2022 2022_01 - January 2022 Florida Freeze Report

[jda018]

I’m new to this so please bare with me. I have 2 queen palms (one that’s 12 ft tall & the other that’s 7 ft)  that have been planted in our house early this summer. The palms are being heavily watered & heavy mulching already added. Antitranspirant Spray added & Christmas lights added around the trunks as well.  I’ve ordered frost wraps but my order is delayed & won’t arrive until tomorrow. I live in Jacksonville, FL & tonight it will be 35 degrees but with gale force winds will cause a wind chill in the teens (very unusual climate for here) & tomorrow it will be a low of 27. Local stores & palm nurseries are out of stock of frost covers & burlap.  
 

What else can I do? 
 

I’ve thought off wrapping the trunks with old bed sheets or towels but I do not have enough to cover the fronds. 

[kinzyjr]

1 hour ago, jda018 said:

I’ve thought off wrapping the trunks with old bed sheets or towels but I do not have enough to cover the fronds.

Do the wrap of the trunks and then tie up the fronds and focus on protecting the growth point and spear.  Welcome to PalmTalk!

[jda018]

Thank you so much. What if I can’t tie up the fronds tonight? My husband doesn’t get home from working in the hospital until late & I have a toddler I’m chasing around. I’ve wrapped blankets around the trunks but been chasing my little munchkin/put him to bed. Would the palm die? 

[kinzyjr]

Depending on where you are in Jacksonville, I honestly don't think you need to worry about a queen palm during this freeze.  Just taking a quick look on Weather.com, I don't see any temperatures that would threaten Queen Palms (Syagrus romanzoffiana), even without the wrap.

[jda018]

Oh good! I live in St. Johns, FL (weather app always has my  current location listed as Jax) so slightly south of Jacksonville. I had some beautiful tropical looking Palm trees (they weren’t queen palms. Not sure what they were as I’m new to taking care of palm trees) die last year during a hard freeze & I definitely don’t want that to happen again. And we have plans of buying more queen palms in the spring so I was really hoping that they are cold hardy enough for this area. That makes me feel more at ease especially as I learn more about how to care for them. I love palm trees. The swaying leaves always takes me to my happy place especially after a hard work day @ the hospital & even my toddler loves to watch the fronds sway. 

Edited January 29, 2022 by jda018

[kinzyjr]

If you have photos of the palms that died, there's probably someone on the site that can tell you what they were.  As far as St. Johns goes, there is a new botanical garden slated to open this fall up that way.  How much damage they will have will depend on the severity of this cold event:

https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/71456-st-johns-botanical-garden-hastings-fl-coming-soon/

[JLM]

6 hours ago, jda018 said:

I’m new to this so please bare with me. I have 2 queen palms (one that’s 12 ft tall & the other that’s 7 ft)  that have been planted in our house early this summer. The palms are being heavily watered & heavy mulching already added. Antitranspirant Spray added & Christmas lights added around the trunks as well.  I’ve ordered frost wraps but my order is delayed & won’t arrive until tomorrow. I live in Jacksonville, FL & tonight it will be 35 degrees but with gale force winds will cause a wind chill in the teens (very unusual climate for here) & tomorrow it will be a low of 27. Local stores & palm nurseries are out of stock of frost covers & burlap.  
 

What else can I do? 
 

I’ve thought off wrapping the trunks with old bed sheets or towels but I do not have enough to cover the fronds. 

Will be experiencing about the same thing over here near Pensacola, wind chills down as low as 15F tomorrow morning is a possibility here. I would usually protect them with this type of event, but im letting go this year and only protecting below around 23F. Wind chill shouldnt affect them too much, but you could always wrap a sheet around the trunks to act as a wind break. 

[PalmatierMeg]

Welcome @jda018. For future palm purchases I suggest you look into mule palms (Syagrus x Butia hybrids). They are cold hardier than pure queens, better looking and won't litter the yard with viable seeds. They were once very rare but are becoming more common in colder areas.

[Scott W]

I agree with @PalmatierMeg, look into some mule palms or super mules from Frank and Elaine Lewis at Moultrie Palms over in St Augustine.

Outside of that your queens should probably fair well with this front.  I'd be more worri d if it was entering the low 20s.

