Just keep in mind that it is illegal to dig Needles in Florida as they are endangered... it is possible to get caught! There are places around here where you can purchase them. Sabal Minors on the other hand are about anywhere near the swampy woods. If you're going to dig a Sabal... get a small one and dig a circle around it and lift it out with all of the dirt and it will transplant without any shock. Bring a 3 gallon pot with you to put it in. I've dug them before with no problems or shock that way. The big ones, if disturbed, will require a lot of care and it's a 50-50 shot at it living. I have some in 3 gallon pots and some seeds in small pots as well. There are thousands of them right down the road from me.

Here is a link that might be useful: They have nice Needle Palms here

1 more thing... I'm on the way to Tampa... if you want to get with me... I'll show you where there are some beautiful Sabal Minors growing and there are some small ones that can be dug right beside the road, near a small creek. I can help you.

as jay said get the ones by the creek because these things have some very long roots !

This comment is directed to "palmetto-pal": If you are affluent enough to own a computer, you are affluent enough to purchase palms from reputable nurseries rather than raping native ecosystems of their vegetation. It is morally reprehensible for you to propose the removal of plants from public rights-of-way and, thus, to deprive your fellow man of the natural beauty that is there for all of us to enjoy. Furthermore, it is theft to remove plants from private property unless you have first gotten permission from the property owner to remove plants.

Palmetto-pal, don't risk the ire of palm lovers that object to your collecting specimens in the wild. The two palms you mentioned are readily available from native plant nurseries. Try www.mailordernatives.com, they are located in the panhandle of Florida but will ship.

Honestly, save your time and effort and just buy one online. Please be a bit more ecologically and morally responsible and don't harvest native plants from their ecosystems -- Even if you manage to get one out of the ground, the chance of it surviving is slim especially since winter will likely hit before the palm has time to recover from any shock.

I do agree with the "buy instead" idea. There are however, some around that will end up being destroyed. I saw some today in a area that has just been sold and they are going to start clearing that area... hundreds of Sabal Minors will be destroyed. The ones in the woods need to be left alone, but on occasion you'll see some in a place they should not have grown (not that it's the palms fault, but rather location!)because it will end up being destroyed by development. I wish Florida had more state parks and so forth to help protect these kind of places from such development.

palmetto-gal dont' fret over digging up one in the wild in fact that is exactly where your local nursery has gotten their stock from! Because they are very slow growing from seed and the nurseries then can't keep enough larger specimens in stock they buy their stock from a source that digs them from the wild. Also since they are invasive and spread so easy it will cause no harm to the eco system it came from. People just don't like the idea of digging up something from the wild but if no one did that then modern plants and species would not be available for us to purchase. now with that said, a container grown palmetto will have a better chance of survival than one from the wild but if given the right conditions you will have them popping up all over your yard. It would be nice if you transplanted those newbies either back where you got the first one from or at least back in the wild. I'm from Louisiana and these palms grow everywhere here! I have transplanted a few into my own yard as well and since I live near where I dug them up they are still in their native habitat.

First you need to consider how much these palms are worth to you Correctly digging up anything but a tiny (IÂm talking has 2 or 3 strap leaves) Sabal minor is a huge pain in the butt, and there are legal consequences of rogue collecting. However if you do happen to find an appropriate place to dig some, here are my experiences. WellÂ, let me first preface this by saying you should stop at every home depot on your way to FL and look for the cold hardy palms in blue pots. I have been buying nice 3 gallon needle palms for $13, $13!!! They also have some S. minors at the same price. Granted, the whole reason for collecting wild minors is that the ones usually available to purchase are a dinky western strain. Here in eastern NC we have some really large minors growing locally. (You can buy one, check plantdelights.com "oriental giant") Land being cleared for development is a prime place for guilt free (not legal without permission) digging of wild plants. The probability that the plants you dig will survive is low, but it is even lower under a walmart parking lot. If you do have permission to dig on land that is not being cleared, or are going to go renegade and dig the first place you see some plants in the woods, you can do it without being too destructive. The small young minors grow at a higher density than the adults can, and eventually crowd each other out as they grow. If you take a dozen of the small strap leaved plants out of a relatively tightly packed group, you will do less damage than grabbing just one mature plant. The larger palmettos can be hundreds of years old, and are so well rooted that they are impossible to move by hand without killing them. If you do find yourself on land that will soon be a strip mall, here is what I have found when transplanting. The smaller the palm the better chance of success you will have, period. These palmettos have a trunk like a normal palm, but it is underground. Unlike your normal palm, the roots donÂt come out of the bottom of the trunk. Starting slightly under the surface of the soil, the roots come out of the upper portion of the "trunk" and the bottom of the trunk ends in kind of a rounded rootless bulb. (the bigger the plant the deeper the trunk) If you dig too close to where the fronds are coming out of the ground, you will chop off all of the roots. With this said, unless you dig a huge rootball, you are going to chop off most of the roots. These plants send out very long roots in all directions. The less of the original root system you get with your plant, the more fronds you are going to have to cut off to compensate. If you donÂt get the entire "trunk" or damage any part of it, you have killed that plant. As you are taking these plants on a road trip, for larger ones (plants with palmate leaves and heavy root loss), I suggest you cut off all leaves but the newest growing spear. You will also have to keep these plants very wet for your ride home, and donÂt let them come close to drying out for at least the first year in the ground. When the roots are damaged this plant has to start growing new roots out of the trunk, and canÂt repair the damaged old ones. Healthy minors grow painfully slow, and transplanted ones (if they do manage to survive) even slower. A great success would be if your plants put out one leaf before winter. In reality, the ones that don't die will maybe show some visible sign of the spear growing a few inches this year while they try to grow some new roots. If you didnÂt cut enough fronds off, the remaining leaves will start to turn yellow and crispy, any you will have to start cutting them off. There is a fine balance of leaving enough leaves for the plant to photosynthesize, and leaving too many for the weakened root system to support. If the spear pulls, even if there are still green leaves on the plant, consider it dead. It might recover, but chances are really slim. Collect some seeds, or tiny grass like seedlings as an insurance policy, and in 10 years you will have something that looks like a palm.

Good luck and watch out for the lawÂ