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Out here in Oregon it's been warm. I'm at the same latitude as the Vermont/Canada boarder, and last week was our first freeze of the year. No rain for 3 weeks and the temps have been in the 60's up in the mountains, above the fog inversion. The few ski areas are able to open are only operating about 25% of their lifts. Garden looks good though. A couple of pics from last week. The famous Mt. Hood from a few weeks ago. There should be 5-10 ft of snow at this time.

A few chamaedoreas around the garden, and apparently according to a local source the chamaedoreas are huge @peachy I have plenty more to go into the garden over time!

A view from my deck ! 15 years old and my largest of 4 Lepidorachis.

A spot of pruning and turning around the old kerriodoxa was beaming. And the sallehana is starting to put out a new leaf and likes its new home!

The first night of Adonidiageddon here was 29.1F but no visible frost. It stayed under freezing for 3.5 hours. The local airport registered 34 degrees for 2 hours. Current forecast lows are still the worst on Saturday morning at 25F and Sunday morning at 27F. Back to 9A here instead of their silly 10A rating!!!

Howea forsteriana is one of my favorite landscape palms. I planted several small ones throughout the years. These are some of the ones in the front yard. They become very dramatic in the wind and since coconuts are impossible here, these are about as close as you can get as a Cocos impersonator.

Took a bit of time, but this little Fiji palm is looking rather elegant as of late. It was acquired as B. microcarpa, but it keys out as B. seemannii. I’ll have to look at the next seed batch more closely. Any one else growing Balaka? Tim

Chrysalidocarpus titan beginning to gain more height. No trunk yet, easily 15ft. tall. Had to get a pic with the blooming vireya.

I have generated some probability maps for those in central and southern Florida for Sunday morning, which looks to be the worst as far as low temperatures go. All maps below are using data from NWS Blend of Models. Starting in central Florida, here is the probability of seeing temperatures less than 32F. Probabilities are quite high for at least a minimal freeze: Next up, the probability of seeing a temperature of less than 25F. Probabilities of this occurring are at least moderate, especially in the vicinity of Osceola County. Areas north of I-4 stand a greater chance: Lastly for central Florida, the probability of seeing temperatures below 20F. These probabilities are very low, but not zero. The greatest chance (still quite low), is north of I-4: Now for south Florida. Only doing 2 maps for this region. The probability of seeing temperatures less than 32F in south FL is particularly high around Lake Okeechobee. Areas in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale areas have a very low chance of seeing a light freeze as it stands right now: Lastly, the probability of seeing temperatures of 25F or lower. These probabilities are quite low, but any chance of this happening is generally confined to areas north of Lake Okeechobee: Take of this data what you will. As time moves closer, we will see how things trend, hopefully it trends warmer for everyone in the state.

We recorded a wider spread for minimums throughout the property with readings 34F-36F. Around 1am, the temperature started climbing. Like Ray said, we got bailed out of one night.

Another picture of the Butia x Jubaea in Augusta, GA.

Licuala ‘mapu’ inflorescence. Tim

This too shall pass. Real world cold tolerance information gathered here will be amazing, and we all love stories of recovery . Peace, stay warm, and think about Summer 2026 😎

Just FYI a French site (FdP) gives bottle palm for 10A and spindle palm for 10B! Same with Latania 😍 lontaroides 10A and lodigesii 10B.

Good visualization/explanation of the set up+mechanism here

I woke up to 24.8 this morning. Yesterday's low was 22.8. This is what they looked like yesterday:

Very brief dip to 25F this morning. Washies are not happy campers. Bizzy not showing any signs of damage but I know it will soon. Queens look mostly fine, front yard queen burn might be the result of that really dry wind. Backyard queen looks fine for now.

@Matthew92 I'm actually hoping for wind on Saturday morning, just to prevent frost from forming. In past cold fronts here it *seemed* as though the frost was a bigger cause of damage than just pure cold. That's just my observation, of course. Last night hit 29.6F with light frost. The airport recorded 35...

Same here dropped to 31 then kind hovered there between 31 and 33 all night.

Clouds saved the day night

Sat at 30 for a while then came up to 35 now. Odd. I expected 25 possibly based on last night. Some good news. Hope it keeps up, the forecast moderated a bit too.

