Bismarkia nobilis

[Dypsisdean]

Does anyone have info to share on this one? I am very curious.

[Peter]

Dean, I have 3 Bismarkia's and none of them showed the least bit of damage.  Unfortunately my hi-lo guage packed it in last week, so I can only go by the official low here in Woodland Hills which was 20d. according to the paper this morning.  I'm up in the hills and sometimes I'm a degree or two warmer, but not always. I didn't get any frost or ice, which is the usual case for me up here.  Whatever, it was cold and damaged almost every other palm not under canopy.

[doubravsky]

One... 3 yrs old from a 3 gallon. Took 24 - no visible damage at all.

[epicure3]

No damage after an all time low of 29 Sunday morning. Juvenile palm, no trunk. Blue variety.

[Gtlevine]

Hit my all time low of 27F on Saturday night. All Bizmarkia went through easily without damage.

Gary

[tropicalb]

I'll guarantee it was in the VERY low 20's or possibly even the high teens, and the 15 gal bizmarkia's i had stashed underneath some allspice trees showed no damage at all.

[doubravsky]

Here's my little one...

[steve 9atx]

The amazing thing about the little, potted Bismarkias is that at low 20's/high teens overnight, the pot and roots must have virtually have frozen as well, don't you think? Unbelievable.

Steve

[DoomsDave]

Two galloner, at least down to about 29 FF, two going on three nights, no damage so far.

dave

[Don Little]

Saw 29 an no damage

[BS Man about Palms]

Mine is about 3' overall in the ground, saw 28F no protection and seems to even MORE "pinkish bronze" in color that it was a month ago.

[ghar41]

It's early, and I don't know what to look for on a Bizzy as far as freeze damage goes, (other than the usual stuff) My low was  24.9F and I have one that I planted in a lousy spot against a North fence.

It doesn't look any different than it did a week ago.

[ghar41]

(ghar41 @ Jan. 16 2007,07:27)

QUOTE

It's early, and I don't know what to look for on a Bizzy as far as freeze damage goes, (other than the usual stuff) My low was  25.1F and I have one that I planted in a lousy spot against a North fence.

It doesn't look any different than it did a week ago.

....I need to mention that I did have a "pooch pot" burning about 25 feet away.   ::

[elHoagie]

30F (first night) - no damage

27F (second night) - no damage

This plant is about 3m (10ft) tall.  Four or five of the oldest leaves have curled up and look desiccated, but I think that's from the root damage when it blew over a week ago....

[MattyB]

Bizmarckia nobilis (Silver/Blue), 4 feet tall overall, in ground planted next to a 6 foot tall wood fence.

24.1F, no frost, no canopy

No Damage

Note:  Like BS's this palm has been showing some pinkish/purpleish hues in the older leaves since the begininning of winter but no major foliage damage due to extreme cold.

[Geoff]

3 seedlings, all abou5t 4' tall, no damage on any from 27F for 5 hours, and frost the next night (but temps over 33F)- one totally out in open, others against walls

[Alicehunter2000]

     Got to Get One! Note to self........Got to get one! Keep the data coming folks...............do you think any effects will be felt later?

[epicure3]

I forgot to add this one.

29F both satAM and Mon AM. No frost. Slight freeze damage to one frond. Pic can be seen in separate post entitled "Freeze 2007 pics"

[Jim in Los Altos]

26F low, very little frost. Three silver  Bizzys, 2', 5', and 8'. NOOOOO damage to speak of.

[PalmGuyWC]

My Bismarkia took 23.5 F on Dec 19, '06, unprotected and no apparent damage.  I chickened out for the Jan freeze and covered it and put a 100 W light bulb under it.

HOWEVER......The two prior years 25F to 27F must have been the low and unprotected.  The two prior years it looked fine untill warm weather arrived, then it developed ugly tan splotches on the foliage. Mine produces about 6 new fronds a growing season. Mine has never been subjected to night after night freezes, so I'll give a report in the spring.

