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But hey, at least it's not 90%+ fried like Texas coconuts after the 2021 freeze.

Why lost? Too early to tell. Hopefully you don’t know something I don’t. I have nearly 400 and almost half look real bad. That said, the hearts look decent and underlying growth much better. Maybe I lose the tallest? I’m holding out hope. More concerned about the giant adonidias and nice royals. The adonidias so far look better than the rest. Heavy bronzing but still see green. The areca’s, at least on one side, look like a well placed match may start a hell of a burner.

NOTE: In the temperature ranges below, the lower temperature in ranges typically comes from an Ambient Weather model and the higher temperatures come from a fan-aspirated Davis Vantage Pro 2. If there is no range, both stations were within a degree of each other. If you own an Ambient Weather station, know that the low temperature will be slightly depressed most nights compared to the DVP2. For a full write-up on the comparisons between these models: https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/76970-weather-station-experiments-and-brand-comparisons/ Overall Winter Synopsis (thus far): This cold season started early and didn't disappoint people who love cold snaps. The first cold snap on 11/11/2025 brought the yard almost uniformly down to 36F. This was a full 8F lower than the previous daily record low of 44F here. 11/12/2025 followed with 38F-39F here. December 31st finished off 2025 with a bang as the temperature dropped to 34F-36F in various areas of the yard. Most of January was up and down, with cold events within typical norms frequently interrupting warm periods. The low for the month in the garden was 31F on 01/16/2026. The garden recorded a daily record high of 86F on 01/25/2026, while the airport crushed the previous record high by recording 88F on the same day. The cool-off came swiftly, with multiple nights in the 30s leading up to the February cold blast on 02/01/2026 that brought 24F with 13MPH wind gusts. This event was followed with consecutive nights of 26F-28F, 30F-31F, 38F-39F, 42F-43F, 34F-35F in the garden. The stats below summarize this section, using the DVP2 numbers for the garden temperature: Thus far, most coconuts and crownshaft palms look like they were hit with a blowtorch. Especially affected have been Archontophoenix alexandrae and Dictyosperma album 'conjugatum'. Most Adonidia merrillii, Wodyetia bifurcata, various species of Veitchia (arecina, joannis, winin), Beccariophoenix fenestralis, Roystonea regia, Ptychosperma elegans, Pritchardia thurstonii, Chrysalidocarpus prestonianus, Carpoxylon macrospermum, Hyophorbe (Bottle + Spindle), Caryota mitis, Chambeyronia (macrocarpa, oliviformis, various forms) and Satakentia liukiuensis are heavily damaged to defoliated (80%-100%). It's likely that any Adenium (Desert Rose) left outdoors is dead. More moderate damage (40%-60%) has appeared on Phoenix roebelenii, Beccariophoenix alfredii (some are undamaged), Latania lontaroides, Carpentaria acuminata, various former Dypsis (Chrysalidocarpus decaryi, lutescens, lanceolata, cabadae, pembanus, letptocheilos), Ptychosperma macarthurii, Syagrus schizophylla, Saribus rotundifolius, Cryosophila warscewiczii, Encephalartos ferox, and 2 x Thrinax radiata where the fans face the wind. Light damage has shown up on Howea forsteriana and Hyphaene coriacea in a few spots. No damage has appeared thus far on Coccothrinax argentata, Leucothrinax morrisii, Pseudophoenix sargentii (some in town do show damage), 1 x Thrinax radiata with fronds parallel to the wind, Chrysalidocarpus decipiens, Kerriodoxa elegans, Zamia furfuracea, Zamia integrifolia, any Livistona (decora, chinensis, saribus, muelleri, australis), Arenga engleri, Copernicia (alba or fallaensis) or pineapples. Medemia argun has no cold damage in the ground or in a pot, but they have other issues here. The typical bulletproof palm genera ( Sabal, Serenoa, Acoelorraphe, Chamaedorea, Chamaerops, Butia, Brahea, Syagrus, Phoenix, Rhapis, Rhapidophyllum, and Washingtonia) had no issues, either. This is why many of these were the backbone of gardens before Lethal Bronzing. Silver Buttonwood appears unaffected at this point. Trachycarpus is fine through this event, but is difficult for most areas to grow. My potted plants were placed in a cage near the Atlantic tall coconut bed and suffered no cold losses as they were completely shielded from wind by a cement wall and plants in all directions. As far as hardwoods, it looks like all of my tropical hardwoods will defoliate, but the branches feel solid. This includes: Ficus aurea, Delonix regia, Bursera simaruba, Mange (Glen), Avocado (Choquette), Coccoloba uvifera (Sea Grape). Philodendrons were laying flat on the coldest morning, but perked back up in front of the house. A few neighbors weren't so lucky. Their plants look like spinach. Crotons and Ti will likely defoliate, minus a few branches that were low enough to stay safe from wind. This cannot be considered a final report. The full extent of the damage won't be known for a significant amount of time. My hope is that everyone's favorites will recover and the rest of this winter won't be as terrible. That said, I have heard rumor that another similar outbreak is expected sometime in late February or early March. For now, a few positive photos: Areca vestiaria survived at Hollis since it is small and surrounded by really tough cycads. The former Lytocarium - now Syagrus weddelliana - did really well If the tree trimmers let it alone, the Satakentia near the parking garage should make it. A few of my coconuts show growth for now.