[Scott W]

19 hours ago, kinzyjr said:

 As far as St. Johns goes, there is a new botanical garden slated to open this fall up that way.  How much damage they will have will depend on the severity of this cold event:

https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/71456-st-johns-botanical-garden-hastings-fl-coming-soon/

Spent about four hours with John and a handful of others covering and digging the most cold sensitive palms.  They also strung up lights under some of the covered ones and have tons of localized propane heaters to hopefully ward off the cold affects on some.of the larger temp sensitive palms.  There were some already that showed some damage from the cold snap a week or so ago...

[kinzyjr]

This topic is started to document the cold damage, or hopefully lack thereof, due to the cold spell. 

Initially, it looks like most of the damage done locally was due to frost.  As you get outside of town, the damage can get pretty severe on the "high-9b/low-10a" palms that have become more common due to the advent of Lethal Bronzing.  I'll begin with this photo I captured west of the airport on Medulla Rd.  The damage didn't even wait for the warmup to manifest.  For my own garden, I'm going to wait until it warms up to do my report.  There may be palms that look undamaged now that will show damage after the next three days go over 80F.   There may also be palms that appear to have light damage that have more extensive damage than shows at first.

@GoatLockerGuns was kind enough to compile his results from the Texas 2021 freeze in a spreadsheet that was easy to import into the Cold Hardiness Master Data.  If you'd like to do this as well, I can assist if necessary.

[TampaPalms]

North Tampa Zone 9B. 28° minimum low, 6 hours roughly below freezing.

D lutescens (Areca) 50% or more burned out in the open, under foliage I noticed 10 to 20% if that burned.

Wodyetia bifurcata (foxtail) in the open the immediate area bronzing is occurring on younger specimens, older ones there is a slight burn but not as bad so far.

So far my young white birds are burned much more than I expected, my older front yard one under a slight canopy I don't see any burn.

Variegated arboricola slight burn where there is no canopy.

I noticed many ti plants oddly not showing much damage at all.

There are a couple dozen Royal Palms within walking distance of my house in the neighborhood that appear to be burned, but not too badly. 

Robellinis are untouched.

The surprise to me is my white birds of paradise. It appears that one's planted within the last three or four years received some pretty significant burn while those that are very tall or very old so far are not showing much damage.

[D Palm]

Royal Palm - neighbor recorded 19.5F in Her yard.  Weather app said 21-22 at various times. We live in a rural wide open area w/ 2 acre plots so I tend to read the lower readings. Heating cable only - you can see green strips were cable was placed.  Pic taken a few days after freeze. Have bizzy and queens but they take a while to show damage. Pygymy date palm had some bronzing of fronds.

King Palm took serious bronzing. I threw a comforter over it and some hand warmers near the base for heat. I’ll throw up more as damage sets in.

[D Palm]

How did the palms hold up?

[D. Morrowii]

Not sure if this is helpful but I had some very light damage to 2 young palms that were planted in the ground. One was a 4’ tall Buccaneer and the other a 4’ tall Veitchia Spiralis. Im not sure if the damage happened on the 36 deg night or on the 37 deg night since both palms had a frost cover on them. There was also a heating cable wrapped around it but I dont think thats what burned the leaves. I did have a fair amount of frost on the grass and the windshield on Monday the 31st. The palms that weren't covered had no damage but they are mature palms, except maybe some burn on the leaves on a pair of P elegans. Bananas leaves are spotted and a bit weathered also. 

[PalmJuan]

Hastings, St. Johns County, FL. On extreme northern border of 9b ( Tip of finger projecting northward in latest zone maps ). Measured 30 at edge of oak canopy, 25 degrees out in the open at ground level with heavy frost. Local apps varied from 25 to 30. Temperatures remained below freezing for 9 hours. Many of the plants that were considered borderline (eg. Borassus, Corypha, Copernicia, Coccothrinax , and Syagrus were covered or provided with supplemental heat (or both). Bismarckia, Brahea, Livistona, Phoenix, Sabal and Washies left totally unprotected. Most other species, including Burretokentia, Cyphophoenix, Kentiopsis, Lytocarium, Pritchardia, Thrinax and others were planted under heavy canopy or partial canopy.

