Palmageddon Aftermath Photo Thread

[ShadowNight030]

Did any of the bismarckia or mules survived along the Riverwalk? I’m assuming no. I remember going in fall of 2020 and there were a few. Also, how did cordia boissieri recover? I remembered seeing many in SA. Same with floss silk trees, there were larger ones at the zoo. 

Edited March 10, 2022 by ShadowNight030

[NBTX11]

1 hour ago, ShadowNight030 said:

Did any of the bismarckia or mules survived along the Riverwalk? I’m assuming no. I remember going in fall of 2020 and there were a few. Also, how did cordia boissieri recover? I remembered seeing many in SA. Same with floss silk trees, there were larger ones at the zoo. 

From my understanding 2 out of the 3 big mules on Riverwalk survived.  That was the last I had heard.

[NBTX11]

I can remember around 2010 or so, San Antonio was palm city USA with big queen palms in people's back yards and palms galore.  How long until we get back to that.

[NBTX11]

4 hours ago, Xenon said:

I would seriously doubt the existence of any pre-80s robusta anywhere on the TX/Gulf/Atlantic south I-10 corridor. Maybe Galveston 

Some Robusta "like" palms "appear" to be older than 1980 in downtown SA.  Whether they are or not, I don't know.  I wasn't here then.  All I know is they have older looking trunks with chunks missing from the trunks.  They could be hybrids.

[ShadowNight030]

39 minutes ago, NBTX11 said:

From my understanding 2 out of the 3 big mules on Riverwalk survived.  That was the last I had heard.

Awesome. I want to plant one in my Australian natives bed of grevilleas and callistemon, however these last few years we’ve hit 13 twice. Every mule in my area has died within that time, and my zip has me in 9a. I’ve recently planted washingtonia, but I’m nervous. We had a lot in central Louisiana pre 2017/2018, which took a few. Then 2021 took most of them. Queens have completely disappeared in the state besides New Orleans and Grand Isle. Interestingly, there are a few nice looking washingtonia in Monroe and Ruston in North Louisiana. A few survivors in Natchitoches too. I think Shreveport has been wiped of most palms. 

[NBTX11]

16 minutes ago, ShadowNight030 said:

Awesome. I want to plant one in my Australian natives bed of grevilleas and callistemon, however these last few years we’ve hit 13 twice. Every mule in my area has died within that time, and my zip has me in 9a. I’ve recently planted washingtonia, but I’m nervous. We had a lot in central Louisiana pre 2017/2018, which took a few. Then 2021 took most of them. Queens have completely disappeared in the state besides New Orleans and Grand Isle. Interestingly, there are a few nice looking washingtonia in Monroe and Ruston in North Louisiana. A few survivors in Natchitoches too. I think Shreveport has been wiped of most palms. 

Someone posted pictures on the Oblate School palm thread which included 2 mule survivors, and that location is well north of downtown SA.  

[Collectorpalms]

2 hours ago, NBTX11 said:

Some Robusta "like" palms "appear" to be older than 1980 in downtown SA.  Whether they are or not, I don't know.  I wasn't here then.  All I know is they have older looking trunks with chunks missing from the trunks.  They could be hybrids.

I originally thought the chunks missing was from the cold. It turns out it’s from fungus from humidity. 

[GoatLockerGuns]

8 hours ago, NBTX11 said:

Someone posted pictures on the Oblate School palm thread which included 2 mule survivors, and that location is well north of downtown SA. 

I have made a few posts on it.  There are a lot of good before and after pictures:

It is located outside of downtown, and inside the I-410 Loop.  I saw two Mule survivors.  The two that I saw were originally planted out in the open with two other Mules.  The other two had been cut down when I went back after the freeze, so I assume that they did not make it.

https://goo.gl/maps/Re7NnwWQMRKBSNDu7

[DreaminAboutPalms]

McKinney TX. Still some nice looking trachies around, although about 45-50% died from what I’ve seen. Lots of people wrapping sabals up here.

also check out Rosa’s cafe 865 W Stacy Rd
Allen, TX  75013 some tall palms wrapped up, appear to be Washingtonia robusta hybrids with one fried and one still with some green on it but I was driving and couldn’t tel for sure 

[Xenon]

South College Station (Graham Rd)

[DreaminAboutPalms]

North Dallas suburbs trachies. Seems pretty much every neighborhood has a couple in the 20+ foot range. It’s the ones facing north or not shielded from wind that died for most part. Most look a little beat right now from the ice this winter but overall healthy 

Edited March 11, 2022 by DreaminAboutPalms

[DreaminAboutPalms]

