Turning a Water Oak Forest into a Tropical Paradise in NW Orlando

[Merlyn]

@sonoranfans when I was living up North in the frozen tundra, a 5 acre lot was probably not a big deal to maintain.  I had a double lot (about 1.25 acres), and I mowed it once a month.  The only real maintenance pain was blowing leaves from the 100ft tall red and white oaks.  In FL I have about 0.75 acres and it was TOUGH to mow it all the time.  Even with full water oak canopy I really needed a tractor to keep up with it.  I converted the majority of the grass areas to mulched beds, so I can mow with a push mower in about an hour with edging and blowing.  I can't imagine mowing a 5 acre lot of plain grass every single week.  

The biggest maintenance task at the moment is just weeds.  Areas with really thick mulch did pretty well, but any area with a recent planting (any area planted in 2025) was just packed with nonstop weeds.  I am hoping next year will be a little easier.

I know what you mean about dead plant material.  Every single week I fill at least 4 big 45 gallon trash cans with either weeds or palm or cycad fronds.  Chopping and cleaning up in Nov-April is easy, but August...not so easy.  Now that everything is planted out (just over 1000 individual plantings) I am leaving spots open when things die.  I lost a Pseudophoenix and a Cyphophoenix and a couple of others, so I just plug the drippers and fill the spot with dirt and cover it with mulch.  As the BIG stuff gets huge I may end up "editing" ruthlessly, like I did with 8 tall Queens last fall.  Things I decide I don't like just get yanked, especially things that take a lot of maintenance or are dangerously thorny (like Phoenix).

[TropicsEnjoyer]

1 hour ago, Merlyn said:

or are dangerously thorny (like Phoenix).

Speaking of thorny, guess who got stabbed in the head today putting on christmas lights…. me 💔🌴 Luckily the thorn came out cleanly, even though I instinctively ripped it out the moment I felt it.

[flplantguy]

I am considering downsizing lots from the .92 acre lot I have now for the reason of maintenance, as well as finding a place that has fewer freezes.  After the last summer and all the issues I had, plus allergies to everything, it became clear that I needed to make the area I care for less difficult to deal with.  The trees I have are also going to one day be maintenance costs as they age, although now they are great shade and frost cover.  Then there is watching what you plant grow and not wanting to leave it behind, so it's hard to decide. A big driveway, sheds and greenhouse and garage, patios, gazebo maybe, and tons of mulch and rock beds, and maybe it wont be that hard, but that's a long way ahead.  Your right that careful planning for weeds helps a lot, and getting it all done maybe too, so maybe it's doable after all, but after summer and a super early frost it doesn't feel that way lol.

[sonoranfans]

@merlyn, yeah weeds were a real pain this year, but not as bad as hurricane milton damage that is still shedding off on some palms.  I have edited a few large palms that just cant take the wind or were too close over the years.  Better to get them while they are not so big.  I should have listened to palmpedia about the wind sensitive ones.  I had 0.75 acres in AZ before moving here in 2010, weeds were easy to control without rain,  palms were tough to keep happy and choices were more limited.  Before that I had 2 acres in Massachusetts, half woods with very little maintenance and grass only grew 3 months a year.  I am happy with my crownshafted and self shedding palms in Florida.   I like working in the yard but the work load and heat really narrows down what months I can work out there. .  Slow growing palms are great!  I should have planted more of them.   I find myself not wanting any more large or fast growing palms.   

[Merlyn]

22 hours ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

Speaking of thorny, guess who got stabbed in the head today putting on christmas lights…. me 💔🌴 Luckily the thorn came out cleanly, even though I instinctively ripped it out the moment I felt it.

I trashed all my Phoenix except for a Reclinata cluster and a couple of Pygmy Dates, for two reasons.  The first was Lethal Bronzing, the second was the randomly stabby nature of the thorns.  Super stabby things (like agaves) are generally ok with me, but the random orientation of Phoenix thorns means I *always* get stabbed several times.  And for some odd reason Phoenix thorn stabs hurt for at least a week.  Even the leaves are stabby!

The Reclinata is *so far* ok because I only prune it once a year.  The Pygmy Dates are ok *so far* because the rachis are just small enough to prune with loppers, and easy enough to just clip and toss into the yard waste trash cans.

