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There's a lot of brown, a bit of green, and lots of hope and prayers!!

Here is the I-drive coconut. Sun was setting but it's 100% brown from what I could tell. It also looked this way in 2018 from my recollection. . Note the foxtail with mostly green fonds against the building and sheltered by the larger foxtail.

Speaking from personal experience, the sooner you start them the better cuz the damn weevils are gonna find em. But I like Happy's idea. Go to Wally World and get you one of the 41qt (maybe 2) sterilite containers, mix a batch of coco coir and perlite, I'd personally VERY CAREFULLY drill a few holes in the bottom of it for drainage, find you something to hold up some plastic up (I used an old curtain rod on these papayas), throw it on a heat mat and sit back and wait.

It is a lovely spot in the garden, there is only room left there now for smaller understory plants and ground cover plants. Iam leaving room for the other larger palms so they are not lost in all the other foliage. Richard

Clean them and germinate in good soil with vermiculite. They can take a year to germinate. Harry

For me this was the worst damage I have seen while here in Merritt Island. The cold was bad but the wind was worse. I watered well a few days prior but the combo was too much. The tall stuff got it worse than the low. Fried Jamaicans Thrinax Radiata TR seedlings look ok Seagrape KO tall only the spear is green KO small slightly better Tomatoes that looked fantastic days prior

Crazy how the west coast of florida was barely affected beyond normal temps. These coconuts are in new port richey in pasco county well north of tampa. Untouched. There use to be a massive mango tree on the property aswell the trunk was 2ft in diameter or bigger tree was massive. They cut it down. No idea why. I took this picture 30 min ago. These are growing further north than people say is possible but here they are and still look amazing after all this winter has thrown at them.

Yes the same for Howea, plastic bag or lid over them. This lot in the pictures no bottom heating just in a warm place. Wait 12 months or more, red Howea seeds are less viable as well. Good luck!

@happypalms, would you recommend the same treatment for Howea seeds, including the bottom heat ? Thanks

I think we're all weary from these types of advisories. 😁

Thanks for getting the photo. Crossing my fingers that it makes it.

Nice, give it 1 mild winter and it will recover perfectly.

I have seen that one and as utopia palms states, remotiflora is very similar to lantzeana. And they both don’t look the same as the remotifolia.

I saw that there is a Florida man* selling Butia odorata x Jubaea chilensis F2 seedlings. I was feeling inspired and/or completely crazy, so I bought one. Here we have our new BIG baby, with my lovely assistant for scale. After shipping, I was worried about transitioning back into the light... but it's been pretty darn overcast the past 2 days. I love it already. I am mostly concerned with providing adequate drainage. We have some heavy soils on our lot; even the lighter volcanic-based soils on the lot tend to have impermeable glacial till a few feet down. *as opposed to a Florida Man

I think this is nature’s way of trying to tell me to move further south. This is the second winter in a row with significant snowfall for coastal North Carolina. LOL - if only we had some hills around here. Maybe I can swing by one of the hills next to an overpass before all the snow melts away.

Agreed. 😆 Plan on planting my Satakentia and Wallichia disticha this weekend.

😳😳😳 Holy poop on a stick. That's insane. Did a bunch of penguins show up too? I guess the good news is your size 18s are practically cross country skis.

My foxtail was looking a little rougher today. Looks like some brown has started to show in the crownshaft. I went ahead and applied some peroxide to it.

As a grower who germinates a lot of seeds, I shall share my technique for seeds on mass. Choose a medium that is suitable such as coco coir with perlite even straight perlite or coco coir is sufficient for queen seeds, even a good quality potting mix will do. Two method’s, for community container or box’s I use styrofoam box’s with lids, community containers I would use a ten inch pot. Place seeds evenly about 1cm apart. Sow to the depth of the seed and cover them and push firmly down to get good contact with the medium. The medium should e just ever so slightly moist ( squeeze a handful and if drops of water come out it’s too wet). Place a plastic bag over the container or box’s place in a warm place or bottom heating 28 degrees Celsius, sit back and wait.

Yes, and @edbrown_III Jubeaopsis has flowered now for several seasons but has yet to produce viable seed. Hoping it made it through this cold snap unscathed. Hoping to get over there for a visit soon.

