Most preferred Cold Hardy palm

[maesy]

That is a beautiful palm!

Unbeliveable that it can stand that cold.

Your place is USDA z7? What are your deepest lows?

Marcel.

[PalmGuyWC]

I would imagine that Wodyetia is, or will be, in palm heaven very shortly. Tom show us another picture a few days after the snow melts.

Dick

[ghar41]

(maesy @ Mar. 11 2008,10:44)

QUOTE

That is a beautiful palm!

Unbeliveable that it can stand that cold.

Your place is USDA z7? What are your deepest lows?

Marcel.

I think we've been deeked by photographic enhancements.  Made for a great picture tho!  

W bifurcata is by no means cold hardy, here in Northern California anyway.  A local big box store was selling 7-15 gallon plants to unsuspecting folks here in the Modesto area over the last couple of years.  Hope they saved their reciepts! (expensive!)

Many have tried, so far all have failed.

[tjwalters]

(ghar41 @ Mar. 11 2008,11:46)

QUOTE

(maesy @ Mar. 11 2008,10:44)

QUOTE

That is a beautiful palm!

Unbeliveable that it can stand that cold.

Your place is USDA z7? What are your deepest lows?

Marcel.

I think we've been deeked by photographic enhancements.  Made for a great picture tho!  

Good call!     I thought it would have been more obvious.  Sorry if I freaked anyone out.  

[sonoranfans]

I would take a sabal as my favorite cold hardy palm.  Any of the bermudana, uresana, blackburniana or riverside will do.  Perhaps a large very blue uresana.  All those sabals grow to impressively large size and are good to the low teens.

I could also be very happy with a brahea clara or armata.  The armatas are good to 15F, not sure about the claras.

[PalmGuyWC]

Tom,

My B. armatas took 14F in 1989/90 and very little or any damage. I've been told B. Clara is just another form of B. Armata so they should be just as cold hardy. The nicest B. Clara I've seen was growing in Las Vagas and it can get pretty chilly there.

I have a number of Sabals, and the only problem is, they take up a lot of room and their so damn slow in N. Calif. Also during extream heat waves my S. Riverside sometimes can have some of the fronds burned. I imagine Sabals would grow for you almost year round, but mine stop growth in the winters.

Sabal Riverside is my fastest growing Sabal, and S. Uresana has been the slowest. I have a S. causiarum, and it's pretty impressive, not the most cold hardy, but it's massive and has beautiful huge fronds. It's somewhat exotic compaired to the others. Sabals are not popular palms in Calif. but, I think for the above mentioned reasons. They are tough.

Dick

[sonoranfans]

(PalmGuyWC @ Mar. 11 2008,13:12)

QUOTE

Tom,

My B. armatas took 14F in 1989/90 and very little or any damage. I've been told B. Clara is just another form of B. Armata so they should be just as cold hardy. The nicest B. Clara I've seen was growing in Las Vagas and it can get pretty chilly there.

I have a number of Sabals, and the only problem is, they take up a lot of room and their so damn slow in N. Calif. Also during extream heat waves my S. Riverside sometimes can have some of the fronds burned. I imagine Sabals would grow for you almost year round, but mine stop growth in the winters.

Sabal Riverside is my fastest growing Sabal, and S. Uresana has been the slowest. I have a S. causiarum, and it's pretty impressive, not the most cold hardy, but it's massive and has beautiful huge fronds. It's somewhat exotic compaired to the others. Sabals are not popular palms in Calif. but, I think for the above mentioned reasons. They are tough.

Dick

Dick, my sabals grow nearly year round, perhaps its the nearly ever present sun.  My blackburniana and bermudana are opening fronds as we speak, and not the first ones of the new year.  My larger sabal blackburniana has grown very well in 3+ years in the ground(3' with ~4 fronds to 15+ fronds at 11' tall by 15' wide).  It gets at least 6 hours a day of direct AZ sun.  I saw its "parent" at the nursery the other day, just under 30' tall at 17 years in the ground.  

I would buy a brahea clara if I knew where to get one.

