Trachycarpus in southern Ontario Canada

[Elim North]

Thank you to all the PalmTalk people who have shared their knowledge and experiences so generously.  It looks like my first attempt at growing and overwintering Trachycarpus fortunei in my garden was a success.

In summer 2024 I planted 1 3-gallon size, and 2 2-gallon size T. fortunei, along with some young seedlings.

The area I'm located in is somewhere around USDA zone 6b/7a.    If you imagine a line going north of Cleveland OH and another line going east of Detroit MI - where those two lines cross is very approximately where I'm located.

Like everyone in cold areas, I've attempted to make best use of microclimate by growing the palms on the east side of my house - which is sheltered by a 6-foot high wooden privacy fence.  My neighbour's home is about 5 feet away on the other side of the fence.  My clothes dryer vents to this side of the house and my natural gas furnace also vents to this side of the house.  The house is about 100 years old, with a poorly insulated basement - so there will be heatloss to the nearby soil.  The small town I live in is located on top of a glacial moraine and so the soil is sand to sandy-loam over top of gravel.  Many of you have written about the benefits of good soil drainage for overwintering success.

While the winters of 2023 and 2024 (especially) were quite mild, our 2025 winter has been closer to longer-term average temperatures. 

I delayed putting on winter protection until December 18, 2024.

My overwintering setup was relatively simple:

• tie up the fronds
• attach a temperature monitor to the stem
• wrap the entire plant in 1 layer of landscape fabric with a little opening at the top
• wrap C-9 Christmas lights, with Thermocube, around the resulting "cone" trying to make sure some lights were at the soil line, and some right at the growing point
• I tried to end up with the Thermocube more or less at the level of the growing point
• wrap the entire "package" again in a second layer of landscape fabric - again more or less in a cone form with an opening at the top

Here are a few photos to show:

Above - remote temperature monitor

 

single layer of landscape fabric, C-9 lights, Thermocube

 

The finished result (above)

 

And the result when the protection was removed yesterday (March 10, 2025) - above.  There is some burning of the outer (lower) fronds.  But the inner fronds look to be a good, green colour.  

I've read lots about spear pull and so I tried it but as far as I can tell the spears on all 3 palms seem to be firmly embedded/attached.

One additional feature many have written about is genetics.  I purchased this plant from a local importer who mostly brings plants up from Florida but this supplier also offered T. fortunei from a Canadian seed source and grown in Canada.  I assume this means it most likely came from a grower in British Columbia.  

As an additional bonus - I mentioned I planted some seedling T. fortunei last year as well.  I confess I was somewhat cavalier with these for overwintering.  I think, without exception, everyone in colder regions writes about the importance of winter protection until the plants are reasonable size and well established - that cold hardiness improves with age/size.  

The photo below shows one of 4 seedlings that survived the winter unprotected (other than from rabbits).  I admit that it doesn't look like much but the lower half of each leaf is still green and I can't detect any evidence of spear pull at this time.  I was really surprised to observe this.  I thought for sure these plants would be completed brown and dead.  We did get some snow cover and maybe that's what saved them.  Snow can be a good insulator.  These seedlings were sourced from a British Columbia grower using T. fortunei seed from there, so genetics (I hope) may also be important.  

Again, many thanks to all of you who are so kind to share your experiences.  This early success has got me hooked now.  And I still have lots to learn.