Dick

[aztropic]

I had 2 nights at 25 F,5mph wind,8 hours exposure to minimum both nights,no frost;no protection.Center 1/3 of leafs are alive while 1/3 on each side has dried up.No obvious signs of freezing while it was happening.It will survive.

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

[iwan]

Climate info for these palms is third party.  These palms are ~1/4 mile from the Nickel Palm Nursery near Bakersfield.  Phil Nickel reported temps at his nursery were 15-18F for several days with extended periods of freezing over the last three weeks.

Closeup

The smaller one

I don't know what these may have looked like before, but they look better than every Washingtonia in the area.  For reference L. chinensis and various Sabal species at Phil's nursery.

[Jon T]

I need to jump on the bandwagon here, too.  I have a couple of small bizzies like the little one near Phil's, and they took 14.7, 14.9, 16, 18, and several low 20s. They aren't dessicated, though they are bronzy-purple. The tight spears look good.

They look like they'll be fine, though I think we need to proceed with caution as far as discussing temp limits, since stuff I thought was lightly damaged for the first week looks like death warmed-over a week further along.

I want to see if the fronds remain viable, and if the little tough guys begin to grow again in April.  And if they do, then it may be that these are remarkably cold-tolerant.

Jon T.

i

[DoomsDave]

2 galloner, no damage after four nights of 28-29 F.

No frost.

[Palmnut]

I was talking to friend in the San Francisco Bay area last week about the freeze.  He said he saw several big Bismarckia (silver) that were totally untouched by two consecutive nights of 17º-18ºF.

[Palmy]

Where on earth are there big bismarkia's in the bay area? I would love to see one. This spring I will have one in the ground. My fav fan palm.

[PalmGuyWC]

My Bismarkia, about 4" high, is looking worse and worse.  Now the center fronds are turning tan.  It's low was 23F and many other nights of below freezing.  I think it's gonna bite the dust.  Oh well, leaves a nice sunny spot for something more hardy.  It was an "experiment" anyway.

Dick

[Alicehunter2000]

4" or 4'?

[PalmGuyWC]

Sorry, I meant to say 4'.  It looks pretty sick now and I don't know if it will live.  More later.

Dick

[PalmGuyWC]

A much later report:  I have 3 palms planted in the same area, and totally exposed, no overhead protection.  The Butia X Parajubaea was untouched by the freezes and has started to grow again with our warm weather of the past week. Near by my Bismarkia is totally cooked....It's dead as a door nail! No green (silver) DEAD!! Gone!!

The Parajubaea T V T in the same area had severe damage to all the fronds that were horizontal and frosted. The 3 center upright fronds were undamaged, and it's started to grow again with warmer weather.  Had it been older with a trunk and the foliage further off the ground, I think it would have faired much better.  I think this is a keeper for those of us in Sunset zone 14 and definatly for those of you in zones 15 to 17.

I have have a nice 5 gal. P. sunkha that I think will replace the Bismarkia, maybe as soon at today as it's supposed to be in the 80's today.  Whoope!  Spring!!

Dick

[Palmy]

Dick-

Where did you find a bismarkia to buy in the bay area?

[Kris]

Dear Guys  

i used to call bizie baby as hot baby ! no doubt it is proving

its worth.that is hot...

so able to survive even in cold wheathers..

Kris.

[freekypalmguy]

(PalmGuyWC @ Feb. 07 2007,12:48)

QUOTE

My Bismarkia, about 4" high, is looking worse and worse.  Now the center fronds are turning tan.  It's low was 23F and many other nights of below freezing.  I think it's gonna bite the dust.  Oh well, leaves a nice sunny spot for something more hardy.  It was an "experiment" anyway.

Dick

My Bizzie very similar in size to Dicks, but still in a small box, just pulled the spear out, completely rotten    . Low of 22F and many nights below freezing.