[Alicehunter2000]

I write in a vote for B. capita..........a proven winner. I'm not so sure mules can handle below 15 degrees F. On the poll I would vote for the mule.

I write in a vote for D. decipens as most exotic, but again.....will it take below 15 degrees? So my next choice would have to be T. campestris (don't think I've ever seen one in person)

[Jim in Los Altos]

(tjwalters @ Mar. 11 2008,03:48)

QUOTE

Why wasn't Wodyetia bifurcata on this poll?  

Wodyetia cold hardy? They're wimps when it comes to cold especially when compared to truly cold hardy palms. I finally gave up on them after my oldest one (10 years old) croaked a year after last year's 26F freeze.

[ghar41]

(Jim in Los Altos @ Mar. 12 2008,01:24)

QUOTE

I finally gave up on them after my oldest one (10 years old) croaked a year after last year's 26F freeze.

Jim may have had our last Wody standing!

How is the Roystonea borinquenia?  I'm going to mention to Darold the possibility of trying one of these at the Palmetum in Oakland.

[Patrick Palms]

I like the Parajubaea cocoides, and satakentis Liukiuensis both wonderful coconut looking palms

[merrill]

Hi, David & Cindy:

Ninety percent of my XButyagrus survived 10F with surgery.  My gut feeling is that none would have survived w/o surgery.   merrill

[_Keith]

Surgery?  Explain.  Got pics?

[merrill]

Hi, Keith:

On cocosoid palms having soft bud tissue, severe freeze damage may move thru the meristem [i. e., central bud] if the rotten bud tissue isn't removed.  The undamaged tissue is crisp, the rotten tissue soft and probably stinky.  Dent Smith describes the process well in an older "PRINCIPES" Useful modifications are to cut a sector out of the stem if some of the tissue is alive, and have the suface slope away so water doesn't stand on the fresh meristem.  XButyagrus, Syagrus, Acrocomia often require this surgery; Sabal etc. usually doesn't.  Good Luck, merrill

[iamjv]

Cindy, my BXS took 23F this winter without blinking, in fact it kept pushing a new frond.

Bobby, thanks for the info on the Xtexensis.

Keith, are there more pics like that of Georgia?

Tom, great photoshop work...  

Lastly, I'd like a takil, just because I don't have one.     Jv

[ruskinPalms]

It has been a long time since I voted in this poll, but I think I went with the C. humilis. These are a really nice clumping fan palm in any form but maybe not the fastest around. I have a green one in a sunny spot doing good. I'll be glad I have it when the next historical freeze blows through since it will be one of the few green plants left in my garden.

Wodyetia can withstand about one blast into the upper 20s F a year as long as the temperature rebounds and stays up for awhile after the freeze as to allow growth to resume (recovery). This is one that may not like prolonged cool weather, especially if damp. They also don't appreciate frost, a problem for a lot of areas in FL that would be ideal for this palm otherwise. Overall, I think they are definitely worth trying in zone 9B and up. 9A is pushing it. Eventhough the picture is photoshopped, there may be some truth to it. I think there were Wodyetia in south Texas that got a good snow and survived essentially undamaged. I don't think it was all that cold during that event. But I will reiterate, real frost tears Wodyetia a new one, even at temps well above freezing. They won't grow for long in inland Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties here in west FL due to frost rather than absolute lows, but they will survibe into fruiting ages in these same counties within about 5 to 8 kilometers (farther from the water as one moves south) from Tampa Bay, Charlotte Harbor and the Gulf of mexico. Keith, I know you are trying Wodyetia in south LA. If you can keep the frost off, you should be able to enjoy your Wodys for several years since I think they have good cold hardiness, just not so good frost and prolonged cool/damp hardiness.

Back on topic, I think I like the manipur trachys the best from the Trachycarpus genus. I am thinking they should be a good cold hardy palm. There are a lot of great Sabals out there, and hell, the native Sabal palmetto is one of the best. These can attain rather extreme heights and trunk girths in the wild here. I really should photo some of the natives. I think people don't realize just how robust these can be. Slow for sure, but they are everywhere a lawnmower can't reach. Senoa repens, especially the blue form, would be a cold hardy palm high on my list. I am not sure how cold hardy Serenoa really is though. High teens ???