[Merlyn]

@flplantguy big oaks and pines are expensive to take down when they get too tall and too close to a house.  I could have saved a ton of money if I had realized they were water oaks...and had realized they grow quickly to 80ft tall and then die.  I would have taken them all down in one swell foop, instead of piecemeal over several years.

I have thought a lot about selling and leaving, especially with all the highway noise from the toll road they just finished.  FDOT knows that CFX/Turnpike Authority are violating the FL noise laws, and have so far attempted to reduce the noise with short barriers and a fairly dense planting of trees.  It's not working so far.  I would probably dig up the rare Cycads (Encephalartos, Cycas, Dioon, etc) and leave almost all the palms.  I would try and repot things that are actually tough to replace (BxJ, JxB, Arenga Pinnata, etc) or that I think are fairly tolerant of potting and moving (bamboos, agaves, cacti, etc).  Most of the stuff I would just leave, knowing the next owner would probably clearcut and put down sod.  I've read other people here say "never go back" because the palm death and destruction you probably just don't want to know about...

[flplantguy]

All my big trees are far away from the house thankfully, and I will keep it that way.  After the storms last year I saw the benefits too, and I have a good mix of younger stuff, so I think most will be the next owner's problem lol. I too have been told don't look back if you leave, I'm sure this whole lot would get cleared fast even though the forest/privacy is its best feature.  Funny enough my only city issue is also noise, from highway 19 nearby, and lights from a storage place.  Both are getting plantings to try and mitigate it soon.  I was just reading that mortgage denial is way up so if I do move it's going to be a bit. I don't think I would move much with me either, most isn't worth it and can be replaced easily.  I hope they get a handle on the noise so you can enjoy your hard work more!

[Merlyn]

@sonoranfans for sure I do not want any fast growing, large, non-self-cleaning palms.  I can deal with somewhat smaller fast ones (Kings, Foxtails) and small trunk diameter clustering types (Lutescens, Mitis).  I am sure the 14 Alfredii are going to eventually be a big hassle.  I will probably trash one before it gets too big, as I planted it only ~10ft from the house.  Around 15-20ft is ok, but ~10ft is not. 

The three Bismarckia are already irritating due to fan size and fast growth speed.  They are just growing out of the remnants of Wilson damage now, even with only ~90mph gusts.

@flplantguy I planted a perimeter of Viburnum on the entire SW, S, and SE sides, but they were not that great at absorbing sound.  And then they started dying of root rot (probably Armillaria).  I am 100% sure the new perimeter of bamboo will become a maintenance hassle (nightmare?), but once the ~15ft tall culms leaf out it should be reasonably quiet back there.  If you have space, things like Gracilis, RG Dwarf, and Ladyfinger (20-25ft, 15ft, 10ft) are great dense noise barriers.  And they are leaf hardy below 20F so great even in winter!

[Merlyn]

With this weekend's record-shattering cold front, I figured I should go back and take a look at this winter's previous cold snaps:

• November 11-12th - minimum around 35.6F and 36.7F with medium+ frost.  This was unusual but only crispified the tops of a few bananas.  Everything else was pretty much untouched.  The airport was around had 36 and 40F.  It was windy the first night (no urban heat island effect = my temp and their temp the same) but calm the 2nd night (my yard ~3F colder).  
• New Year's freeze - minimums of 36.5 the morning of the 30th, 29.7 the morning of NYE with mild to medium frost, and 34.2F on New Year's morning.  The airport was 46, 33, and 37 for a temp difference of 10, 3, and 3 degrees.
• January 15-20th - 16th AM was 27.5 with snowlike frost.  It really was thick enough on the roof to ski!  The airport was 30F due to urban heat island effect with no wind.  The 17th was only 37.2, the 18th rebounded to about 50F, then cold again the morning of the 19th at 30.4F with more heavy snowlike frost and an airport minimum of 35.
• January 27th-29th - 29.1F the morning of the 27th and airport at 34, with no frost.  29.6F on the 28th with light frost and 35F at the airport.  