 

[PalmJuan]

This was my first post to PalmTalk, and accidentally posted before completion.  Below are the rest of my comments--

 

 

A number of both pleasant and unpleasant surprises were observed. The pictures below show 3 species that were not under heavy canopy or heated in any way. Heavy damage to Dictyosperma album, little to no damage to Dypsis carlsmithii, major damage to reportedly one of the more cold hardy of the genus Corypha, Corypha lecomptei. Pleasant surprises also included little to no damage to Kentiopsis oliviformis (2 specimens...one with little overhead protection). Most Dypsis species under canopy, including those not covered, showed little if any damage. The same was true for 4 species of Burretiokentia and several species of Cyphophoenix! Ptychosperma elegans, schefferi, macarthurii and propinquum under heavy canopy showed little or no damage. Multiple specimens of Roystonea regia showed little damage under canopy but one small Roystonea oleracea received a large amount of damage (70% leaf burn). None of the Pritchardia species showed any cold damage (as of 5 days later)! These included P. remota, hardyii, pearlmani, minor, martii, beccariana, and hildebrandii. None of the covered Copernicia showed any damage. A very pleasant surprise was that an uncovered Copernicia tectorum did not show any damage at all! One uncovered Geonoma schottiana (and two covered ) showed no damage at all. Borassus aethiopium and flabellifer showed 80 to 90 % leaf damage, as did Corypha utan, umbraculifera and lecomptei. 

Many other observations were made and will appear in a more detailed report later, and in the Palmateer. My thanks go out to a hardy crew of volunteers who showed up to help cover many of the plants at the St. Johns Botanical Garden!

 

 

[Palmarum]

The only damage I have spotted so far is on a Pink Tabebuia I have growing in a pot, which is a surprise.

It is an abnormally-grown project plant growing shallow in a large pot that was outdoors, unprotected and sitting on concrete. The outermost and lowest leaves are showing damage and more damage seems to be on the way. It should recover. It is already growing new leaves.

Ryan

[Merlyn]

I'll hold off on making life/death judgements for a while, but there's a lot of brown in my yard!  Strap-leaf sized various Dypsis and an Areca Triandra are probably dead, as are several 1-3' tall Dictyosperma Album/Rubrum.  Those sailed through brief lows around 28, but couldn't take the frost and extended mid-20s on Sunday morning.  Sea grapes, bougainvillea and white bird of paradise are defoliated, but will probably grow back in a few weeks.  A lot of palms looked okay until I hit 80-85 the last couple of days.  Things like an Attalea Cohune and Arenga Pinnata are almost completely brown...with just a hint of green on some of the stems.  My Corypha Umbraculifera lost 1 leaf, but the rest of it looks really good from just putting a cardboard box over the top of it.  I think last year it was the frost at 28F that defoliated it, and the top of the box looked like snow in the mornings...

Here's my temperature profile for Sunday night 1/24/22.  It was heavy snowlike frost, but barely dipped below 30F in the backyard.  There wasn't a ton of visible damage a few days later, except for a few new cycad flushes that were mush:

In the first frost I didn't cover my variegated Caryota Mitis, but it seemed to do fine with a nearby young queen and a towering Bambusa Guangxiensis for frost protection.  I did put complete cardboard boxes over the Elaeis Guineensis whole-leaf form and Corypha Umbraculifera.  They did fine in that cold snap.  The Caryota Gigas in the front just had a piece of cardboard suspended horizontally over the top, purely for frost protection.  That worked on the above cold snap, but did not save it from severe damage on the 1/28-1/31 extended cold front.  If it survives I'll need to put an entire cover all the way to the ground, to protect from cold winds and retain more heat from the ground.  Inside the box may only be a couple of degrees warmer, but 24F vs 27F is a HUGE difference to some palms. 

Here's the weekend's profile.  Note I had installed the brown line sensor (Front Yard NW) touching a 70' tall oak's trunk, so it was effectively measuring the bark temperature and not the air temperature.  I moved it on Sunday night, and after that it tracked the green line closely (Front Yard NE).  My back yard is consistently 2-3F colder than the front yard.  For reference, the Sanford airport recorded 31F on Saturday night, and I recorded 27.5F in the front yard and 24.4-25.5F in the back yard.

