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I just want to show how dry the air was over north Florida on the morning of Feb 24th. Here is a computed sounding profile from the GFS model run initialized at 6Z. The bright green squiggly vertical line on the left is the dewpoint temp. The red line paralleling it to the right is the temperature. At the surface the dewpoint was 20F and the temperature was 35F. The dewpoint spread (the distance between the dewpoint and the temperature line) is very big at all levels of the atmosphere above the surface. In fact if you go up to around 2.75 km above the ground (near the 750 mb level) the air is bone dry as that dewpoint spread hits is maximum value. Only at the surface was the Relative Humidity (RH) at it's highest point (48%). At every point above the RH was much lower. In this sounding, for the entire depth of the atmosphere there is only 0.16 inches of Precipitable Water (PW = 0.16in). This also proves that the atmosphere is very dry .... I will come back to this point below. On the far right hand axis labelled at the top "Inf. Temp." The "Inf. Temp." is the Inferred Temperature Advection (degrees C / hour). At every level of the atmosphere, except around the 750 mb layer you see cold air advection taking place (the blue vertical rectangles on that axis). Now, coming back to the Precipitable water available within the entire depth (column) of the atmosphere (PW = 0.16 inches). Let's look at the Sounding Climatology from the nearest location, Jacksonville FL : Here you can see that for February 24th the 10th Percentile value for PW is 0.32 inches. That morning north FL was seeing values only half of that. In fact the values being seen were very near the all-time lowest values seen via real soundings. The air was extremely dry above north Florida that day. It was very clear to both incoming Shortwave and outgoing Longwave radiation. The lack of water vapor and no mixing allowed for very strong cooling of the air. -Matt

After this year how my yard looks and how others look I have realized how important canopy is. A night in the upper 20s 27 to 30 5 hours or less has 0 effect on anything under canopy. The realy bad nights with wind and the night at 24 with no wind the stuff under canopy still out performed stuff in the open. Areca palms under canopy small ones are still alive as coukd be just a little burn. Arecas in the open torched tonthw ground. Mangos in the open torched mangos under canopy still have some green leaves or no damage at all if they are protected enough. I've learned the warm and cold spots of my yard. A thermometer didnt show much difference in these areas but the plants did. I have an 8ft tall mango in the open on the back side of my yard. I only protected it the night at 26 and 24. It went through all the nights with heavy frost and 4 or 5 nights between 27 and 29 not protected with 0 damage. Bananas under canopy on part of my yard no damage intill thw 2 bad nights etc. I now know I have no problem growing sensitive fruit trees and ficus etc under canopy. Some defolitated or burn back tiny branches but survived perfectly ok and are pushing new growth already. I am focusing on canopy. I have planted almost 15 queen palms to help with canopy. They are super invasive around me I dig most of them out of the woods behind me before they cleared it for houses. Pic of mango for reference. Its had a rough past over the last 3 years. Flooding has almost killed it twice. That problem has been mostly resolved.

Tonight's low was 33.4F at around 7AM, but with a long 5 or 6 hours in the 30s. The 10 day forecast finally calls for "normal" weather, with lows around 60 and highs in the 70s and lower 80s. I was waiting for the last frost before I started cutting off fronds, because if you take the dead canopy off...the protected stuff underneath just gets torched. I'll probably have to leave a few dead fronds on the Alfredii just for shade protection on the understory palms and cycads. @kinzyjr I'm going to go through the whole yard again and log all the death and destruction...

Orlando International: 36F Orlando Executive: 38F My backyard: 39F Hopefully this is our last worry of this winter. Bring on Spring.

Just like my place, I'm sure the frost was also very apparent. So done with winter, but the damage is done for us all and the lingering impacts remain. Hopefully businesses are ok and our plants do better than expected. So over it and ready to buy spring goodies!(Small ones that live in a greenhouse)

33 around 2 am was my coldest then slowly came up to 35.

Well, a disappointing end to a long nightmare. After a forecast of 39°F I woke up to 34° at 5AM and it has remained stuck there for a couple hours. Frost pretty widespread. Ice on the car that is parked out because the garage is filled with potted plants. At least I did that right. Today, I start picking up the pieces but what is left might not be worth saving in the long run. I would prefer to remove the tropicals to just have it done and move on with a bulletproof landscape, but so much work... Maybe I just need to wait for hurricane season. ...which will also be the next time we see measurable precipitation.