This morning hit an all time record low of 23F at the airport.  I recorded 22.6F with no hint of frost and moderate winds.  The neighbors on the W and NW sides still have a lot of 80' tall water oaks, so any fronts from that side are buffered a bit.  For the backyard I have a reasonably thick wall of bamboo now, so that also helps a lot.  This was my 8:30AM temps (57.9 in the bedroom):

As I type this now at 10:35AM it's between 30.4 and 32.4 in the yard.  It dropped below freezing around 10PM last night, so that's at least 12 hours straight.  

If my Google-fu is up to snuff, this beats the all time February record, last set on February 18th 1958 at 25F.  It *might* be the 2nd lowest ever recorded in Sanford.  The previous record was the Great Freeze of 1894-1895, which hit 17-18F on 12/29/1894.  The most damaging to the orange trees was apparently February 7th 1895, with 42 hours below freezing.  I couldn't find a Sanford temp for the 7th-8th, so there's a good chance it was colder that night.  Obviously there wasn't an airport here before the Wright Brothers...   

[Merlyn]

And just pasting this info here too, partially so I don't forget it.  23F makes it the coldest recorded night in February, but only the 10th coldest in recorded Sanford history.  

The coldest events recorded in Sanford are:

1. December 24-26th 1989 with 19, 19 and 23F...three of the top 10 coldest in Sanford history
2. January 21-23rd with 19, 19 and 21F...another 3 of 10
3. January 14th 1981 at 20F
4. December 25-26th 1983 at 22 and 21F
5. December 13th 1962 at 21F
6. Today tied with January 20th, 1977 at 23F.

For sure the 1980s were much, much worse for Sanford than today.  I can see (just based on minimums) why 1989 is still talked about.

[Merlyn]

I posted the same photos and info in the Freeze Damage thread here: https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/92659-2026-florida-palmageddon-observations-and-damage-photo-thread

Here's a view of the windy 22.6F and then 24.4F with light frost does to the backyard:

The two Bottles on the right were already badly damaged from previous upper 20s frosts.  The foxtails and fishtails on the right are almost completely brown.  Oddly enough the Ptychosperma Schefferi just behind the Bottles looks discolored but maybe ok?  I really thought that one was a wimp?  The Alfredii looks much worse today than yesterday, and has turned a sickly olive.  To the right of the Alfredii a Cryosophila Warscewiczii looks really good, but Cyphophoenix Nucele and Elaeis Guineensis "Whole Leaf" mutant are torched.  On the left a Dioon Spinulosum and Dypsis/Chrysalidocarpus Lanceolata are torched.  Elsewhere Lutescens and Pembana are equally burnt.  Not quite visible is a badly burned Attalea Brejinhoensis, and of course on the far left a Sabal "Lisa" looks like nothing happened.

Up front I had more tender species, since it's usually a few degrees warmer in the front yard:

The 3 Kings on the right are likely dead, the Arenga Pinnata hard to say, and the giant Encephalartos Ituriensis is defoliated.  The Arenga Pinnata new spear is brown at the tip but green further down, so it might grow out soon?

Around the front a bunch of Encephalartos are also badly burned, with Ituriensis, Laurentianus and Gratus x Laurentianus at least partially defoliated.  The "Jesse Durko" bamboo is rapidly becoming a mass of sticks:

On the East side the Philodendron Selloum turned to stinky mush the first night.  On the far left a Butia shrugged it off, but a pair of Kings are scarlet red.  Just below the octagon window another Elaeis Guineensis is torched just as bad as the background fishtail and right foreground Arenga Pinnata.  The box in the bottom foreground covered a Corypha Umbraculifera.  With the box as protection the fans were burnt off but the petioles and new spear still look ok:

Just to the left of the above photo a pair of 20+ foot Alfredii still look tattered but reasonably decent.  The Encephalartos Kisambo shrugged it off:

[Merlyn]

And a couple of last photos for today.  The two Alfredii are peeking up over the mass of dead Tiger Grass leaves, but the Sabal Mauritiiformis looks pretty good!  Encephalartos Ituriensis on the left is pretty bad...:

I didn't get a good photo of the Copernicia Baileyana today, but it looks really good.  The fans of the below Fallaensis peeking up in the middle are a bit burnt, but the other sheltered ones look fine.  The Cycas Multipinnata is defoliated, and the crimson red Dioon Spinulosum on the right is impressive.  A small Syagrus Schizophylla in the lower middle looks D-E-D, which is surprising.  I thought Schizophylla was pretty hardy.  The Furfuracea is crispy as expected, and even the lower left Dioon Merolae isn't happy:

And this is the "Whole Leaf" mutant Elaeis Guineensis with complete burn up top.  The lower petioles are still green, so hopefully it'll have enough energy to grow back:

Here's the somewhat damaged Ptychosperma Schefferi on the left, a wilty Cycas Multipinnata in the middle, and a plant I hadn't even noticed before.  In the upper right is a "volunteer" Cycas Micholitzii.  I thought it was an offset from the Multipinnata, but it's about 2 feet away!

