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Unless the Royal is really small, they seem to be pretty tough. There are a bunch around the Sanford area that survived many years of frosts in the upper 20s and at least one ~25F and all survived. The only thing that finally killed a big batch of them was a chainsaw during construction of a new business complex... I've seen some completely defoliated and grow right back literally a couple of weeks later. It is already sub-40 here with not too high winds but occasional huge gusts. I went around today and took about 210 photos of the yard and all the plants. Most things I did not attempt to cover, being either too big to try, or already known to be really tough, or already burnt to a crisp from previous 27-30F frosts this winter. I did put boxes over 2 small Coryphas, my grown-from-seed Arenga Westerhoutii, a couple of small Arenga Hookeriana, and a couple of Philodendron "Evansii". I moved my small nursery area into the garage on top of a single folding table. I just remembered that I was going to cover a small Attalea Butyracea and Phalerata though...time to get out there before having dinner! Darwin's gonna sort it all out, right @kinzyjr?

I did have one encouraging thought...generally my house is 2 to 5F colder than the airport. But that's only on still nights. On previous windy cold fronts my house was pretty close to the airport, i.e. within 1 or 2 degrees. So I was assuming 25 at the airport = 20-23F here. But with the wind maybe that really means I'll end up near 25. Almost everything here already survived that with frost, so hopefully it'll all survive 25ish with wind! I suppose I'll find out in a few hours...

That 100 on there looks good right about now lol.

This is how we garden in South Texas. lol

We just published a new 2026 research update on lethal bronzing that explains what may actually be happening inside the palm — something that hasn’t been formally published before. Not a cure, but real progress. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18027736

You read my mind. This is going to be historic for east Florida. If the forecast holds, it will break all time records for the coldest temperatures on the space and treasure coasts for the month of February. Just wrapped up my coconut palm and my Dypsis baronii. I'm using a heated blanket to cover the heart of my coconut palm and Christmas lights and blankets to cover the cores as much as I can.

100%. If you zoom in, the HRRR is showing ~31-32° on the barrier islands. Whatever algorithm that pics up the city temps tends to be +/- 2° from what I can tell.

In an effort to see how much cold these spawns of satan can handle I devised a very scientific experiment to preform in them. I caught 3 South American palm weevils put them each in a tube and placed one in my freezer at 0f, one in my refrigerator at 35f and one in a cooler with ice and salt and was able to hold the temperature between 26-28f. Here are the results… freezer at 0f for 1 hour (dead) refrigerator at 35f for 12 hours (alive) 40 hours (alive) salt / ice at 26-28f for 12 hours (alive) 40 hours (still alive) not a great outcome being that those temps would do a bunch of damage on its own.

While we bundle up for the next two cold nights, with flurries coming down in the Panhandle, I thought I’d throw us back to Florida State University (Tallahassee) from this time last January. It was the most surreal, fever dream-like couple of days in the 8 years I’ve lived in North Florida, but thankfully I had my snow gear from a trip to Appalachia a few weeks earlier. I wish I had kept more accurate records of cold damage to marginal species around here (as I had done in 2022/3 after a dry trip to 19F at TLH), but in my honest opinion, the snow acted as an insulator and the damage was not as bad as I had expected. TLH weather station bottomed out at 22F on the 23rd. Torn between summer and winter? Just cross the street! Lots of scenes like this in the thawing days. well played … well played ……

Oh absolutely. Plants are easy to dig out for the most part but I was mostly referring to palm trees. Digging out a 30 foot tall Washie requires more than just a pair of gloves, a shovel and a six pack of beer. Ask people what it costs to remove mature palm trees . Something that every palm grower needs to understand including myself because it isn't always the cold that kills a palm. Diseases are also a real concern . But yes , you only live once lol.

My students and I have been landscaping our school for 40 years and we have a long-tested collection of Sabal palms. I thought that people in zone 8* would be interested in what can be grown long term. The coldest temps these palms have experienced is low teens. I will add more pics if people are interested. The list: S. causiarum, S. minor, S. tamaulipensis, S. rosei, S. x texensis, S. uresana (green and silver), S. pumos, S. bermudana, S. mexicana, S. etonia, S. palmetto Lisa. (4 years old). Added last summer: S. blackburniana, S. miamiensis. In our area, S. palmetto reseeds like crazy. S. minor is native and common in low lying areas. Rhapidophyllum and Serenoa are native about 1 hour south of town. Pictures in order top to bottom: S. causiarum, S. uresana (silver), S. tamaulipensis, S. Lisa, S. Riverside, S. palmetto

HRRR (18z) seems to show a ‘worst case’ scenario with model runs materially cooler than the NWS prediction for both tomorrow and Monday AM. As always, go with the professionals, but will be interesting to see how certain models perform. Good luck, everyone.