36.5 and slowly dropping with calm winds. Not sure if the drop will stop or not, but if it does frost is certain yet again. If it lives it's getting dug up if it's a palm and damaged. I would rather have them in the greenhouse until they are too big than keep up with them outdoors just to have the aesthetic value be minimal between freezes. Not really worth it. Oh and the Japanese maples that like the chill tried to leaf out already and may have died back due to the early heat. Lol. The damage is noticeable on everything now after that warm week, so it's clear that this year outmatches the others that have street views back to 2008. The damage from 2010 was similar but from frost, and I have seen wind burn on tolerant natives this time that I never have (like some cedars/junipers of some kind that were just planted had some minor tip burn😳). If climate change includes freezes two days after 90 degree weather each year then the consequences are more than just our gardens (like my cool season veggies that bolted), so hopefully this is a one off rarity that's another 50 years before it happens again. In any case, I have seen what it's like in my yard here in a bad winter and it's not fun gardening. Almost everything has failed or taken damage, including some natives that I hope come back, even the smilax vines were fried in spots. What a winter.

After several revisions, I’m excited to share my ongoing PDF guide to cold hardy palms. This has been a long-term project and will continue to evolve as I learn more and gather new experiences. Feel free to share it anywhere by posting the link to the document — that will always point to the latest version for when I update. I am still working on some more pages in time. I truly appreciate all the support, knowledge, and friendships from this forum over the years. My goal has always been simple, help others enjoy and succeed in this hobby as much as I have. Hopefully this information will especially help others new to the hobby. While the design is AI assisted, all photos and text dictation are from my experiences. While I am aware there are a few errors still, let me know what you think TNTropics Cold Hardy Palm Guide https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w9-43MjGhgyQyqgVeQoWXU69GvRGLpdU/view?usp=sharing

It was 29.3 at my place last night, with light frost around 8AM. It was just barely visible on the rooftops, probably because it was so dry. The airport hit 34F for 2 hours, with no significant wind. The UHI effect helps them again! I took a look through the yard over the past couple of days...much death and destruction. You know it was cold when the Allagoptera Arenaria have at least 25% burnt fronds. The damage is definitely a LOT worse than 24.4F a couple of years ago. But it's hard to judge whether it was: The extra 2 degrees (22.5F vs 24.4F) The high wind this year vs frost 3 years ago Duration of cold (30 to 50% more hours under freezing this year) Repeated sub-zero cold fronts Very low daytime highs after cold fronts Late timeframe with 6 or 7 freeze nights in February I can't even make a guess as to what part of the above items made the biggest difference, and there's probably more bullet points I haven't thought of.

I see a few questions about how is it getting so cold in FL right now considering that areas much farther north of here have snow on the ground and are warmer ? There's a few things that must be considered to answer that question : 1: Strong cold air advection. That cyclone that just slammed the coast from DC to Boston advected a lot of cold air from the north straight south. The cold air advection wasn't as intense as what you got a couple weeks ago, but it was still strong. 2: Extremely Dry Air. The air at the surface and at every level above the surface over areas of Florida are extremely dry right now. This allows the air to cool down significantly. It also allows the daytime high to be warm. 3: The air is also very stable and stratified (thermally in the vertical) over Florida right now. This prevents any mixing at night. The coldest air will sink down to the surface. 4: The vertical column of air from the surface all the way to the boundary with space (say 10mb) is exhibiting an extremely Radiationally "Clear Window". Radiational cooling all through the atmosphere is maximized right now helping to further cool the air column. This Radiationally clear window is there because the air is extremely dry at all levels, no clouds, calm winds, no mixing. That Dry air above got pulled in from the west / central portion of the interior continent, particularly at the low levels. The deeper moisture got dragged up from the south (well east of Florida) on the eastern side of the storm in a warm / moist conveyor belt and dumped it's precip. along the coast in the form of snow and rain. So why was it warmer in areas that just got snow ? Those areas are all the complete opposite of what Florida got. They have a high level of moisture in the lowest levels of the atmosphere. Still some clouds. The air is mixing well at the low levels. Those areas are actually seeing more warm air advection compared to Florida. That snow was extremely moist an quite warm. They will cool down more as the low moves further away. Under a "Radiatively Clear", barotropic atmosphere (post cold advection) .... the 2nd morning after, the lowest temperature of the day will always occur right at sunrise and last up to an hour afterwards until that incoming shortwave radiation from the sun can warm the surface and mixing occurs via shallow convection. This is all just physics. Physics and weather have no regards to the calendar, ever. -Matt

You could see and feel it too, I have experienced it as a kid in the west, and the sun brightness and the brilliant blue sky was obvious. Record setting once again apparently too, I wonder how many records were broken this winter in Florida. Impressive what that nor'easter blizzard did. A bunch of "impressive" storms this year and that's not a compliment to them lol

This one:

The frost wasn't that bad at all. Just on cars roofs and spoty on grass. Things have done surprisingly better than I thought they would in my yard. I still have mango seedlings in the yard taht are untouched under thick canopy.

