The trunking Jubaea of Roseburg Oregon

[ryjohn]

On 1/18/2023 at 10:49 PM, Cody Salem said:

Were you in Philomath? I think I remember you from the old cloudforest messageboard.  Roseburg is actually in the Umpqua valley, not the rouge valley so they get a lot more winter time marine influence than medford does.  There is also a small mountain range separating them from the willamette valley, so they seem to dodge the worst of the arctic fronts too.  This December they only got down to 30 when rest of the state was in the lower 20's.   Then add the summer heat,  I would vote "best climate in Oregon"   I sure miss it.

I'm kind of a weather nerd too, so I did the math myself.   Since the year 2000 their average annual low is 23 which is a pretty solid 9a

I was in Philomath. Latest google maps satellite imagery shows the new owners of my old house completely re-landscaped my old yard unfortunately.  Hopefully the nursery that did it moved all those nice Trachycarpus at least.  There was a 3-clump of T takil that had grown in especially nice.  And also clumps of Agave hardivana and Aloe striatula that had gotten especially big. Those were then basically unfased survivors of the two single digit events around 2008-2012. The sabals and musas sere still hanging around and 6-8’ tall species of red hot poker had turned into spectacular clumps. I think all the Chamaerops, Butia, Jubaea, Brahea, Flax, Gunnera, albutalon, and Tree Ferns we’re all killed by those bad winters. I had forgotten Roseburg was in the Umpqua valley… those Jubaea are SO impressive… miss all the time we used to spend out at the coast

[Cody Salem]

I was digging through some old photos and found a pic when these palm were young.  I'm guessing the tallest fronds are 6-7 feet.  This photo was from Jan 2008, before they were almost killed by the dec 2009 freeze.

Same palm 14yrs later, they seem to grow quickly once they reach the trunking size.

[SeanK]

7 hours ago, Cody Salem said:

I was digging through some old photos and found a pic when these palm were young.  I'm guessing the tallest fronds are 6-7 feet.  This photo was from Jan 2008, before they were almost killed by the dec 2009 freeze.

Same palm 14yrs later, they seem to grow quickly once they reach the trunking size.

Great comparison pix. Thanks for sharing.

[Scott W]

Very nice, thanks for sharing!

[ryjohn]

 

On 1/18/2023 at 10:49 PM, Cody Salem said:

Were you in Philomath? I think I remember you from the old cloudforest messageboard.  Roseburg is actually in the Umpqua valley, not the rouge valley so they get a lot more winter time marine influence than medford does.  There is also a small mountain range separating them from the willamette valley, so they seem to dodge the worst of the arctic fronts too.  This December they only got down to 30 when rest of the state was in the lower 20's.   Then add the summer heat,  I would vote "best climate in Oregon"   I sure miss it.

I'm kind of a weather nerd too, so I did the math myself.   Since the year 2000 their average annual low is 23 which is a pretty solid 9a

Cody— After living in Philomath for 5 years, I’ve now been in Monroe, LA for the last 19.  The big Jubaea I have here in north Louisiana has been struggling after a series winters with brutal arctic blasts down to the 6F to 12F range at at least one daytime high below freezing.  It hasn’t had a truly full crown for probably 5-7 years now, but isn’t as bad as those Roseburg ones looked in 2011, so hopefully it can get back to full health, although unfortunately with some pencilling of the trunk.  To give you idea of scale, I am 6’+ and can walk under the canopy easily.  It started as a smallish 3-gallon back in 2006.  The first 10-11 years here were extremely mild, so much so that I grew several species of Phoenix to large clear trunking size, but the last 8-9 years have killed them all.  Any chance you are going down to Roseburg to get us some updated photos of these Jubaeas this summer?

[Zone7Bpalmguy]

@ryjohn Hey Ryan, any recent pics of your yard? I remember seeing it years ago on another site and it was amazing. Did you lose anything during those cold blasts the last couple of years? Thanks.

[fr8train]

I'd really like to try a Jubaea or a Jubaea x Butia hybrid down here, but they're pretty hard to come by. 

[Chester B]

11 hours ago, fr8train said:

I'd really like to try a Jubaea or a Jubaea x Butia hybrid down here, but they're pretty hard to come by. 

I have two from different sources and both are doing very well.  Good growth rates too and no spotting. 