I just got done doing a soil drench with Banrot on all 3 Coconuts. They aren't looking that great, gotta say, so we'll see. I got the shortest one' bud spayed with Copper fungicide but couldn't get the spray high enough for the other two so will get those done tomorrow somehow. I also got all the potted material OUT of the house so can now sleep in my bed and take a shower...lol... Cheers to all - Baz

Awfully

In September 2018, about 7.5 years ago I planted these palm hybrids from Patric S. Here they are in February 2026 Dallas zone 8a. Both survived 3°F with only a tarp over them. The palm by the AC is the trigeneric: butia X Jubea X syagrus. The palm by Miss Holly is ( Butia x Jubea) X Jubea.

Been recovering ever since. Nobody believes me when I tell them what it is anymore 😂 but it ain't dead.

When I spray with fungicides I do it in late morning, when temperatures are high enough but there is still plenty of time for the spray to dry out before evening. I don't think it will stay wet till the night.

It is quite picky about the soil, but it is also rather cool tolerant. Do not let yourself misled by the reports in Florida A sudden and longer lasting cold spell than few hours may be more damaging, because the palms are caught with 'pants down ' that is in active growth.

Lol. Like it or not, I think that almost 100% of the population of this board (outside of the tropics) are "zone pushers" to some degree ... I know I am. I have a tiny Bismarkia planted that I have to protect 3-4 times a year). I can get more years out of it, till it gets too big. It's a gamble that sometimes can hold good for a decade or two, then you get burned in the course of one night. I just decided to keep on trucking as long as my finances or interests allow it. - Matt

I bought this one from Amazon and it has worked well https://a.co/d/0fx2b3uR

North central Florida has a long and rich history of recurrent extreme cold snaps. Take Volusia county as an example. Extreme freezes were recorded back quite a ways : Jan. 2nd 1766 -- The ground was frozen to an inch in depth along the St. John River. This wiped out the entire citrus crop in the area. Feb. 8th 1835 -- The St. John River froze 50+ feet out from the shores as the temp went into the single digits. Ocala (Ft. King then) hit 11 degrees. Fruit trees were wiped out from South Carolina and Georgia southwards. It was said that fruit trees were "destroyed, roots and all" as far south as the 28th parallel, which would include Tampa Bay on the west coast and Cape Canaveral on the east coast. Again they got hit in 1857 and 1866. The 1870s were pretty rough. with a severe freezes in 1873, 1876, 19879, and 1880. 1886 is another notable freeze. The temps dipped into the teens. 1894 - 1895 was the next big freeze. And again in 1898 where it dropped from 78 degrees to 18 degrees with freezes for 4 straight days. Then there was a 17 year stretch before the next weak freeze of 1916. After that it was mild but some hard freezes in 1962, 1983, and 1985, and of course 1989. That's 200 years worth of heavy impact freezing which repeatedly set back the citrus industry in the area. Spoken communications (recorded in Spaniard documents) with the Seminole Indian tribe, when the Spaniards kicked off planting citrus into north Florida, records a few instances where the indians were perplexed that the spaniards were attempting to plant those crops in the area. This indicates that recurrent cold snaps have been known by the indians to be very routine in the likely hundreds of years prior to the 1700s. Going into the future : Florida is geographically south of an area that has an abundance of cold air (Canada and the arctic above that). The Appalachians is the only physical barrier to cold air heading south. It's a better barrier than we have in Texas as the only barrier to our north is barbed-wire fences and that does nothing. Northern florida is not as protected by water as southern florida is, and it sits several degree further north. Climatologically it sits within the outer envelope of the long Gaussian cold tail (as do all the states that border the Gulf of Mexico). Deep south FL is in the short non-Gaussian cold tail and would require an extreme event and an abormal setup where low level blocking occurs just to the east of florida and cold air advection comes almost straight south down the center of the state and pools. Basically this climatology will not change much over time. A warmer earth will not eradicate extreme cold snaps, unless and until it could melt the poles and Greenland. I would continue to expect periodic deep freezes with temperatures similar to recent history (since the end of the little ice age). Maybe the periodicity changes as large scale processes such as ENSO and PDO continue to oscillate back and forth. Yes, those are in the Pacific ocean but they affect circulation thousands of miles downstream. This past year PDO has been the deepest negative it's ever been and is likely to flip in the next decade or so. With it, ENSO will likely go back to a state where El Nino events are seen more frequently. But, until the Polar areas completely melt away; not likely in the next few generations of humans, then the threat of cold snaps will continue. Ok, I will step off away from the keyboard now .... I originally planned to only reply about the past freeze events, but my history as meteorologist kicked in. -Matt