[D Palm]

After a week, I’m going to agree with neighbors recording of 19F as ultimate low. The damage is by far more than I have ever seen since living at this house in 2016 and this county since ‘09. I have never seen washingtonia receive damage in this area. I have 2 neighbors with queens against a brick south facing wall that received as much damage if not more than my out on the open Queen. Bismarck’s should be fine…

[kinzyjr]

The Smashburger and I-Drive coconuts have some minor leaf yellowing and burn, but are in very good health.  You can see some Foxtails (Wodyetia bifurcata) and Christmas Palms (Adonidia merrillii) beside the I-Drive coconut.

[Brian M]

Jacksonville Beach, FL.  Ultimate low was 26.2. 8 hours below freezing averaging around 28 for most of that time. Had a light frost in the morning. This was preceded by a frost on 1/24 which also caused minor burning. These photos were taken today.

Uncovered and no damage: bismarckia nobilis, sabal palmetto, chamaerops humilis, & phoenix roebelenii.

Covered with frost blankets, no supplemental heat source: 

adonidia merrillii - Over 75% burn.

ptychosperma elegans - Over 75% burn

wodyetia bifurcata - less than 30% burn

All of my tropical plants went unprotected and got fried including hibiscus, hawaiian ti, ixora, and crotons. This has happened pervious years and I suspect will bounce back as before.

[D Palm]

@Brian M have you tried a Royal at your location. I live in between lake city and Jax. My Royal was doing OK with only a minor burn at 26…but the low of 19-20 is going to KO it.

[Brian M]

11 hours ago, D Palm said:

@Brian M have you tried a Royal at your location. I live in between lake city and Jax. My Royal was doing OK with only a minor burn at 26…but the low of 19-20 is going to KO it.

I have not. Don't think I have the room for it. I probably could've put one where my Bismarck is but I like the color more than the royals.

My neighbors, on the other hand, would have a lot of success I think. They have a lot of space with a nice oak canopy.

[kinzyjr]

At this point, the coconuts in the area have held steady as far as their cold damage, so I'll use those as my first report.  None of them were covered or protected.  There are a few more I'll capture for assessment purposes, including one with about 8' of trunk on the other side of the hill.

These are mine:

Maypan: ~30% leaf damage - The lowest fronds on the right and left were already brown and half brown respectively, so damage is estimated using the other fronds.  Roughly what I've come to expect from this cultivar.

Atlantic Tall: ~60% leaf damage - One of the fronds was already dead and brown, but left it on in case I wrapped the palm for protection.  I can verify frost settled on some of the fronds on 01/31/2022.  Might have to get one from @redant to compare the strength of his stock to my conditions vs. the usual.  There is a juvenile 10 feet from this one that got some overhead shelter from a sea grape branch that seemed to handle things better.  This one was disappointing, but not totally unexpected.

Panama Tall: (newly planted but under light mango canopy) ~15% leaf damage  Pretty impressive for a palm that had been in the ground less than a month.

Suspect these next three are Green Malayan:

Glendale Coconuts: ~40% leaf damage

Main St. Coconuts: ~30%

Reynolds Road: (juvenile and outside the heat island) ~70% leaf damage

Weather at Lakeland Linder (KLAL):

In my yard, my main sensor read 34F for an ultimate low in January, with that reading coming from near the Maypan.  I had sensors throughout the yard, with the lowest reading 31F about 4 feet from the Atlantic Tall.  The 29th was no picnic either, with winds in excess of 20MPH much of the day.  On 1/24, the airport recorded 31F for a low, but my reading was way higher at 36F+.   Overall, it was either near or under freezing from 11pm through 8am on 1/31.

January 31st was likely the one that caused the damage you see as there was heavy frost everywhere that wasn't under canopy.  Since most of the coconuts are not planted under any canopy at all, they took damage.  I've considered adding some canopy to these areas, but in some cases, it would be difficult to do so without compromising light levels too much.

[kinzyjr]

The Carpoxylon macrospermum in town took no damage.  The specimens below are at Common Ground and Lake Hollingsworth.  There are more at Barnett Park and City Hall.  I have a young one on my property that also took no damage.

Carpentaria acuminata.  They not only took no damage, they put out a new leaf during the ordeal.  These are on my lot.