[Meangreen94z]

On 8/17/2025 at 4:48 AM, fr8train said:

I'd really like to try a Jubaea or a Jubaea x Butia hybrid down here, but they're pretty hard to come by. 

Depending on the size you want and your budget Jungle Music has them. Even with shipping their prices are lower than what Barton Springs Nursery wanted a couple years ago 

[Meangreen94z]

On 8/16/2025 at 11:41 AM, ryjohn said:

 

Cody— After living in Philomath for 5 years, I’ve now been in Monroe, LA for the last 19.  The big Jubaea I have here in north Louisiana has been struggling after a series winters with brutal arctic blasts down to the 6F to 12F range at at least one daytime high below freezing.  It hasn’t had a truly full crown for probably 5-7 years now, but isn’t as bad as those Roseburg ones looked in 2011, so hopefully it can get back to full health, although unfortunately with some pencilling of the trunk.  To give you idea of scale, I am 6’+ and can walk under the canopy easily.  It started as a smallish 3-gallon back in 2006.  The first 10-11 years here were extremely mild, so much so that I grew several species of Phoenix to large clear trunking size, but the last 8-9 years have killed them all.  Any chance you are going down to Roseburg to get us some updated photos of these Jubaeas this summer?

What have you done to protect it during those freezes? I have 2 in ground outside Austin, Texas. 2021 pretty much wiped them out in Central Texas.

[ryjohn]

4 hours ago, Meangreen94z said:

What have you done to protect it during those freezes? I have 2 in ground outside Austin, Texas. 2021 pretty much wiped them out in Central Texas.

I have never protected my Jubaea.  But it had ten or eleven mild winters to get some size and establishment before things started to get bad here.  To be fair we never had it anywhere near as bad as Dallas or Shreveport, but I find it hard to believe northeast Louisiana had it easier than Austin.  I am less than 30 miles south of the Arkansas border as the crow flies.  Just FYI on Jungle music and Jubaeas— I tried to purchase a purebred and JxB last year from them last year, and was even willing to pay for up to the 15 gal size.  Ultimately they could not deliver on them as apparently a partner nursery has them they sell as consignment.  I didn’t haggle them on price or shipping and I did remind them several times to follow up and take my money.  I did see some massive 36” or 48” box specimens at a palm nursery down in Houston last year, but even if the 2000+ price hadn’t scared me off, the potential they could potentially have been exposed to Texas Phoenix palm decline sure would have

[Meangreen94z]

12 minutes ago, ryjohn said:

I have never protected my Jubaea.  But it had ten or eleven mild winters to get some size and establishment before things started to get bad here.  To be fair we never had it anywhere near as bad as Dallas or Shreveport, but I find it hard to believe northeast Louisiana had it easier than Austin.  I am less than 30 miles south of the Arkansas border as the crow flies

Thank you, that’s impressive.

If you were outside the area that got hit by that storm then you may have never seen cold for that duration during your lows . It was basically just as cold as Dallas outside Austin. Two nights of 2-3°F and over 100 hours straight below freezing 25 miles NW of Austin where I lived. Inner Austin only dropped to 6-7°F but similar duration .

[ryjohn]

1 hour ago, Meangreen94z said:

Thank you, that’s impressive.

If you were outside the area that got hit by that storm then you may have never seen cold for that duration during your lows . It was basically just as cold as Dallas outside Austin. Two nights of 2-3°F and over 100 hours straight below freezing 25 miles NW of Austin where I lived. Inner Austin only dropped to 6-7°F but similar duration .

We had a similar duration freeze but only down to 8-9F.  For four or five days daytime highs in the 20’s, but the sun was powerful enough that each day, the sheet of ice-snow would start melt. Not much wind in that event, but we had another shorter freeze the next winter that came in with brutal 30mph winds and temps down to 6F.  Shreveport was torched compared to here, even on hardier shrubbery.  One of the plants I work in has natural gas steam generation boilers, and we were out there on elevated structures with steam hoses for hours trying to keep them from going down due to instruments freezing.  It’s hard to believe any palm could have survived that night.  It’s been interesting to see the best-performing pinnate palm alternate between bxj, Jubaea, and Butia eriospatha over these various artic blasts.  Chamaerops cerifera is tough.  It burns much less than Sabal palmetto and mexicana, and never spear pulls.  And I have tons of them from the old blue-pot special mainstream hardy palm selling era.  I do miss those days of mass local availability.