About Cold Damage and Northern Gulf Coast

[Nj Palms]

Out of topic for the area but saw many damaged washys in Savanah Ga.

[Straight6tt]

Every queen in Gulfport/Biloxi was killed as far as I can tell.  The only two bizzys in the area (mine and another neighbors) both lived!  Mine was protected and his was not.  Temps definitely were in the upper teens a few nights.  I might plant another bizzy!

Edited May 1, 2018 by Straight6tt

[ShadowNight030]

The Nola zoo had a few Bismarcks along with some scattered in neighborhoods. I wonder how they did. I’m going soon and I’ll see how the royals, foxtails, majesty, and fishtails did. If I’m not mistaken, grand isle only got to 27. Maybe coconuts can be grown there if protected? 

[Tropicdoc]

3 hours ago, ShadowNight030 said:

The Nola zoo had a few Bismarcks along with some scattered in neighborhoods. I wonder how they did. I’m going soon and I’ll see how the royals, foxtails, majesty, and fishtails did. If I’m not mistaken, grand isle only got to 27. Maybe coconuts can be grown there if protected? 

Coconuts in grand isle!?!?!? That’s a stretch. My best friend has a camp there. I’m gonna give him my beccariophoenix alfredii see if they make it.

[pin38]

On ‎5‎/‎1‎/‎2018‎ ‎4‎:‎21‎:‎26‎, ShadowNight030 said:

The Nola zoo had a few Bismarcks along with some scattered in neighborhoods. I wonder how they did. I’m going soon and I’ll see how the royals, foxtails, majesty, and fishtails did. If I’m not mistaken, grand isle only got to 27. Maybe coconuts can be grown there if protected? 

 

On ‎5‎/‎1‎/‎2018‎ ‎7‎:‎43‎:‎35‎, Tropicdoc said:

Coconuts in grand isle!?!?!? That’s a stretch. My best friend has a camp there. I’m gonna give him my beccariophoenix alfredii see if they make it.

There was a post not long ago with a picture of a large Royal in Grand Isle, I believe. 

[Fusca]

On 5/1/2018, 7:10:56, Straight6tt said:

The only two bizzys in the area (mine and another neighbors) both lived!  Mine was protected

How large is your bizzy (and your neighbor's bizzy)?  I'm assuming that yours is still somewhat small since you were able to provide some protection.  A neighbor (10 miles to the west) had some severe damage to his large silver bizzy with approximately 20º F ultimate low, but I'm not sure if he has one of the less-hardy varieties.  I'm hoping to plant one myself since I believe I have a hardier type, but it is still in the seedling stage so won't go in the ground just yet.

Jon

[ShadowNight030]

In my neighborhood, tons of people planted majesty and pygmy date palms in their yards. A few people have replaced their queens, but they always do iffy here in normal winters. Most people have just replaced all their dead tropicals with new ones. One of my neighbors just planted a bunch of dwarf bottlebrush, Hawaiian Ti, and queens to replace the ones that died in the cold. Some are slowly returning, like a few weeping bottlebrush trees from main branches and citrus trees are returning from just above the graft. 

Edited May 16, 2018 by ShadowNight030

[Straight6tt]

On 5/16/2018, 1:53:41, Fusca said:

How large is your bizzy (and your neighbor's bizzy)?  I'm assuming that yours is still somewhat small since you were able to provide some protection.  A neighbor (10 miles to the west) had some severe damage to his large silver bizzy with approximately 20º F ultimate low, but I'm not sure if he has one of the less-hardy varieties.  I'm hoping to plant one myself since I believe I have a hardier type, but it is still in the seedling stage so won't go in the ground just yet.

