Why is Sabal mexicana seldom grown east of Texas?

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

Well i havent been down to Moody Gardens hoping the Bizzies made it 

[Xenon]

4 hours ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

Well i havent been down to Moody Gardens hoping the Bizzies made it 

The Bismarckia are fine, actually even the Houston Bismarckia are fine...very hardy. Have you seen the huge Bismarckia a few blocks from the bay on 61st? 

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

I havent i wonder if my area is a small pocket of extra cold cause the 2 big bizzies near me got hit real hard still limping along even after our mild winter. Unfortunately i dont get down to the island much =/

[buffy]

There are so many things you can try with real great long term success. Let's see:

Parajubaea, Rhapis, Arenga, Livistona, etc.

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

2 hours ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

I havent i wonder if my area is a small pocket of extra cold cause the 2 big bizzies near me got hit real hard still limping along even after our mild winter. Unfortunately i dont get down to the island much =/

I will agree with you on I should be able to grow a lot more palms then just Sabals. At this point in my short time here and with the losses I have incurred with specimen palms I'm kinda at the point right now where I will only try small sized palms or just bullet proof palms. I will zone push again one day,  just not likely at my current location

[Xenon]

2 hours ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

I havent i wonder if my area is a small pocket of extra cold cause the 2 big bizzies near me got hit real hard still limping along even after our mild winter. Unfortunately i dont get down to the island much =/

Wow that's strange, there are some inner loop (itself a great microclimate) Bismarckia that look fabulous. Maybe they are the more tender provenance of Bismarckia 

Here are some Bismarckia at Caldwell Nursery in Rosenberg...it gets COLD here, no queen palms around 

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

I definitely believe Bizzies are hardy palms the ones I killed were prolly just not ready to see that cold yet. I wont plant any queens unless there hybrids haha

[Xenon]

29 minutes ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

I definitely believe Bizzies are hardy palms the ones I killed were prolly just not ready to see that cold yet. I wont plant any queens unless there hybrids haha

Wow no queens? You definitely must be in a cold spot

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

Oh there are plenty of queens in the area haha that's just not my preference for palms since where I came from that's whats mostly sold there kinda like here too haha

[Jeff985]

On 5/15/2019 at 11:11 PM, Xenon said:

Just to show you the potential that is there...

This royal in Galveston looks (looked?) so majestic rising out of the live oaks



If you zoom in and squint from the other side (from Aug 2018), you can see the crownshaft is still green and maybe a bit of spear pushing?? Regardless, probably got near 20 years with that beauty. I know at least some of the royals at Moody Gardens survived though, a few foxtail palms too. 
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.2879979,-94.8051465,3a,75y,350.25h,114.27t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sozt1gUvt9Sc-VaNx7d4M3g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

(sorry for the thread hijack)

Bad news. I just drove by that royal. It’s dead. There are several foxtails within a few blocks of it that look great though. They look like they’ve been there a few years at least. Hard to believe a foxtail could survive a freeze that could kill a royal. 

[Xenon]

1 hour ago, Jeff985 said:

 Hard to believe a foxtail could survive a freeze that could kill a royal. 

This is the consenus on the TX tropical plant FB group (feel free to join us) too. Several foxtail palms survived while no royals (AFAIK) outside of Moody Gardens made it. 

Can you be more specific about the foxtails? Plan to get down there soon. 

Edited May 18, 2019 by Xenon

[Ben in Norcal]

I can't speak to ultimate cold hardiness (I don't get cold enough) - but foxtails can clearly take cool damp far better than a royal.  Here, a royal will defoliate every winter and unlikely survive in the ground, whereas a foxtail will spot up a bit but almost never defoliate and generally survive.  For my area, I'd rate a foxtail as waaaaaay more "winter hardy" - just goes to show the definition of that can be quite variable!?

[Jeff985]

5 hours ago, Xenon said:

This is the consenus on the TX tropical plant FB group (feel free to join us) too. Several foxtail palms survived while no royals (AFAIK) outside of Moody Gardens made it. 

Can you be more specific about the foxtails? Plan to get down there soon. 

There were probably four of them scattered around the neighborhood where the royal was. They ranged from about three to five feet of ringed trunk. They looked pretty good. What Ben said makes sense since it was a wet freeze. I think Galveston got down to 25f which I didn’t think would kill a royal, but if they can’t handle a wet freeze that would explain it. It could have also been a secondary fungal infection that was more difficult to detect and treat in the royal since it was so much taller. It’s too bad. There’s still a beautiful trunk about forty feet tall that leads to nothing. 

[Will Simpson]

Sabal palmettos at Gary's in New Bern , NC . Gary had quite a few that were incredibly fat trunked .

Edited March 9, 2022 by Will Simpson