Texas Palms

[NBTX11]

New Braunfels canary island date palms today. 

[Ben G.]

2 hours ago, NBTX11 said:

New Braunfels canary island date palms today. 

Looking pretty nice. I hope this quick hard freeze we getting this week doesn't damage anything. Most palms in the area are looking pretty good. I would hate for a late winter blast to knock anything back now.

[palmnut-fry]

Not what comes to mind when i heard of New Braunfels but we'll take the view. Damn, these are so tall they are survivors considering these past few winters! Must be very old to be this big, chunky.   

[Swolte]

20 hours ago, Ben G. said:

I hope this quick hard freeze we getting this week doesn't damage anything. Most palms in the area are looking pretty good. I would hate for a late winter blast to knock anything back now.

Yeah, I am probably going to hit the high teens again on Wednesday/Thursday. The following week temps are in the 80s... 🤠

[flplantguy]

How easy would it be to build a home that has the capacity to be a tall north wall of a protection style attached greenhouse?  Imagine having a frame or structure you could enclose for the one night of 20s a year in south texas, or flip a switch periodically to drop the cover if your in Houston and want tropicals year round. If the roofline can be done at 30 feet thats a lot of palms and plants that would fit. The house wall would gather heat as well and block the north wind from pulling so much away.  I had that thought after seeing south padre island after 2021, and seeing how some palms survived in south facing yards with taller homes due to the surge codes.  They had less damage just from windbreak wall protection, so a full enclosure would be an amazing result i think. Depends on local laws and codes though.

[NBTX11]

16 hours ago, palmnut-fry said:

Not what comes to mind when i heard of New Braunfels but we'll take the view. Damn, these are so tall they are survivors considering these past few winters! Must be very old to be this big, chunky.   

There are plenty of tall palms in NB.  A lot died in 2021, mainly Robusta, We're only 30 min from downtown San Antonio.  There are quite a few canary island date palms.  The long term survivors are W. Filifera, CIDP, Sabals, and Washingtonia hybrids,  There are some Robusta survivors as well, but most died in 2021.  

[DreaminAboutPalms]

6 hours ago, NBTX11 said:

There are plenty of tall palms in NB.  A lot died in 2021, mainly Robusta, We're only 30 min from downtown San Antonio.  There are quite a few canary island date palms.  The long term survivors are W. Filifera, CIDP, Sabals, and Washingtonia hybrids,  There are some Robusta survivors as well, but most died in 2021.  

There is a considerable difference between NB and Austin in terms of Palm survival. There are no CIDP that height in Austin that I’ve ever seen.

[NBTX11]

14 hours ago, DreaminAboutPalms said:

There is a considerable difference between NB and Austin in terms of Palm survival. There are no CIDP that height in Austin that I’ve ever seen.

I saw one in South Austin, south of downtown several years back that was quite tall. No idea if it survived 2021. 

[Sabal_Louisiana]

On 2/17/2025 at 12:59 PM, flplantguy said:

How easy would it be to build a home that has the capacity to be a tall north wall of a protection style attached greenhouse?  Imagine having a frame or structure you could enclose for the one night of 20s a year in south texas, or flip a switch periodically to drop the cover if your in Houston and want tropicals year round. If the roofline can be done at 30 feet thats a lot of palms and plants that would fit. The house wall would gather heat as well and block the north wind from pulling so much away.  I had that thought after seeing south padre island after 2021, and seeing how some palms survived in south facing yards with taller homes due to the surge codes.  They had less damage just from windbreak wall protection, so a full enclosure would be an amazing result i think. Depends on local laws and codes though.

If there's a will, there's a way. Courtyards in New Orleans surrounded by buildings offer a microclimate to grow bananas.

[Xenon]

Final winter update 

The queens did eventually crisp up but are all pushing green 

 

A little windbreak from the house kept this one quite green 

[Xenon]

I think this Lytocaryum hoehnei is finally taking off after transplant shock and the hottest summer ever...covered with a box

 

Surprised these Acoelorraphe wrightii didn't burn at all. Unprotected but under water oak canopy 

Livistona fake saribus...seems to be a more spiny version than the chinensis I see around here. I also a nitida that was covered with a bucket that is fine. Some decora strap leaf seedlings unprotected are fine too 

Sabal rosei unbothered. S. guatemalensis some minor burn 

None of the Chamaedorea radicalis blinked 

 

[Xenon]

The protected tropical bed 

The new Archontohoenix cunninghamiana not liking its sacrificial haircut but it's pushing 

Alexandrae is going to defoliate. At least it grows like a weed. I got lazy with the cover in this section (you can see the partially melting Monstera)

New leaves! new leaves! 