Veitchia arecina - These are hit or miss.  The cold didn't bother them as much as frost did.  The first photo shows a smaller one with nothing overhead.  About 70% of the leaf is damaged.  The second shows one with edge canopy protection for almost all of the fronds, with the exception being the frond on the lower left level.  There is minor spotting in some places, but overall, little actual damage other than that one leaf without canopy.  The lesson learned is to get canopy in place for the one that was damaged.

Veitchia subdistichia - Very little frond damage considering their reputation.

[kinzyjr]

All of these are in my garden.

Both Beccariophoenix alfredii and Beccariophoenix fenestralis were not bothered.

Dypsis cabadae received some leaf tip burn.  The rest of the Dypsis had no change in their condition from pre-cold to post cold.

Dypsis prestoniana (next two photos)

Dypsis pembana

Dypsis lanceolata

This one is from Common Ground - minor leaf tip damage on Areca catechu 'Dwarf'

[kinzyjr]

A few more to round out today's observations:

Dypsis leptocheilos - flowering and undamaged

Chambeyronia macrocarpa - overtrimmed, but healthy and undamaged

Zombia antillarum - undamaged

Archontophoenix purpurea - undamaged

[Looking Glass]

2 hours ago, kinzyjr said:

Dypsis pembana

Dypsis lanceolata

Your Dypsis Pembana looks more like my Allagoptera Arenaria than my Pembana.  Still can’t get over how good your B Fenestralis looks.  Glad you made out pretty well.  

Edited February 11, 2022 by Looking Glass

[D Palm]

@Brian M A Royal in my observation is definitely more hardy than the foxtail and other palms your currently growing. I have a few potted ones that need a home if your interested. Gathered seeds from a “wild” Royal growing in S. Florida. My foxtail growing in a no heat greenhouse looks way worse than my Royal after this event. 

Edited February 11, 2022 by D Palm

[kinzyjr]

Some additional observations from the yard:

Archontophoenix alexandrae and Archontophoenix cunninghamiana with no damage

Pseudophoenix sargentii - no damage

Hyophorbe lagenicaulis - leaf tip damage

Satakentia liukiuensis ~10% leaf spotting on oldest frond

Howea forsteriana - this species actually likes when we get perpetual cool

Chambeyronia macrocarpa, Chambeyronia oliviformis (formerly Kentiopsis), Chambeyronia macrocarpa 'Houilou' in the next three.  The first photo has brown leaf tips, but those were actually like that for a bit before it got cold in January. 

Cryosophila warscewiczii - one of the better 9b palms in my opinion since it grows so well in part shade

Adonidia merrillii babies showing some cool spotting and one having minor leaf damage.

A Rhizophora americana (red mangrove) growing with no canopy and in a pot.  No damage.

Roystonea regia - if there is damage, it is minor way out at the leaf tips.  Pretty good for a juvenile.  There is one in the back that got some damage on one of the fronds laying flat.

A volunteer Wodyetia bifurcata.  Minor leaf spotting if anything.  I threw my overstock seeds in the bone pile and the squirrels ate most of them.  They must have buried and forgot this one.

[redant]

On 2/10/2022 at 11:39 PM, kinzyjr said:

At this point, the coconuts in the area have held steady as far as their cold damage, so I'll use those as my first report.  None of them were covered or protected.  There are a few more I'll capture for assessment purposes, including one with about 8' of trunk on the other side of the hill.

These are mine:

Maypan: ~30% leaf damage - The lowest fronds on the right and left were already brown and half brown respectively, so damage is estimated using the other fronds.  Roughly what I've come to expect from this cultivar.

Atlantic Tall: ~60% leaf damage - One of the fronds was already dead and brown, but left it on in case I wrapped the palm for protection.  I can verify frost settled on some of the fronds on 01/31/2022.  Might have to get one from @redant to compare the strength of his stock to my conditions vs. the usual.  There is a juvenile 10 feet from this one that got some overhead shelter from a sea grape branch that seemed to handle things better.  This one was disappointing, but not totally unexpected.

Panama Tall: (newly planted but under light mango canopy) ~15% leaf damage  Pretty impressive for a palm that had been in the ground less than a month.

