The palmettos Serenoa repens and Sabal etonia are crucial foundation species in many peninsular Florida vegetative associations. We monitored the survival and growth of individual palmetto seedlings using two cohorts found in different vegetative associations. Seedling cohorts containing both S. repens and S. etonia were individually tagged in 1989 and have been monitored until 2008, a period of 19 years. One cohort (N = 100 seedlings) occurs in a xeric, “inopina-phase” scrubby flatwoods and a second cohort (N =78 seedlings) lives in a well-drained, “wiregrass-phase” flatwoods. The soils at both sites are very nutrient-poor Entisols that show rapid permeability, low available-water capacity, and acidic pH. In addition to experiencing the seasonal and highly variable annual precipitation patterns typical of peninsular Florida, these cohorts endured a severe and prolonged drought during 2000-2001 as well as an intense fire storm at the height of this drought. The survivorship of palmetto seedlings has been remarkable with 57% of the flatwoods cohort and 35% of the scrubby flatwoods cohort surviving from 1989 until 2008. In spite of their high survival, the seedlings experienced minimal height and crown width increases during the 19-year study. The mean increase in height from 1989 to 2008 for the flatwoods cohort was a very modest average gain of <0.5 cm per year and that of scrubby flatwoods was ~0.3 cm per year. Serenoa and Sabal seedlings show extraordinary persistence and tolerance but at a cost of exceptionally slow growth rates. These data suggest that (1) the transition from seedlings to reproductive palmettos in nutrient-poor Florida uplands takes multiple decades if not a century, and suggest that (2) the restoration of palmettos as a foundation species in disturbed sites will require considerable time and/or restoration effort.