Another Bizzie, same size but in the ground is doing OK so far.

[PalmGuyWC]

Hi Zack,

I just saw your post. A friend of mine picked up the Bismarkia in S. Calif., and I'm not sure where he got it. I've never seen them for sale in N. Calif. Mine is only a memory now as it's been dug up and removed. After 3 years in the ground I was surprised at what thick roots it had grown, a half inch in diamater.  Mine was totally cooked at 23F and night after night of freezing temps. and that was even with some protection in the Jan. Freeze. I really didn't think it would survive long in Walnut Creek, and now I know.

I suppose I could get another and grow it as a large container plant for my deck, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort since I would have to protect it each winter.

Dick

[Jon T]

Fellow Fanatics,

It's just like Dick said -- you can't plan for bizzies surviving temps below 25.  I am personally responsible for spreading misinformation: my January 27 post said truthfully that my Bismarcks looked pretty good, after temps in the mid-teens, but now, two-plus months later, they look pretty darn dead.  One has a dessicated spear that is still in place, but there's no apparent growth, and no color of life anywhere.

It may be that truly big ones will have the mass to survive 8b temps, but it's not appropriate for anybody to characterize bismarckia nobilis as anything but a 9b palm, and  for practical purposes it's really only going to be consistently attractive in 10 a.

Sadder but wiser,

Jon T.

[sonoranfans]

(Jon T @ Apr. 11 2007,15:11)

QUOTE

Fellow Fanatics,

It's just like Dick said -- you can't plan for bizzies surviving temps below 25.  I am personally responsible for spreading misinformation: my January 27 post said truthfully that my Bismarcks looked pretty good, after temps in the mid-teens, but now, two-plus months later, they look pretty darn dead.  One has a dessicated spear that is still in place, but there's no apparent growth, and no color of life anywhere.

It may be that truly big ones will have the mass to survive 8b temps, but it's not appropriate for anybody to characterize bismarckia nobilis as anything but a 9b palm, and  for practical purposes it's really only going to be consistently attractive in 10 a.

Sadder but wiser,

Jon T.

I seriously doubt the claims of surviving the teens with "no damage".  My fully established 11' bismarckia survived 22 degrees 2 nights in a row, but all (14) exposed palms were toasted, dead as a door nail, and the exposed spear wont open fully, has obvious burn damage today.  The temps were 22 degrees, but these palms were next to the pool, with th pool heater running overnight.  All palms either turned deep bronze or white(more wind protection), and wrinkled.  Today, my biz are pushing out new palms,

[avb]

One plant with no damage at 29 degrees.

[sonoranfans]

In the interest of providing a baseline I decided to show a pic that has several species so there is an understanding within the pic of what the true temps may have been.  Here is a pic of my largest bizzie along with syagrus(20F(?)), phx roebelinii(25F?), and a brahea(12F(?) and sabal bermuda(10F).  My bizzie was totally burned except for one spear that never did open right.  The colors are bronze and white(very wrinkled).  I ended up cutting off the burned fronds months later as they were very stiff, lifeless, brittle and caused damage to a new emerging spear as it tried to push its way out.  The two phx roebelinii in the foreground were totally bronzed like straw (defoilated but survived), the syagrus show green fronds, plenty of them, but did burn up to 50% as well.  The brahea and bermuda didnt even blink.  Well since we know roebelinii are tender at about 25F, and the syagrus at 20F, the temp was in that range(weather said 22F for 2 nights in a row).  Further, freezing duration was about 8-10 hours each night according to the weather report.

[sonoranfans]

here is the Biz in april with its first new frond since the freeze opened.  Sorry its a different angle, but psychologically I was having a hard time taking photos of it for a while.  The newly opened frond along with 2 freeze damaged fronds, yet to be removed, is pictured.

[sonoranfans]

and here is the same bizzie at the beginning of july, after pumping out 3 more fronds and 2 additional new spears.