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cold damage to palm collection near downtown Orlando


Eric in Orlando

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I went over to my mom's house yesterday to inspect the cold damage to the plants and palms in her yard. She lives just northwest of downtown Orlando and has lived in the same house for 30 years. I have planted a lot there over the years. Her yard was formerly a very warm microclimate with lots of tree canopy. The 2004 hurricanes took out quite a few trees in her neighborhood and opened it up. This was the first real freeze since then and there was a lot more damage than expected. The neighbor across the street said he recorded 26F in his open back yard as the absolute low during the Jan. cold spell. Most palms under some canopy did well but lots of damage in the open spots. And some unusual damage. An 8ft Ravenala madagascariensis only had minor burn but a Strelitzia nicolai that I keep trimmed to a single trunk and about 15ft tall had moderate burn. They are about 6ft away from each other.

Here are how the palms fared and a few other tropicals growing in the yard

Adonidia merrillii (5’) severe

Aiphanes horrida (7’) severe

Archontophoenix cunninghamiana (15’) no damage

Archontophoenix tuckeri (6’) minor

Areca triandra (7’) moderate

Arenga caudata (3’) minor

Arenga pinnata (6’) severe

Arenga ryukyuensis (4’) no damage

Attalea cohune (3’) minor

Beccariophoenix madagascariensis (5’) no damage

Bismarckia nobilis (7’) no damage

Calamus latifolius (C. inermis, 20’) moderate to severe

Caryota gigas (5’) slight

Caryota mitis (20’) severe

Caryota obtusa (3’) slight

Caryota rumphiana (20’) severe

Caryota urens (20’) severe

Caryota urens x mitis (20’) severe

Caryota sp. “Himalayan” (15’) minor

Chambeyronia macrocarpa (4’) no damage

Chamaedorea stolonifera (3’) no damage

Cocos nucifera ‘Maypan’ (6’) severe

Dypsis lastelliana (6’) moderate

Dypsis lutescens (several clumps 6-15’) severe

Dypsis madagascariensis “Lucubensis form” (6’) moderate

Dypsis madagascariensis “Mahajanga form” (7’) no damage

Dypsis onilahensis (6’) no damage

Howea forsteriana (5’) no damage

Hyophorbe verschaffeltii (3') no damage

Laccospadix australasica (6’) no damage

Licuala ramsayi (4’) no damage

Licuala spinosa (4’) no damage

Livistona jenkinsiana (5’) no damage

Lytocaryum weddellianum (4’) no damage

Phoenix pusilla (3’) no damage

Phoenix rupicola (3’) no damage

Polyandrococos caudescens (3’) no damage

Ptychosperma macarthurii (7’) severe

Ravenea glauca (4’) no damage

Reinhardtia latisectus (3’) no damage

Rhapis laosensis (3’) no damage

Roystonea oleracea (5’) moderate

Roystonea regia (5’) minor

Sabal mauritiiformis (7’) no damage

Syagrus pseudococos (5’) none

Veitchia arecina (20’) severe

Wallichia caryotoides (4’) slight

Wallichia densiflora (6’) slight

Wallichia disticha (4’) minor

Wodyetia bifurcata (5’) no damage

Wodyetia bifurcata (22’) severe

Pandanus tectorius (9’) no damage

Pandanus furcatus (4’) no damage

Ravenala madagascariensis (8’) minor

Strelitzia nicolai (15’) moderate

Afrocarpus gracilior (15’) no damage

Araucaria bidwillii (7') no damage

Bursera simaruba (10') defoliated

Ceiba speciosa (20’) no damage

Ficus benghalensis (20’) defoliated

Ficus natalensis ssp. leprieurii (7’) defoliated

Ficus lyrata (8') defoliated

Kigelia africana (7’) defoliated

Schefflera actinophylla (20') defoliated

Schefflera elegantissima (15') severe

Schefflera heptaphylla (5') no damage

Simarouba glauca (15') defoliated

Swietenia mahagoni (10') no damage

These cold hardy palms are also in the yard and suffered no damage;

Arenga ryukyuensis, Brahea elegans, Chamaedorea microspadix, Livistona australis, L. chinensis, L. saribus, Rhapis excelsa, R. humilis, Sabal etonia, S. palmetto, Syagrus romanzoffianum, Trithrinax acanthacoma

  • Upvote 5

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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Thank you very much for the report Eric. It will be interesting to see what survivors there are and how well they bounce back, especially specimens of the same variety.

