Washingtonia robusta (and hybrids)

[iwan 207]

Severe burning on most trees 2-10'.  Damage to 30'+ trees in Fresno.  Still working on the temp numbers, but 16 out of 18 days below freezing.  Most days 12+ hours below freezing, rebounding to mid-40's.  Official lows in Madera and Fresno in low 20's.  Some frost every day, but nowhere near as heavy as normal 28-32F freezes.  No overhead canopy.

[iwan 207]

Papyrus foliage to the right also fried.

Neighbor's robustas and Cycas revoluta burned.

[DoomsDave 8,795]

Robert, that's NASTY!

Here, we had freeze damage on Washie babies, too.  Lots of newbies popping up, brown after four nights of 24.8.  All night, each night.

Numerous small specimens (3', 1 m, tall) along the Sexy Freeway, also badly damaged.  

dave

[Geoff 267]

Got around 25F-27F in the San Fernando Valley (with low spots below 24F) and many younger palms burned- but only the tops of the horizontal leaves.  No obvious damage to anything 'tall'.

[Steve 2]

My neighbor brought back a Washy with maybe 5-6" of trunk from Texas two years ago.  It was really cheap there, and they thought they were getting the same palm I had in my yard (T. Fortunei).  Their Washy gets zero care, and has grown very little.  This year we got down to 17F and had many many days in the low 20's.  Their Washy was fried to a crisp, and I was sure it was a gonner.  The other day I looked over into their front yard, and sure enough the little bugger had pushed out a new frond.

We'll see how long it lasts here in 7b country.

[Lodewijkp 1]

my W.robusta in the netherlands have withstood -8 C in pot with only a blanket around the trunk and a small roof above it against any frost rain, it only has lost 4 leafs of 8.

The winters are very humid here and we have about -3 C average and some days the nights are -6 and -8.

Robusta needs a good spring and  a hot light summer + good care to made it trough the winter.

i got a big greenhouse in the garden which is always 5 C warmer then outside, when it doesn't freeze anymore i put the palms in here so they can recouperate after the winter.

when the sun is on the greenhouse the temp can take up 30 C even when its 5 C outside , this give me an advantage and the palms endure a ''longer summer'' which makes them stronger for the next winter.

though some people i know have mature robusta's which has withstood temps of 10- celcius without protection , they did not have any visual - significant damage.

it seems the power of this palm comes with age and good care.

by the way if you keep your palms out of the sun they won't activate photosynthesis which evaporate's water, if it freezes and it is in the sun it won't go dormant and can't pump up water, this wil also happen if its above freezing temps during the day and freezes in the night

by this they get freeze dried and burn more quickly on light freezes.

if your neightbour had covered the palms against sunlight they would made it through wel

[FRITO 34]

23 degrees at my place. 1 and 2 strap leafers in compot fully exposed, about 5% showed damage- leaf burn.

these were seed coollected by a nearby fruiting palm. looking like mostly robusta.

1.5 yr old 3 gallons from seed had about 5 out of 12 experience bud rot from a wet winter and a thick heavy soil mix. a little daconil and they are allready pushing strong new fronds. no freeze damage to leaves. these seed were purchased as 'filibusta'

many tall and exposed robustas around town show some brown fronds (lower older ones)

[Kris 1,365]

Dear Robert

those hi res stills are self explainatory as how bad was the cold & freeze you folks are experiencing ! I think iam lucky to have born in a hot country.except the horrible tan it puts on our skin,i really have no complaints from now on..

thanks & love,

Kris

[krishnaraoji88 436]

Multiple nights below freezing with ultimate low of around 20. Varying degrees of burn decidedly based on how filifera versus robusta they look (with the latter receiving much more damage). All are now sending up new healthy leaves.

-Krishna

[NBTX11 429]

Coldest temps in 20 years. Ultimate low of 14F. W. Robustas with about 6ft CT 95% defoltated. All but center 4 fronds brown. Center 4 mostly green. Recovering fairly quickly.

[Steve the palmreader 87]

Most Washies (larg ones) will recover from temps down to 14 then it is very unlikley. in north FL. the 1983 freeze the temp. was around 10-12 degrees and 95 percent of the washies died some were 75ft +tall

[NBTX11 429]

i haven't seen any washies killed by the 14-16F we got in Jan. Defoliated yes, killed no. Even some that I would consider weaker specimens are pushing new growth. Mine are already pushing new spears at a good clip. Maybe many of the locals are in fact hybrids? It got nasty cold, and my robustas are recovering very well now.

[Xenon 1,529]

robusta & hybrids..low 17f..all defoliated..spears green though.

-Jonathan

[GREENHAND 14]

I have several hybrids, lower teens hammered them pretty good. lost two no green in the middle, i will give then a little more time before i break out the chain saw.

[Austinpalm 175]

Tree with 5-6 feet of trunk exhibited complete damage to oldest fronds, but interior frond remained green from a low of 16F with multiple nights in the upper 20's and lower 30's. Has already started cranking out new fronds.

