Foxy lady palms

[96720]

What is the cold hardiness of a foxy lady?

[Jim in Los Altos]

Some have reported minimal damage at around 24-25°F without frost. A damp freeze would be much worse of course. 

[BayAndroid]

Hey @Jim in Los Altos, do you have one of these palms? If so, how is it for you? 

[Silas_Sancona]

18 hours ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

Some have reported minimal damage at around 24-25°F without frost. A damp freeze would be much worse of course. 

Agree with Jim..

Can't speak for CA. grown specimens ..Though there's plenty of specimens posted here of mature specimens doing fine there too.  In FL. i remember not seeing much damage to the ones at Kopsick after the '09-10 freeze. How any growing at the time fared may be an entirely different story further inland where it got colder for longer than i did close to the coast.  Think i bottomed out at 28-ish at my apartment with Kopsick / warmer spots in St. Pete in the same ballpark, if i remember correctly.  

I myself would place them somewhere close to Royals in terms of hardiness.  Wayy tougher than Adonidia, .. or even Veitchia itself, which, if i remember right,  took the same cold event pretty decently, -at least where i was.

That said, i think our heat / very low humidity at the same time would do more damage, imo. heat/ sun damage could be mitigated if placed where tall canopy would block direct sun after about 9AM during the summer...  Planting where they can sip water, ...say near your pond / creek, ..if you have room,  might help negate some of the damage our low humidity might do, Mainly during the Summer, before Monsoon season sets in.

If you find one ( or a couple ) i'd give it a go and see what happens..

[96720]

I have 2 I have planted one right beside my royals to the south so won’t get summer sun and I thought would warm up faster in the winter!!!

[Jim in Los Altos]

14 minutes ago, BayAndroid said:

Hey @Jim in Los Altos, do you have one of these palms? If so, how is it for you? 

Yes, I have one near my driveway that I planted as a tiny seedling eight years ago. It’s pretty much maintenance free and does well here but with a little bit of sun scorch if the weather gets unusually hot. 
 

[BayAndroid]

@Jim in Los Altos would you say it's more or less sensetive to sun than a king palm? Cold tolerance as well, more, less or about equal? I have never seen one of these in the area, so I just wonder if they are just less available and less known? 

 

[Jim in Los Altos]

1 hour ago, BayAndroid said:

@Jim in Los Altos would you say it's more or less sensetive to sun than a king palm? Cold tolerance as well, more, less or about equal? I have never seen one of these in the area, so I just wonder if they are just less available and less known? 

 

They are ridiculously easy growers here in the Bay Area but also ridiculously hard to find. I’d have more of them if I had been able to fine any locally or online. The one I have came from a grower in SoCal who isn’t in the business anymore. 
 

As far as sun goes, it has to get really hot (upper 90s to 100s) with low humidity before mine burns at all in its full sun position. My Archontophonix palms handle that well except A. purpurea which is more sensitive to hot sun and burns a bit if it gets really hot. Luckily that kind of heat is unusual here.  
 

If you can find a Foxy Lady, I would definitely purchase it if I were you and plant it in a partially sunny spot if possible. Full sun is okay even when young if you don’t mind occasional leaf burn to older leaves. 

[BayAndroid]

@Jim in Los Altos Ohhh that's very interesting... Last question, is this a Wodyetia Bifurcata x Veitchia? I saw there was one cross that was hardier than another and I don't know which is which. Apparently they're both referred to as Foxy Lady. 

[Jim in Los Altos]

17 minutes ago, BayAndroid said:

@Jim in Los Altos Ohhh that's very interesting... Last question, is this a Wodyetia Bifurcata x Veitchia? I saw there was one cross that was hardier than another and I don't know which is which. Apparently they're both referred to as Foxy Lady. 

Wodyetia x Veitchia is hardier than Veitchia x Wodyetia. 

[mnorell]

When we had our house in Natchez, Mississippi, I was trialing all sorts of tropical things and tried a Foxy Lady one year. To my great shock it survived 24F in a freeze with minimal leaf-damage. I kept trying to figure out if there was warm air leaking out of the house near that plant but couldn't find any evidence of it. It was up next to a wall with as I remember just a little bit of protection from eaves or some nearby trees. However if memory serves, the 2010 freeze with its three days below freezing and lows to 18F spelled the doom of that little plant, in short order. But in any event I can agree that it has to be far hardier than any Wodyetia or Veitchia!

Also I have noticed that in the low desert, having the patience to let a tropical palm coming from a more humid growing environment grow a new crown of leaves under a shady eave or patio overhang will allow the plant to develop a good leaf-tissue that is resistant not only to very low atmospheric humidity but also, once it is gradually moved more into the open, to a lot of sun-damage that could appear with a quicker transfer of growing-climate. If you're not careful during that long acclimation, you may lose the plant from the shock of the change in environment.