Sabal Mexicanas winter tolerance

[TonyDFW]

Edited May 26, 2010 by TonyDFW

[TonyDFW]

Here is a house in North Dallas, near where George W. Bush lives .

Notice how well the mostly Sabal Mexicanas came through the past winter unprotected. Minimum low of 15F. Several nights in low teens. 17 inches of snow. Cloudy, wet winter.

[TonyDFW]

Edited May 26, 2010 by TonyDFW

[peachy]

They are certainly toughies. They look very fit fat and healthy. I love that fence and the gates too. Must be a nice neighbourhood....shame about the neighbours.

Peachy

[sur4z]

A gun turret?

[iamjv]

Nice shots Tony.... the S. Mexicanas did well down here - totally untouched. The older specimens in the downtown and King William district were here during the hard artic freezes of the 80s (ultimate lows of 6F) and survived those freezes as well. Jv

[Mike in Nelson]

They are certainly toughies. They look very fit fat and healthy. I love that fence and the gates too. Must be a nice neighbourhood....shame about the neighbours.

Peachy

[mlovecan]

As a standalone palm, I always thought Mexicanas looked somewhat strange. However planted in that fashion, WOW !!!

Spectacular!!

[iamjv]

You can see groupings like this in the Rio Grande Valley and they always look great!

[RyManUtah]

beautiful trees and houses

[Wai`anae Steve]

beautiful trees and houses

Wow, healthy lookin' but such short petioles. Mine are very long like 4-5 feet, trees have maybe 1 foot of trunk.

[Kris]

Very nice visuals...

[Explorer]

Very nice palms! But the reason they survive the cold there must be that most of the year it warm to hot in that part of the world. In our country this palm would probably die when exposed to cold winters.

Alexander

[Moose]

Note to Keith. This thread pretty much tells you your S. Mexicana should be bullet proof in your growing conditions.

[Josh-O]

very cold hardy indeed!!

[Xerarch]

I'll bet those palms are much more tolerant of the low temps than they are of the landscapers that over prune them. 

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

This species is much more freeze tolerant in dry, climates of the west than it is in the east.  I have seen large mature trees with seedlings underneath in Las Cruces, NM.  In contrast, I saw them defoliate in College Station multiple times in the 1980's, Many even died not far from town. College Station had lows in the high single digits, but they defoliated in the low teens.  College Station  TX is about 90 miles NW of Houston.  North of College Station, the percentage of the population that died those years rose until by the time you passed Dallas, very few survived at all.  But it's worth noting that some did, even as temps were near 0 f.  Tony posted pix of a couple survivorsp lanted at a local theme restaurant....

[Phoenikakias]

Nice occasion to put a question that has been bothering me recently; according to a paper of SZ distinguishing feature of Sabal mexicana are the short petioles. Can anyone confirm this information or on the contrary point out another Sabal sp with short(er) petioles?

[_Keith]

On 11/25/2015, 4:48:51, Moose said:

Note to Keith. This thread pretty much tells you your S. Mexicana should be bullet proof in your growing conditions.

You are right Moose.   Pretty sure it will outlive me,