Suspect these next three are Green Malayan:

Glendale Coconuts: ~40% leaf damage

Main St. Coconuts: ~30%

Reynolds Road: (juvenile and outside the heat island) ~70% leaf damage

Weather at Lakeland Linder (KLAL):

In my yard, my main sensor read 34F for an ultimate low in January, with that reading coming from near the Maypan.  I had sensors throughout the yard, with the lowest reading 31F about 4 feet from the Atlantic Tall.  The 29th was no picnic either, with winds in excess of 20MPH much of the day.  On 1/24, the airport recorded 31F for a low, but my reading was way higher at 36F+.   Overall, it was either near or under freezing from 11pm through 8am on 1/31.

January 31st was likely the one that caused the damage you see as there was heavy frost everywhere that wasn't under canopy.  Since most of the coconuts are not planted under any canopy at all, they took damage.  I've considered adding some canopy to these areas, but in some cases, it would be difficult to do so without compromising light levels too much.

More then welcome to some of my talls.

[Brian M]

On 2/11/2022 at 10:08 AM, D Palm said:

@Brian M A Royal in my observation is definitely more hardy than the foxtail and other palms your currently growing. I have a few potted ones that need a home if your interested. Gathered seeds from a “wild” Royal growing in S. Florida. My foxtail growing in a no heat greenhouse looks way worse than my Royal after this event. 

I'll probably pass. Thanks though! If it truly grew well, it would be way too big.

We're taking a long weekend this spring down to Orlando and then to Tampa. I'm going to try to find some nurseries along the way to try and find a leucothrinax morrisii. That'll be my last zone push attempt.

[kinzyjr]

Some additional photos of interest from around town.  Those familiar with the Remarkable Palms of Tampa Bay and Lake Wire threads will recognize many of these. :

Syagrus coronata - no damage

Caryota mitis and Dypsis lutescens - minor damage in an exposed location prone to a lot of high winds

Dypsis decaryi - no damage

Dictyosperma album 'conjugatum' - no damage.  I have seen a few with minor frost damage in other areas.

Archontophoenix cunninghamiana - minor damage from wind dessication or no damage against a building

Saribus rotundifolia - ~50%-60% damage in an open and windy location

Beccariophoenix alfredii - leaf tips dessicated from wind.  Most outside of this particular location have no damage.

Hyphaene coriacea - no damage

Caryota obtusa - light damage at this location, none at other locations

Ptychosperma elegans and Satakentia liukiuensis - no damage with good siting

Dypsis leptocheilos - no damage

Areca catechu 'Dwarf' - minor damage

Licuala grandis - no damage

Carpoxylon macrospermum - no damage

Roystonea regia - no damage on one of the large, flowering specimens around town

Cocos nucifera - these are in the highlands.  The second photo isn't the best, but these were undamaged and, at ~240ft in elevation, might be the highest trunking coconuts in Florida.

Arenga pinnata - didn't notice any damage

Hyophorbe lagenicaulis - most of them around town took minor damage.  The larger one in the photo has been around for a long time.

 

Just remember, not far from us, it is a challenge to grow things we consider lay-ups.  If you take Knights Station Rd to Tampa from central Lakeland, you get a glimpse of what could have been.  As I was headed down the road, I was stunned after I got past Galloway Rd at the common 9b palms with damage.  After I passed FL-39/Alexander St./Paul Buchman Hwy, it was even more pronounced  This verifies that the numbers posted outside of the small heat island here were accurate.  A Phoenix roebelenii doesn't typically burn 100% until the low 20s.  I counted no less than 3 dead coconuts on the way.  Dypsis lutescens, Hawaiian Ti, and other plants that have little or no damage here were 100% freeze burned.  The map below shows a few routes you can take to verify the damage:

Toasted Pygmy Date Palms and Bismarckia with ~50% damage.

Here are weather records from Zephyrhills Municipal (KZPH) and Plant City Municipal (KPCM).  Look at the difference a short distance can make 24F vs. 32F.  I think the area in question was much closer to the 24F mark:

[RedRabbit]

Thanks @kinzyjr, Lakeland did well! I’m a little surprised by the Dictyosperma album, that palm might be underrated for cold tolerance.

