Texas Palms

[Chester B]

1 hour ago, Robert Cade Ross said:

 

Understandable . The two little ones I’ve grown in the ground have now survived two freezes but they can only be protected for probably 4-5 more years till they get massive :v 

If mine looked half as good as these I would’ve protected it. 

[Fusca]

2 hours ago, Robert Cade Ross said:

Understandable . The two little ones I’ve grown in the ground have now survived two freezes but they can only be protected for probably 4-5 more years till they get massive

 

For what it's worth my bangalows had zero damage at 27°F wrapped in Christmas lights only for their first winter in the ground.  You should try some Archontophoenix cunninghamiana 'Inge Hoffman'.  Her mature palm defoliated at 18°F but survived.  Supposedly they grow slower than regular bangalows too so you can grow them longer protecting as needed.

[Robert Cade Ross]

7 minutes ago, Fusca said:

For what it's worth my bangalows had zero damage at 27°F wrapped in Christmas lights only for their first winter in the ground.  You should try some Archontophoenix cunninghamiana 'Inge Hoffman'.  Her mature palm defoliated at 18°F but survived.  Supposedly they grow slower than regular bangalows too so you can grow them longer protecting as needed.

Where can I get seeds ? 

[Fusca]

5 minutes ago, Robert Cade Ross said:

Where can I get seeds ? 

I grew some seeds from Patrick in CA.  His palm is grown from seed off Inge's palm.  Patrick's palm just started producing seeds this past year so he'll probably offer seeds again in several months.

[Robert Cade Ross]

Bellaire queen this afternoon doesn’t look terrible but the fronds are burned at least 50% of the way from what I can see…

[Xenon]

Winter is over in Houston and south Texas guys, I'm calling it now. Its time to get those plants in the ground !!! 

Looks to be a long streak of 80 degree days and nights in the 60s next week. That'll definitely wake everything up 😊

[Robert Cade Ross]

@Chester B did you protect the “hardy version of the queen you have in the ground “? 

[Fusca]

1 hour ago, Fusca said:

I grew some seeds from Patrick in CA.  His palm is grown from seed off Inge's palm.  Patrick's palm just started producing seeds this past year so he'll probably offer seeds again in several months.

Here's a triple in an old comm pot!  😆 Hoping they're as cold hardy as reported - jury is still out ...

[JeskiM]

1 hour ago, Xenon said:

Winter is over in Houston and south Texas guys, I'm calling it now. Its time to get those plants in the ground !!! 

Looks to be a long streak of 80 degree days and nights in the 60s next week. That'll definitely wake everything up 😊

I am mighty tempted to start planting too.  The first half of Feb. looks safe (no hard freeze) for CenTX and southward.  The majority of long-range guidance is pointing to a hot spring and first half of summer with the majority of cold air staying along northern tier states, and likely a hard and long second half of winter for them.

I may start with the largest 15 G palms I have, that are also pretty cold hard species just to get things rolling. Plus, I have other non-palmy plants that can easily take cold that I could start planting out.

Decisions, decisions.

-Matt

[ahosey01]

2 hours ago, Xenon said:

Winter is over in Houston and south Texas guys, I'm calling it now. Its time to get those plants in the ground !!! 

Looks to be a long streak of 80 degree days and nights in the 60s next week. That'll definitely wake everything up 😊

Started a couple days ago.

Some cool and weird shit going in the ground at my house in the next week or two.  Plus a coma tree for the birds.

[palmnut-fry]

Xenon

Posted 3 hours ago

Winter is over in Houston and south Texas guys, I'm calling it now. Its time

Famous last words b4 disaster? At the very least tempting a jinx!

[Xenon]

1 hour ago, palmnut-fry said:

Xenon

Posted 3 hours ago

Winter is over in Houston and south Texas guys, I'm calling it now. Its time

Famous last words b4 disaster? At the very least tempting a jinx!

I've planted in January and February for the past two winters for the thrill and fomo (haven't failed yet). One queen palm was planted early February 2023 and two more in late January 2024. Gotta squeeze out every drop of the growing season, every day counts!!! 🌴🤪

Dallas I'd probably wait until at least the second week of March 

 

[ahosey01]

34 minutes ago, Xenon said:

I've planted in January and February for the past two winters for the thrill and fomo (haven't failed yet). One queen palm was planted early February 2023 and two more in late January 2024. Gotta squeeze out every drop of the growing season, every day counts!!! 🌴🤪

Dallas I'd probably wait until at least the second week of March 

 

Just planted a Vachellia robusta.  Not a palm... but African scrubland stuff is cool.

[Robert Cade Ross]

lol now we must prepare for 4° F in February @Xenon

[Chester B]

8 hours ago, Robert Cade Ross said:

@Chester B did you protect the “hardy version of the queen you have in the ground “? 

Yes, it did the worst, I hope it isn't dead.  It was the smallest queen by a long shot,  Still strap leaf, but about 4 feet tall,  maybe more.  I have another one in the garage that I held off on planting just for this type of scenario.

And for the record I planted my first two palms on Feb 14 last year.

[palmnut-fry]

I've witnessed Mother Nature's cruelest late frost ironically on April fools up here, tho that was back last century! lmao.

A week of super warmth coming  will feel good and give my energy bills a break🤞Jan was cold enuf,  and a recent record for the Continental  U. S. they say for coldness. Feb may erase that as La Nina strengthens. We'll brace for it.

P.S. No palm damage seen i laugh when i saw peeps covering stuff with temps "only" in the twenties last week! If a burford holly, much less a Sabal or Trachy cannot take that then to hell with it🤬

[MarcusH]

Sabal Causiarum after freeze damage from temperatures around 25°f. Even my Robusta went through the long freeze better. I'm not sure if it's a Sabal Causiarum anymore and some of you guys already came up with a different type of Sabal that gets easily mixed up. Leaf hardiness on this particular Sabal is poor. Will be digging it out on the weekend. 

[ChrisA]

5 hours ago, MarcusH said:

Sabal Causiarum after freeze damage from temperatures around 25°f. Even my Robusta went through the long freeze better. I'm not sure if it's a Sabal Causiarum anymore and some of you guys already came up with a different type of Sabal that gets easily mixed up. Leaf hardiness on this particular Sabal is poor. Will be digging it out on the weekend. 

That's too bad...  maybe someone down in the RGV would take it off your hands for ya?  Sucks that palms get mis-represented too much in the hobby, there's not enough legitimate people in the business it seems. Between the multiple people with very cold tender S. causiarum and the complete farse that is the supposed "cold hardy" queen, it might be best to steer clear of such vendors and find some with more repute.

I am enthralled that after a week of dense and dark clouds, the sun finally showed it's gorgeousness today in Central Texas and warmed  us well into the 70's.  It's starting to give me spring fever big time and I want to get planting, but I think @Xenon might've really jinxed us by declaring the end of the Texas winter LOL!  I'm going to wait another few weeks to see how things look in the 10-day forecast at that time.  Mid Feb signals the return of the Purple Martins which is always fun.  They're the first spring migrant I notice and I love watching them soaring above the house. Several weeks after that it'll be the chimney swifts and barn swallows!

I'll post some photos of my palms now that there is some sun to light up their colors. My Mexi's are slightly bronzed and my Queen suffered no damage at all that I can tell??  My ultimate low in the yard was 25F but nearby weather stations in my neighborhood measured anything from 19 to 27F on the coldest morning so hard to say, but given the damage it seems 25 might be accurate.

 

Happy Spring! All you in the North, it's making its way to you as well, just gonna take some more time.

 

Chris

Slightly bronzed frond (W. robusta):

 

Undamaged Queen palm sheltered and amongst the growing W. filiferas (this is the true Santa Catarina extra hardy queen palm 🤣)

 

Another shot of W. robusta, I've got two right next to  each other.  These suckers were 1-gallon when planted May of 2023!! Absolute rockets.

 

Took a walk at Brackenridge and mosied over to the Sunken Gardens to see how the Mules look.  It looks like they didn't even notice the cold spell at all.  In spite of that I just can't get excited by this hybrid.  I LOVE the Queen, and I LOVE the Pindo.  I think @Allen had the best looking one around but you could tell he took excellent care of it, and possibly the soil in TN is much more to its liking than the alkaline limestone and clay here, not to mention the 3 months of temps in the 100's with hardly a drop of rain in the summer.

[Robert Cade Ross]

Webster / Bay Area boulevard yesterday palms look fine around here peep the trio of huge robsutas ..

[Ben G.]

9 hours ago, MarcusH said:

Sabal Causiarum after freeze damage from temperatures around 25°f. Even my Robusta went through the long freeze better. I'm not sure if it's a Sabal Causiarum anymore and some of you guys already came up with a different type of Sabal that gets easily mixed up. Leaf hardiness on this particular Sabal is poor. Will be digging it out on the weekend. 

I am thinking about digging mine out soon too. I just want to decide if I have anything I want to replace it with yet.

I will definitely pot mine up though. If I end up attending a PSST event at some point, maybe I will gift it to someone from the RGV who might want a possible sabal domingensis.

[Ben G.]

4 hours ago, ChrisA said:

 

🤣

Took a walk at Brackenridge and mosied over to the Sunken Gardens to see how the Mules look.  It looks like they didn't even notice the cold spell at all.  In spite of that I just can't get excited by this hybrid.  I LOVE the Queen, and I LOVE the Pindo.  I think @Allen had the best looking one around but you could tell he took excellent care of it, and possibly the soil in TN is much more to its liking than the alkaline limestone and clay here, not to mention the 3 months of temps in the 100's with hardly a drop of rain in the summer.

I understand your feelings on mules. The care they get probably makes a difference in how good they look...or don't.

Mules are also naturally variable in appearance though. Sometimes the combination of traits from the pindo and queen just come together better than other times.

I feel that's true if both of the parent palms too though. Pindos and queens are not all created equal. They can look anywhere from ratty to majestic.

[ChrisA]

I think you’re correct, some Mules are just more lush looking. Really wish I could do a Coco Queen, they had some gorgeous boxed ones at a nursery down in Corpus last year.  Those are super lush!

[Chester B]

On 1/31/2025 at 1:27 PM, MarcusH said:

Sabal Causiarum after freeze damage from temperatures around 25°f. Even my Robusta went through the long freeze better. I'm not sure if it's a Sabal Causiarum anymore and some of you guys already came up with a different type of Sabal that gets easily mixed up. Leaf hardiness on this particular Sabal is poor. Will be digging it out on the weekend. 

Don’t dig it up. You just planted it and it’s a small palm, it’s to be expected to get damaged.  Palm growing is a marathon not a race. It will get much hardier with age and size.  They have monsters up at the John Fairey Garden which is significantly colder than Houston.  If it were a young needle palm and it took damage which they can when small at those temps.  Would you automatically rule out needle palms as not Hardy?  Patience. 

[Chester B]

Big CIDP today in old part of Texas City, plus an interesting Phoenix. Any chance this is a theophrastii?  Bonus Butia in the mix. 

[Ben G.]

1 hour ago, Chester B said:

Big CIDP today in old part of Texas City, plus an interesting Phoenix. Any chance this is a theophrastii?  Bonus Butia in the mix. 

 

I really like that butia. The CIDPs all look about as good as I would expect.

The mystery Phoenix does look a bit like the thorny mess that seems to be common with theophrasti. On the other hand I wouldn't expect that level of leaf burn on a theophrasti. 

[Ben G.]

I decided to take a few yard pics to document size and winter damage after the first winter in ground for all my palms.

Most of my palms (S. mexicana, Butia odorata, C. humilis, and W. filifera) are all basically undamaged after temps around 24F with a little bit of snow:

My little waggie x fortunei looks untouched as well: 

My pathetic little T. takil looks just as bad as it did in the fall, but no worse:

I dug it up from my yard (along with a second tail) in Oklahoma last winter when I learned I would be moving...and we had yet another subzero event coming. Both takils sulked and didn't grow a bit all spring. The second one suddenly spear pulled and died last summer. This one continued to show no growth, but the spear remained solid.

Flash forward to this week and it looks like it has finally grown. The bottom left mark was even with the spear mark last fall, the top left mark appears to have moved up a little in just the last 48 hours. So maybe there's hope for this one:

Here's my little Sabal causiarum, that may in fact be a domingensis:

I may leave mine in the ground for another season as Chester suggested to Marcus above, partly because I am not sure exactly what I would like to plant in its place at the moment.

If this were a windmill or a needle palms, it wouldn't be surprised to see a big increase in hardiness over time. In my experience with sabal minor, palmetto, and mexicana though, I have observed pretty good hardiness from a young age. So, I am skeptical, but not giving up just yet. If I do eventually conclude that it is not a true causiarum, I will try to find it a good home further south.

[Ben G.]

A few palms at JBSA Randolph today:

[Robert Cade Ross]

Pearland Cidp damage is sooo variable in this area it’s crazy lol . 
 

second one is just on the exterior side of 288 north going into Harris county .

[PA-TX2024]

The Robustas here on Landa Street have some damage from the low of 21F, but they all look very healthy nonetheless. Strong Washies.

[PA-TX2024]

22 hours ago, Robert Cade Ross said:

Pearland Cidp damage is sooo variable in this area it’s crazy lol . 
 

second one is just on the exterior side of 288 north going into Harris county .

The CIDPs in my area look unscathed.

[PaPalmTrees]

On 1/23/2025 at 4:36 PM, Robert Cade Ross said:

How’s the damage so far in everyone’s yard ? myer Lemmon tree baby king palms 10% burn 

Congo philodendron flawless as of now only potential death issues for it are mildew from heavy rains and cold days … spring hurry up 

Wow they look good

[RedRabbit]

I’m noticing a good amount of damage now to Washingtonia in Houston. None will die, but pretty bronze looking. Interestingly the mules still look untouched, I guess they’re hardier. 