This is the worst arctic oscillation index for Florida winter since 2010. It looks to stay negative which is pointing to more cold problems well into February. The longer that blackline stays under 0, the longer the door stays wide open for subsequent cold blasts. Notice the last time it was above 0! You know, La Nina winter, warmer than normal 🤬

More Coconut palm

This is a Butia x Jubaea hybrid that I purchased years ago from Dr. Merrill Wilcox. It has held its silver color beautifully. The picture doesn't do it justice. Augusta, GA

Recently came across some splidle palms growing outside a beach bar in crete and they look very healthy just seemed very interesting to me here is a picture on from google maps

Scattered flurries for me in the forecast. Sounds fun🤮. With covers on plants that will not go well if it's any amount that adds moisture to them. Plus cooling added on with the wind and it can do bad damage. Some numbers in the forecast are near 89 levels in spots and 2010 level in others, so what old timers called an "impact freeze" is coming. Proof they never really went away just took a hiatus till now😐

From the NWS Tampa. Let there be snow.

We bought them in 2023 at Lowe's

Lol are you aware of the latitude of Florida and SoCA? I just wonder why the 'Karaoloi' and the 'Kochlioi ' have not started yet an extensive palm production.

The SoCal mid winter munch making a go at it.

Richard as you know i love chamaedorea, thanks for sharing the photos, it's always a pleasure for me to read your posts

At least 40% native soil in the mix. You can add sulphur pellets in to the deeper layers beneath the root ball. I usually dig about half the diameter of the root ball deeper and amend soil plus I try to loosen even deeper soil layers adding sulphur pellets at about 1/4 depth of root ball' s diameter.

NO!

Go for it Than. If difference in quality and properties is enormous between fill in and surrounding soil, the risk of the palm refusing to spread and deepen its root system is really serious. And you need in our climate extended and deep root system for coping better both with drought and cold.

Hard to get a good picture as its buried in behind a few things but after 10 years in the ground from a 8 inch seedling its starting to get moving prob 5ft tall hasnt split yet but growing well all year round, ive got another in a pot that fell over and started growing up whilst on the ground hates being stood up really strange what its doing

Cymbidium season has begun in my garden. They are dependable color.

Bummer A couple hundred miles too far north 😪

Glad the Great State of Texas fared well. My place hit 12°F this morning.

I got too see snow in Manitoba Canada minus 30, flip me it was cold, took breath away, snow is not for this summer bunny iam afraid you can have your snow bunny’s !

Already 35deg here at 6:30pm. Forecast low is 29??? I don’t trust it. Might be quite a nasty radiational freeze. Sometimes it will be alarming and drop more quickly earlier in the evening only to plateau halfway through the night, but some other times I’ve seen it get colder than predicted and it drops like a rock through early morning. Glad I still have everything covered.

My location is supposed to be 9a with the new map but starting in the ‘22-‘23 winter I've had lows each winter of 18, 19, and 15 deg!!! smh…

My Robusta is already turning brown lol. Nothing new .

Better mix good soil with native one. It helps the plant to adapt to local soil easier and faster. You won't be spared from the task to amend soil after transplanting, no matter what you are contemplating!

Here is a video i made about the street there

Astrocaryum murumuru. This spiny baby is well out of poking range but, a nice looking palm. Tim

K here are some pics of the damage. We were under a hard freeze for about ten hours last night and for about sixteen the night before. Didnt get ice but temps went to 23.5 F on my thermometer here at West Houston/Westchase area. First pics are of three queens I have, small. Then strelitzia nicolais (giant bird of paradise), then areca palms (they are alive at the growth points) and last but not least a cat palm. Not sure how that one is doing. Leaves look a bit darker than before and they have that smell of rot... time will tell. I will update.

Where I grew up there were only Washingtonia and Phoenix canariensis palms. When I attended UCSB in Santa Barbara, CA I was stunned and intrigued to see Howea forsteriana ground planted outdoors as a landscape plant. Now, all these years later, I have about 15 plants on a garden 8 meters wide !

Always a wonderful sight to see Howea in a collection or even stand alone. They do very well in my climate . We are now seeing them grace industrial buildings where my shop is . I have a few that I have grown from seed. Harry These were rescued from a mall tear down several years ago. They were in very rough shape , burnt to a crisp. They had just started to trunk.

That's going to be a difficult grow in that area. There are several reasons Adonidia merrillii are called Christmas Palms. One is because they tend to set red fruit around Christmas, the second is because, prior to the last 20 years here, they were usually dead by Christmas.