There are some surprisingly good successes out there, like unprotected Syagrus Amara, Sancona and Lorenzoniorum seedlings in good shape.  A batch of Kerriodoxa Elegans, Licuala Ramsayi and Distans and Sumawongii, Chuniophoenix Hainanensis and Nana all looking like there wasn't even a cold front.  Others are probably already D-E-D like Ravenea Hildebrandtii, Dypsis Cabadae, Syagrus Schizophylla, Cyphophoenix Alba, Nucele and Elegans, and a couple of Burretiokentia Hapala and Viellardii.  But then there's a 5' tall Carpentaria Acuminata that looks so far really good...go figure.

[Merlyn]

Whups, one more comparison photo!  I had a couple Saribus on the left (Robinsoniana and Rotundifolia) and a Livistona Speciosa on the right.  Big difference!

Small Beccariophoenix Alfredii in the backyard look really awful, but the new spears are still green:

[TropicsEnjoyer]

@Merlyn how did your agaves do? my precious angustifolia went soft yesterday

 

[sonoranfans]

19 hours ago, Merlyn said:

Whups, one more comparison photo!  I had a couple Saribus on the left (Robinsoniana and Rotundifolia) and a Livistona Speciosa on the right.  Big difference!

Small Beccariophoenix Alfredii in the backyard look really awful, but the new spears are still green:

I would cut the dead material off the small BA, limits the spread of mold on a small palm that will see lots of dew in the near future.  Mine had more dead material in 2010.  I cut off the dead material and gave it a peroxide/fungicide treatment and it popped right back that summer.

[Merlyn]

2 hours ago, sonoranfans said:

I would cut the dead material off the small BA, limits the spread of mold on a small palm that will see lots of dew in the near future.  Mine had more dead material in 2010.  I cut off the dead material and gave it a peroxide/fungicide treatment and it popped right back that summer.

Yeah, I did the same on other palms in the past.  I'd just take a set of shears and snip off all the dead leaves, and leave the rachis there like a mutant stick.  It looked bad, but kept the green rachis and got rid of the moldy dead stuff.  It worked well on an Arenga Pinnata and didn't take much time.

[kinzyjr]

Wow, we all took a pretty good whack!  Hope some of it comes back at least, @Merlyn!

[Merlyn]

@kinzyjr after a couple of weeks it's clear that some palms just won't bounce back.  Yesterday I cleaned up one section of the front yard.  I'm calling this the "Corypha bed" because I planted a small Corypha Lecomtei in the middle.  It was remarkably undamaged, but I also put a cardboard box over it on all the frosts and any night under ~35F.  Here's the before:

The bulk of the dead vegetation here are cycads.  The bottom of the fronds were still green, so most likely they'll flush out this spring.  There's Encephalartos Laurentianus, Bandula, Gratus, and Gratus x Laurentianus.  Cycas Thouarsii and some Zamia Furfuracea were also torched.  Cycas Debaoensis (hybrid) and several Zamia "Coonties" were fine, along with a hybrid Encephalartos Transvenosus x (Trans x Woodii).  Dypsis/Chrysalidocarpus Lanceolata and Pembana were killed, along with a Syagrus Schizophylla, Archontophoenix Purpurea, and Satakentia Liukiuensis double.  Most likely D-E-D are a Syagrus Amara, Bottle, and Gaussia Princeps double.  Even the two Allagoptera Arenaria were damaged, but surprisingly the Licuala Sumawongii looks nearly perfect!  I'd had some Sumawongii die after upper 20s frosts, so this one (and a couple of others in the yard) are a surprising success!  Here's the after:

@TropicsEnjoyer you can see the above Angustifolia looks like nothing happened.  But there are three others in the yard (all from the same original plant) that are melted to 95% mush.  I can't explain it...so weird!   

