Frozen Palm Pics

I'm posting these pictures for those interested
in what freeze damage can look like.

A couple weeks ago we had an unusual freeze.
It was 70-80F for weeks...then all of a sudden
a 14 hour freeze where it dipped to 25F. It is
70's again now, but the aftermath isn't pretty.

My Roebellini (above in pic) is next to a chimney,
brick, a hot tub, and partially under an eve. It has
been unscathed in the ground four years and is
now a toasty brown...even the crowns. By contrast,
the queen next to it, and all my others, have so far
shown no effects (that usually comes in Spring
with malformed crowns, though).

All my smaller Washies got toasted. The ones
only in the ground one year are DEAD. This one
(in pic lower) is only burned bad. My theory is
a more mature root system helps stave off
freezing effects...bigger ones in the ground
less time are almost black.

These palms are helpless when it is 80F during the day
then freezes at night...a relatively new phenomena. I
have a huge hackberry tree that lost all of its green leaves
in two days following this...never got brown. Same
with some peaches that were blossoming. All my
Phoenix Canariensis were in full flower...they look
like the flowers were torched...trees are good.

The Queen and Phoenix Date palms might come through ok since 25f is not too bad. As for the roebellinis, not so sure about those. What species of Washy do you have?

The ones that got burned are Washingtonia Robusta.
The Washingtonia Filifera (sp?) look OK.
The Phoenix Roebillini probably shouldn't have been here to begin with
but it was doing fine.

I like your country a lot but have never been to Nelson.
Spent some time in Raglan...think that is up the coast from you (?)
I here there is some ice in the ocean down that way that never
used to be there.

I will have some extra phoenix roebelenii seeds here real soon if you want some...and I might stll have some of the washingtonia seeds...I know that won't replace the plants, but it beats buying more when I have some

Just be patient and wait till spring to see what happens. We had 16 degrees here a couple years ago for a couple hours one night and my roebellenii's came back from what I thought was sure death. The Washingtonias should come back and the Queen looks fine.

Thanks for all the support/suggestions. I
noticed today the Roebellini was getting smut/mold
following the freeze so I will have to spray it off and Daconyl
what's left.

I think it was the duration (14 hours) that was so different about this.
We have had dips before but never so long. Like I always noticed
6 hours at 30F was far worse than two at 26F, etc. The main crown
actually looks gray (there are 3...the others look completely dead).

Thanks for the seed offer! I have lots...I pick them up everywhere.
But I must admit I have gotten to the point where if I grow one from seed
I am pleased for about five years then I realize I will never live to see these
things get really big. I know someday my land will be a showplace..I'm just
hoping to see a little of it!

I feel that way alot myself...LOL

A couple of the roebellenii looked like that too after our freeze. The crowns looked dead and the tops actually pulled out but lo and behold they actually sprouted back out of the middle but it took till late summer for them to get to that point. One was a multitrunk plant and I think only one crown out of the whole thing actually died. Good luck.

Hi Chief

Raglan is up in the North Island and I'm in the South Island. Did you go surfing in Raglan?

I have 4 roebellini growing at my place and fortunately, I don't have to worry about freezes. But they are quite slow growing and as you say it's a long time before they reach maturity.

Good advice on the roebellinis...I will wait it out...I couldn't have given it a more sheltered spot.

Yes, Mike! We surf here in South Texas...not on "all day waves" like they have in Raglan, though.
Mostly we dodge jellyfish and a good ride is about a minute. People are transitioning to surf-sailing
(with a big kite...we have a LOT of wind) and get way out with the oil-tankers...it's quite the thing.
Spent a lot of time in Auckland and wanted to move to Raglan but they would have put my dog in quarantine for six months and he wouldn't have made it confined that long. Never been to your island but met quite a few great folks from there.

It's going to freeze here tonight again. I don't know what is going on. Apparently, this global
warming thing is causing extremes both directions(?) I wouldn't mind it being 100F+ like it was
all summer if it freezes no more. And I can live with the no-hurricane-thing.