Lago vista, tx. There are Washingtonia volunteers absolutely everywhere in the area. Also saw a few CIDP growing wild in a native area 

Edited March 13, 2022 by DreaminAboutPalms

[DreaminAboutPalms]

A better pic of the wild lago vista canary’s

[DreaminAboutPalms]

More Filiferas in lago vista, as well as a couple butias growing without any care it looks like. Lastly another shot of the wild canary’s; it appears there are actually 3 

[joetx]

3 hours ago, DreaminAboutPalms said:

More Filiferas in lago vista, as well as a couple butias growing without any care it looks like. Lastly another shot of the wild canary’s; it appears there are actually 3 

That is amazing! Hopefully developers leave them alone.

[ahosey01]

I'm shamelessly self-aggrandizing here but I'm curious if this is the longest and most-viewed thread on PalmTalk?

[Xerarch]

12 minutes ago, ahosey01 said:

I'm shamelessly self-aggrandizing here but I'm curious if this is the longest and most-viewed thread on PalmTalk?

This is a very long thread with much interest indeed. I don’t know what the longest thread is on PT but one of the active ones now “What is your current yard temperature” has several hundred ~700 posts more than this one at this time. 

[ahosey01]

8 minutes ago, Xerarch said:

This is a very long thread with much interest indeed. I don’t know what the longest thread is on PT but one of the active ones now “What is your current yard temperature” has several hundred ~700 posts more than this one at this time. 

Who’d have thought that such a mundane question would spur such popularity!  I myself have posted in that thread probably 20x.

[Xerarch]

1 minute ago, ahosey01 said:

Who’d have thought that such a mundane question would spur such popularity!  I myself have posted in that thread probably 20x.

Yeah you never know what takes off, some seemingly dynamite threads die quickly while others take on a whole life their own.

[TonyDFW]

Filifera survived 3F in Dallas unprotected 

[Collectorpalms]

4 hours ago, TonyDFW said:

Filifera survived 3F in Dallas unprotected 

That was the only one that showed signs of life last year. Glad to see it pulled through, sad that it was the only one. 

These posts from Texas don’t show the reality. By showing 1 live palm, your not showing all the dead ones right next to it. People get the wrong idea. Survive 3F? 
If your trying figure out why that one lived…. Look at the mulch pile next to it. Maybe the ground roots didn’t freeze from the extra protection. But who know, pure luck. Genetics look same on everyone on them. 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Collectorpalms

[NBTX11]

People are naturally going to post photos of palms that lived rather than a bunch of dead trunks. If a Filifera survived the Dallas winter in one of the worst freezes ever, that gives the average person hope that this particular kind of palm at least has a semi-reasonable chance of survival medium to long term. 

[DreaminAboutPalms]

1 hour ago, NBTX11 said:

People are naturally going to post photos of palms that lived rather than a bunch of dead trunks. If a Filifera survived the Dallas winter in one of the worst freezes ever, that gives the average person hope that this particular kind of palm at least has a semi-reasonable chance of survival medium to long term. 

If I wanted to have one nice Filifera medium to long term in DFW then I would plant 4 or 5 of them, because chances are one or two will do better than the others 

[NBTX11]

I still completely believe Filifera is a good palm for North Texas. Is it as hardy as Sabal Palmetto or Mexicana. Probably not. However what other palm is there that grows as rapidly as Filifera, as well as being very hardy. Sabals grow much slower. So if you want a large palm in minimal time, you have to go with Filifera. Unless you buy a Sabal with an already established large clear trunk. 

[Collectorpalms]

3 hours ago, DreaminAboutPalms said:

If I wanted to have one nice Filifera medium to long term in DFW then I would plant 4 or 5 of them, because chances are one or two will do better than the others 

Survival rate was about 10%. 1 in 10 at 3F for purish Filifera. 
 

My low was 4F, a degree warmer and my survival rate was only 8%, but I had a mix of hybrids. 2 of 25 lived that were mostly all that big and most taller.

Edited March 17, 2022 by Collectorpalms

[DreaminAboutPalms]

3 hours ago, NBTX11 said:

I still completely believe Filifera is a good palm for North Texas. Is it as hardy as Sabal Palmetto or Mexicana. Probably not. However what other palm is there that grows as rapidly as Filifera, as well as being very hardy. Sabals grow much slower. So if you want a large palm in minimal time, you have to go with Filifera. Unless you buy a Sabal with an already established large clear trunk. 

Agreed. Such a big heat island effect that many parts of town hardly get colder than Austin area. Seeing plenty of Italian cypress that made it through last year unscathed too, I’ve seen much worse looking ones In austin. 