34F-35F in various spots in the yard with frost on cars, roof tops, and in the yards with no canopy. The airport appears to have come pretty close to freezing, with a lowest hourly of 32.4F on several of the readings.

I would like to join the list for B. edulis when you have them available. I have a lot of room out here in the desert.😁

Heat wave conditions is what they endure, but as you say a different story in a desert heat with low humidity they would cook. Containee growing is another story in the heat, the roots just cook especially the the ones on the sides of the containers, and the direct sunlight on the container will definitely be part of that cooking process. The more humidity the more sun a palm can endure, but most definitely a cool root run makes a huge difference. But I think for most home gardeners you can pretty well much plant one in any situation if given enough water. I have a self sown one growing in basically a crack in the sandstone rocks with absolute beating sun and heat not only from the sun but also from the rocks, it’s a bit stunted looking and a tad light green colour from such enduring conditions, but surviving. It would be interesting to see how one would go further inland away from any ocean influence. But for now there tough and will tolerate a beating in the gardens in my area. Be interesting also to see how they would go in a frost area in the sun!

A few more palm seeds, with some interesting varieties. Thought I might get a few cycas tropophylla seeds, palms and cycads seem to go together and are just as slow as each other, plus while the palms are growing you have another sideline business.

I hit a milestone tonight. What should I do to commemorate this? A giveaway? #nice

Page 7 looks like a bountiful garden compared to my disaster in Oviedo. Not sure on casualties yet but looking like severe. Royals, several very large Adonidias, 100’s areca’s although the lowest are green, coconuts, citrus, bananas, mangos, ti, ginger, crotons, aboricolas, colocasia, fiddle leaf, birds, you name it. Torched. Even the Bismarcks got hammered but should do fine. Only the Europeans, sabals, and livistonas appear unfazed.

I went back to review how my coconut recovered from the 2018 freeze. Took a good 1.5 years to regrow the entire crown. 2018 min was 28F. This year was 25F and change so about 2-3 degrees lower. I believe freeze duration was 4 to 5 hours longer. Pic is Feb, June and Nov of 2018.

Worst was 24 in my backyard. 19 2 miles away.

Here are a few things around my yard

That sounds about right. Most palms outside of what you find in the big boxes are NOT fast growers and generally take about 5 years or more to produce a saleable 3/5 gallon size plant. Rare palms are often rare because they are usually too slow growing to be economically feasible to produce for a profit. Hobbyists that grow these rare palms from seed generally aren't looking to make a profit when they end up with extras to sell. aztropic Mesa, Arizona

I can tell you put a lot of work into creating this Allen. Thank you for sharing it with us.

I got the map fixed and I worked on readability a bit. I agree that is a problem Thanks again and let me know if you guys see anything else Thanks So MUCH! Mr. Rogers!!! well I'll take it if anyone has ideas to add to the guide content or constructive feedback let me know

fair haha well crazy enough but I’m moving to Cincy soon kinda sad I’m moving to a colder zone… but my parents since my dad will be closer to where he works.. so he will make a ton more money.. they are allowing me a huge budget to build and maintain a large tropical greenhouse!! I’m so excited! Gotta find the right house., and no HOA lol but SO HAPPY FINALLY A TROPICAL AREA TO GROW STUFF

You know your stuff. And I know I've said this before but I love the YouTube channel. You give off an almost Mr. Rogers vibe and opened my eyes to a lot.