Chuniophoenix hainanensis and Licuala fordiana 

 

Cyphophoenix elegans slow but steady at 3 leaves a year 

 

Euterpe edulis is actually a leaf making machine, keeps up with the king palm even 

 

[PA-TX2024]

On 2/16/2025 at 4:06 PM, Ben G. said:

Looking pretty nice. I hope this quick hard freeze we getting this week doesn't damage anything. Most palms in the area are looking pretty good. I would hate for a late winter blast to knock anything back now.

It hit 20F at its lowest here in NB. 

[Chester B]

@Xenon my queens look similar to yours but I had frost cloth over them and if you remember I was colder than you.  I left my king palm uncovered and it immediately looked dead, which it was after a performing a necropsy.  Radicalis were unphased as well.

Everything else looks pretty good for you.

[Robert Cade Ross]

Looks like 2/3 of my Bismarkia are going to survive not too bad . 

[PAPalmtrees]

@Robert Cade Ross oh Good!

[Robert Cade Ross]

My little kings are starting to go pinate 🙃

[fr8train]

I went to Houston a few weeks back and saw these beautiful Butias:

[fr8train]

And here are a few more photos from around San Antonio. The last few are from today.

[ChrisA]

Here is how my Queen palm looks following the ultimate low of 21F. Just a bit of tip damage on the most exposed frond. The newest frond opening is quite droopy som I’m not sure if that was from the cold or maybe the wind? The only protection this palm got was from being enshrouded on 4 sides by filifera fronds and a small Crepe Myrtle. I’ve since trimmed back some of those fan palm fronds to give it a bit more breathing room and sunlight.
 

Also shown are my young Washingtonia robustas. Planted May ‘23 from 1 gallon they are growing great. Some bronzing of fronds mostly from the cold two weeks ago, but not set back at all.

 

 

[NBTX11]

W. Robusta, Seguin TX

[NBTX11]

CIDP, Seguin TX

 

 

[Ben G.]

1 hour ago, NBTX11 said:

CIDP, Seguin TX

 

 

That's a nice old one!

[PA-TX2024]

A rare surviving Robusta in Austin with volunteers.

[DreaminAboutPalms]

14 hours ago, PA-TX2024 said:

A rare surviving Robusta in Austin with volunteers.

There's quite a few left around the city - here's just a few off the top of my head. The 3rd pic they look fried because street view was last updated a week after temps in the low teens, but they are all still alive as oof last summer 

[PA-TX2024]

53 minutes ago, DreaminAboutPalms said:

There's quite a few left around the city - here's just a few off the top of my head. The 3rd pic they look fried because street view was last updated a week after temps in the low teens, but they are all still alive as oof last summer 

It dropped to 16°F in Austin I believe. They'll all have full crowns by the summer.

[PA-TX2024]

3 hours ago, PA-TX2024 said:

It dropped to 16°F in Austin I believe. They'll all have full crowns by the summer.

This year I mean. Last year it dropped to 11°F. They're super tough.

[DreaminAboutPalms]

2 hours ago, PA-TX2024 said:

This year I mean. Last year it dropped to 11°F. They're super tough.

They sure are tough. There was one actually north of Dallas in Garland that survived 2021 on north side of a movie theater. Unfortunately though it died after 2022 winter when we hit 10F and had a few days where it didn't go above freezing

[Ben G.]

Riverwalk reclinata survivor:

I am pretty sure others have posted this before. It was my first time strolling down this particular section of the Riverwalk though.

[PA-TX2024]

4 hours ago, DreaminAboutPalms said:

They sure are tough. There was one actually north of Dallas in Garland that survived 2021 on north side of a movie theater. Unfortunately though it died after 2022 winter when we hit 10F and had a few days where it didn't go above freezing

I wonder why people planted Robustas in Dallas to begin with. Their usual northern most long term area is Austin or College Station. But wow. That one fought hard.

[PA-TX2024]

11 hours ago, DreaminAboutPalms said:

There's quite a few left around the city - here's just a few off the top of my head. The 3rd pic they look fried because street view was last updated a week after temps in the low teens, but they are all still alive as oof last summer 

Lots of volunteer Robustas growing in Burton Drive. Nice.

[DreaminAboutPalms]

13 hours ago, PA-TX2024 said:

I wonder why people planted Robustas in Dallas to begin with. Their usual northern most long term area is Austin or College Station. But wow. That one fought hard.

Pure robustas nobody has really planted in Dallas really since pre 2011, but robusta dominant hybrids were common up here up until more recently. The reason is, they grow really well here and you can pretty much throw a handful of seeds in a garden bed and come back in a decade and they’ll be 20 feet tall.  even though they get defoliated many years, they come back quickly and are much more fun to watch than a Sabal. That’s why people continue to gamble with them even though here they won’t last more than a few decades.

If we get another decade of mild winters, I’m sure we’ll see more plantings up here