[DreaminAboutPalms]

McKinney tx. On north side of building. Some sort of trachy. Trunk gets wrapped in winter otherwise it wouldn’t have a shot on north side of a building. Looks beat as it is

Edited March 17, 2022 by DreaminAboutPalms

[NBTX11]

My survival rate was 100 percent. I have one large and one medium sized Filifera and both survived. Rather easily, actually. Both pushed good green fronds almost immediately. I planted 4 more small Filifera in my yard recently. I don’t have 50 years to watch a Sabal grow. 
 

The local pure Filifera survival rate was close to 100 percent. 
 

I lost two Robusta in the freeze. One at 30 feet tall and one about 45 feet. One towered way over my 2 story house. I had to pay someone to cut them down. 

[DreaminAboutPalms]

McKinney TX - 50 miles from OK border

pic 1: trachy 

pic 2: blurry but two big Sabal mexicanas 

pic 3: small Mexicana (alive), Filifera and Trachy trunks (dead)

pic 4: pair of trachies 

[joetx]

Marble Falls Washys

 

[NBTX11]

I used to drive up 281 through Marble Falls frequently.  10 years ago, they had a ton of palms in Marble Falls.  One place along the river/lake had some towering Washingtonia Robusta.  There were also a lot of Washingtonia's scattered throughout the city, as well as many other cold hardy palms.  Today, the numbers have dramatically declined, with all but a few hardy palms having been killed off.

[GoatLockerGuns]

The past continues to haunt me...

 

[NBTX11]

Here is a video of some guy driving around San Antonio.  He's not looking for palms, he's just driving around.  But there are a lot of palms in the video, as well as some dead palm trunks.  

 

[DreaminAboutPalms]

Plano TX Sabal Mexicanas. Very healthy looking

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

Yall are really not giving Sabals enough love in this thread. So many shopping centers around Houston that went with Sabals instead of Washingtonia never skipped a beat. Plant your Filfera and enjoy it but have Sabals as your back bone of your garden. If you want a Sabal with speed try S.Causiarum twice as fast as your normal Palmetto. 

T J 

[GoatLockerGuns]

8 hours ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

Yall are really not giving Sabals enough love in this thread.

Here is some Sabal sp. love for you.  I went for a bike ride along the Salado Creek Greenway yesterday between the RIM and U.S. 281.  I saw a number of volunteer palms (most of them Sabal sp., but some Washingtonia sp. as well).  The Sabal sp. were mostly east of Walker Ranch Park along the greenway.  There were tons of them all throughout the woods and along the sides of the dry creek bed.  Some were close to the trail, others further in the woods.  All had long petioles and strong costapalmate fronds, so it was highly unlikely that they were Sabal minor.  They have been growing there for quite a while, and I could not find one dead remnant that did not survive the 2021 freeze event.  I assume they are volunteers from residential/commercial plantings around the Northwest side of San Antonio.

There are also some juvenile Washingtonia sp. volunteers (as well as some dead trunks) growing under the Wurzbach Parkway (Salado Creek Greenway underpass).  There were many more here pre-2021 freeze event; however, only a few survived.  I would say a little more than 50% bit the dust.

Here is the route I took, and the approximate locations of the volunteer palms:

 

[amh]

7 hours ago, GoatLockerGuns said:

Off topic, but about how many red buckeyes are growing in the area?

[GoatLockerGuns]

1 hour ago, amh said:

Off topic, but about how many red buckeyes are growing in the area?

So, I have seen buckeyes at South Side Lions Park around Lions Park Lake.  I do not know if they were "red" buckeyes; however, there are definitely buckeyes around.  How many?  I really cannot say.  They are interspersed amongst the rest of the forest canopy in this area.  Cultivated plantings or in situ growth?  I do not know the answer to that either.

[amh]

1 minute ago, GoatLockerGuns said:

So, I have seen buckeyes at South Side Lions Park around Lions Park Lake.  I do not know if they were "red" buckeyes; however, there are definitely buckeyes around.  How many?  I really cannot say.  They are interspersed amongst the rest of the forest canopy in this area.  Cultivated plantings or in situ growth?  I do not know the answer to that either.

Just looking for seed sources.

There is a red buckeye on the left of the first picture.

The Mexican buckeyes are likely still blooming too.

[GoatLockerGuns]

Sabal mexicana plantings at The Pearl in San Antonio:

I am pretty sure they are Sabal mexicana, and not Sabal palmetto, due to their monster drupes and huge fruits/seeds: