Ponytail Palm in Washington, DC

[jwf1983]

So my wife and I purchased a Ponytail Palm from a local garden center in early April 2019.  After keeping it inside in our apartment for the first month or two, we moved it to our outside, southeast facing patio, where it remained, year round, until we purchased our house near downtown DC in 2021.  Since moving to our home, we've kept it outside close to a south facing fence, partially protected by the house from the harshest north and northwest winter winds.  Surprisingly, it made it through the few winters here without much intervention outside of being wrapped in frost cloth on the coldest nights.  I keep a weather station outside in our yard, and typically though our winters are cold, the air is often dry, and very few, if any days remain close to freezing or below freezing.  January is the struggle, with nights that dip to freezing for a couple hours, sometimes longer, but, from winter 2021 to present, the lowest temp we've registered was 18 degrees during the 2022 Christmas holiday cold snap.  

Though last winter (2023-2024) was a warmer than normal winter, which included a very strange January 26 day at 83 degrees with a 70 degree dew point, it was an El Nino year, and extremely wet.  While other, colder winters the Ponytail Palm seemed to make it through with minimal to moderate stress on it's crown, this past winter, with all the precipitation almost caused a knockout blow.  

I learned sometime ago that there isn't a ton of information about Ponytail Palms in general, as they are most frequently kept indoors, or they live outside in tropical climates, where they encounter few issues.  I wasn't sure what to do until I came across some information that suggested to literally cut off the leaf crown down to a point on the caudex where it no longer felt soft to the touch.  My wife refers to it as "her girl", and we were at first reluctant to give her the cut, assuming it would turn out to be the fatal blow, as information on the subject was scant.  Nevertheless, we charged up the power saw and lopped off all of the crown.  What remained was a bare caudex with a couple of tiny green bulges at various spots on the lower portion of the caudex.  At the time, I wondered if it was new growth.  

 

Photos here for your reference, but, after the surgery, we placed her large planter on our roof deck so that she could get full sun.  I began to apply a liquid Bromeliad fertilizer every two weeks beginning in April.  Lucky for us, we has a brutally hot and dry summer, with a stretch of nearly 3 straight weeks with upper 90's to 105 degrees, with evening temps stay in the 80's most nights.  While many of the native plants and trees were burnt or killed outright (including a young southern live oak tree that is just starting to make a come back), the Ponytail Palm thrived.  To our surprised, around two months ago I started noticing some kind of peculiar growth coming out, and extending from the new leaves.  I soon learned that our Ponytail Palm was likely flowering--something that can take up to 30 years to occur in suitable growing conditions, or, sometimes during periods of rapid growth.  We learned that if there are pink flowers, it's a female, and if there are white or yellow flowers, it's a male.  Turns out, our little girl with little yellow flowers, is actually a male.

 

Nothing crazy, but just wanted to share.  I realize keeping a Ponytail Palm outside year round in Washington, DC is ultimately a death sentence, but I continue to be impressed by this species hardiness and ability to bounce back in this environment.  

 

One photo is from after the cutting of the crown in early March, 2024,  the rest are from the last month or today.

[Silas_Sancona]

1 hour ago, jwf1983 said:

So my wife and I purchased a Ponytail Palm from a local garden center in early April 2019.  After keeping it inside in our apartment for the first month or two, we moved it to our outside, southeast facing patio, where it remained, year round, until we purchased our house near downtown DC in 2021.  Since moving to our home, we've kept it outside close to a south facing fence, partially protected by the house from the harshest north and northwest winter winds.  Surprisingly, it made it through the few winters here without much intervention outside of being wrapped in frost cloth on the coldest nights.  I keep a weather station outside in our yard, and typically though our winters are cold, the air is often dry, and very few, if any days remain close to freezing or below freezing.  January is the struggle, with nights that dip to freezing for a couple hours, sometimes longer, but, from winter 2021 to present, the lowest temp we've registered was 18 degrees during the 2022 Christmas holiday cold snap.  

Though last winter (2023-2024) was a warmer than normal winter, which included a very strange January 26 day at 83 degrees with a 70 degree dew point, it was an El Nino year, and extremely wet.  While other, colder winters the Ponytail Palm seemed to make it through with minimal to moderate stress on it's crown, this past winter, with all the precipitation almost caused a knockout blow.  

I learned sometime ago that there isn't a ton of information about Ponytail Palms in general, as they are most frequently kept indoors, or they live outside in tropical climates, where they encounter few issues.  I wasn't sure what to do until I came across some information that suggested to literally cut off the leaf crown down to a point on the caudex where it no longer felt soft to the touch.  My wife refers to it as "her girl", and we were at first reluctant to give her the cut, assuming it would turn out to be the fatal blow, as information on the subject was scant.  Nevertheless, we charged up the power saw and lopped off all of the crown.  What remained was a bare caudex with a couple of tiny green bulges at various spots on the lower portion of the caudex.  At the time, I wondered if it was new growth.  

 

Photos here for your reference, but, after the surgery, we placed her large planter on our roof deck so that she could get full sun.  I began to apply a liquid Bromeliad fertilizer every two weeks beginning in April.  Lucky for us, we has a brutally hot and dry summer, with a stretch of nearly 3 straight weeks with upper 90's to 105 degrees, with evening temps stay in the 80's most nights.  While many of the native plants and trees were burnt or killed outright (including a young southern live oak tree that is just starting to make a come back), the Ponytail Palm thrived.  To our surprised, around two months ago I started noticing some kind of peculiar growth coming out, and extending from the new leaves.  I soon learned that our Ponytail Palm was likely flowering--something that can take up to 30 years to occur in suitable growing conditions, or, sometimes during periods of rapid growth.  We learned that if there are pink flowers, it's a female, and if there are white or yellow flowers, it's a male.  Turns out, our little girl with little yellow flowers, is actually a male.

