Brazos Valley Palm Recovery Thread

[Teegurr 440]

It may be hard to tell, but this robusta is alive!

 

[Collectorpalms 2,104]

My Bismarckia never dies but never grows. Unprotected.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Collectorpalms

[Collectorpalms 2,104]

Largest Phoenix Sylvestris possibly anywhere in zone 8b Is alive after all. Finally some green with the sunset along with brown. Now what do I do about it?

[Collectorpalms 2,104]

[Collectorpalms 2,104]

 

1 of 2 surviving green Mediterranean fan palm out of 4 total.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Collectorpalms

[Collectorpalms 2,104]

My Blue Green Sabal Uresana 

[Collectorpalms 2,104]

Jxs 

[Teegurr 440]

5 minutes ago, Collectorpalms said:

Jxs 

Dude, nice recoveries! Yay, JxS! Woohoo sylvestris! I'm amazed at the Bizzie. True 8b/9a palm now? I kid, I kid, unless...

[Xenon 2,512]

4 hours ago, Teegurr said:

It may be hard to tell, but this robusta is alive!

 

 

The Bismarckia is pretty close to ground level but this robusta is BY FAR the most impressive find in this thread 

[Collectorpalms 2,104]

6 minutes ago, Xenon said:

The Bismarckia is pretty close to ground level but this robusta is BY FAR the most impressive find in this thread 

It’s not the only one that is alive however.

[SLTX21 9]

7 minutes ago, Collectorpalms said:

It’s not the only one that is alive however.

 Very happy to hear about your palm recoveries. It's only a matter of time! 

We DO live in a true subtropical (not tropical) climate that CAN support and sustain palms, albeit with some occasional casualties, damage, and close calls.

Enjoy your palms and hope even more recover!

[Xenon 2,512]

55 minutes ago, Collectorpalms said:

It’s not the only one that is alive however.

To my eyes, it's the only convincing "robusta" alive 

[Collectorpalms 2,104]

2 hours ago, Xenon said:

To my eyes, it's the only convincing "robusta" alive 

Ok. 

Edited May 21, 2021 by Collectorpalms

[Teegurr 440]

7 hours ago, Xenon said:

To my eyes, it's the only convincing "robusta" alive 

Could you tell it was alive?

[Xenon 2,512]

33 minutes ago, Teegurr said:

Could you tell it was alive?

Looks alive in your photo. Where is it located? 

[Collectorpalms 2,104]

Longmire between Kroger and the car wash it’s been there well over 20 years.

[Collectorpalms 2,104]

56 minutes ago, Xenon said:

Looks alive in your photo. Where is it located? 

It was between 6 and 7F

 

 

Edited May 21, 2021 by Collectorpalms

[Xenon 2,512]

Butia back from the dead on Harvey Rd

[Collectorpalms 2,104]

Lincoln Square Apartments, just two blocks east of University.

The live one is trying to flower as well. 

I thought there were two by the one that is living. I guess they removed one found life in the other and stopped?? Total of 5 in front, Ones by pool still look dead.

Edited May 27, 2021 by Collectorpalms

[Teegurr 440]

Two washingtonias at Fish Daddy's continuing to add more growth.

Meanwhile, the robustas at Cheddar's are just a bunch of sticks. Cool to see California-style washingtonias get big before the freeze, though.

 

[Teegurr 440]

Another thin filibusta pushing

 

[Swolte 1,065]

I visited my friend in CS today and took some shots. I'll divide up the posts by palm type forclearer organization! Note that all of these palms went through the freeze unprotected. 

Let's start with the windmills (all T. Fortunei). He has 9 fairly mature ones. 2 appear dead and most do have signs of severe damage. I think the majority will recover but now that triple digits are around the corner in June, not sure if any more will succumb. Needless to say, this was a disappointing performance considering these palms are considered among the hardiest.

Edited June 2, 2021 by Swolte

[Swolte 1,065]

Next are the Pindo's. He had about 9 and 2 do appear dead. Some are just showing their first flushes, more than 3 months after the event. 

[Swolte 1,065]

He had two mules and they all looked better than ANY of the pure pindos. We scratched our heads at it. Its possible they are just faster growers so there's more to see now.

Edited June 2, 2021 by Swolte

[Swolte 1,065]

I am going to combine Mazari and saw palm here. He had two of each. Both Mazari and saw palms were hit hard but should pull through.  

[Swolte 1,065]

So for the Sabals, he had about 10 Sabal Palmetto or Mexicana/Texana (he couldn't remember what they were but bought them locally). They all had light damage to the fronds (the last pic). He also had 6 Sabal Brazoria that did not have a spot! (see first two pic). There were several S. minors spread around (I didn't count) but they were obviously fine. 

