Leaderboard

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?

Thank you @Josue Diaz for hitting me up with great palms

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.

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?

Hope fer the best ---I covered what I could and hauled some many plantz in the greenhouse ---and got several heaters cooking ---- left alot out in the yard as they were too much to b ring in I got a liquid filled heater by my Jubaeopsis and Triangle --- to big to cover --- salute

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

I was worried I would lose all my seedlings during this cold spell, but a small space heater in a pop-up greenhouse has worked like a charm. I'm definitely hooked.

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.

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.

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.

A visit to the gardens to check in on the palm project and everything is looking good, a couple of palms never made it, but all in all they have tucked in quite well and are starting to get a move on. I will be going back in autumn to get some more palms in the ground that have been donated, along with a few more from my collection. It is a long term project that iam determined to see through for future generations. It’s a great opportunity for the palms of world both rare and endangered species to be catalogued and go into the Hortis data bank linked with Kew gardens. A fantastic project that iam proud to be part off. The world needs more palm nuts such as myself and others to ensure the survival of endangered plant species for all humankind!

Some nice colour on this Butia odorata inflorescence.

Small buckets o’ seeds continue to drop…..

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.

Hyophorbe indica green and red forms planted as a double showing off a nice contrast of colour.

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

Chamaedorea microspadix with bases protected. I know it looks kind of thrown together but I put pinestraw thickly at the base and then towels and blankets on top. Seems to have worked the last couple years we had teens. The plants under the buckets are Cordyline australis ‘red star.’ Hunting tent over my Philodendron selloum. I wrapped the bud/base with a heavy moving blanket underneath that. By some miracle the trunk survived 15deg and almost 6inches of snow last January with just two heavy moving blankets wrapped tightly around the bud/trunk.

You got to have something to go by though. Obviously some plants aren't hardy for a given area, so how else do you delineate that when plant shopping? Having said that , I do agree with a lot of what you say.

Had a high of 35F today, wind chills remained in the low to mid 20s all day as winds have been gusting in the 35-45 mph range. As of 4:45 PM CST, the temperature is already just barely below freezing at 31.5F. Hoping for a very very gradual drop through the night. Current forecast is 20F. Hopefully the cold air advection isnt as strong as anticipated. Stay warm out there tonight, and hopefully everyone's palms will make it out alive.

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.

I offer a 15 gallon, well grown palm, it is about four inches diameter at the base and needs ground planting. This is considered to be the easiest New Caledonia palm for coastal California. There is even a lonely one living almost feral at the Lakeside Palmetum in Oakland. $165 at my garden, or $200 delivered, ( immediate Bay Area, like Novato to Concord to San Jose) Cash or PayPal, thanks https://www.palmpedia.net/palmsforcal/Burretiokentia_hapala

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!

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.

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

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.

Cyphosperma naboutiniense. Tim

Hi All, Pindo, Jose requested some pics of this palm. This coconut variety is not common here but I know of two locations apart from one I have planted at our place. The nuts appear the same as other coconut varieties but the leaf structure is the only difference. Fijians name it Niuyabia as in Niu being the generic name for all coconut trees and also many of the native palms. Confusing but simple. Yabia is the Fijian name for arrowroot. I do not understand the connection.

About twenty years ago, with a friend I was on a tour visiting big importers of (sub)tropical plants in the region of Aalsmeer overhere in Holland. To my surprise, one of them had six foot tall Cyrtostachys renda/lakka, prized in the Howea forsteriana range! And two hours later I had a beautiful red palm in my kitchenroom. That's a space with bright light and I gave the palm lots of water, food and misted it every day! I thought that to be the right treatment because the botanic garden in Leiden had one with it's feet in the pond where they kept their Victoria regia. After a year I sold it at a good prize, a decision I regret until today because I have never seen it in the trade since!😡

My Carpentaria

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

Chambeyronia divaricarta. Tim

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.

I actually have queen palms already they do great here and a Cunninghamia as a experiment and some mule palm seedlings and my place does have a great microclimate since the backyard has a pool and block walls and concrete and I also have a dwarf date palm that gets damaged in the leaves a tiny bit but recovers really fast and I have a high plateau coconut palm and kentia palm

Your best bets are mule palm, Butia and, perhaps, a queen. I agree no crown shafted palm can hack your climate long term. Bear in mind coconuts are not crown shafted but you have little hope with them unless you protect them diligently or have a perfect microclimate. I also want to point out that, overall, temperate palmate palms are tougher and hardier than pinnate - the cold hardiest palms in the world are palmate. As do many other palm newbies you probably scorn them and want to plant only pinnate "real palms" but they can add much needed variety to your yard. Don't write them off.

The One Armed Bandit, shot a stalk out of one of its now three flower spathes rather suddenly, and it popped open. I wonder if I’ll be able to harvest some seeds from this one. I guess we’ll find out over time. Would be nice to grow some of these up from seed.

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