This particular bed has an average of 64% leaf burn and 18% mortality, yikes!  @kinzyjr I'll collect all the data in a sheet later this spring.

[Mazat]

1 hour ago, Merlyn said:

@kinzyjr after a couple of weeks it's clear that some palms just won't bounce back.  Yesterday I cleaned up one section of the front yard.  I'm calling this the "Corypha bed" because I planted a small Corypha Lecomtei in the middle.  It was remarkably undamaged, but I also put a cardboard box over it on all the frosts and any night under ~35F.  Here's the before:

The bulk of the dead vegetation here are cycads.  The bottom of the fronds were still green, so most likely they'll flush out this spring.  There's Encephalartos Laurentianus, Bandula, Gratus, and Gratus x Laurentianus.  Cycas Thouarsii and some Zamia Furfuracea were also torched.  Cycas Debaoensis (hybrid) and several Zamia "Coonties" were fine, along with a hybrid Encephalartos Transvenosus x (Trans x Woodii).  Dypsis/Chrysalidocarpus Lanceolata and Pembana were killed, along with a Syagrus Schizophylla, Archontophoenix Purpurea, and Satakentia Liukiuensis double.  Most likely D-E-D are a Syagrus Amara, Bottle, and Gaussia Princeps double.  Even the two Allagoptera Arenaria were damaged, but surprisingly the Licuala Sumawongii looks nearly perfect!  I'd had some Sumawongii die after upper 20s frosts, so this one (and a couple of others in the yard) are a surprising success!  Here's the after:

@TropicsEnjoyer you can see the above Angustifolia looks like nothing happened.  But there are three others in the yard (all from the same original plant) that are melted to 95% mush.  I can't explain it...so weird!   

This particular bed has an average of 64% leaf burn and 18% mortality, yikes!  @kinzyjr I'll collect all the data in a sheet later this spring.

Very sad, I feel sorry for you and for everyone who has been affected this winter, no matter where.

[SCVpalmenthusiast]

Omg this is terrible! 😞 what are your plans moving forward?

[Merlyn]

On 3/3/2026 at 5:16 PM, SCVpalmenthusiast said:

Omg this is terrible! 😞 what are your plans moving forward?

Yeah, that's the penalty you pay for planting zone 10 palms in a borderline 9b/9a area.  Many of the established palms will grow back ok, and I'm guessing all the burnt cycads will do just fine.  One thing that I'll definitely be doing is not replanting any large, "marginal" palms.  Anything that gets big quickly and might randomly die one winter will not have a space in my yard.  But smaller ones (Syagrus Amara, for example) may get another chance.  The Arenga Pinnatas will stay if they live, because they take a long, long time to get too big to remove.

Speaking of which, I cleaned up another part of the front yard yesterday afternoon.  This is along the driveway, just to the right of the photos in my last post.  This is the "before" photo:

The big visible burned ones are (left to right) Coccothrinax Argentea, Zombia/Coccothrinax hybrid, Triangle (Dypsis/Chrysalidocarpus Decaryi), an Encephalartos Whitelockii behind the Sago, and a tall Arenga Pinnata.  Here's the after:

The Coccothrinax and Zombia/Cocco hybrid seem to be okay.  Both are pushing new fronds with good looking spears.  The Triangle's spear looks pretty good.  I need to go sharpie-mark it and the Arenga Pinnata.  The couple of cycads (Encephalartos Whitelockii, Tegulaneus, Manikensis/Turneri, Natalensis, and a Cycas Clivicola) were all burnt to a crisp but should be fine.  The Clivicola is already bulging with a pending new flush.  An Encephalartos Senticosus (Msinganus?) looks totally fine, with just 3 or 4 burnt leaves out of 50 or so.  The Arenga Pinnata is a big question mark.  The end of the new spear is dead, but the lower part of the spear looks ok.  The lower end of the existing fronds seem solid.  It's grown back (slowly) from previous defoliations in the 25-28F range.  I cut the dead ends off and snipped off the dead leaflets:  

On the right side of the above photo there's 3 sticks that *might* be an alive Attalea Brejinhoensis.  The spear and lower end of the older fronds seem ok too.  Hopefully it gets moving soon!

