Mercer Botanical Garden, good and bad

[necturus]

Visited Mercer Botanical Garden today. It doesn't look as bad as March, mostly because the tuberous plants have come back. However, it's now clear a ton of palms and trees died. Probably only a quarter of the mules show signs of life. They have already cut down some big stuff.  Most Livistona look dead. Rest in peace, bunya bunya and hoop pine. People are amazed that palms can get tall in marginal zone and then die in a bad free, but these pines were gigantic. Best looking palms are the Sabals and Brahea armata and clara. The Braheas are weird because they've never looked very good before. There's another Brahea that's barely hanging on to life and has trunk damage.

Cycads faired well. I didn't see any casualties among the Encephalartos. Dioon spinulosum died, as did Cycas ophiolitica and another tropical Cycas whose name I forget. 

The real shockers: Attalea cohune and Coccothrinax miraguama. I know Attalea can take a lot of cold while acaulescent, but the Coccothrinax blows my mind. Arenga engleri and Allagoptera are severely fried, whereas the Coccothrinax looks good???

 

[JohnAndSancho]

@necturus Is Mercer the one off Aldine Westfield? 

[necturus]

9 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

@necturus Is Mercer the one off Aldine Westfield? 

Yes.

[Fusca]

27 minutes ago, necturus said:

 The real shockers: Attalea cohune and Coccothrinax miraguama. I know Attalea can take a lot of cold while acaulescent, but the Coccothrinax blows my mind. Arenga engleri and Allagoptera are severely fried, whereas the Coccothrinax looks good???

 

Nice to see!  They're still small enough to protect - I wonder how they protected them?

[necturus]

1 minute ago, Fusca said:

Nice to see!  They're still small enough to protect - I wonder how they protected them?

I don't think they did much, but I could be wrong. I think the Attalea growth is all new - it was completely fried in March. There was a large Bombax ceiba beside it. Not sure how tall it was, but it was approaching the top of a mature loblolly pine. It frozen and was cut down but is pushing new growth already. Side note - Bombax ceiba apparently comes back from the roots better than silk floss trees. Seeing the same thing in my yard, whereas I've seen silk floss die and not come back a few times now. 

I wish they would do a write up on what comes back and what didn't. I think they are the most impressive zone pushers in the area - they constantly trial things I have never even heard of, and I'm a real plant nerd.

[necturus]

Alright, lets throw some cycads into the mix.

Encephalartos ferox

E. whitelockii (!!!)

 Macrozamia

E. hildebrandii

Cycas clivacola lutea

 Cycas panzhihuaensis

[Merlyn]

What kind of temperatures did they see there?  My two Attalea Cohune in the ground took about 50% damage with frost and 29F, but have grown back to about the same as the above photos.  They are surprisingly bud hardy when the bud is subterranean...  

[necturus]

13 hours ago, Merlyn said:

What kind of temperatures did they see there?  My two Attalea Cohune in the ground took about 50% damage with frost and 29F, but have grown back to about the same as the above photos.  They are surprisingly bud hardy when the bud is subterranean...  

Had to be 10-14 degrees. This is actually in Humble, a town north of Houston. I think I posted a picture of this A. cohune previously. It's underneath a pine tree and went through the last winter without any damage.

[Turtlesteve]

Well amid the carnage we learn some things.  I have heard it speculated before that some encephalartos are likely more cold hardy than appreciated, but so pricey that nobody dare test them on purpose.

It looks like the Coccothrinax didn’t even fully defoliate.  Maybe worth further test plantings.

Steve

[Collectorpalms]

On 6/24/2021 at 9:48 PM, necturus said:

Visited Mercer Botanical Garden today. It doesn't look as bad as March, mostly because the tuberous plants have come back. However, it's now clear a ton of palms and trees died. Probably only a quarter of the mules show signs of life. They have already cut down some big stuff.  Most Livistona look dead. Rest in peace, bunya bunya and hoop pine. People are amazed that palms can get tall in marginal zone and then die in a bad free, but these pines were gigantic. Best looking palms are the Sabals and Brahea armata and clara. The Braheas are weird because they've never looked very good before. There's another Brahea that's barely hanging on to life and has trunk damage.

Cycads faired well. I didn't see any casualties among the Encephalartos. Dioon spinulosum died, as did Cycas ophiolitica and another tropical Cycas whose name I forget. 

The real shockers: Attalea cohune and Coccothrinax miraguama. I know Attalea can take a lot of cold while acaulescent, but the Coccothrinax blows my mind. Arenga engleri and Allagoptera are severely fried, whereas the Coccothrinax looks good???

 

Did I miss the post of the Arboretum from March, interested in how the individual palm species survived less than 13F.