Washies 28.6N Latitude

I seem to have lost about 100 palm trees in the last two weeks.
I grew these guys around my pool from almost nothing. I purposely
don't cover my pool all winter because the water, which mimics the
Gulf temperature-wise (it is around 35km away), would moderate
the climate for them in case it ever got extremely cold.

This is the result. When I sprayed the crowns yesterday on a ladder
the top halves were burned and moving down, about half the petioles
were green. And there wasn't a millimeter of green on a single leaf.

I wonder how long a tree can survive with no green leaves?

Just one week of warm weather has made all but a handful
of my Washingtonias do what the attached picture shows:
a moderate green growth out of the crown (only) of maybe
5% of each tree's height.

Encouraging (!!) if it weren't for another freeze expected
tomorrow night and the next day...and actually those are mild...
what will happen for the rest of the century?

I figure this as some sort of granular plant torture. Note the blue
agave in the background: it spawned many a cousin...now it's
rotting: post-frozen-crown down---I point this out ironically:
mother nature has seen fit to also remove tequila therapy.

My washies look the same way this year as they did last year,and,, when spring came they all come back in all their glory,hope they come back again this spring I am in zone 8 with water all around,sound ocean and large fresh and salt water ponds that probably help a little,this year I put out six canary island palms about three ft tall and the havent shown any effects of the cold temps.so far,did spray them with frese pruff,wonder if that helped.Hoitider

Chief, if the palms keep a bit of green at the top like your washies, does that mean that they will probably come back? My Queens still have a bit of green in the top 2 fronds that were just starting to open up before they were hit by the Big Freeze. Its giving me hope they'll come back. I know they wouldn't be a pretty sight for awhile, but I'll be a very happy camper if they just survive.

Hoitider, what is frese pruff and were would I be able to buy it?

Thanks for the data hoitider...every bit of encouragement is appreciated.

TexasJan, I have never had palms look this horrible before. When my fan palms
went all dark it was due to other reasons than freezes...and they became ambulatory.
In some cases I dug them up, potted them, and let them sit for years to recover.
Some other times they died, although my success at rehabbing was very high...like if
a tap root got severed they looked like this and it set them back years but they survived.

I have had queens look terrible...like three fronds left and no crown...and lo and behold a crown
emerged after months. However, mine look positively scorched. In Victoria there are palms
everywhere that have to be at least 50 years old. The queens look bleached in all but a few cases.
There are Washies downtown that look unharmed that are the same age as mine (which look brown),
others that look just like mine, all 12 minutes away. There are pygmy date palms gray/black everywhere, then totally green ones under live oaks. There are mature Canaries that are bronze or topless.

I attribute the crowns emerging green to survival from a core freeze followed by preservation from
onsetting mold (anti-fungal treatment to the crown). When I wasn't present in the past to do this
I lost queens. When I was here they survived. The thicker the trunk the greener they appear in the middle.
If you've got a good core it's alive and fungus from the dead parts is the enemy. I was sure some
were dead before they came back...but there are 40 footers around here with huge trunks that look
as bad as mine now...I'm in uncharted territory and I'm afraid they are too.

Thanks, Chief. I'm just looking at you as the expert here. I guess this weird weather is an unknown and we'll just have to see how it all turns out. I really appreciate all the info you've given me.

Keep warm..........its 29 degrees here at the moment.

You're way too kind. There are a few bonafide experts here who
know all kinds of things I can hardly guess at...and the Latin
names for them. Sadly, if there's anything I seem to have
experience with it's weird pests and frozen palms.

We had 2 hours at 32F two nights ago then 20 minutes of
32F one night ago...then 38F last night. Here's to hopin'
we shoot through February with lots of record high lows!

I took this picture today as an update to my last.
The short amount of warm we have had has caused
the crowns on these to pop up. Great news if it weren't
about to freeze again Tuesday night.

Normal this time of year is 65F/45F and it is going to be
40's/30's for a few days. I'm thinkin' as long as we don't
hit anymore records we'll be all right.

In the last couple days I saw some huge old canary island
date palms 100% scorched...mine are about 70%. It is
interesting they are the last to show damage, the queens being
second to last (although they went from green to bleached
in a few days). The Pindos seems happy...they were already blue.

Blue with cold? Hearing about all the heavy snow falls happening now. Is any of that affecting you?

Keeping my fingers and toes crossed that there's no more hard freezes. Keep thinking a little green is a good thing. Good luck.
Jan

Sorry, more dull "cold humor". I think it is
ironic that a Pindo Palm has a blue hue
that stays the same even in ridiculous cold,
but shows no sign of damage later...also
contradictory: cold damage is denoted as
"burning" when, in fact, I had a young pindo get
nasty sun burning in the dead of last summer's drought.

Unfortunately, this is not true of all blue
things here: ask my Mexican Blue Fans
and blue agaves...the first are charred, the
others "melted".

And no, it has almost never snowed here...
once in '83 or '84 we got a good one, and
it flurried/melted in December this year...
then you go back as far as the old-timers
can remember.

I must admit Wunderground has a dismal
forecast starting tomorrow: days of lows in
the 1-2C range...perfect for snow. Local TV
said last night the lows were going to be 5-6C.
That's a big difference. I'm in a spot where the
GOM fights off "Northers". The wind actually
swirls all the time. I own a leaf vacuum, because
if I rake, no matter where I pile the leaves they
end up in the pool.

Sorry, more whining about the weather. Attached is my "freeze"
for the evening. Checking around the State I note the forecast
is for a low of 29F here, Houston, Austin, and DALLAS. San Antonio,
100 miles NW of here INLAND has no freeze warning.
Late last night there was no prediction of frosting or freezing.

One final note: if it freezes here tonight my first choice
is to move to where it's warmer. But the economy sucks, so
I will be dropping gardening and taking up snowmobiling.
This will be my very last post!

I valued interacting with each and every one of you. Stay warm!

I have three mexican fan palms here in central SC that look as damaged as yours every winter. I remove the fronds when they look completely dead, but they always return by April. Last winter-2009- we had a low of 10f one morning, and I was sure they were toast. What a pleasant surprise when the following spring brought lustrous new growth.

Purchased 6 canary island palms this sumer ,3 and 4 ft high.and all of them have handled this cold temperetures wery well,no burn on them at all.my washies are all burnt,but that happend last year and they came back fine,have 4 large european fan palms that all look dead but they came back last year,these were fiive and six ft palms,multiy trunks,wind mills and butia are fine,any onr with any experince with the new mule palms? hoitider