The variegated Caryota Mitis was torched to the ground, killing all 5 trunks.  But there's at least 4 new sprouts from the roots!

[kinzyjr]

@Merlyn Don't drop a match unless you want to start from scratch LOL.  Glad some of the stuff made it and/or is coming back.

[Merlyn]

28 minutes ago, kinzyjr said:

@Merlyn Don't drop a match unless you want to start from scratch LOL.  Glad some of the stuff made it and/or is coming back.

No kidding!!!  The area in the 3rd picture looks like great mulch, until you kneel down on it.  Then you discover that it's all Encephalartos Whitelockii leaves, which are covered in thorns.  It'll be fine by the summer when the rains help break down the stabbiness.   

[SCVpalmenthusiast]

On 3/9/2026 at 11:43 AM, Merlyn said:

Yeah, that's the penalty you pay for planting zone 10 palms in a borderline 9b/9a area.  Many of the established palms will grow back ok, and I'm guessing all the burnt cycads will do just fine.  One thing that I'll definitely be doing is not replanting any large, "marginal" palms.  Anything that gets big quickly and might randomly die one winter will not have a space in my yard.  But smaller ones (Syagrus Amara, for example) may get another chance.  The Arenga Pinnatas will stay if they live, because they take a long, long time to get too big to remove.

Speaking of which, I cleaned up another part of the front yard yesterday afternoon.  This is along the driveway, just to the right of the photos in my last post.  This is the "before" photo:

The big visible burned ones are (left to right) Coccothrinax Argentea, Zombia/Coccothrinax hybrid, Triangle (Dypsis/Chrysalidocarpus Decaryi), an Encephalartos Whitelockii behind the Sago, and a tall Arenga Pinnata.  Here's the after:

The Coccothrinax and Zombia/Cocco hybrid seem to be okay.  Both are pushing new fronds with good looking spears.  The Triangle's spear looks pretty good.  I need to go sharpie-mark it and the Arenga Pinnata.  The couple of cycads (Encephalartos Whitelockii, Tegulaneus, Manikensis/Turneri, Natalensis, and a Cycas Clivicola) were all burnt to a crisp but should be fine.  The Clivicola is already bulging with a pending new flush.  An Encephalartos Senticosus (Msinganus?) looks totally fine, with just 3 or 4 burnt leaves out of 50 or so.  The Arenga Pinnata is a big question mark.  The end of the new spear is dead, but the lower part of the spear looks ok.  The lower end of the existing fronds seem solid.  It's grown back (slowly) from previous defoliations in the 25-28F range.  I cut the dead ends off and snipped off the dead leaflets:  

On the right side of the above photo there's 3 sticks that *might* be an alive Attalea Brejinhoensis.  The spear and lower end of the older fronds seem ok too.  Hopefully it gets moving soon!

The variegated Caryota Mitis was torched to the ground, killing all 5 trunks.  But there's at least 4 new sprouts from the roots!

Im surprised to see the dypsis decaryi in such bad shape. I thought it was a solid zone 9 palm. 

[kinzyjr]

14 minutes ago, SCVpalmenthusiast said:

Im surprised to see the dypsis decaryi in such bad shape. I thought it was a solid zone 9 palm. 

Without the 30-40mph winds, that species typically does alright.  Polar cyclone = defoliation + possible spear pull and death.

[Merlyn]

2 hours ago, SCVpalmenthusiast said:

Im surprised to see the dypsis decaryi in such bad shape. I thought it was a solid zone 9 palm. 

This one has defoliated every time I get ~27-30F and frost, but has grown back several times.  They are a zone 10 palm, with variable damage in zone 9b.  They might be hardier out West without the frost. 

Most of the Dypsis/Chrysalidocarpus here outright died at 22.5F.  I am probably giving up on the whole species group.  None are hardy below 30F + frost, and have a tendency to die from bud rots.  Likewise I won't be replanting any Bottles or Spindles.  I lose a couple every time it gets to ~27F, and probably all 9 that I have left are toast.