Most of the year it is. Thankfully the freezes are short lived - usually less than 8 hours and rarely multiple times in a winter. We've only been below 40°F three nights this winter with the one freeze. But it only takes one extreme event to wreak havoc.

Best of luck to you. There's a Fiji Dwarf in Harlingen, Texas that I have defoliated and wrapped with a canvas painter's tarp each of the last 4 years hitting 27°F each year. So far so good. Here's pics from last winter.

What’s the lowest low anyone has ever pushed a tribear?

PLEASE don't export them to Arizona...🤦 Most of the big box stores and Moon valley stocks come from So CAL... When crossing the border headed west between Arizona and California, there is a no negotiation border check point entering California. Used to be in Arizona laws too, but not anymore... 5,4,3,2,1 💥 aztropic Mesa, Arizona

So I know that you were not happy with me and my comments before but this is exactly what I was trying to convey. I was not trying to hurt your feelings or be unsupportive of your ventures. I was simply advising you of the harsh reality of nature. Nature does not care what mankind has described a region to be or that a general trend of warm temperatures is a sign of some sort of absolute minimum temperature. This type of thing happens and will continue to happen. I have (as well as many others) seen this occur several times in my lifetime and have come to the realization that Florida is not immune to intense arctic cold fronts, especially at the worst possible time. Planting tropical palm trees in Florida is always a risk as is any zone pushing. If you want to grow coconuts and similar palms, that’s great but they will never be viable long term in North Florida. And as you can see, even Central Florida is not a sure thing. At this point, there are people in South Florida who are worried because they have super tropical stuff like Areca Vestiaria and Cyrtostachys Renda in the ground. So they have been zone pushing too and it had been working out due to the moderate winters. But it had risk all along just like growing Coconuts and Adonidia in Jacksonville. Wrap your plants, add lights, move what you can indoors and hope for the best. But if your plants die, you will always be able to replace them. It just depends on whether you want to continue spending money on temporary plants.

There will be damage but I bet most will recover.

HI All, long time lurker, first time poster. Thought I'd post some new growth to keep you going through your quiet season. Cycas Thouarsii Emerging leaf on a Ferox I removed the old leaves when the new leaves started flushing on this Lehmanii as they were 3 seasons old and a bit shabby. Plant had coned 3 seasons in a row and only put flushes on puppies which I removed this past winter. More puppies already showing again can be seen on the caudex. Cycas Petraea coming along.

Yep I have a few photos I'll try and dig around and fine them. Not a ton but three that I know of.

You have a beautiful landscape already. Once the palm settles in it will be a nice finishing touch.

Yep. I have a friend in NC and it's 12"+ and STILL snowing. I'm sure they are not equipped for that kind of snow.

Size really matters. That's a big TRi bear; hard to believe a (hopefully) short event could take it down. In 2007 we had a brutal low 20's event that lasted about 5 days. (Nightime temps). I lost lots of small stuff, but nothing established . Best of luck, I know it's stressful..

Update . Took this picture this afternoon. Not much green left anymore.

Besides Queen palms , Foxtail palms are also my favorite. I wonder if I should try grow one in a pot hmm. I know palms in pots never look as beautiful as the one growing in the ground. Keep us up to date with your Foxtail please. You should be fine.

Snow flurries coming down in Tallahassee, I’m told. On my way back from Orlando, which has been giving much grayer, duller vibes than I’m used to. Hang in there, everyone! The wind is gonna do a number.

Looks good! Those Phoenix roebelenii might get badly bronzed/fried tonight but they should come back. They're pretty bud hardy.

Yeah and the app i was using that implied that Colorado was warmer than Corpus was a bust, as the next day it was totally wrong! Oh well, this cold wave hitting Florida this weekend is no laughing matter for many in those parts. Meanwhile, ice still exists in shady areas even here in Dallas, New York and the NE in general are looking to break below freezing duration days record. Big bummer for any hopes of palm lined New Jersey shores or such. Some of these records go back as long as records being kept. I remember a TV show about global warming in the 80s speculating whether NYC would have a climate balmy enough for such scenes in 50 years and me at the time scoffing at! I don't think it will ever be in our lifetimes 40 plus years later!

