Palmageddon Aftermath Photo Thread

[Chester B]

56 minutes ago, DreaminAboutPalms said:

What kind of date palm is this? This is North Austin by Parmer 

looks like a Butia, not a date palm.

[DreaminAboutPalms]

47 minutes ago, Chester B said:

looks like a Butia, not a date palm.

Good call. I never see any butias here so that had me stumped for a minute until I looked it up on Google earth 

[Tom in Tucson]

12 hours ago, DreaminAboutPalms said:

What kind of date palm is this? This is North Austin by Parmer 

Looks like a Butia 

Hi 94˚, Lo 78˚

[DreaminAboutPalms]

North Austin, half mile east of metric/Kramer intersection. Could not believe my eyes. Photo doesn’t do it much justice but this Robusta hybrid is pushing green! Certainly some deformed looking fronds but still green. And this is the part of town with tons of deciduous tree deaths 

[DreaminAboutPalms]

[DreaminAboutPalms]

Making progress! This has to be the tallest survivor in Austin. This part of town saw consecutive nights of 14,7,4

[Keys6505]

Not sure if anyone posted this yet but not really up to looking through 30+ pages..  The Lowes Bizzy in Webster is growing.  Definitely a microclimate against that brick wall and surrounded by concrete, but otherwise unprotected as far as I know at 15 degrees.

[thyerr01]

Is this the first/only trunking Bismarckia in Houston that has recovered? I assume the one out in Katy at the Valero didn't make it.

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

19 hours ago, thyerr01 said:

Is this the first/only trunking Bismarckia in Houston that has recovered? I assume the one out in Katy at the Valero didn't make it.

There is a 20ft Bizzie in League City that is well into recovery mode. I believe its saving grace was it was up against a 2 story home blocking the Northern wind. 

T J 

[Xenon]

20 hours ago, thyerr01 said:

I assume the one out in Katy at the Valero didn't make it.

All Katy Area Bisamarckia that I know of are dead

[Collectorpalms]

23 hours ago, Keys6505 said:

Not sure if anyone posted this yet but not really up to looking through 30+ pages..  The Lowes Bizzy in Webster is growing.  Definitely a microclimate against that brick wall and surrounded by concrete, but otherwise unprotected as far as I know at 15 degrees.

My Bismarckia better than that it has at least two reasonable leaves ! But my big filiferas all went down hill. Soooooo sadddd had I not had 20 inches of rain I probably wouldn’t had the decline. El Paso I can see why they lived now! 

big mules finally fell over. 35ft Sylvestris poofed out. 

I now have Livistonia Chinese’s as my most numerous palms! Good lord 

Edited August 4, 2021 by Collectorpalms

[Keys6505]

4 hours ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

There is a 20ft Bizzie in League City that is well into recovery mode. I believe its saving grace was it was up against a 2 story home blocking the Northern wind. 

This guy?  Or guys?

[Meangreen94z]

Good to see the Lowe’s Bismarckia survived, hopefully long term.

[Meangreen94z]

Not much of a trunk yet  but this one survived in Pearland under cover 

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

4 hours ago, Keys6505 said:

This guy?  Or guys?

Hmmmm that doesn't seem to be the one I'm referring to, but that's awesome to see more Bizzies that made it =) The one I know about you can see from 646 in the Whispering Lakes subdivision. 

T J 

Edited August 5, 2021 by OC2Texaspalmlvr
.

[Keys6505]

34 minutes ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

Hmmmm that doesn't seem to be the one I'm referring to, but that's awesome to see more Bizzies that made it =) The one I know about you can see from 646 in the Whispering Lakes subdivision. 

T J 

Ah, gotcha.  These are visible from W Walker where it runs behind JCPenney.  A bunch of recovering queens off of that road as well.

[necturus]

20 hours ago, Meangreen94z said:

Not much of a trunk yet  but this one survived in Pearland under cover 

My two little ones both survived. The bigger of them looks like this one, really speeding along.

I visited Mercer last week - tropical garden looks bad. Canopy is toast. Probably lost 80% of the palms, maybe more. And they didn't have any queens, just lots of Phoenix, Livistona, and mules. I think they only have a couple mules pushing growth.

[Xenon]

Has anyone seen a "living" trunking Bismarckia inside BW8 and/or along I-10? 