[Chester B]

9 hours ago, RedRabbit said:

I’m noticing a good amount of damage now to Washingtonia in Houston. None will die, but pretty bronze looking. Interestingly the mules still look untouched, I guess they’re hardier. 

So have I.  This weekend I saw damaged Washingtonia all the way down to Galveston.  I haven't been in the north area the last week, but shortly after the freeze everything looked good.  Immediately after the event my immediate neighborhood seemed to be hit the hardest.

Mine have decided to live, all are pushing like this.

[Robert Cade Ross]

Pretty old pindo in clear lake today 

[SeanK]

On 2/1/2025 at 3:02 PM, Chester B said:

Big CIDP today in old part of Texas City, plus an interesting Phoenix. Any chance this is a theophrastii?  Bonus Butia in the mix. 

Butia is the best. Just the right height to give it good ratios for height, trunk thickness, and crown size.

[Keys6505]

Looks like we can't have recovery threads here anymore without getting banished to the Freeze Damage forum, so I'll put this here.   My low was 15 degrees per my neighbors waleather station 2 doors down.

A little disappointed that my protected Clara pulled today.  I hadn't even checked it because I didn't think there was any chance it had damage.  It had a string of regular T5 Xmas lights, a blanket and plastic.  It was wrapped for 5 days with highs in the 40's.  

Unprotected Decora looks great (all things considered) and spear is moving.

Protected A. Engleri was just tented with plastic with a halogen work light under.  Looking good so far except for the parts that touched plastic (ran out of blankets).  L. Chinensis next to it was unprotected and has previously recovered from 15 after Palmageddon.

Small L. Saribus only had a pyrex container flipped over it and it spear pulled.

Licuala Fordiana had a ceramic planter flipped over it with a strand of C9' loosely laid on the ground around it.  Looks good-ish but spear pulled which surprised me judging on looks alone.

Majesties look pretty good.  Strand of T5 lights, sheet, plastic.

I'll post some more when I get pics.

 

[Meangreen94z]

On 1/31/2025 at 1:27 PM, MarcusH said:

Sabal Causiarum after freeze damage from temperatures around 25°f. Even my Robusta went through the long freeze better. I'm not sure if it's a Sabal Causiarum anymore and some of you guys already came up with a different type of Sabal that gets easily mixed up. Leaf hardiness on this particular Sabal is poor. Will be digging it out on the weekend. 

Probably Sabal domingensis as mentioned. It was buried in snow for a portion of it , but here is Sabal causiarum after 17°F in Pearland.

[Ben G.]

50 minutes ago, Meangreen94z said:

Probably Sabal domingensis as mentioned. It was buried in snow for a portion of it , but here is Sabal causiarum after 17°F in Pearland.

Interesting 🤔. How long has your causiarum been in the ground? Yours looks older than mine, but it's still quite young. 

[Swolte]

3 hours ago, Keys6505 said:

Looks like we can't have recovery threads here anymore without getting banished to the Freeze Damage forum, so I'll put this here. 

The freeze forum? First, we can't discuss monumental weather events and now cold damage is off limits too in a popular forum on Cold hardy palms? This forum is being torn apart by overzealous narrow categorization. Anyway, hope this thread can stay a safe haven.

2 hours ago, Meangreen94z said:

Probably Sabal domingensis as mentioned. It was buried in snow for a portion of it , but here is Sabal causiarum after 17°F in Pearland.

You just beat me to it! I was thinking the same. My pic is from a Sabal Domingensis. Got down to 16F and I had protected it with a fleece blanket under a plastic nursery pot (with a rock on top). In my experience, Causiarum normally don't blink at temperatures in the mid-teens, even when small (and especially with some protection). 

The Domingensis was only recently put into the ground. I agree with @Chester B and will restrain myself to toss it and give it a chance to get established. I have read about large specimens of (reportedly) Domingensis that have faired through the teens quite well.

I'll be honesty, like @MarcusH, I am not hopeful. Even for newly planted Sabals to get damaged like this is hard to see (my Mexicana, that was even younger and new in the ground, had zero damage). If it does this every winter (and we'll see the teens regularly), it will never really take off and remain a small perennial if I am lucky. Its at a spot where I expected to grow a monster! 

[Meangreen94z]

1 hour ago, Ben G. said:

Interesting 🤔. How long has your causiarum been in the ground? Yours looks older than mine, but it's still quite young. 

I grew it from seed, I believe from Naturegirl. Probably 2-3 years ago. I don’t remember exactly