Ok Jessica Alba didn't work out. Anyway bulbs are sprouting, Uresana and Maratima are recovering. The bottom watering and baggies over them really helped. The ones I thought were dead are pushing green. I made a couple eBay sales, so instead of being responsible and pushing it towards my own healthcare, here's what I did. I tried to return a t shirt to eBay because it was kinda small, they gave me a refund and told me to keep it. Bought more coir. With the money from the sales, I bought 2 Hawaiian Punch elephant ear bulbs 2 Thai Giant elephant ear bulbs One pound bag of Banana Fuel, another Ensete Maurelli, a Black Ruffle colocasia, and this week's Wellspring freebies were a total blah fest again. The most appealing thing was a dwarf gold ginger plant. I had pretty good luck cutting up bulbs, and the ones I ordered are 7-9 inch size so I'm hoping I can at least quarter them. I want to get some Blue Hawaiians too for more color. I think it's funny how I go through different obsessions. First it's the palms, then I went to the bananas, papayas, and now I'm into aroids. I also got my first Canna sprout. I think it's just one of the red one. I've had to cut some rot off a couple but no biggie. They're sprouting. My crape myrtles aren't doing anything but my dumb ass didn't scrape them to the cambium before the rooting hormone and I haven't been watering them, the willows were 50/50 last time I checked. And I'm still waiting on papayas and about 11 million palm seeds.

The typical map - red for freeze warning, gold for frost warning, blue for rip current warning. Let us hope that, mercifully, this is the last one. Old man winter got to thin the herd a little, now it's time to let us get to work restructuring our gardens. Should be good weather for Plantae-palooza, minus the afternoon showers.

There tough little palms, he does water his garden a bit, and the soil is beautiful for vegetables. It’s amazing what you see around in some peoples gardens. Theres one house in my hometown thay has two Bismarckia palms planted either side of the house steps, that’s fine to do that but he’s planted them so close to the steps and house, they are in for a big surprise and bill later on when they grow up past the juvenile stage. Richard

It was purchased at a smaller size at the Joint Holiday CFPACS/PBPACS meeting in December 2022. Not a fast grower, but requires no care.

Yup. I was sold two shade-grown "reclinatas" which had super soft, tropical-esque fronds. They turned into this - super rigid. Even the leaflet tips are sharp. No suckers, and a crown the size of canariensis.

Hey @Allen - I can tell that you put a lot of effort into putting together your thoughts, knowledge, and experience with cold hardy palms into this document. I also really appreciate that you are up-front with letting folks know that you used AI to set up the design. The negatives of the AI-assisted design come through, for me, which is a shame because it overshadows your real and genuine knowledge that you are sharing here. The formatting of the background "parchment" effect actually makes it harder to read the text, even with my eyes that are pretty good. The USDA hardiness zone map is also shows some of the hallmarks of typical 'AI' hallucination, which, again, is a real shame. I think with a little real formatting - even in something like a Word template, or with the help of an editor - you are on your way to an actual book! Good luck and keep sharing!

Beautiful garden that one, happypalms is by appointment only so no self guided tours here. Hopefully you have inspired your daughter to have an intrest in plants. My niece stays with me every now and then, cmon I say we will plant a few palms, in a teenager voice palms are boring what do you do that for, argh but who rings me up when she is back home and is happy to tell me the palms you gave me are still alive I like them. Hopefully we leave the next generation something to enjoy, the love of gardening and palms. Richard

I have a couple hundred that are just now nearing a size where I'd be comfortable shipping them.

I actually found a taker!!! A legit Palm reseller here in San Diego wants them. He took a look at them last week, and is coming Thursday to haul ‘em away! I shouldn’t be so sentimental, but it feels great to know they’ll be saved. 🥹 Better yet, the root ball will be removed, so adding their (more exotic) replacements will be a little easier. Yay! 🎉

I have it on good authority that pigs taste much better than gophers.

Weird. Works for me. Anyway I have 69 subscribers. Nice, right?

If the winters continue like that they would look ugly, at least till the end of summer here in San Antonio. The winter in Houston is often, not always, warmer by a few degrees. They will do better over there. Dactylifera defoliates too many times in SA. Not a good palm for us.

