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Definitely closely related but not looking the same to me

The bottom 3 got toasted for me last winter in Lithia .Young plants though 3-7gal. And planted in open areas

PJ You own these monsters in FTL? Wow. Congratulations to you on your patience. Damn. It's a beautiful plant, but damn it requires a lot of work. May I ask what the purpose of 0-0-22 fertilizer is? I just looked it up, and I see that it doesn't contain the usual N-P-K. Instead it contains other elements that the plant needs. Is that right? Why not just buy the magnesium or manganese on its own, for example?? And do you apply both fertilizers every 90 days?

Thank you all for your suggestions. Then, likely an unusual branching Washingtonia filifera var. robusta. When returning back at the botanical garden I will check the presence or not of spines on the petiole and the depth of the leaf's division to rule out or not the possibility of a Livistona decora.

These are what our temps are looking like next week I am just so sick of this cold. I know this is extended forecast it can always be unaccurate but if this is true I swear my entire garden is probably gonna be dead😢😢

Thank you Phenikakias for shedding light on the specific physiological requirements of P. sylvestris.

When this whole episode is done, I'll be curious about how the list of palms below perform in central Florida. For years, I've heard how much cold they could tolerate. I've planted them all based on this but still doubt they can tolerate the worst a 9b winter can throw at you. This isn't the worst but bad enough to be a good test. These weren't as widely planted back in 2010 so this is the first real, widespread test in a multitude of locations and conditions. Beccariophoenix alfredii Chambeyronia macrocarpa Chambeyronia (Kentiopsis) oliviformis Chrysalidocarpus (Dypsis) pembana

Cold and Drrrrryyyyyyyy..may as well be a winter night in Afghanistan.

What’s everybody in the US doing to protect their heliconias this week?

Others will chime in but my preference has always been, if it's going to drop below freezing, give me no wind. I'll take the frost. Radiational freezes can be fought with canopy, covers, localized heat etc. If it's going to stay above 32F, give me wind. That keeps the frost away at those marginal temps. Wind below freezing in Florida is the worst case scenario.

30.6F here today versus a local airport temp of 35. The frost is a bit heavier and built from about 7 to 8. I'd still call it "medium" frost but nowhere close to snowlike. The forecast for Sunday morning is still 24, so there's a really good chance I'll hit 20F. I need to get out and take a bunch of pictures on Saturday so I can see a before-after comparison. Here's a couple of photos of the backyard yesterday morning: At the moment the only burned stuff is cycads, some of which will lightly burn at 30F with frost. Repeated frosts did do "cumulative damage" but really it looks like we just had a single 27-28F frost. The only one that took really progressively more and more damage is the Bottle on the right of the top photo. The first frost burnt it 20% or so...then 50%, then 100%. There's another about 5 feet to the right of the photo and it's burnt about 80%. @sonoranfans I wanted to get your thoughts on this...initially I've always thought "frost causes the worst damage." That's because in CA I've read a lot of 28-35F reports with minimal damage, and the same palm in a 30F frost event is torched here in FL. My assumption is that the frost was a damage multiplier, and that windy cold fronts were not as damaging. However...I realized this morning that I don't think I've actually had a windy sub-30F cold front here. At least I haven't recorded one and don't remember it. Most of my palms and cycads are hardy to around 30F anyway, so I probably wouldn't have even noticed it. One thing I did notice is that windy cold fronts near freezing tend to burn things like the Ficus Auriculata and the Seagrapes from top to bottom...where a still frosty one just burns the top leaves to a crisp. With all that said, what do you think of this as a rule of thumb to stick in my mind? "Frosty still cold fronts burn the top, exposed leaves and exposed buds, but it's generally cosmetic damage unless severe. Windy cold fronts burn *all* the fronds top to bottom, and are more damaging to understory palms and more likely to cause trunk damage or kill the bud." Canopy is great protection against frost, but not against a windy 25F. Way too wordy, but it's what happens on a Friday morning when I'm tired!!!

I fertilize mine every 90days with 8-2-12 and minors 0-0-22. I have several 15ft trees and several in the 7-15 gallon size. I can’t seem to help myself and always pick up a few each year. 2 of my big palm live in a 400 gallon plastic tub with a large aquarium heater. I wanted to experiment and see how they would do when they were 15 gallon size in submerged water. Well 5 years later they are now in 65 gallon pots. I just rescued a large one however it’s in a pot and I have to decide what to do with it next. I’m in Fort Lauderdale and agree with everyone as it gets cold you have to protect. I rub outdoor mounted electric heaters for the 2 in pond. The one in the large pot I move via skid steer onto my covered deck and run a gas outdoor heater.

Here she is!

thank you; this is encouraging to hear. I will take a couple of extra protective measures. the hardest part is realizing that I can't save everything, so it's making the decision of what to keep and what is on its own. I don't think we've had this severe cold since the 1980s. Even in 2010, there were many survivors. I know it's going to look like a bomb went off a couple of weeks from now....but if there is life still, I can tolerate the look until spring.