Coastal San Diego, California

Z10b

Dry summer subtropical/Mediterranean

warm summer/mild winter

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eric thanks for this info , we in Europe want to know the strength of the palms after this cold spell that hit the Florida

GIUSEPPE

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  • 7 years later...

Thanks for this post, Eric.  Very helpful for me in Sarasota.  Our lows, back in 2010 were 27-28, so it's good to see.  Your mom must have a huge and amazing garden!  I would love to see photos!

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Great info, as usual. The low at my place was 25f, but I'm thinking there were a couple 29f's to go with it. Do you happen to know if the Wodyetia survived? Thank goodness I planted mine in '13. 

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Glad to hear the Roystonea did okay. The ones at Moody Gardens in Galveston TX did well for the most part, but they are in fairly protected areas. Here's a pic of one that was in the open with what I suppose is cold damage from 2010. If my place was 25f, I suspect Galveston was more like 26.5f  

IMG_1467.JPG

Edited by topwater
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2 hours ago, topwater said:

Glad to hear the Roystonea did okay. The ones at Moody Gardens in Galveston TX did well for the most part, but they are in fairly protected areas. Here's a pic of one that was in the open with what I suppose is cold damage from 2010. If my place was 25f, I suspect Galveston was more like 26.5f  

 

2 hours ago, topwater said:

Glad to hear the Roystonea did okay. The ones at Moody Gardens in Galveston TX did well for the most part, but they are in fairly protected areas. Here's a pic of one that was in the open with what I suppose is cold damage from 2010. If my place was 25f, I suspect Galveston was more like 26.5f  

IMG_1467.JPG

IMG_1467.JPG.8f8c4e0f1bcc5b3a600a20698cc

 

Cool pic.   There's a Royal in TempleTerrace that looks just like this recovering from a 20F night in mid Jan 2010.    It's alive today, none the less.   Goes to show a well rooted, established palm just might make it through those once in a while hard freezes. Microclimates,  Do it.  Do it.

  • Upvote 2

Brandon, FL

27.95°N 82.28°W (Elev. 62 ft)

Zone9 w/ canopy

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33 minutes ago, Palmə häl′ik said:

 

Cool pic.   There's a Royal in TempleTerrace that looks just like this recovering from a 20F night in mid Jan 2010.    It's alive today, none the less.   Goes to show a well rooted, established palm just might make it through those once in a while hard freezes. Microclimates,  Do it.  Do it.

Where is there a royal in Temple Terrace? I'm not aware of any east of about Armenia in N. Tampa / Temple Terrace. 

Westchase | 9b 10a  ◆  Nokomis | 10a  ◆  St. Petersburg | 10a 10b 

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3 hours ago, Palmə häl′ik said:

 

Cool pic.   There's a Royal in TempleTerrace that looks just like this recovering from a 20F night in mid Jan 2010.    It's alive today, none the less.   Goes to show a well rooted, established palm just might make it through those once in a while hard freezes. Microclimates,  Do it.  Do it.

Lol, I have the spot picked out but Royals are hard to find in TX, because, duh, they freeze. When I find one for the right price, I shall pull the trigger. God knows I've wasted money on way stupider stuff.  :)

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There's a couple on Bullard Pkwy, which is actually Busch Blvd.   It turns into Bullard going east just past 56th Street.   There are also a few right in front of Anheuser Busch on MLK & 50th Street.   All pre-2010 BTW

  • Upvote 1

Brandon, FL

27.95°N 82.28°W (Elev. 62 ft)

Zone9 w/ canopy

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We have quite a few Royals here in Winter Haven that pre-date 2010 too.  I thought of doing a thread on them, but I haven't taken the time to drive around the city snapping pics.  

Land O Lakes FL, a suburb on the North Side of Tampa, FL

Summers are great, 90f/32c in the day & 70f/21c at night with plentiful rain & sun

Winters are subtropical with occasional frosts and freezes. Tropical cyclones happen.

