Palms take commitment. Some of the most popular grow too big for their situations. Most grow so tall that only arborists can maintain them. None are conducive to pruning to limit their natural height. Individual palm trunks rely on their single terminal buds, which grow only upward. Diversion is not an option for any palm that encroach into electrical cables.

Windmill palm, Trachycarpus fortunei, is one of the more complaisant of palms. It can not grow around utility cables, but otherwise does not grow obtrusively big. Young trees can grow fast to fifteen feet tall, but then grow slowly to double their height. Only a few elderly trees grow as tall as forty feet. Their foliar canopies are generally less than ten feet wide.

Trunks of windmill palms are distinctively shaggy. Pruning dead fronds as closely to their trunk as possible promotes a neater appearance. Because growth decelerates with age, trunk shag is typically wider higher up. Trunks are about half a foot wide, but seem twice as wide since they are so shaggy. Gathering seed from pollinated female trees is simple.