[cocoforcoconuts]

Does anyone have any current post freeze pictures of coconut palms around Tampa Bay? Particularly the non-marginal coconut growing areas near the water like St. Pete, south Tampa, Apollo Beach, Palmetto, etc.

Edited February 14, 2022 by cocoforcoconuts

[Merlyn]

On 2/12/2022 at 11:29 PM, kinzyjr said:

A Phoenix roebelenii doesn't typically burn 100% until the low 20s.  I counted no less than 3 dead coconuts on the way.  Dypsis lutescens, Hawaiian Ti, and other plants that have little or no damage here were 100% freeze burned. 

There's definitely some cold tolerance variability in Roebellini.  I have three tall ones (5-7' of clear trunk) and had basically no damage at 24.4F with frost.  My neighbors have several in an odd "island" in the middle of their split driveway, and only had a small amount of burn on the top fronds...probably from frost.  But just down the road into Lake Mary there's a triple next to a house that is utterly destroyed, with not a hint of green on it.  That area was several degrees warmer than my house.  So the only thing I can think of is that the house is in the middle of the lowest spot for several hundred yards in every direction.  My guess is that spot is just a cold sink.  I'll try to get a photo later today.

In the same area I photographed a couple of Royals and posted them in the remarkable palms of Orlando thread.  They are pretty badly burned, but probably will survive.

[RedRabbit]

I found a small palm garden in Carrollwood Village Park today. I recorded 30f and it was probably about the same here, but these palms were completely out in the open so they probably saw 27-28f and frost.

Caryota mitis, Coccothrinax crinita, Dypsis decaryi, and foxtails all had minor to moderate burn. They also had something labeled Arenga engleri with moderate damage, but I’m skeptical since it should be able to handle that.

 

Hyophorbe lagenicaulis had severe damage. There was also some mystery crownshaft palms that all took severe damage

And I was very surprised to see a couple Polyalthia longifolia with minimal damage. This is supposed to be a 10a tree, but apparently it’s actually pretty hardy.

Edited February 21, 2022 by RedRabbit

[kinzyjr]

1 hour ago, RedRabbit said:

And I was very surprised to see a couple Polyalthia longifolia with minimal damage. This is supposed to be a 10a tree, but apparently it’s actually pretty hardy.

I think these will prove adaptable to the warmer parts of 9b.  The ones here are all sited very well and saw no damage.

On 2/19/2022 at 7:58 AM, Merlyn said:

There's definitely some cold tolerance variability in Roebellini.  I have three tall ones (5-7' of clear trunk) and had basically no damage at 24.4F with frost.  My neighbors have several in an odd "island" in the middle of their split driveway, and only had a small amount of burn on the top fronds...probably from frost.  But just down the road into Lake Mary there's a triple next to a house that is utterly destroyed, with not a hint of green on it.  That area was several degrees warmer than my house.  So the only thing I can think of is that the house is in the middle of the lowest spot for several hundred yards in every direction.  My guess is that spot is just a cold sink. 

I agree.  I've seen them get damaged at 30F with frost, and I've seen a few take 24F in some isolated cold pockets with minor damage to the point where it was unnoticeable unless you were standing right next to it.  There are even a few that have recovered from temperatures in the high teens.  It's also possible that some of the reports we've had in the past are actually roebelenii-dominant hybrids. That would probably also nudge hardiness in that direction.

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Those who have seen the Veitchia arecina I shared in the Remarkable Palms of Tampa Bay thread will take special interest in this one.  No damage.

@D. Morrowii did an experiment where he used an Adonidia merrillii seedling in a pot completely exposed just to see what would happen.  I didn't realize I had done the same experiment until I started moving some things around today.  His has less damage as he recorded a higher low temperature and a shorter duration.  We both had frost unfortunately.

[RedRabbit]

4 minutes ago, kinzyjr said:

I think these will prove adaptable to the warmer parts of 9b.  The ones here are all sited very well and saw no damage.

Those who have seen the Veitchia arecina I shared in the Remarkable Palms of Tampa Bay thread will take special interest in this one.  No damage.

@D. Morrowii

Judging by what I saw mast trees might do okay in colder parts of 9b even provided they’re not planted in the middle of a field like these were.

It’s great to see the veitchia took no damage! That’s a testament to how good of microclimate some of the lakes there provide.