Yes — the plant in the **last photo** is definitely a **palm seedling**, but I don’t think it’s a **date palm**. It looks much more like a young **fan palm**, most likely **Trachycarpus fortunei**, commonly called **Chusan palm** or **windmill palm**. ## Why it’s probably not a date palm Date palms — **Phoenix dactylifera** — usually start with long, narrow, strap-like leaves and later develop feather-like fronds. Your seedling has **pleated, fan-shaped leaves**, which points much more towards a **fan palm**, especially Trachycarpus. These often self-seed in UK gardens if there is a mature palm nearby. So unless you’ve definitely thrown date stones exactly there, I’d say this is more likely to have come from a nearby ornamental palm seed than from dates you’ve eaten. ## Is it worth keeping? Yes, if you like palms. **Trachycarpus fortunei is one of the hardiest palms for UK gardens** and can eventually make a lovely architectural plant. However, I’d move it from where it is now because it looks close to a fence/wall. Given time, it will want space. ## What to do now in October ### If you want to keep it: - Carefully lift it with as much root as possible. - Pot it into a deep pot, as palms often make surprisingly long roots when young. - Use a free-draining compost — peat-free multipurpose mixed with some grit/perlite is fine. - Keep it sheltered over winter, ideally against a wall, in a cold greenhouse, or somewhere frost-protected. - Keep it just lightly moist, not wet. Then plant it out in spring or early summer when the soil is warming. ### If you leave it in the ground: - Add a light mulch around it, but don’t bury the stem. - Protect it with fleece if hard frost is forecast. - Avoid waterlogging over winter. ## What about the other photos? Just to recap from your photos: - **Photo 1:** Hypericum / St John’s wort - **Photo 2:** Tulbaghia violacea / society garlic - **Photo 3:** Your heat-scorched low hedge, likely Euonymus - **Photo 4:** Drought-stressed lawn - **Photo 5:** Young palm seedling, likely Trachycarpus fortunei So the “seedlings” you’re seeing are not likely to be date palms — they’re probably **self-sown hardy palm seedlings**. If there’s a mature palm anywhere nearby, that would explain it.