11C / 52F here at midday. The past 3 weeks have been very mild and VERY wet. Nights have been pretty mild. Phenomenal cold coming to Ukraine and parts of eastern Europe. The war over there will have to wind down for the next few weeks as it is just too cold to fight. If you think it is cold where you are in parts of the mid-West and east coast of the USA, well… Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, is expecting close to -30C / -22F. There will be at least 2 consecutive nights of -26C / -15F with daytime maximums of -17C / 2F. That is close to the all-time record there. And many places have no electricity or heating due to infrastructure damage. The Met Office are forecasting -29C / -20F on Sunday night. The all-time record minimum at London St James Park for comparison is -10.0C / 14F in February 1929. So Kyiv’s daytime maximum will be significantly colder than that!!! Kyiv is also slightly lower latitude/closer to the equator as well at 50N vs 51N for London. So absolutely brutal cold for them guys. In fact Kyiv’s minimum on Sunday night may be colder than the UK’s all time record, which is only -27C.

I try to germinate seeds of Caryota obtusa, Livistona drudei, Chamaedorea tepejilote and Wallichia densiflora. If I get more germinated seeds from each sp, I can spare some dor you too.

Low 30s i woudlnt even bother protecting the chambetronia major carpal or hookeri. They do fine for me into the high 20s up here north of tampa. Only damage I've seen was hitting 27 a month after planting it it wasn't happy but recovered.

Unfortunately when you live in a warmer climate, the temp threshold for vegetative damage is higher. I have broms in about 30 genera and few if any are damaged above freezing because they're subjected to a slower and steady drop in temps beginning in late November. You're change from warmth to cold is more abrupt. That said, the broms should be fine. This cold won't be anywhere near 1989 levels. Think 1996 or 2010 instead.

I planted this Caryota inside my greenhouse years ago. I forget what species it is. Its gotten pretty large over the years. I was up on my ladder taking a photo of my Arachnis orchid and took a photo of one of the fronds from above. Is it possible to ID the species from the frond?

Palmetto? Tom, if you drop below 35-37F there, I'll be shocked. Along with Anna Maria, that area is one of thee warmest areas north of Ft. Myers. You should do fine. The heat is coming I promise 😄.

Mine emerge yellow and turn pink as they age

The update here is that my northern sourced needle palm from Northeast Ohio did indeed survive winter 2024-2025 with only covering. The pups grew during the summer. The main trunk seemed to perish but may have put out a smidge of growth by summers end. I covered it again and will see what our -4F to date cold did to it in a couple of months. I planted 2 Fayetteville washies grown from seed in my front yard (both about 2 feet tall at planting). They flourished. I decided not to try to elaborate protection, so they are RIP.

Been busy at work this whole week and no time to do anything about this, but I am taking tomorrow off to try and protect some plants seeing that Saturday and Sunday nights will be the coldest down here in east Fort Lauderdale. Lowest could be 31-34 but the apparent temperature "feels like" 26-28. As far as plants are concerned, are we talking about low 30s or high 20s? I think I will have to leave the 30'-50' tall palms on their own, just no way for me to protect them except to saturate the soil around them with water before hand. I am going to bring in all potted plants and all hanging orchids. But I will have to figure something out for the few dozens of orchids that are mounted on trees as well as smaller palms and about 150 or so crotons and could use some advice from those with experience doing this. for in ground smaller plants 4' or less planted in a row next to a 6' tall wood fence, will it help if I construct a tarp where the top attaches to the top of fence, and it's stretched to the ground at say a 45 degree angle, and where it meets the ground I use landscape fabric pins to tie it to the ground. Basically making a triangle tent consisting one side wood fence, the other side a sheet of plastic tarp, and do that along the entire 75' long fence. Will this protect the plants inside the tarp? I doubt it will make it warmer, but it might help with the wind. Just not sure if this is going to move the needle, thoughts? I have a number of smaller palms and I think some are small enough I can cover them with a plastic bin or trash can. Can someone advice which of the following are most cold sensitive and I will protect them first in case I run out of time. These are all planted in the ground. Licuala cordata Hydriastele beguinii Obi Island Licuala grandis Ptychosperma elegans Lisa Caryota mitis variegated Licuala lauterbachii Licuala lauterbachii var. bougainvillensis Chamaedorea deckeriana Areca vestiaria Chambeyronia macrocarpa Chambeyronia hookeri Licuala ferruginea Ptychosperma schefferi I have a Hydriastele beguinii Obi Island palm that is 12' tall. If I wrap it in tarp should I bundle the fronds and wrap them up top or wrap the trunk or both?

I am guessing at least a few of those new sprouts are full tropical that will need the protection at least for the first few winters. Harry