Foxtails are absolutely hardier than royals. In last year's 28F event here in Brownsville, every royal had substantial leaf damage. None were killed (that I'm aware of) including smaller ones, but no Foxtails in the immediate vicinity except the very small ones had any damage at all.

Some of the stuff I didn't cover last weekend (Austin TX area) looks just like that. P. Sylvestris, Washie Robusta, and a few others. I had upper teens two nights in a row and was sub-freezing for ~ 60 hours, with piles of sleet that took 6 days to melt (in the shade). Last year in a similar cold snap they froze, pulled the spears, etc, but they came back fine. This year I protected more stuff and better. I used reflective bubble sheet insulation, pots, and mulch. Here's what it looked like this morning (2nd cold snap in a week). The one pic is a small P. sylvestris, the same one that spear pulled last year with barely any protection. This time I cut off a few older leaves, mulched up to the spear. The leaves are already beyond crispy from last week, but the meristem will be fine, and that's really all that matters. I know it will be fine because I pulled the mulch back for a 48 hour period where we finally stayed above freezing and it was a very deep green vs the brown/grau crispy color the exposed leaves show. Good luck to all down there the next few nights !!! - Matt

I will report back after this passes and let you know what made it and what croaked. I’m saying good bye to the cocos.

I made the map using NOA and HNMS data from 2006. Obviously it could not be an ''official'' USDA map as this would require at least 30 years of data. Mind you that some stations have just a few years of data so there are serious limitations in my edition. It's mostly an informative map and indicative of where we are heading the past few years.

Looks like J. altifrons. Tim

I have two parts to the green house. the middle area with a bench has a small greenhouse heater fan for days I want to go outside and sit in the sun. So it’s more for me but air does flow thru a little since it’s not air tight. I use lexan glass to make the windows and it gets a lot of heat naturally from the sun with granite and other rocks around the enclosure. Plus it’s on the south side of a foundation with a full basement behind the wall. It’s a good micro climate that’s for sure. The three palms I stuck with are the hardiest such as a windmill palm tree, a few needle palms and 5 sabel minor shrubs.

Go to weather.gov that’s the actual info. AccuWeather is a horrible fearmongering company who literally made hurricane forecasts that violated laws. And their forecasts just are really inaccurate. So inaccurate their nickname is Inaccuweather in the weather world. So be careful still use them but be careful when they try to make really bold claims cause they usually lie about it. Could also just be windchill. (Air feels colder to humans than the ACTUAL air temp.

I think it’s single digit windchill. The forecasted lows in the low-teens is cold, but should not wipe out a large % of common palms. Im around Raleigh, and we have quite a few pindos around that have regular taken 10-12F. Hoping for the best for you! I think your pindos will be ok!

I made a 13 hour drive home last night in time for the cold but besides wrapping up the bismarkias and bringing the potted bottle and foxtails inside I’m letting everything ride. Forecast for last night was 27 but only got to 31 here. Good sign perhaps. Tomorrow morning my phone and TWC agree on 21 degrees. I think I already have some mild damage to my livistona and washingtonias from last weekends 22 degrees. with this freeze I’m interested to see how my dioon edule does. It hasn’t seen these temps before. Actually looks fine for now. good luck to all tonight.

I wrapped my coconut trunk with 5w heating cables and christmas lights. Wrapped it with burlap amd frost cloth and did end up building a frame. I run a 30,000 BTU heat thrower into the frame with hope that the heat rises through the crown. With anticipated winds, I'm gonna need lots of blocking of the winds from neighbor's homes. Still worth a try!

Small buckets o’ seeds continue to drop…..

this park is very incredible, you have a lot of Corypha lecomtei IN SITU, there very impressive

A bit of colour on the new sallaca leaf, and a nice pic of the garden git my attention!

Adventitious roots on C. costaricana and T. fortunei lending a bit of tropical flair to our cool-weather garden

Archontophoenix purperea not as bright as some I have seen, but purperea nonetheless!