In addition to everything else, I'd temporarily remove it from the sun.

Like Richard has suggested, Phoenix rupicola is barely tolerant of chemical fertilizers and saturated soil. Imagine a mountain Phoenix growing in acidic soil and receiving seasonal rainfall. How easy is the replication of such conditions in cultivation? In current case changing the soil is the only solution.

Such a shame. One night. Hard to tell in this photo but it all looks brown. The only thing giving me hope is the base of my fronds are still green 1 week later.

Palm Plantation is terrible. I’ve purchased palms from probably 40 different people and companies all over SoCal for years. I find their prices waaaay too high. Like 2-3 times as high as I’ve seen other places. Reselling cycads from a very well known cycad dealer for 3X what I or anybody else can get it for. Tag still in the pot so it’s no surprise where it came from. I had a terrible experience in two separate occasions and encourage anyone to find another place to shop. Don’t waste your time or money. I can go into it in detail if needed just DM me. -dale

I would also like to revisit bulbs. I took the pills so I'm not gonna get up and measure the ones hanging from the ceiling, but def gonna lower them. The 10w Sansi (I think I paid $10 for 2) I just measured 630ppfd from 6". The clip on lights I've been using for the philodendron on the shelf? Trash. Absolute trash. I got 45ppfd. So I'm gonna be doing some rearranging. The issue with bulbs of course is like, their beam pattern is trash. I've got an upright Barrina tube next to the Spindle and again, beam angles - kinda hard to get a good reading but it seemed to stay around 360. Not terrible but it's a $60 light and it's getting killed by $5 and $10 jobs. Soooo time to see when my return windows expired lol. Anyway I hope this is useful. I'm using the Photone app on an android phone for measurement and going from thumb tip to pinky tip which is just a smidge over 6".

This is a legitimate vendor. However, it is located in the Netherlands, selling primarily to the EU and does not offer phytosanitary for plant shipments to the USA. This means that the plant material would most likely be confiscated and destroyed by the USDA Ag agents. Been there, done that !

Tricky situation you’re palm is in, they are very temperamental mapu and root sensitivity is extremely important, dont break them or tease them apart to much. Overwatering and stagnet Stale soil is the problem no oxygen in the soil. I have gotten a few mapu from the growers up north sent to me, and they are all in a scoria rock mix almost a succulent mix only larger rock based. If it was my palm I would remove from the pot and gently hose away the soil on a cool day. Then my medium would be coco coir perlite about 50/50 with a handful of good quality potting mix and even a bit of crushed up larva pebbles from hydroponic shops. In Australia I would use a crushed up rock we call blue metal or crusher dust it gis called. Place the palm in a shaded place with humidity and instead of sitting in a tray of water I would put rocks in the tray of water and then place the palm on top of the rocks with just about half a centimetre of container in the water in among the rocks. It’s a tender palm mapu. You have a sick little baby and it needs TLC but not fussing over, dont fertilise your palm either let it recover.

It can be salvaged, a smaller pot as Jonathan suggested, to do that tip the palm on the ground, hose the soil away, trim dead leaves off, repot with a good quality potting mix. Place your palm in a place out of sun in a nice quiet corner of your garden. Dont fertiliser the palm, it looks like you have over fertilised your palm along with overwatering. Ending up with a heap of soil problems locking up your soil with no air in it has not helped your palm. Phoenix palms are quite tough I suggest set and forget your palm in that nice spot in the garden keep an eye on it for a little bit of water in summer and in about a years time you’ll see some recovery in your palm!