Hello everyone!!! I am very confused about what type of palm this is. I went to the nursery today looking for my first plant to set on my western-facing lanai. Originally, I did NOT want a palm because I am a Florida native who wanted more variety, but I was still open to them as long as the leaves weren’t waxy or sharp. My research led me to find the Areca palm, which turned out to be mostly what I was looking for. I asked one of the workers at the nursery where I could find one, and she told me they were all out!! I continued to look around and stumbled on the tree I ended up purchasing. It was labeled as a cat palm, but it still had the look I wanted, so I didn’t care much about the name. The guy at checkout asked if it was the Areca palm since they don’t label the plants themselves. I knew he would ask, so I showed him the picture labeling it as a cat palm. I took the palm home and downloaded the plant parent app to help me understand what is needed to care for it. The app told me that my palm was actually an Areca, and so did 3 other websites I tried to use to help clear the confusion. Long story short, I am now a proud owner of whatever the heck this is and wanted to ask the experts, not the AI. Feel free to add all the advice you can to care for her. It seems I get mixed answers around every corner. She is currently in the 3-gallon nursery pot I bought it in, which is inside of a clay decorative pot. Both pots have drains. Like I said, I have her situated on a west-facing screened/roofed porch lanai thing. The direct sunlight only lasts for maybe 2-3 hours if that before the other buildings block the direct rays. The porch is always indirectly bright and breezy. I was told not to cut the brown spots and that it’s a fungal infection from overhead water at the nursery. Anyway, thank you for your time! - Lisa Rinna the mystery palm

Yeah, we might not though just one property is right next to it others are like 5 miles inland def can grow needle palms idk if you saw my other thread but that needle in Cincy man crazy, I might also get chickens cause in general I also like farming and gardening! If you want me to grow anything in a tropical setting for you idk to look at give suggestions! I’m expecting at least a (No variation like one year will be lower than avg this will be the avg) it will be a zone 12b aka (55-60F) lowest. greenhouse.

They sure are tough. They just need some foliage around them for company. These would tolerate being an emergent in a rainforest if the canopy trees fell down I would think. They’d like shade though. It mustn’t get strong winds where they are. If I planted a thin palm like that in the open without company the wind would just snap it off.

He sent this screenshot of his trailer. Looks like that will fit them no problem. 👍

Pathetic Adonidia that was starting to die before the cold this year, Roystonea regia

Cibolo TX Post Winter storm report: Temps in my neck of the woods hit 19F or 20F, with some freezing rain. As usual, I think the freezing precipitation was the bigger problem. C. radicalis with East Northeast exposure and partial overhead protection from the eave of the house. P. dactylifera was almost immediately dead. It was about 3 ft in overall height and very healthy going into this event. I covered it, but not until it was already wet. So it's spear pulled almost immediately after the freeze. It's leaves were brown within a few days. I cut the trunk down and there was no living tissue left, despite treating it with hydrogen peroxide within a couple of days of the ice. Butia took a little longer to show damage. It was covered with a large patio umbrella, but it blew off during the storm. It was a couple of weeks before the newest leaves started losing color. Spear pulled, and I have been treating it with H2O2 as well. No signs of a new spear yet. Even my S. mexicanas (No protection) have a leaf or two that have lost their color. This surprised me: My Washingtonia that grows like a weed looks pretty much perfect with no protection: Not all Washingtonians are created equal though. This is what another one just a couple of houses down from mine looks like: Small trachycarpus F x Ws took no damage with a bucket to cover them:

Just a recent throwback to just how warm our mild winters can be. I know it isn't in as recent memory as our super cold winters 😝 This triple solitaire (Ptychosperma elegans) and Royal were planted in 2018 and lived in decent condition until the big freeze in 2021. 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 were mild winters for all of Houston. You can see mild burn but also complete recovery and more through our long summers. This is not a warm part of town or anything (West Houston/Energy Corridor). Now just imagine how warm the late 90s and 2000s were...and for a much longer uninterrupted stretch.

Yeah ok I use this thread as a diary to keep up with shit I've done and as a timetable. split up orange spider plants, repotted Butia x lytocaryum, repotted one of 2 surviving Kahukas, got some perlite and some more lights. I think ALL of the Burle Marx philos need 1 gallon pots at this point. If I can figure out how to trigger the variegation and get them really variegated like their mama, that's a nice payday. Another banana is pupping. I'm remembering I actually have fertilizer. My compost is composting. I've got 5 more philodendrons to chop up and my cuttings are taking off like crazy. I've got a banana that's as tall as I am. I'm doing better with watering schedules and it shows. I feel like I don't get much done but this has literally exploded in like 3 months. I've built all my benches and tables. I'm using ghetto lights and buckets of water as humidifiers and it's working. I got my stuff for local sales started and I got my stuff for mail order started. Passed my state inspection. Gonna need to make room for pot ups and everyone who's ever done me a favor gets the homey hookup first. Just need to get my logo cleaned up and we'll have a good summer.

Again, their algo is trash. 2'59 and under, mass traffic. 3:00 and over? Virtually unnoticed. I hate it here.