Jon

Mine was about 10 feet tall, my neighbors was larger maybe about 14 feet.   They got hit hard but both are growing

[_Keith]

Just a little update.  Many palms are trying to recover.  Only one, I am fairly certain is dead is a Livistona saribus.  A 2nd saribus after deheading is trying to push, but I am pretty sure it is a goner, too.   The big cold hardy queen has pushed and opened 2 small fronds.   Promising, but it is definitely not out of the woods yet.   Surprise of the day is the Arenga engleri with about 50 percent of the fronds pushing new growth.   Oddity of the day is the Trachy latisectus, which had 100 percent foliage loss and a spear pull, but is not pushing healthy fronds like nothing ever happened.  Looks like out ultimate low was 16 degrees on the 2nd of two brutal freezes.   Things are still mighty ugly with 100% foliage loss on most of the palms, but hopes are high.  It'll take a couple of years though for the beauty of the garden to return.

 

[Tropicdoc]

Well that's some good news, Keith. My biggest Arenga Engleri has no more green left. It had delayed damage. It's pushing a brown spear, which, judging my other undamaged Arengas, is just how the spear looks before it opens. Most queens here are coming back. And, down the street from my office is a Phoenix roebellini that is coming back and flowering! Livistona chinensis all over town are partially burnt but very much alive.

[mdsonofthesouth]

15 hours ago, _Keith said:

Just a little update.  Many palms are trying to recover.  Only one, I am fairly certain is dead is a Livistona saribus.  A 2nd saribus after deheading is trying to push, but I am pretty sure it is a goner, too.   The big cold hardy queen has pushed and opened 2 small fronds.   Promising, but it is definitely not out of the woods yet.   Surprise of the day is the Arenga engleri with about 50 percent of the fronds pushing new growth.   Oddity of the day is the Trachy latisectus, which had 100 percent foliage loss and a spear pull, but is not pushing healthy fronds like nothing ever happened.  Looks like out ultimate low was 16 degrees on the 2nd of two brutal freezes.   Things are still mighty ugly with 100% foliage loss on most of the palms, but hopes are high.  It'll take a couple of years though for the beauty of the garden to return.

 

I sure hope sooner than a few years just as much as I hope we all go back to normal winters....

[ShadowNight030]

Driving to Disney, in Ocala I saw 2 bismarck palms with some damage, but overall look good. In new roads la I saw a queen pushing new growth. In south la queens are also pushing growth. Although, in Lafayette I was told a few mule palms died. 

[Tropicdoc]

Weird that mules died but a whole lot of queens survived. Maybe they were not established. My mule (from Keith) still in a 25  gallon pot was unfazed 

[GottmitAlex]

9 hours ago, ShadowNight030 said:

Driving to Disney, in Ocala I saw 2 bismarck palms with some damage, but overall look good. In new roads la I saw a queen pushing new growth. In south la queens are also pushing growth. Although, in Lafayette I was told a few mule palms died. 

It's a crapshoot. 

[necturus]

A lot of the queens in Houston are coming back. Some of the folks that cut them down already are going to feel dumb when their neighbors have a decent looking crown by next winter. I am speaking primarily of queens in the colder parts of town, e.g. SW Houston outside the loop and Sugar Land. Most trunking Bismarckia are doing the same including a couple at Caldwell's Nursery in Rosenberg, an area which always gets pretty cold.

[Kailua_Krish]

On 6/8/2018, 11:38:58, ShadowNight030 said:

Driving to Disney, in Ocala I saw 2 bismarck palms with some damage, but overall look good. In new roads la I saw a queen pushing new growth. In south la queens are also pushing growth. Although, in Lafayette I was told a few mule palms died. 

If youre referring to the two that are just south of the Ocala exits along I-75 they are in front of an old Nursery. They survived the 2010 freezes (<18 degrees) so this year should have been no problem.

[ShadowNight030]

Queen palms in Lafayette La 

I’m seeing the mule palms here, and most of them only have minor burn

Edited June 26, 2018 by ShadowNight030

[Sandy Loam]

Wow. Do I recall correctly that you are located somewhere near Alexandria, Louisiana, Shadownight30?

[ShadowNight030]

25 minutes ago, Sandy Loam said:

Wow. Do I recall correctly that you are located somewhere near Alexandria, Louisiana, Shadownight30?

Yes, I am close to Alexandria 

[Sandy Loam]

I am amazed that any queen palms actually exist that far north, at least in the eastern US and in a non-coastal location.