[Merlyn]

The first signs of spring are in the air!  This Cycas is an unknown species that I bought from a local nursery.  They had it sitting in a pot in the corner of a greenhouse for probably 20 years.  It's not too hardy, as you can tell!  If you look closely it's got two pretty decent looking fronds out of ~40 that are burn to a crisp.  Why those two?  No clue!!!  But it's got a good looking start on at least 30 new fronds growing now!

On the left is a big Encephalartos Whitelockii/Ituriensis that is also fried.  On the lower left is an Arenga Hookeriana with complete burn on the upper fronds but a couple of not-visible green suckers at ground level.  On the lower right is a Ceratozamia Miqueliana that still looks pretty good...and a Gaussia Princeps that looks a lot better than the other ~20 around the yard.  In the upper background are some likely dead Archontophoenix.

[Harry’s Palms]

That is quite a hit that your garden took. That would be devastating , but you gotta keep going . I hope most come back and start growing once again . I think the growth rate where you are is better than here in our coastal desert . We don’t usually deal with cold but we have a very arid climate . As Spring and Summer progress , keep us updated. Harry

[Merlyn]

Here's a Bottle palm experiment with trunk cutting.  These two have been in the ground since February 2019, and survived a bunch of freezes and defoliations along the way.  But they always had Queen canopy before, so this is the first serious cold front since I cut down all the Queen telephone poles.  Both of them spear pulled yesterday with a white bottom, but horrendously stinky.

The East side one (closest to the camera) I think is pretty much a goner.  The fibers around the heart are still white, but seem to be partially disintegrated.  It bubbled up a LOT with hydrogen peroxide.  I may cut this a bit lower tomorrow, to see if I can get closer to the palm heart:

The one on the West has a better chance...maybe.  I filled it up with hydrogen peroxide and it also bubbled and spit at me.  But on this one the fibers near the heart are fairly firm.  I put a random stick down in the center and it only went down about 3 inches or so.  I'm guessing my cut was just a few inches above the palm heart:

[kinzyjr]

@Merlyn Good luck on the palm recovery.  Some stuff seems to respond, and others are past the pale.  Now we have multiple gardens that are Darwinian in nature 😁

[TropicsEnjoyer]

On 3/9/2026 at 2:43 PM, Merlyn said:

The variegated Caryota Mitis was torched to the ground, killing all 5 trunks.  But there's at least 4 new sprouts from the roots!

I’m guessing you didn’t bother protecting yours. For me it’s my precious palm I covered it all winter and now it looks like nothing ever happened. When it gets bigger it will be a bit more challenging though. At least it suckers so it never really dies.

[ruskinPalms]

Sorry for all the carnage…  your yard has always been the canary in the mine for what I think I could grow long term. I know all our yards’ times are coming in central Florida one way or another; be it freeze and/or hurricane damage. 

[ruskinPalms]

This freeze event disfigured my yard for sure but the recovery (physical labor) has been easier than cleaning up from any of the more notable recent hurricanes. 

[Merlyn]

@TropicsEnjoyer I only covered a few small palms this time, specifically two Corypha, an Arenga Westerhoutii, two Arenga Hookeriana, and a trio of Attalea: Phalerata, Speciosa, and Butyracea.  Everything else was a giant Darwinian experiment.  In reality there were just too many ~25F defoliation plants to even consider protecting 10% of them, so I just put cardboard boxes on the ones that were easy.

@ruskinPalms good to hear my Darwin experiments are useful!   I will have a full report sometime this spring, life/death should be obvious by around May.  Oddly enough, cleanup here is not too much different than my yearly spring cleanup.  It's just all at once.  Last hurricane cleanup was pretty easy, mostly because I have no more Water Oaks.  There was still a lot of random debris, but nothing like having 40 different 70 foot oaks throwing 10 to 20 foot long brances all over the place.

