Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco County jobs we quote by county. Prices may differ, so request a quote for your exact number.
What moves the installed price up or down
- ✓Size and weight. The step from a 6-foot to a 10-foot clear-trunk Sylvester is a step from a skid steer to a bigger machine, and sometimes to a crane.
- ✓Access. A backyard reached through a 36-inch gate, a screened pool cage, or a soft lawn after a week of rain changes how the palm gets to the hole. Wide side yards and driveways keep the price down.
- ✓Site work. Removing an old palm or stump, cutting out pavers or irrigation, or amending a shell-and-fill hole on a waterfront lot in St. Petersburg or Apollo Beach adds labor.
- ✓Quantity. Three palms on one trip are cheaper per palm than three separate trips. Group your planting.
- ✓Distance. The trip charge is real and it scales with the drive, which is why Tampa Bay is quoted by county rather than one flat number.
What happens after we leave
A planted palm needs water. Field-grown palms want frequent watering for the first several weeks and then a taper over the first few months, and the watering ring keeps that water on the root ball rather than the lawn. Stakes come off after the palm has rooted in, usually within the first year. Fertilizer starts after the palm has settled, with a palm-specific blend rather than lawn fertilizer.
When to plant
Palms root fastest in warm soil, so spring through early fall is the best window for a field-grown Sylvester, queen or Washingtonia across Tampa Bay. Sabal palms are the exception and go in almost any month. Winter installs are fine on the coast but take longer to establish inland, and a freshly planted palm has less cold tolerance than an established one, so a November planting in Brandon or Wesley Chapel should be covered on the first hard freeze. Plan the install so the palm has one full growing season before its first winter when you can.
A realistic example
A homeowner in Lakewood Ranch wants a pair of Sylvester palms flanking the driveway plus a row of 7-gallon podocarpus along the side line. The palms are quoted by clear-trunk height. The podocarpus at $50 each, with the count set by spacing, is added to the same quote, and because both go on one trip the Manatee County trip charge is paid once. That is the difference between calling for a palm and calling for a plan. Our palms page shows the varieties we deliver and plant across Tampa Bay.
Questions to ask any installer
- ✓Is the price by clear trunk or overall height?
- ✓Is staking included, and how is the palm braced?
- ✓Who is responsible if the palm arrives damaged?
- ✓Is the trip charge in the number?
- ✓Is the old palm removal, if any, on the quote?
Get an installed price from the Tampa Bay team
Our Tampa Bay crew delivers and plants palms from Sarasota, Venice and Bradenton up through Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Wesley Chapel and Spring Hill. Send the address, the palm you want and the size through our quote form, or call or text (239) 799-5594 and we will send a delivered-and-planted number by county.