[Swolte 1,065]

He had 6 of the coastal Uresana and one of the highland one. Guess which one is which...

[Swolte 1,065]

There were about 11 needles and they all looked like nothing had happened... 

[Swolte 1,065]

Medies (2) took a big hit but are all coming back! First pic is a C. Cerifera. You may remember the last pic as I shared it somewhere else as being extremely weeping. Very glad that one is returning. 

[Centraltxpalm 43]

Why do the Windmills do so badly here, is it just because they are not used to it being cold here?

[Swolte 1,065]

It's a good question. Not sure. My guess is the Fortunei are a solid zone 8 palm. If you look at the master data sheet for hardiness, generally some damage starts occurring when temperatures fall below 10F. During Uri, many of us had a zone 7a winter in Central Texas, so it could have been expected they'll look like crap or, in some cases, even perish.  

I was somewhat disappointed with their performance, nonetheless. Sabals, especially certain varieties, seem to do much better! I have seen Uresana's and Brazoria's unfazed after 3F, which was new information for me! Surviving Butia's and Filifera now look way better than most Windmills ut also take into account that the latter lost their entire crowns and are filling up with nice new growth. Many windmills still had green after Uri and therefore look worse (so you better not cut those yellow fronds off). 

As for why they generally don't do well here in Central Texas? I am not sure... Some people have good luck with them and others don't. So far, it's hard to point to a single factor (e.g., water quality, soil). What does seem to be clear is that it is better if they are out of our full sun!

 

 

[Centraltxpalm 43]

That may be why sabals did better because they were a healthy palm is more cold hardy than an already unhealthy one.

[Chester B 3,281]

I was thinking the Trachycarpus are actually stressed by your summmers. Too hot day and night, here we have hot afternoons but cool nights.

So in TX they are stressed from summer and then a bad winter comes around and deals more damage than they would see at similar temps in a climate like mine. 
 

Just a theory on my part. 

[Fusca 3,014]

I think Chester makes a good point regarding the Trachycarpus.  I think it's a combination of factors here in Texas.  Most I have seen do not look good although some do and the majority of those that look good are planted in at least partial shade and get plenty of water.  Another factor is exposure to late afternoon sun which is pretty wicked here.  I have a fortunei that I grew from seed that I situated where it only gets about 4 hours of sun each day.  It had some partial leaf damage from the freeze and wasn't looking good but it's doing much better with all the recent rains.  I hadn't been watering it enough previously.

[Swolte 1,065]

Hmm, I think its a good theory. Right now, we are in the 90s and I am getting reasonable growth but they generally don't grow well when we hit triple digits. The temperature fluctuations can be quite dramatic here in Texas. Before you know it, we're in the middle of winter. It's possible we don't have the ideal winter acclimatization here for Trachies.

Despite that, my Trachy has done well, though! Its in dappled shade and barely fertilized or watered (in fact, I don't recall watering it at all). It has looked great before Uri. Here's a pic of how battered it looks after Uri (basically unprotected) but healthy-looking growth is pushing up rapidly!

[DreaminAboutPalms 494]

There are some tall trachy's here in Austin around where I live, but none receive south sun, and are shaded by large oak trees. So I think that's at least partially what it takes to grow them in Texas

[Centraltxpalm 43]

This pindo on an abandoned lot is doing fantastic.

[Collectorpalms 2,104]

3 hours ago, Centraltxpalm said:

This pindo on an abandoned lot is doing fantastic.

It’s a Canary Island Date Palm. I saw three dead ones, along with all dead Washingtonia in south College Station Yesterday at a couple hotel on highway 6. 

Edited August 2, 2021 by Collectorpalms

[jwitt 244]

On 7/18/2021 at 9:18 AM, Chester B said:

I was thinking the Trachycarpus are actually stressed by your summmers. Too hot day and night, here we have hot afternoons but cool nights.

So in TX they are stressed from summer and then a bad winter comes around and deals more damage than they would see at similar temps in a climate like mine. 
 

Just a theory on my part. 

I think the optimal growth time for a trachy in N or C Texas is fall/spring and also a bit of winter.  They were probably just about to go into full growth mode when the freeze hit.  

Even the recovering ones looked bad around late May. I bet they look better heading into winter.

Just my hunch. 

 

I have seen several that looked good in full sun there. 

[Centraltxpalm 43]

10 hours ago, Collectorpalms said:

It’s a Canary Island Date Palm. I saw three dead ones, along with all dead Washingtonia in south College Station Yesterday at a couple hotel on highway 6. 

There is another on lincoln doing well, this one is in Bryan. I'm not great at identifying them if they arent filled in with fronds.