Washingtonia Robusta in zone 9a and below

[MJSanDiego]

Take a look at this AI generated result. Please reply if in your experience this is accurate or not.  I can tell you in the arid CA High Desert 17 years ago my Robustas defoliated at 22 degrees to a full brown crispy potato chip canopy. They did come back in the spring with a new canopy though. Let's try to keep responses somewhat short if possible so its easy to read as posts accumulate, and we can poll to see how accurate AI really is!! Thank you!

[flplantguy]

Check out Las Cruces, New Mexico or Albuquerque. You will likely get replies from people in the region too, but it is possible. Not ideal however. The washies there routinely see low teens every year and some single digits in spots. In 2011 a monster freeze with zone 8 areas dropping below 0 did just that and killed a lot of palms, but many survived.  Carlsbad as well has some that have lived through the latest polar outbreaks.

[Patrick]

Zero is too low. I'm not buying this AI generated tripe and it's misleading. Go to the freeze damage data on this website and look up the Washingtonia threads to get a real world idea of how low they can really go. I would almost bet on filifera to go lower than robusta; but I wouldn't know first hand. I enjoy both species in OTHER peoples' yards. 

I'm sorry if I've offended tripe. 

[flplantguy]

45 minutes ago, Patrick said:

Zero is too low. I'm not buying this AI generated tripe and it's misleading. Go to the freeze damage data on this website and look up the Washingtonia threads to get a real world idea of how low they can really go. I would almost bet on filifera to go lower than robusta; but I wouldn't know first hand. I enjoy both species in OTHER peoples' yards. 

I'm sorry if I've offended tripe. 

I think you may offend the people that live there more than an AI. Again its not ideal but it is possible in dry desert cold. I lived there for a long time and its not normal but it is possible. Like a coconut in central florida its not the best choice but they do succeed.  Check out some street views and weather data for the area or some threads here in palmtalk in the cold weather section.

[Patrick]

23 minutes ago, flplantguy said:

I think you may offend the people that live there more than an AI. Again its not ideal but it is possible in dry desert cold. I lived there for a long time and its not normal but it is possible. Like a coconut in central florida its not the best choice but they do succeed.  Check out some street views and weather data for the area or some threads here in palmtalk in the cold weather section.

...or like a coconut in Palm springs. I get it. Lucky if one can get away with it, though I would figure a winter or two at 0 is not going to fare well for the Washy. True, not ideal...

[jwitt]

Many robusta survived the 2/2011 event in southern NM. .  Many died. 

The simple fact is it was two consecutive nights at, or well below zero, preceded by rain and snow. 

I am referring to El Paso(1f), Las Cruces(-5f), Alamogordo(-10f) 

Carlsbad and ABQ do not have unprotected long-term robusta. 

I won't mention the high temperatures.