Some surprises in the yard. My cheapo vevor weather station recorded 26, 24 and 28 the last 3 days now my area is cold a lot compared to other parts of fl I have already seen 27 and 28 degrees a handful of times this year and freezing temps to many to count lol. The biggest winner in my yard to me is arecas. Under canopy they are completely untouched in the open tops are scorched. coconut palm it was defoliated last winter at 27 it looks better after this than 1 night of 27 last year. Foxtail did worse than last year but not much same with royal

In the 90"s I was buying a lot of palms to try out from Inge Hoffman in California and in Ft. Lauderdale and other places in Florida. I wanted to try just about anything to see what would work. I had great success, but wasn't as careful as I should have been about tags, since I assumed I was on some sort of horticultural fantasy tour. Well, lots of things worked really well. The biggest failure was S. maritima. It never died, but lost its foliage every winter, so I took it out. I bought two palms from Fr. Lauderdale (mail order). I've lost the receipt, so I don't know who the vendor was. I assumed they wouldn't make it for too many winters. Wrong! They did great. One is definitely S. Bermudan, but the other was shy to bear seed until last year. It's a big tree, 16' overall. It had a bumper crop of seeds last year and the President of the Southeastern Palm Society was visiting and said that he thought it was S. pumos because of the size of the seeds. With the fruit on them, they are truly huge. How did I get the. thing? Speculation time: True - Dr. Scott Zona was working on his survey of Sabal and had collected pumos seed in Western Mexico. Here's the speculation: seeds might have been shared/distributed with South Florida palm people and I lucked up (by accident) with a baby. It has grown beautifully along with S. rosei, also from W. Mexico. Rosei bears smallish seed precociously and I'm on my second generation of mature adults. The pumos took forever to bear seed. The pictures show relative seed size of the Sabals that I have. Tom McClendon lined them up. We're going to do the same thing again on graph paper, so there is a real measurement shown.

Licuala peltata var. sumawongii. Spectacular palm with huge leaves. Tim

Couple of nice seedlings iguanura wallichiana, Pinanga sarawakensis. Both will go in the garden one day, and both have survived my winter not a problem!

Asking 2.7 million for anyone curious.

I went back over and spoke to the folks about the palms. The guy who planted them owns and operates a landscaping company. The big Trachycarpus was rescued from a client's yard rather than being cut down and destroyed. Evidently it and the root ball weighed 3000 pounds / 1400 kg. The two small palms he said he got from the local Home Depot but didn't know what kind they were. I dont know what kind they are either! The third palm is a big honker. The fronds are taller than me, about 8 feet tall. The guy also couldn't give an ID, but said a local nursery was selling the same type. I took a few closer pictures to try to help identify, but this is where I NEED help. Totally put of my depth here!

Yes, the newest set of fronda has always been slightly larger than the last. I'll take some measurements of the last set for comparison with the new set.

2025 update...still thriving! Looking at last year's pics the trunk does appear to have swelled in diameter.

Looking at my forecast, getting close to 80 deg at the beginning of February in Northwest FL is quite something. I've lived here long enough though to recognize it's too early to get this warm and stay warm from now through spring. Regardless of what happens with the polar vortex, I believe we will have a freeze or freezes sometime in the 2nd half of Feb (at least Northern FL). It's too early and the pattern has to swing back. Now if we were in mid to late Feb getting such warm temperatures through the 10 day forecast: I would say we could be done with any threat of significant freezes, but there's too much of winter left at this point. Unfortunately, some plants and trees will probably start trying to grow again (or break dormancy) and if we get a significant freeze later in February it could be quite destructive.

It has been an incredible contrast between NW-SE Florida. We just need to deal with two more nights, albeit a somewhat colder version of this map. After that, relief is on the way for all of us.

It is amazing how much snow some parts of N. Florida received. You have gotten more snow this year then we here in South Dakota got all winter long! 😁

Finally uploading some pictures. Almost 6in here. A good amount melted today, but still a lot on the ground, especially in shaded areas. Was 15 deg F this morning: Coldest I've ever experienced living here since 2007 (and probably for the whole area since Feb 1996). 17 forecast for tonight. I hope it underperforms.