[UK_Palms]

23 hours ago, Collectorpalms said:

My Bismarckia better than that it has at least two reasonable leaves ! But my big filiferas all went down hill. Soooooo sadddd had I not had 20 inches of rain I probably wouldn’t had the decline. El Paso I can see why they lived now! 

big mules finally fell over. 35ft Sylvestris poofed out. 

I now have Livistonia Chinese’s as my most numerous palms! Good lord 

Did the CIDP continue to recover, or regress backwards like the others? It was doing pretty well a few months back. I also heard the Dallas CIDP came back, which would have seen like 0F and 200+ hours below freezing. That's pretty impressive. In southern France, lots of CIDP's were killed by 5F and less than 100 hours below freezing a few winters back.

Hardiness almost certainly varies between individual specimens though, by at least 5F. That seems to be the case with most temperate, Med and desert species. Also, did both of your Chamaerops come back as well? I remember you trunk cutting them a while back. Chamaerops can be cut back to ground level by a freeze and still recover, at least in Med and temperate climates.

[joetx]

12 minutes ago, UK_Palms said:

Did the CIDP continue to recover, or regress backwards like the others? It was doing pretty well a few months back. I also heard the Dallas CIDP came back, which would have seen like 0F and 200+ hours below freezing. That's pretty impressive. In southern France, lots of CIDP's were killed by 5F and less than 100 hours below freezing a few winters back.

Hardiness almost certainly varies between individual specimens though, by at least 5F. That seems to be the case with most temperate, Med and desert species. Also, did both of your Chamaerops come back as well? I remember you trunk cutting them a while back. Chamaerops can be cut back to ground level by a freeze and still recover, at least in Med and temperate climates.

CIDP going strong in Round Rock. 3f minimum temp.

 

[Meangreen94z]

18 hours ago, UK_Palms said:

Did the CIDP continue to recover, or regress backwards like the others? It was doing pretty well a few months back. I also heard the Dallas CIDP came back, which would have seen like 0F and 200+ hours below freezing. That's pretty impressive. In southern France, lots of CIDP's were killed by 5F and less than 100 hours below freezing a few winters back.

Hardiness almost certainly varies between individual specimens though, by at least 5F. That seems to be the case with most temperate, Med and desert species. Also, did both of your Chamaerops come back as well? I remember you trunk cutting them a while back. Chamaerops can be cut back to ground level by a freeze and still recover, at least in Med and temperate climates.

I would say the majority of CIPD in atleast central Texas survived 3-7*F(-16* to -13*C) . I’ve seen plenty recovering

[DreaminAboutPalms]

Here’s a Phoenix canariensis in Austin. I’ve posted about this one before. Very healthy.

Dactylifera are dead for most part in Austin 

[Collectorpalms]

On 8/5/2021 at 4:06 PM, UK_Palms said:

Did the CIDP continue to recover, or regress backwards like the others? It was doing pretty well a few months back. I also heard the Dallas CIDP came back, which would have seen like 0F and 200+ hours below freezing. That's pretty impressive. In southern France, lots of CIDP's were killed by 5F and less than 100 hours below freezing a few winters back.

Hardiness almost certainly varies between individual specimens though, by at least 5F. That seems to be the case with most temperate, Med and desert species. Also, did both of your Chamaerops come back as well? I remember you trunk cutting them a while back. Chamaerops can be cut back to ground level by a freeze and still recover, at least in Med and temperate climates.

Both of my big Canaries came back. Only 2 of 4, twenty year old Med Fans came back. Both of the silver meds.

My thermometer read a low of 4F. But I had just bought it. Since the freeze it runs about a degree too high. So I Think I had a low of 3F and a high of 19F. Plus a week of at or below freezing.

[joetx]

7 minutes ago, Collectorpalms said:

Both of my big Canaries came back. Only 2 of 4, twenty year old Med Fans came back. Both of the silver meds.

My thermometer read a low of 4F. But I had just bought it. Since the freeze it runs about a degree too high. So I Think I had a low of 3F and a high of 19F. Plus a week of at or below freezing.

Pics? You had such a lush looking collection!