We have a few Royal palms in the warm microclimates but Coconuts freeze.

I am a Kayaker, Hiker, Bicyclist, and amateur Photographer that loves the outdoors.  

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Here is an updated list. These palms are still in my mom's yard 7 years later. A few that are missing from the original list that were severely damaged did not recover from the cold. Others have been lost over the years to drought or full sun. After losing a lot of tree canopy following the 2004 hurricanes, a couple more trees have since come out. Most of the yard is now full sun all or part of the day. My mom's yard is not irrigated so some of these palms could handle drought in shade but not sun. Some of the other missing palms have died for unknown reasons (rot, nemtodes, etc). The Caryota rumphiana started flowering a couple years later at only about 25ft tall and has since died.

 

 

 

Archontophoenix cunninghamiana 

Arenga pinnata 

Beccariophoenix fenestralis (originally listed as B. madagascariensis)

Bismarckia nobilis 

Calamus latifolius (C. inermis)

Caryota maxima (Himalayan form)

Caryota mitis 

Caryota urens 

Caryota urens x mitis 'Cypress Gardens'

Chambeyronia macrocarpa 

Dypsis lastelliana 

Dypsis lutescens 

Dypsis madagascariensis “Mahajanga form”

Dypsis onilahensis 

Licuala ramsayi 

Licuala spinosa 

Livistona australis

Livistona chinensis

Livistona decora

Livistona jenkinsiana 

Livistona saribus

Phoenix rupicola 

Rhapis excelsa

Rhapis humilis

Sabal etonia

Sabal mauritiiformis 

Sabal palmetto

Syagrus pseudococos 

Syagrus romanzoffianum

Wallichia caryotoides 

Wallichia densiflora 

Wodyetia bifurcata 

 

Pandanus tectorius 

Ravenala madagascariensis

Strelitzia nicolai 

Afrocarpus gracilior 

Araucaria bidwillii 

Bursera simaruba 

Ceiba speciosa 

Schefflera actinophylla 

Schefflera elegantissima 

Schefflera heptaphylla 

Simarouba glauca

Swietenia mahagoni 

 

 

  • Upvote 4

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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15 hours ago, topwater said:

Lol, I have the spot picked out but Royals are hard to find in TX, because, duh, they freeze. When I find one for the right price, I shall pull the trigger. God knows I've wasted money on way stupider stuff.  :)

Take a trip down south! Cheap/common as queens 

  • Upvote 1

Jonathan

Katy, TX (Zone 9a)

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1 hour ago, Xenon said:

Take a trip down south! Cheap/common as queens 

There's a palm nursery on the sw freeway that has some Royals and lots of other hard to find palms: P. reclinata, big Copernicia alba, Licuala spinosa, Coccothrinax barbadensis, Chamadorea seifrizii and metalica to name a few.  They also had some stuff guaranteed to freeze anywhere around Houston, kind of surprising to see.  As I recall, they wanted more than I was willing to pay for the Royals, maybe I will take a trip south.  Is Corpus good or do you have to go to valley? 

Edited by topwater
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7 hours ago, Keith in SoJax said:

We have quite a few Royals here in Winter Haven that pre-date 2010 too.  I thought of doing a thread on them, but I haven't taken the time to drive around the city snapping pics.  

TrueTrue.   I've seen a couple when I was working on that LegoLand over there...   Coincidentally I seen some big, mature Wodyetias in Lakeland today!   KeyWord:  microclimate

  • Upvote 1

Brandon, FL

27.95°N 82.28°W (Elev. 62 ft)

Zone9 w/ canopy

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This is the perfect centralFL palm list.   Thanks Eric

Brandon, FL

27.95°N 82.28°W (Elev. 62 ft)

Zone9 w/ canopy

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On 2/26/2017, 6:56:24, annafl said:

  Your mom must have a huge and amazing garden!  I would love to see photos!

It took a while for this to sink in. Not to disparage Moody Gardens, it's probably the palmiest place in the Houston area, the shear number of trees is quite impressive, especially to tourists who are knocked out by a bunch of Phoenix, Washies and queens, and that's cool.  However, Eric's mothers yard has has ten times the diversity of MG.  Galveston is not quite as warm as Orlando, but it's close.  The difference between MG and Leu Garden is not close, at all.  It could be so much more impressive if they wanted it to be.