[ShadowNight030]

Alexandria is on the 8b/9a border, and Lafayette is a solid 9a. I’ve seen many queen palms in Lafayette. After this winter I am seeing that a number of them died, but there are some returning like the ones in the photo. I don’t know which side of the building they were on either. Here around Alexandria I’ve only seen 3 queen palms and they all died either this year or last year (the lows last year were 22 degrees for 2 nights). I’ve had better success with Pygmy dates and majesty palms. 

[Tropicdoc]

Typical shape of queens here at this time. Low was 17 F. Most are alive.

[Sabal_Louisiana]

I've been observing the state of recovery of palms, etc around here in SE La (mainly around Baton Rouge) for the last six months and its been interesting to say the least:

Of course, the most cold hardy species (Sabals, Windmills, Butias) were largely unaffected.

As for the others:

Mule Palms: hard to say because there aren’t that many around to judge but I’ve seen a couple that had about 50%+ leaf burn appear to be recovering okay only to suddenly bite the dust in early summer.

Wash. robusta: Now I see why there are so named. Their regrowth has generally been quite vigorous. I saw a few sprouting new green just 2 weeks after the big cold. Most have a healthy new crown, but with still a good bit of dead brown on the upper trunk. If they have been trimmed, some almost look better than they did before. However, not all survived – mortality rate was around 20%.

Wash. filifera: Not quite as common around here as Mexican fans. Supposedly hardier than W. robusta but their rebound has been slower and a little more problematic in some instances. Most appear to be coming along now but I’d say maybe 25% are either gone or struggling.

Queens: Yet to see one around Baton Rouge that made it through. I lost one in 2010 in this city when the temp got no lower than 20F. I have seen big ones between BR and NO and around Morgan City that look like they might survive (similar to the pics posted recently). There’s one in Lutcher, LA with about a foot or two of new growth at the top but I saw one close to the pontoon bridge at Belle River that is toast. While Lutcher hit about 16F I would think Belle River would not have been any colder than that.

Curious to know how they’ve been faring in New Orleans.

 

Livistonia chinensis: Heavily freeze burnt but I don’t think hardly any perished. These guys are tough in the long run. Slowly but steadily recovering with a fair amount of green regenerating underneath.

 Sagos: During the spring it was kind of cool to watch them quickly regrow, when their fronds were still soft and lighter green. I knew they’d come back but was kind of amazed at how fast they did it. Still see a few unattended ones that look rough though.

 

Date Palms: With Canary Is., will take a little while to return to former glory but after a sort of slow start have been progressing well. Almost all seem to have survived so should be fine eventually barring another bad freeze in the future. The Sylvesters still look unsightly but are regenerating in most cases. I have seen some that should be taken down though because they aren’t coming back. Medjools are probably okay overall.

 

[ShadowNight030]

7 hours ago, Sabal_Louisiana said:

I've been observing the state of recovery of palms, etc around here in SE La (mainly around Baton Rouge) for the last six months and its been interesting to say the least:

Of course, the most cold hardy species (Sabals, Windmills, Butias) were largely unaffected.

As for the others:

Mule Palms: hard to say because there aren’t that many around to judge but I’ve seen a couple that had about 50%+ leaf burn appear to be recovering okay only to suddenly bite the dust in early summer.

Wash. robusta: Now I see why there are so named. Their regrowth has generally been quite vigorous. I saw a few sprouting new green just 2 weeks after the big cold. Most have a healthy new crown, but with still a good bit of dead brown on the upper trunk. If they have been trimmed, some almost look better than they did before. However, not all survived – mortality rate was around 20%.

Wash. filifera: Not quite as common around here as Mexican fans. Supposedly hardier than W. robusta but their rebound has been slower and a little more problematic in some instances. Most appear to be coming along now but I’d say maybe 25% are either gone or struggling.