Ready to rock n' roll here with the snow. My weather app says possibly 5-8 inches now. Temps could be 17 deg tonight though or I wouldn't be surprised if colder. Temps in the teens tonight: the main things I'm worried about are my 2 orange trees (lost the grapefruit, Meyer lemon, and tangerine in the Christmas 2022 freeze which was a 3 day long duration freeze with a low of 18 and low 20's the other 2 nights). The remaining 2 oranges have some lingering trunk damage from that freeze and I'm worried if this ends up being a similar level event temp-wise, it could push them over the edge. I'll see if I can wrap the trunk or something and put a spotlight underneath. Also I'm a little worried about the Chamaedorea microspadix. I'm protecting the base so it can sprout back from the suckers if the top dies cause I don't have enough other materials to protect the trunks which are around 3-4ft high. However, many of the taller trunks did survive that Dec 2022 freeze which is very impressive. I wrapped the bud of my Philodendron selloum. Hopefully the trunk won't die though. It probably will still come back but it takes a lot longer if the trunk dies close to the ground. Some Callistemon viminalis 'slim' I have will probably take a hit too: but I think I'll wrap the base so it can sprout back easier if the top dies.

It’s was lovely to meet you and have you visit ❤️

Ooo i have an idea can you try and keep that think alive long enough for it to flower? TRY PLEASE!

Hello Cindy, Great travel log Cindy, it was pleasure to host you. We had lots of fun. More amazing gardens for you see next time. Did not give you much time to post😊 Enjoy being home to recover. regards Colin and Denise. PS Background on Stephen He was one of 2 people who came with me for my first acquiring trip for the Royal botanic gardens Sydney in 2008 and they had a great positive help supporting the rejuvenation of the palm collection there. He was senior Horticulturist there at the time. He has an extensive background in many plant groups, Stephen keeps excellent records and has extensive technical knowledge on temperature controlled growing and soil compositions He managed a 16 acres private botanic gardens in Western Australia for many years until recently. And luckily for the gardens, a good germinator

Jane prepared a memorable another homemade meal before my last night before heading home. In the morning there was time before a flight to Sydney to wander around Stan’s place again. Missing again a better camera, I still enjoyed seeing (and hearing) lots of birds! There were multiple Kookaburras and I got to hear their distinctive laughing sort of song. I saw a black cockatoo fly overhead. Nothing like these in Puerto Rico! Colin looks up at Stan’s huge Tahina… After being driven once more by Stan to the charming little Suncoast airport Colin and I had to say our goodbyes as he headed in his airport parked car home and I overnighted at an airport hotel mere steps from my flight the next morning. I counted 11 flights by the time I arrived the western Puerto Rico-every single flight on time! As I was doing carry on size bags and watching my budget, I kept my buying to the minimum plus followed the regulations and resisted bringing seeds or plants. I always steer clear of things I actually didn’t see such as Kangaroos. I ended up with some delicious cookies called Tim Tams to share with friends and a key ring that I will use as a Christmas ornament plus a mug with a now familiar bird. Lastly I got a card from the art gallery at Secrets now in a frame. As you can see it matches the view I saw at the Caincross reserve. I urge you to share some of your palm related travels on Palm Talk to encourage others to say “yes” when invited to visit.

It was definitely great to see Kim with connections, ground transportation, opera house tour tickets and even dinner courtesy of Colin. Kim and I were treated to an entire day of sightseeing and revisiting IPS friendships. I am going to jump back to add a bit more from my first trip to the Sydney Botanic Gardens. These ibis are messy nesting in palms and working as teams to raid food from the garden cafe rubbish bins. I am told they are disdainfully called bin chickens. However for me they were fun to watch. Here is Chamaedorea palmeriana, one of the many chams I had never even heard of. Vonitra utilis (used to be a Dypsis) This was the only cassowary I saw… So many pretty Coccothrinax including this one labeled C. ekmannii

Latest update....still thriving. 😁

Be patient Matty as the journey to maturity is a long and enjoyable road. This palm was grown from a small five on a south facing exposure and planted almost nineteen years ago.