 

 

Edited by topwater
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14 minutes ago, topwater said:

It took a while for this to sink in. Not to disparage Moody Gardens, it's probably the palmiest place in the Houston area, the shear number of trees is quite impressive, especially to tourists who are knocked out by a bunch of Phoenix, Washies and queens, and that's cool.  However, Eric's mothers yard has has ten times the diversity of MG.  Galveston is not quite as warm as Orlando, but it's close.  The difference between MG and Leu Garden is not close, at all.  

There is no botanical garden in Texas that even comes close to the tenth best in florida or california. And to your point there are private gardens in both states that blow away anything in Texas as far as palm/cycad/aloe/bromeliad diversity is converned.  Luckily there are places like mercer and other newer startups that will hopefully bridge the gap in the decades to come.

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19 hours ago, Palmə häl′ik said:

There's a couple on Bullard Pkwy, which is actually Busch Blvd.   It turns into Bullard going east just past 56th Street.   There are also a few right in front of Anheuser Busch on MLK & 50th Street.   All pre-2010 BTW

Here they are: https://www.google.com/maps/@28.0324164,-82.3890497,3a,75y,54.1h,72.26t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sUnG5X4F9BcJz7z1LsHVW4w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1

I'm glad to see some pre-2010 royals in Temple Terrace. Given their proximity to Bullard Pkwy I'm guessing it might have helped keep the area a couple degrees warmer. 

 

11 hours ago, Eric in Orlando said:

Here is an updated list. These palms are still in my mom's yard 7 years later. A few that are missing from the original list that were severely damaged did not recover from the cold. Others have been lost over the years to drought or full sun. After losing a lot of tree canopy following the 2004 hurricanes, a couple more trees have since come out. Most of the yard is now full sun all or part of the day. My mom's yard is not irrigated so some of these palms could handle drought in shade but not sun. Some of the other missing palms have died for unknown reasons (rot, nemtodes, etc). The Caryota rumphiana started flowering a couple years later at only about 25ft tall and has since died.

 

 

 

Archontophoenix cunninghamiana 

Arenga pinnata 

Beccariophoenix fenestralis (originally listed as B. madagascariensis)

Bismarckia nobilis 

Calamus latifolius (C. inermis)

Caryota maxima (Himalayan form)

Caryota mitis 

Caryota urens 

Caryota urens x mitis 'Cypress Gardens'

Chambeyronia macrocarpa 

Dypsis lastelliana 

Dypsis lutescens 

Dypsis madagascariensis “Mahajanga form”

Dypsis onilahensis 

Licuala ramsayi 

Licuala spinosa 

Livistona australis

Livistona chinensis

Livistona decora

Livistona jenkinsiana 

Livistona saribus

Phoenix rupicola 

Rhapis excelsa

Rhapis humilis

Sabal etonia

Sabal mauritiiformis 

Sabal palmetto

Syagrus pseudococos 

Syagrus romanzoffianum

Wallichia caryotoides 

Wallichia densiflora 

Wodyetia bifurcata 

 

Pandanus tectorius 

Ravenala madagascariensis

Strelitzia nicolai 

Afrocarpus gracilior 

Araucaria bidwillii 

Bursera simaruba 

Ceiba speciosa 

Schefflera actinophylla 

Schefflera elegantissima 

Schefflera heptaphylla 

Simarouba glauca

Swietenia mahagoni 

 

 

Thanks for the update Eric! Did the cold kill all the ficus? Syagrus pseudococos is a nice looking palm, I didn't realize it was this cold tolerant. I'll give one a try here if I ever happen to come across one for sale.

Westchase | 9b 10a  ◆  Nokomis | 10a  ◆  St. Petersburg | 10a 10b 

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No, the cold didn't kill the Ficus. The  Ficus natalensis ssp. leprieurii  and F. lyrata were crushed under a falling tree. The F. benghalensis was near a powerpole that got struck by lightning and it died from that. I never replanted any Ficus back. I need to plant one this summer.