[velutina 58]

I have 20 W. robustas in my yard ranging from 1'-20'+. I find it strange how easily some get damaged and others are fine. It only got to 26F at the coldest and 4-5 plants are burned at least 80%. Others in the yard are as green as they are in summer. There is a 15' one that burns every winter while the ones surrounding it have zero damage. None of the plants look like filibusta. My one W. filifera looks great every winter with zero damage. Some of the W. robustas get damage before the dwarf dates do... Must be microclimates or magic... it makes no sense to me.

[NBTX11 429]

Low of 19F with a daytime high of around 30F. Prolonged freeze for about 2 days. Quick warmup a few days later (70s F.) About 50-60% defoliation but still some green on every frond. Will recover.

[Brad Mondel 756]

After 12 hours of 19F with strong winds. What is the brown on the petioles?

[NorthFlpalmguy 41]

Multiple days of low 20s. It toasted my strap seedlings (pure robusta) but the 6-16 footers next to it just had leave burn. The hybrid seedlings are fine, no damage.

[TexasColdHardyPalms 3,175]

Dry low of 17.9 with frost on January 8 caused 10% burn that only showed up later in the month when the temps climbed to 75-82 degrees for 3-4 days straight. The first picture is on January 16th. The weather station is 10' from the house in the middle of the yard in the open. I expect the area up against the house to be several degrees warmer, but most robusta's around the area out in the open showed about 25-35% burn around town.

Very rainy and icy storm in late February resulted in roughly 40hours below freezing with a low of around 23. See the second picture for the amount of Icy/Rain that fell.

The third picture shows the palm on March 22nd after all of the winter weather.

Naturally there was zero damage to butia, w. filifera, Med Fans, Jubaea. The CIDP's around burned just as bad as the robusta, which is typical of what happens every year.

[TexasColdHardyPalms 3,175]

Correction, the weather station is 100', not 10' from the house.  I just reread this.

[Matthew92 978]

I can't believe that ice picture: was that standing water that all froze? Looks like you could go ice skating there.

[TexasColdHardyPalms 3,175]

No, that was 100% rain and ice that fell from the sky.  All of that ice is sitting on top of the Bermuda grass and when you walk on it your foot will fall through 2-3" to the ground.  This isn't even close to the worst ice storm that we have had and if it weren't for the ice we could grow many more varieties of palms imo.

[Matthew92 978]

1 hour ago, TexasColdHardyPalms said:

No, that was 100% rain and ice that fell from the sky.  All of that ice is sitting on top of the Bermuda grass and when you walk on it your foot will fall through 2-3" to the ground.  This isn't even close to the worst ice storm that we have had and if it weren't for the ice we could grow many more varieties of palms imo.

I think you're right about the ice part. I had a small P. sylvestris and L. chinensis in the backyard that seemed to survive the early January polar vortex to 17 degrees, but died after being coated in that ice even when the temp didn't get below the 20's.

[Matthew92 978]

W. robusta recovery from two winters of upper teens. Many others in the area died. This seems to be a particularly vigorous and large scale individual specimen.

Also here's a picture of it from 2008 to show how fast it has grown.

April 2014

Today

 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2016 by Opal92

[Matthew92 978]

W. robusta: check out this one I took a picture of back in December 2009. This was at a rest stop somewhere in North FL as we were making our way down to Orlando. I was taken with how nice of a specimen it was. Of course as you all know, this was RIGHT before the devastating January 2010 FL freeze: this palm must have seen mid to upper teens in that event. Don't know how it is now or if it died, as I haven't been able to find this rest stop since.

Regardless, this shows that W. robusta (and much more filibusta) can survive in cold 8b or even 8a for a number of years to make a great specimen.

 

[Phoenikakias 1,686]

Are those plants in the last pictures genuine robusta or rather filibusta or even sonorae?

[Matthew92 978]

8 hours ago, Phoenikakias said:

Are those plants in the last pictures genuine robusta or rather filibusta or even sonorae?

I was guessing they are all robusta due to the defoliation and thin trunk unlike some Washingtonia in the area that obviously have filifera traits and were minimally damage.

What is sonorae like? Never heard of it before, and couldn't find much info on the web besides it being a variation of filifera. 

[Phoenikakias 1,686]

They aint that thin, as you may think. I can bring up pictures of robusta in my neck of the woods with quite skinier trunks. Actually sonorae is considered  as conspecific with robusta, but actually former have an intermediate look between robusta from Baha and filifera.

Edited April 2, 2016 by Phoenikakias

[Matthew92 978]

Here's a really nice filibusta (I assume) Ft. Walton Beach, FL.

 

[Patrick Palms 98]

My Washingtonia Robusta palm.s survived winter.  Now. Yellowing and browning in some cases.. What can i do to help these palms ?  Di they need feed and will they throw out fresh shoots ? 

[quaman58 1,991]

These are funny; around here they grow in the cracks of sidewalks & in places that get very little moisture & look great. But for some reason, they hate small pots. Or more correctly, don't do well in pots once they're of a certain size for the pot being used. Could be a nutrient thing, I'm not sure why.

[Patrick Palms 98]

Should i then take out of pots and plant in ground.