Cuttings. Very easy ( typically root within a couple weeks ) esp. w/ some heat. Can be rooted in soil or a glass of water. ..Can be propagated by seed also ( looks like dust ) but it isn't always produced. Amaranth Family plant, so flowers produced aren't all that interesting and are usually removed.

Perhaps i should pick those chamaedorea seeds and truck them of too zones 8 and 9?

No prob! I hope your royal makes it i am close to Daytona area coast, lost my Areca hedge, total of 16. They weren’t mature but probably 6-7 ft tall. As boring as it sounds I will probably replace with a podocarpus hedge and maybe incorporate some other palms. Even the clusia in the area is destroyed. It was just too much work and stress this winter, now I have 16 arecas burned to the ground to remove. Like I said I will always have some exotics but learned a valuable lesson this year.. I will replace some of the arecas or redesign an area for them but won’t be a mainstay in the landscape this time. I was even shocked at how fried my protected 6 ft triple robelini was. Still am not sure if it will make it. Bud seems to be green but everything else is brown

I do believe the sailors called it smoking the rope in those days! You can give me a cuppa tea and some scones on the deck after a bit of gardening! Richard

Well they can come and weed out my archontophoenix palms on there way to Nimbin (an old hippie town that started from the Aquarius festival back in the 70s) if they like, next time there on holidays from the good old US of A. I don’t mind some volunteers, I have a lot of rocks I can’t plant in and the volunteers pop up in the rock cracks they are welcome to stay there.

Thanks for the update. I guess this could be considered a "Zone Defining" event. I have a 40' tall Royal palm that has been growing at my Orlando area home for 24 years. It is mostly fried. But, I believe it will survive as the growing bud is so high off the ground. But, it will take months to regrow the crown. Thanks again for the quick response. It will be interesting to see if any of those coconut palms along A-1-A beachside may survive.

I'd prefer seeds but I'm not paying $1 each. I think 15-20 would be more than enough. I'd be happy with a handful of seedlings too, but I'm not looking to spend a fortune. We're very ghetto down here. Trades are nice once the weather stays consistently warm and there's a pretty good chance I've got something you'll want or at least consider.

I wonder if ever we would complain about palms as weeds if it was a Tahina spectabilis or Joey palms popping up all over the place. Free palms are the best and from a friend even better. I visited a mate a few backs, he was proud to show me his new nursery setup and it was quite impressive with nice healthy seedlings, he gave me a bunch of carpentaria palm seedling volunteers, I don’t know who was more impressed my mate, for me actually wanting the carpentaria palms or myself in getting a palm I wanted. Richard

Thanks! How do you propagate it?

Iam dreading the day my foxtail palms start seedling, I have seen what a weed they can be, at least you can make dandelion tea!

Thinking Iresine herbstii, Bloodleaf..

Yeah ok I use this thread as a diary to keep up with shit I've done and as a timetable. split up orange spider plants, repotted Butia x lytocaryum, repotted one of 2 surviving Kahukas, got some perlite and some more lights. I think ALL of the Burle Marx philos need 1 gallon pots at this point. If I can figure out how to trigger the variegation and get them really variegated like their mama, that's a nice payday. Another banana is pupping. I'm remembering I actually have fertilizer. My compost is composting. I've got 5 more philodendrons to chop up and my cuttings are taking off like crazy. I've got a banana that's as tall as I am. I'm doing better with watering schedules and it shows. I feel like I don't get much done but this has literally exploded in like 3 months. I've built all my benches and tables. I'm using ghetto lights and buckets of water as humidifiers and it's working. I got my stuff for local sales started and I got my stuff for mail order started. Passed my state inspection. Gonna need to make room for pot ups and everyone who's ever done me a favor gets the homey hookup first. Just need to get my logo cleaned up and we'll have a good summer.

I think the winds were just too strong on this one and microclimates didn’t make a difference. When I used to drive here I would have to look for the exotic palms, now I just look for brown and that’s how I spot them. An unbelievable amount of fried exotics in new Smyrna, right close to the beach. Arecas, royals, foxtails, spindles, bottles, coconuts. All fried. Only thing that seems to have made it is queens, Washingtonia, and sabals I know like a lot of us zone pushers I was hopeful driving through areas like this in the past but this is eye opening. After this freeze my perspective has completely changed, I will always have a few exotics but it will be a much smaller collection now. Now looking for cold hardy tropical looking palms for my main palms such as beccariophoenix alfredii and maybe some ribbon palms. Already have queens and Washingtonia Too devastating of a loss in the yard. Lost all my juvenile exotics