[DreaminAboutPalms]

I just drove past Gold’s Gym off 183 in Austin and was astounded to see the tallest (30-40 ft) Robusta hybrid recovering, with about half of a frond pushed out so far. First the one I posted about last week off metric, and now this one. They must be appreciating the cooler and wetter summer we have been having.

it also seems age has a lot to do with recovery, seems like 20+ year old washingtonias did pretty well here 

[Meangreen94z]

For those that don’t venture into other topics on the forum, a shopping center near Wimberley, Texas .

[eevans]

On 3/14/2021 at 2:31 PM, eevans said:

Some before and after pictures from my central Austin yard.

Backyard in summer 2020 (last year), followed by its current state.

Palm notes:

• Sabal mexicana (the tree) : Leaves badly damaged.  The browning is due to the cold, but the bent and broken petioles were caused by heavy ice accumulation from freezing rain.  We had more than 1/4 inch of it sticking to everything in my yard.  You can't tell from this picture but the new leaf is pushing out the top with green at the base, so I'm hopeful.  I grew this tree from a seed I picked up off the ground 29 years ago at a nearby park (Mayfield) that has many mature specimens.  Most of the others I see around Austin have the browned leaves, but I think they will all pull through.
• Sabal minor cluster (in the back against the wall):  No protection, and completely unaffected, of course. I have 4 plantings of these around my yard in the same shape.  All of these I see around town are also perfectly fine as well.
• Chamaedorea radicalis (just right of the Sabal minor):  Grouping of 3 short specimens.  I covered these (and the other low-growing plants in this bed) with old bedsheets, which were then covered by ice, then 4 - 5 inches of snow, then even heavier ice.  The mature leaves are still green (!), except for those that were snapped by the weight.  All three palms are still alive and pushing new their new leaves (2 - 3 inches so far), though the new parts show browning. I'm hoping for the best with these, but I'm mostly astonished they survived at all.  Tough little critters.
• Rhapis excelsa (just right of the Sabal minor, behind the Cham) - All parts above ground dead.  This was not really protected at all, since the sheet I attempted to cover it with blew off in the wind. No sign of buds emerging from the bases yet.  This is actually a single plant that spread bamboo-like to form a little thicket.  It has been almost aggressive in that spot, so something might come back. 
• Arenga engleri (small one in back, against the wall):  All dead above ground., spear pulled.  This also had a sheet sort-of covering it, but I didn't wrap it.  There are two buds at the base below the mulch that still feel hard, but these guys are so slow growing in the best of times that I'm not sure I'll bother keeping it. in the ground.  We'll see...
• Arenga engleri (large clump):  This is the only thing in my yard that I made a big effort to protect beyond laying down sheets.  We wrapped it up with old quilts and blankets held by cinch-straps, and I put a 100-watt light bulb at ground level inside all that.  The 9-foot leaves were too long to be completely wrapped, so the ends stuck out the top and got zapped.  The green parts all look solid and healthy so far.  Frankly I'm surprised this worked as well as it did given the scale of this disaster.  It's the one species in my yard that really has no business growing here.

Non-palm notes:

• 28-year old Satsuma mandarin tree at left looking dead-ish.   I have two of these, and they have never had the slightest freeze damage in any winter (though they were both partly defoliated in the 2011 Summer heat wave).   They both scratch green down on the trunk, so they might survive.  However I was already considering replacing these anyway, since they have grown scraggly and mis-shapen over the years.
• 4-year old loquat in back bed: Leaves all scorched, like most I see around town.  I've also never noticed loquat leaves being lost to freezes here, though the fruit is often zapped (because they flower and fruit in the winter).
• 4 or 5-year old kumquat in the big blue ceramic pot defoliated. Never had any freeze damage on this either.  Some parts scratch green and there are buds forming low on the trunk, so at least some of it will grow back (though maybe not in an attractive way).
• Sago - Same story everyone else has already noted. Leaves dead. Bud status unknown. Wait and see...

 

FWIW,  here is what the same yard looks like as of August 16.   Much better recovery than I expected, given that I have only replaced three plants (the Satsuma on the left, the loquat to its right, and the kumquat in the big blue pot).  

 

[eevans]

On 3/14/2021 at 2:50 PM, eevans said:

More before-and-after, from a different part of the yard.  The 2nd picture is the same bed, but viewed from my 2nd story window.

[... blah blah blah ...]

 

 

Another recovery picture - as of August 16.