[Maddox Gardening-youtube]

On 2/2/2026 at 6:59 PM, Merlyn said:

I posted the same photos and info in the Freeze Damage thread here: https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/92659-2026-florida-palmageddon-observations-and-damage-photo-thread

Here's a view of the windy 22.6F and then 24.4F with light frost does to the backyard:

The two Bottles on the right were already badly damaged from previous upper 20s frosts.  The foxtails and fishtails on the right are almost completely brown.  Oddly enough the Ptychosperma Schefferi just behind the Bottles looks discolored but maybe ok?  I really thought that one was a wimp?  The Alfredii looks much worse today than yesterday, and has turned a sickly olive.  To the right of the Alfredii a Cryosophila Warscewiczii looks really good, but Cyphophoenix Nucele and Elaeis Guineensis "Whole Leaf" mutant are torched.  On the left a Dioon Spinulosum and Dypsis/Chrysalidocarpus Lanceolata are torched.  Elsewhere Lutescens and Pembana are equally burnt.  Not quite visible is a badly burned Attalea Brejinhoensis, and of course on the far left a Sabal "Lisa" looks like nothing happened.

Up front I had more tender species, since it's usually a few degrees warmer in the front yard:

The 3 Kings on the right are likely dead, the Arenga Pinnata hard to say, and the giant Encephalartos Ituriensis is defoliated.  The Arenga Pinnata new spear is brown at the tip but green further down, so it might grow out soon?

Around the front a bunch of Encephalartos are also badly burned, with Ituriensis, Laurentianus and Gratus x Laurentianus at least partially defoliated.  The "Jesse Durko" bamboo is rapidly becoming a mass of sticks:

On the East side the Philodendron Selloum turned to stinky mush the first night.  On the far left a Butia shrugged it off, but a pair of Kings are scarlet red.  Just below the octagon window another Elaeis Guineensis is torched just as bad as the background fishtail and right foreground Arenga Pinnata.  The box in the bottom foreground covered a Corypha Umbraculifera.  With the box as protection the fans were burnt off but the petioles and new spear still look ok:

Just to the left of the above photo a pair of 20+ foot Alfredii still look tattered but reasonably decent.  The Encephalartos Kisambo shrugged it off:

Did any of your crown shafts survive?

[Merlyn]

On 3/22/2026 at 8:28 AM, Maddox Gardening-youtube said:

Did any of your crown shafts survive?

At this point it looks like all of the crownshafted palms are D-E-D.  There's a chance that a couple will make it, but really only the clustering ones are going to come back from the roots.  Most of them just aren't hardy to the low 20s, and some struggle to survive a 30F frost here.

I did some more cleanup tonight in the SE corner of the house.  There's a bed that's anchored by a Pygmy Date double, with an Encephalartos Sclavoi x Ituriensis directly in front of it, and a bigger unknown Encephalartos on the left, and a not-really-visible Encephalartos Gratus x Laurentianus behind that.

I pruned almost everything out of this bed.  I think everything here will survive, despite the burn.  I left the Arenga Hookeriana dead stems in place, as the suckers need a bit of shade.  I'll chop those later, after the Pygmy grows a few more leaves.

Just to the left of the Pygmy Dates (on the other side of the pathway) is an Elaeis Guineensis burnt to a crisp, and on the left a similarly toasty Arenga Pinnata:

After pruning the Elaeis had a double spear pull with a rotten bottom, so it's chances are very slim.  I poured about 8oz of hydrogen peroxide down to fill the entire bud.  This seemed to kill off the bud fungus in two Bottle Palms, so I'm trying it again here.  You can see it has one frond with a green rachis/petiole...everything else I cut off was dead and rotten inside.

[Merlyn]

On the SW side of the house there's another bigger Elaeis Guineensis, this one is a "Whole Leaf" mutant.  

After pruning this one had quite a few green stems, and a double spear that feels still solid.  I have more hope for this one...

The new spears are brown and look D-E-D but they are still firm....we'll see!

[kinzyjr]

You should have some open real estate for some new stuff at least.  Crossing my fingers for a few that look like they can eek out a win.

[Maddox Gardening-youtube]

On 3/26/2026 at 9:01 PM, kinzyjr said:

You should have some open real estate for some new stuff at least.  Crossing my fingers for a few that look like they can eke out a win.

Did any of your palms survive? My little coconut is green but quit pushing growth on the spear. But my mango Barbados cherry, avocado, and star fruit all survived the 23.

[Meangreen94z]

Ouch. I saw some of your posts immediately after the freeze , but just saw these updates .
 

I know bananas are a hassle but they can make a world of difference for fast growing overhead protection . They grew around a Queen  and above a Beccariophoenix alfredii at my parents house in Pearland, Texas and I can give them credit for how well those two palms look after 22°F