At this point the largest seed cluster has flopped over and kinked off its blood supply from the stalk. Seeds are starting to turn red and fall. It seems like I could probably just cut off the whole stalk and hang it somewhere to finish the ripening process. I don’t think it’s getting any circulation from the plant at this point, but I’m going to let it continue. Not sure what to do with thousands of seeds, or how to clean or preserve them. I’d like to plant some in cups and see if they will sprout.

Late in the year now, after the flower stalks emerged in spring…. The One-armed Bandit’s first 2 stalks produced a heavy bounty of seeds. Like, tons. The 3rd stalk a few. And the 4th stalk aborted. Now the super heavy seeds are kinking the connection, pinching off nutrient supply and yellowing. I imagine they’ll start to get orange-red soon. Drought again to end the year. Charlie brown’s Christmas tree has come a long way… These three amigos are chugging along. The in-ground specimens are all reasonably happy, though this potted guy seems less than thrilled lately.

Seeds are starting to harden off now on the first stalk…. Tons of them. There are three other stalks each running about 1-2 months behind the first in the bud, flower, and early seed stages…. Overall, new frond growth has slowed a lot as the palm pours its energy into seed production… Hopefully everything isn’t eaten by squirrels and rats in the months to come.

The One Armed Bandit’s first flower spathes (two) are emerging this week. Will be interesting to see what they do over time.

Now that it has warmed up, these have resumed growing. The two by the road are slowly tearing off there oldest fronds. They will peel off over a couple of months. Still getting Boron issues at times, and now some brown-tipping without yellowing. The three little ones are making progress, and the fast growing variety is the least happy of everyone. Forgive the weeds. I need a full day of hand ripping on my hands and knees to restore order for a couple months. I can’t deal right now.

I'd honestly use something like Pumice ..or even Turface MVP mixed w/ Pumice over perlite if using it just as - is ( Say laying the seeds on top of a layer of it, in a plastic storage container -type germination set up ..so you can easily monitor their germination ) .. Perlite has a tendency to float, so unless you're really careful when watering any seeds laying on top of it, the seeds would likely sink through it when water is applied. Avoid the stuff personally. Peat Moss can decompose pretty quickly under really moist / warm conditions, which definitely can increase the potential for Fungal ..and/ or Bacterial - related issues. Would look into using Coco peat ( Ground Coconut Husk ) instead.. Coconut Husk contains ..at least.. a few natural compounds that thwart / retard the establishment of such issues.. In pots, would put together a 30% Coco peat, 40% Pumice, 30% Turface MVP kind of soil mix.. ..Can go say 10% higher on the Coco Peat content, but, you don't want to add too much ..since it too can stay pretty moist.. Pumice and Turface MVP content will assure that the soil will drain off any excess moisture well / oxygen penetration through the soil mix is adequate for robust and healthy root development..

Now this next part is where I may or may not have gone really wrong. The weekend came to an end and we had to get back to the city. So I bundled up all the seeds, took them home with me, put the drying ones on the picnic table out back and the soaking ones back into water, and left everything for 5 days (changing the water twice though after work). The weekend came again. I went shopping for implements to mechanize the tasks still ahead. I bought a grinder wheel that I'd seen used in some Palmtalk snaps, a badass wire brush, and a new bucket. Along with some home-grown implements, these are what I proceeded to "try" to peel my seeds with. First, the grinder wheel. It spun really nicely, and with the drill extension, I was able to get right into my new blue bucket. Unfortunately, the fruit of Butia seeds, I've just learned, are wrapped tight like the leather around a fastball. And a week of soaking didn't do much but change their colour. This method must work well with seeds the consistency of over-ripe peaches, but not Butia fresh off the tree. Then the wire brush. I thought I was being smart getting the strongest bristle available. These seeds are the "just drying" and you can see, after a week, are starting to mold. Unfortunately, the bristle groupings are wide enough apart that the seeds just slip between them and get stuck. No go here as well. Then I turn to my tickle trunk and pull out a plastering trowel, thinking I can crush the fruit, thus loosening the fibrous skin and remove easily. Not a chance! Dismal failure #3. Finally I use a seed-skinner's equivalent to the carpenter's famous fix-all: get a bigger hammer; I got a cinder block. Here's where some rubber finally met some road. Although this pic shows me trying to crush the dried seeds in a nursery tray (didn't work worth shite), when I took the soaking seeds and the cinder block down to the road and put seeds between concrete and concrete, then finally, I was able to scrape them around enough to loosen the skin.