 

Nothing crazy, but just wanted to share.  I realize keeping a Ponytail Palm outside year round in Washington, DC is ultimately a death sentence, but I continue to be impressed by this species hardiness and ability to bounce back in this environment.  

 

One photo is from after the cutting of the crown in early March, 2024,  the rest are from the last month or today.

I'd take a closer look at the " flowers " ..and compare them to shots  from a reliable net info source like iNaturalist..  IMO, those flowers look more like Nutsedge than Beaucarnea flowers..

Here's a quick web reference from the Hort. Dept. extension at the University of Wisconsin  ..Not the obvious differences between what you're seeing, and what is pictured for both male and female flowers..



W / Nutsedge, ..get it out ..roots and all nutlets  ..or it will take over the entire container..

 

[Calosphace]

Impressive it was able to survive out there, must have excellent drainage. We've lost decades-old plants under canopy in the mid-20s simply because it happened to be wet two days in a row and the soil didn't fully dry out. Our exposed ones ironically actually do better for that reason

And yeah those aren't the flowers, the flowers are huge almost like a yucca when it goes off. I think only one of ours is flowering size and it is two storeys tall.

I'm the one person who likes nut sedge LOL normally I would pull it out of containers because of root competition but I don't think it'd matter with this species (if anything they would appreciate something else draining the water)

[Rain52]

They tend to hold up well in our sandy soils in northeast Florida and don’t seemed to be bothered by infrequent cold shots in the upper 20’s. Here r a few pics around here. Loved ur pics. 

[Palmerr]

thats not nutsedge, well maybe there are some in there but i can see the growth coming out of the trunk its growing.. good!

[Palmerr]

On 10/18/2024 at 11:29 AM, jwf1983 said:

So my wife and I purchased a Ponytail Palm from a local garden center in early April 2019.  After keeping it inside in our apartment for the first month or two, we moved it to our outside, southeast facing patio, where it remained, year round, until we purchased our house near downtown DC in 2021.  Since moving to our home, we've kept it outside close to a south facing fence, partially protected by the house from the harshest north and northwest winter winds.  Surprisingly, it made it through the few winters here without much intervention outside of being wrapped in frost cloth on the coldest nights.  I keep a weather station outside in our yard, and typically though our winters are cold, the air is often dry, and very few, if any days remain close to freezing or below freezing.  January is the struggle, with nights that dip to freezing for a couple hours, sometimes longer, but, from winter 2021 to present, the lowest temp we've registered was 18 degrees during the 2022 Christmas holiday cold snap.  

Though last winter (2023-2024) was a warmer than normal winter, which included a very strange January 26 day at 83 degrees with a 70 degree dew point, it was an El Nino year, and extremely wet.  While other, colder winters the Ponytail Palm seemed to make it through with minimal to moderate stress on it's crown, this past winter, with all the precipitation almost caused a knockout blow.  

I learned sometime ago that there isn't a ton of information about Ponytail Palms in general, as they are most frequently kept indoors, or they live outside in tropical climates, where they encounter few issues.  I wasn't sure what to do until I came across some information that suggested to literally cut off the leaf crown down to a point on the caudex where it no longer felt soft to the touch.  My wife refers to it as "her girl", and we were at first reluctant to give her the cut, assuming it would turn out to be the fatal blow, as information on the subject was scant.  Nevertheless, we charged up the power saw and lopped off all of the crown.  What remained was a bare caudex with a couple of tiny green bulges at various spots on the lower portion of the caudex.  At the time, I wondered if it was new growth.  

 

Photos here for your reference, but, after the surgery, we placed her large planter on our roof deck so that she could get full sun.  I began to apply a liquid Bromeliad fertilizer every two weeks beginning in April.  Lucky for us, we has a brutally hot and dry summer, with a stretch of nearly 3 straight weeks with upper 90's to 105 degrees, with evening temps stay in the 80's most nights.  While many of the native plants and trees were burnt or killed outright (including a young southern live oak tree that is just starting to make a come back), the Ponytail Palm thrived.  To our surprised, around two months ago I started noticing some kind of peculiar growth coming out, and extending from the new leaves.  I soon learned that our Ponytail Palm was likely flowering--something that can take up to 30 years to occur in suitable growing conditions, or, sometimes during periods of rapid growth.  We learned that if there are pink flowers, it's a female, and if there are white or yellow flowers, it's a male.  Turns out, our little girl with little yellow flowers, is actually a male.

 

Nothing crazy, but just wanted to share.  I realize keeping a Ponytail Palm outside year round in Washington, DC is ultimately a death sentence, but I continue to be impressed by this species hardiness and ability to bounce back in this environment.  

 

One photo is from after the cutting of the crown in early March, 2024,  the rest are from the last month or today.

Yeah we had 78 Degree high during sometime in jan that was a crazy year lol then after feb it was high 60s then a dip to 16 (Lowest of the year) then back up to 40s by morning lol KY weather and D.C. Weather The craziest. Or really East coast weather.. The Craziest!

[Palmerr]

Yeah you can see the nutsedge in there but the actual palm is growing lol nutsedge has fan palm seedling looking leaves ponytail palm leaves are smooth. And larger see the difference? Pick those out now before they seed!!! Oh its too late lol