Posted by T in NE Tennessee on February 13, 2009, 12:19 am
216.41.240.83
I have a Windmill palm here at my lawn in northeast Tennessee that I had had for 5 years. It has taken every winter with stride, even when we had record lows in the upper single digits in the winter of 2007-2008. It had some frond damage, but came back nice in the summer. This winter, last month (January 2009), we dropped to 5°f on two mornings, which was the coldest it had been here in many years and the coldest that my Windmill palm had experienced. Days later most of the fronds are a dreadful looking brown and only the "branches" remain green. Even the new growth in the center that was coming out is all brown and ugly. I covered the tree the best I could with a sheet (its a large tree now), but it did not help. Its my understanding that these suffer front damage at these temps, but the tree itself will withstand temps as cold as zero to about -2° before it perishes?
I am wondering if its likely toast or should I wait to see if it recovers?
My Needle palm was unscathed (as expected)... still looks as green and lush as ever, as does my Sabal Birmingham. Sadly, my first year Sabal Minor seedlings are looking quite glum as well.
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