Syagrus pseudococos is decently cold tolerant, hardier than Cocos. I would guess they are similar to Wodyetia.

 

  • Upvote 1

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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On ‎2‎/‎27‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎02‎:‎31‎, topwater said:

There's a palm nursery on the sw freeway that has some Royals and lots of other hard to find palms: P. reclinata, big Copernicia alba, Licuala spinosa, Coccothrinax barbadensis, Chamadorea seifrizii and metalica to name a few.  They also had some stuff guaranteed to freeze anywhere around Houston, kind of surprising to see.  As I recall, they wanted more than I was willing to pay for the Royals, maybe I will take a trip south.  Is Corpus good or do you have to go to valley? 

Don,

Padre Palms here in Flour Bluff along SPID on the east side of Corpus Christi right before you get to the causeway to the island has some decent sized royals starting to trunk as I recall, but I haven't priced them lately.  As I recall, they are the only nursery here in Corpus that carries them, and they regularly carry them.  But you can get 3 gal. and 5 gal sized royals in the Valley really cheap.  If you are interested, send me a message here, and I will try to put you in touch with a guy in Harlingen that has both Florida Royals and Cuban Royals in 2 gal. and 3 gal. sized pots as I recall (but they are already about 6ft to 7ft.+ tall).

John

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On ‎2‎/‎27‎/‎2017‎ ‎2‎:‎02‎:‎31‎, topwater said:

There's a palm nursery on the sw freeway that has some Royals and lots of other hard to find palms: P. reclinata, big Copernicia alba, Licuala spinosa, Coccothrinax barbadensis, Chamadorea seifrizii and metalica to name a few.  They also had some stuff guaranteed to freeze anywhere around Houston, kind of surprising to see.  As I recall, they wanted more than I was willing to pay for the Royals, maybe I will take a trip south.  Is Corpus good or do you have to go to valley? 

By the way, what is name of that nursery you mentioned on the sw freeway, and where exactly is it?

Thanks,

John

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23 hours ago, topwater said:

It took a while for this to sink in. Not to disparage Moody Gardens, it's probably the palmiest place in the Houston area, the shear number of trees is quite impressive, especially to tourists who are knocked out by a bunch of Phoenix, Washies and queens, and that's cool.  However, Eric's mothers yard has has ten times the diversity of MG.  Galveston is not quite as warm as Orlando, but it's close.  The difference between MG and Leu Garden is not close, at all.  It could be so much more impressive if they wanted it to be.

 

 

That's true, Galveston is a cool end 10A Climate, but even so could have so much more tropical and warmer subtropical plants than what they have.  They should be planting Hong Kong Orchid Trees there, but as I recall, the last time I was there, I didn't see any.  It is the same here with our South Texas Botanical Gardens in Corpus Christi, located along Oso Creek on the south sided of town in a borderline 9B/10A Climate, in which they could have a lot more tropical and subtropical stuff growing there than they do.  What is really sad is that Brownsville is a solid 10A (and many winters low end 10B) Climate in which they could have a spectacular tropical botanical garden loaded with several varieties of producing coconut palms, as well as many other exotic tropical palms, and many types of exotic tropical trees like Hong Kong Orchid Trees and Royal Poincianas, etc., but they don't even have a botanical garden there!

John

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13 hours ago, Eric in Orlando said:

No, the cold didn't kill the Ficus. The  Ficus natalensis ssp. leprieurii  and F. lyrata were crushed under a falling tree. The F. benghalensis was near a powerpole that got struck by lightning and it died from that. I never replanted any Ficus back. I need to plant one this summer.

Syagrus pseudococos is decently cold tolerant, hardier than Cocos. I would guess they are similar to Wodyetia.

 

Thanks Eric, I hope your next ficus experiment goes better. :) 

Westchase | 9b 10a  ◆  Nokomis | 10a  ◆  St. Petersburg | 10a 10b 

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There are some open spots in the yard now. A couple blocks away is a big Ficus in someones yard, I think it is a F. altissima. It is 30-35ft tall with aerial roots. Someone on the same street has a F. altissima 'Variegata' in the their back yard getting big. I see it above the house now, maybe 20ft. I'll probably plant another F. lyrata, maybe F. elastica.

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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