There are, but they need mostly shade. Lots of rainforest palms will take decades to get over 15'. My suggestion would be use small trees instead. Palms can't be controlled as to height whereas small trees can. And once the small trees are in place, your friend can plant as many small rainforest palms as they like.

I have a different experience because I too have planting beds within my pool cage. I rarely get anything in the pool and have several dwarf banana trees, pigmy date palms, numerous bromeliads and other trees and shrubs, ground orchids, ferns and greenery. The only nuisance I have had is that for a while I had a lot of impatiens, and when those flower petals got onto my pool deck, they were a pain to have to be picking up, and if I didn't pick them up they would eventually stain the pavers. Needless to say they have been removed. I also have had no problems with bugs being drawn into the pool cage. I do have a nice little set of tiny lizards that are entertaining to watch when they blow out their red necks to attract a mate!

Short list of some good ones....Spindles, bottles, saw palmetto, Dwarf sugar palm (Arenga engleri), Lady palm(Rhapis humilis, florida thatch palm (thronax radiata), and the common bamboo palm found at hardware stores. Happy hunting.

Before you put Spindles and Bottle palms in the pool cage, look at these, in the ground only 9 years:

They're not palms but I've seen pool enclosures that had split leaf philodendron planted in them and they looked really good.

Licuala grandis does well under a pool screen if you are in zone 10 - the screen produces enough shade. You could also use a clustering palm and then cut the tallest parts out when they become too tall.

I have Christmas palms in pots in the screen cage, they keep smaller that way for a longer time. When they get too big I take them out, and replace them. Small ones are cheap to buy as well. The old ones I plant some where in the ground.

I recently purchased a home in Florida. The caged pool area has 2 circular planting areas that were constructed as pard of pool & deck area. The former owner planted Robellini palms in each one. The palms are now 12+ ft tall & the root ball fills the entire planting area. I would like to remove them but am concerned that the pool could be damaged by trying to dig the root balls out. Any suggestions for removing them?

Michael Tyson. We'd have to see the layout to see what you're talking about. The only way to remove them without harming your deck area is to chop them off at ground level and use stump remover to dissolve the stumps.