The prickly pear is gone (it collapsed in the freeze and would have recovered, but I decide to remove it for other reasons).  Everything else pulled through in that area.

This is good evidence that those horse bananas are more or less invincible as long as they have an adequate amount of soil and reasonable moisture.

 

 

[Keys6505]

4 hours ago, eevans said:

 

Another recovery picture - as of August 16.

The prickly pear is gone (it collapsed in the freeze and would have recovered, but I decide to remove it for other reasons).  Everything else pulled through in that area.

This is good evidence that those horse bananas are more or less invincible as long as they have an adequate amount of soil and reasonable moisture.

 

 

Did the heavily protected Englerii eventually defoliate or did it hold everything?  What was your min temp?

Also, what is a horse banana?  Is that another name for a Basjoo?

[DallasPalms]

A store side Palmetto in Dallas came through just fine. This was maybe two weeks after Uri where we saw 2F and spent a week at well below freezing. I'm happy to say that with enough summer heat at least some Palmettos can handle whatever nature brings!

Views of the 15ish foot tall tree before and after the freeze. The after doesn't show it but I would not have trimmed! The dried tips gave an exotic appearance i think. They gave her a california haircut later eh

Edited August 31, 2021 by DallasPalms

[TonyDFW]

I planted that as a seedling years ago when that shopping center was first built 

[DallasPalms]

Really cool! Someone mentioned to me that you planted alot of palms around here. That's one of my favorites in Dallas.

8 hours ago, TonyDFW said:

I planted that as a seedling years ago when that shopping center was first built 

 

[Jimhardy]

Amazing....to the recovering palms out there....where theres a will theres a way, if you can push through the decay.

[thyerr01]

Some unexpected recoveries from the far SE of Houston in Rosenberg (at Caldwell nursery) - one large Bismarckia and two Arenga. The photo of the Bismarckia isn't great but it has 2-3 small new leaves.  These all looked dead back in June. This area gets decently colder than the Houston metro area and had few (if any?) queen palms prior to the freeze.

I chatted with one of the owners a little and he mentioned some other Arenga planted elsewhere on the property (or within the area, it was unclear) had also recovered.

Edited September 5, 2021 by thyerr01

[DallasPalms]

These are two Dominguensis I've identified by seed (I could be off not a pro but they matched what I've read) they were thriving in front of an abandoned place in uptown Dallas. They held strong through the first snow we had, just a light dusting... but then Uri left them defoliated.

I was happy to see them push out new fronds a few months after!  Another location in Dallas just North of Downtown has around 7 planted in front very elegantly... 6 of them came back fairly quickly after defoliation but the center one stalled...

finally she came back a few weeks after the others!

I'm confused as to why the sites say these are close to Causarium they seem much closer to Palmetto especially in regards to hardiness. 

Again I could be wrong but they match the descriptions every other way... huge large grape sized fruits, short stalks with fruits shaped like beans sort of, with seeds at upwards of over 1/2 inch.

One of my favorites

Tony did you plant these too?

Edited September 8, 2021 by DallasPalms

[DreaminAboutPalms]

Found this massive (for the area) and healthy CIDP in North Austin today, NW of 35/183

[DreaminAboutPalms]

Tallest Washingtonia north of the US 290? This one showed no signs of life until early august and is steadily plugging away, even without any precipitation recently. 

[Axel Amsterdam]

Hi Texans, 

Did any of the queens regrow a full set of fronds after complete defoliation?

I mean, is 5 new fronds possible after such a devastating winter event? 

 

[Xerarch]

9 hours ago, Axel Amsterdam said:

Hi Texans, 

Did any of the queens regrow a full set of fronds after complete defoliation?

I mean, is 5 new fronds possible after such a devastating winter event? 

 

Here in Corpus Christi, the vast majority of queen palms are completely dead, some started to recover but soon dried up and died anyway.  Notwithstanding that, there are a handful around town that are recovering nicely.  I wouldn't say any of them have a "full" set of fronds, but yeah I'd say there are some with 5 fronds and are looking substantially recovered.

[Axel Amsterdam]

Thanks, I was always wondering whether queens normally ' growing at lightning speed' would also apply after complete defoliation.  It seems that, with the exception of severe damage that manifested itself later, a queen is capable to grow 5 fronds which is not bad.