[sonoranfans]

I am zone 10a, but I had to have a butiagrus, and I also bought (3) jubutiagrus seedlings as well. These are terrific palms in any climate! Sabals should also be on the list, many are good to 15 or 20F.

[AggiePalms]

As the "official" repesentative from Sabals Across Georgia, I demand to know where our beautiful, hardy, easy to grow S. palmetto is in the poll? It is after all the state tree of S. Carolina and Florida; name me any other hardy palm that is state tree for 2 states. Here, here!

But I'll be happy voting for the equally wonderful Rhapidophyllum hystrix.

[Gallop]

I planted a seedling of T princeps a few years back it's been exposed to many cold days/nights with heavy frost. It has never shown any damage. Here it is today.

[Moose]

As the "official" repesentative from Sabals Across Georgia, I demand to know where our beautiful, hardy, easy to grow S. palmetto is in the poll? It is after all the state tree of S. Carolina and Florida; name me any other hardy palm that is state tree for 2 states. Here, here!

But I'll be happy voting for the equally wonderful Rhapidophyllum hystrix.

You will get no argument from me!

[ghar41]

As the "official" repesentative from Sabals Across Georgia, I demand to know where our beautiful, hardy, easy to grow S. palmetto is in the poll? It is after all the state tree of S. Carolina and Florida; name me any other hardy palm that is state tree for 2 states. Here, here!

But I'll be happy voting for the equally wonderful Rhapidophyllum hystrix.

You will get no argument from me!

I'm not sure why I left out all the Sabals, but there are some great ones that should be on this list, Sabal Palmetto being a great example. If I remember correctly, my thinking on this poll was to look at palms that were less available, more sought out by enthusiasts. But the best answer is likely because I was thinking like a Californian grower. I have given up on some Sabals, not becuase I didnt like them but because they were so slow and Ive replaced them with what I consider a bit more spectacular slow growing palms like Dypsis decipiens, Brahea mooreii and T princeps. How about Dypsis decipiens....it's gaining favor as a cold hardy palm...even more cold tolerant than the common Queen palm...

[Xenon]

I like S. mexicana better, just as hardy as S. palmetto but with a thicker trunk and bulkier fronds.

Jonathan

[SubTropicRay]

I had to vote for the Needle Palm. It gets overlooked way too much.

[Zayin]

I can't grow any of those anymore. all of mine have succumbed to the wet freezing climates here. I found a grower of Brahea Decumbens at Cistus Nursery in Oregon. They shipped them internationally and only charged me 35 bucks for a 3 gallon size palm I only bought six, and wish i had purchased more. I won't risk them outside in this climate.

[Dave-Vero]

Tom, you need a Rhapidophyllum. There seem to be a fair number of trachies lurking around Washington, but you guys periodically get astoundingly cold. Like Reagan's 2nd Inauguration, where the outdoor ceremony and parade were cancelled?

[bahia]

I would have included Brahea 'Clara' on the list, but probably this also isn't quite hardy enough to handle the extreme lows you are talking about here. It is certainly my own "new" favorite fan palm to plant in gardens, as it is so much more reliable than a Bismarckia nobilis for San Francisco Bay Area conditions, but with a similar look, and so much faster growing without heat than Brahea armata.

[Jimhardy]

Why wasn't Wodyetia bifurcata on this poll?

Hilarious!

I don't even need to know what type of palm this is to know it doesn't go there.

Good one!

My vote is for the elusive T.Takil

Edited November 17, 2010 by Jimhardy

[Takil-Explorer]

Probably the best trunked palm for climates is Trachycarpus fortunei 'Tesan'. It has been selected in Tianshui in central China. The climate is continental there with cold winters and hot summers. It has been planted in Beijing so it should be a good palm for places like New York City. Could give that city an exotic touch!

Alexander