Queens: Yet to see one around Baton Rouge that made it through. I lost one in 2010 in this city when the temp got no lower than 20F. I have seen big ones between BR and NO and around Morgan City that look like they might survive (similar to the pics posted recently). There’s one in Lutcher, LA with about a foot or two of new growth at the top but I saw one close to the pontoon bridge at Belle River that is toast. While Lutcher hit about 16F I would think Belle River would not have been any colder than that.

Curious to know how they’ve been faring in New Orleans.

 

Livistonia chinensis: Heavily freeze burnt but I don’t think hardly any perished. These guys are tough in the long run. Slowly but steadily recovering with a fair amount of green regenerating underneath.

 Sagos: During the spring it was kind of cool to watch them quickly regrow, when their fronds were still soft and lighter green. I knew they’d come back but was kind of amazed at how fast they did it. Still see a few unattended ones that look rough though.

 

Date Palms: With Canary Is., will take a little while to return to former glory but after a sort of slow start have been progressing well. Almost all seem to have survived so should be fine eventually barring another bad freeze in the future. The Sylvesters still look unsightly but are regenerating in most cases. I have seen some that should be taken down though because they aren’t coming back. Medjools are probably okay overall.

 

I’ve seen many queens in Nola make it. They looked bad until May, then they started putting out growth. Very few died. I’ve seen some queens outside of Baton Rouge recovering. Even in Lafayette and new roads I’ve seen a few with growth. 

In Biloxi I saw a queen palm returning, and in gulf shores queens didn’t look bad. But I saw some Bismarcks that seem to have taken some damage in winter. My area around Alexandria hit 12, and only 2 medjool dates out of the many here didn’t make it. All canary dates made it, and I noticed many Sylvesters didn’t make it, although some did. Washingtonia looked bad until April, then most threw out heaps of growth all at once. A few still have no growth. Half the mule palms here didn’t make it. The mules in Lafayette look pretty good. They hardly looked burned when I went a few weeks back. I even saw tropical hibiscus returning in Lafayette and Alexandria. In Alexandria only older bushes returned though. Cane yuccas in Alexandria for the most part did not return. I’ve seen a few that have made it. 

[Matthew92]

On 6/26/2018, 11:29:23, ShadowNight030 said:

Queen palms in Lafayette La 

I’m seeing the mule palms here, and most of them only have minor burn

If they are only getting that much growth this late in the summer, it is probably not enough to survive long term. I saw queens similar to this in my area after 2010 or 2014/2015 and they either had irreversible trunk damage that showed up later or couldn't became strong enough again before other hard winters.

[Mr.SamuraiSword]

The carnage hit the carolinas pretty well.  not my pics

The Charleston Filfera outside the McDonalds was hit pretty bad.  this was a couple of months ago.

however the CIDP's seemed to fair ok In charelston. heres an example of one in the spring .

Sadly in North Carolina the carnage was worse.  the tallest palm in the state (a washingtonia robusta) seems to have died after the winter (no Pic)  heres some carnage on CIDP and washingtonias near atlantic beach. 

 

some larger CIDP's 

old washy in may

more damage this pic was in march im pretty sure

heres a survivor recovering well.  

 

 

 

[Mr.SamuraiSword]

coastal georgia seemed to be the winner this year however. Not my pics

ribbon palms on saint simons island

CIDP bulletproof in Brunswick

Other shots around Saint Simons Island.  queens bismarka and date palm

macon filfera did much better then the charelston one

 

 

[ShadowNight030]

Being a bit farther from the gulf coast, I visited Little Rock to be with some family. I was told the city hit single digits, between 0-5 degrees F. It was awesome seeing oleander trees that were still a good 7 feet tall. I would’ve thought they would’ve at least had severe die back. I saw windmill palms were a bit popular in the suburbs of Little Rock, and most looked completely healthy. Majority of them are under 10 feet. I saw a few cabbage palms that looked fine with maybe slight burn from winter. There was one Washingtonia palm that looked as healthy as could be. I was told during the winter they protected the huge 3 story palm. In my father’s backyard his lantana bushes survived with no protection. He planted them as annuals and was tickled to see they came back. His angel trumpet tree did not survive. I also saw some gardenia bushes and Indian hawthorn that looked fine.