Armata vs filifera cold hardiness

[amh]

Does anyone have cold hardiness info for the frankenbrahea offspring?

[fr8train]

On 1/5/2023 at 12:27 AM, fr8train said:

Interesting, I thought it burnt, but hopefully it's happily transplanted elsewhere. 

I went down to an area that I read about armata growing here in San Antonio today, and they look great. Completely unfazed by a recent freeze. 

[fr8train]

 

[fr8train]

On the other hand I'm seeing burnt robustas everywhere. Filifera look ok, but much more burnt than these armatas. I'm not sure how cold it got as I was out of town that week, maybe someone else from the San Antonio area can chime in. 

[Axel Amsterdam]

13 hours ago, fr8train said:

On the other hand I'm seeing burnt robustas everywhere. Filifera look ok, but much more burnt than these armatas. I'm not sure how cold it got as I was out of town that week, maybe someone else from the San Antonio area can chime in. 

Thanks for posting these. Did you also take some pictures of filifera in the area? I get the feeling filifera’s are less leaf hardy than armatas in places where there is humidity around the freeze period. But i am no expert on US climates. It’s interesting though that my armatas never experience leaf damage even though Amsterdam is really wet during autumn and winter. 

[kristof p]

On 12/28/2022 at 9:31 PM, Armata79 said:

Thanks Axel for sharing your experiences with those species. So far, armata is winning the race against filifera. What a pity that armata is not more often seen in temperate gardens. So much beauty and potential in this specific plant. This is also due to the fact that brahea armata are much more expensive than washingtonias, especially if you want larger specimens.

definitely armata....I live in the same climate as Axel and in the past I have tryed Washingtonia's a lot but they can not take much frost in our humid winters and rot easily. B. armata is growing here for over 14 years without any problem. They do take a few years to adopt and establish wel in our climate and are slow but once they have some size and are well established they start to grow well and can take a lot of cold humid weather. I think it is best to start with a small plant that can easily kept dry for the first winters.  When such a palm gets to big to protect it should be well established and it can grow on it's own. I also grow B. moorei but this one I keep dry over winter. This is easy because of the small size of this palm. B. edulis is also present but the leaves are lost during cold spels with lows of -6/ -8 and it often shows damaged spears after such winters but it recovers fast during the growing season.

The picture of the B. edulis shows the damage of a cold spell we had a couple of weeks ago with almost every night subzero temps with lows of max -5°C for around 10 days. This was in combination with very humid weather.

[Axel Amsterdam]

They look great Kristof, i remember pictures of these as small plants. Amazing these desertpalms do so well here.

[NBTX11]

On 1/7/2023 at 2:12 PM, fr8train said:

On the other hand I'm seeing burnt robustas everywhere. Filifera look ok, but much more burnt than these armatas. I'm not sure how cold it got as I was out of town that week, maybe someone else from the San Antonio area can chime in. 

Small Filifera were burned some.  I have larger Filifera that had zero burning.  None.  I have seen a lot that have no burning.  Do you see any burning on this Filifera. I don’t   This is from today.  This is in New Braunfels TX  

Edited January 8, 2023 by NBTX11

[fr8train]

14 hours ago, Axel Amsterdam said:

Thanks for posting these. Did you also take some pictures of filifera in the area? I get the feeling filifera’s are less leaf hardy than armatas in places where there is humidity around the freeze period. But i am no expert on US climates. It’s interesting though that my armatas never experience leaf damage even though Amsterdam is really wet during autumn and winter. 

Here's one from today, I'll try to take more pictures the next time I go out.

By comparison here's how all the robusta look around the city:

 

 

[fr8train]

Here's what I think is a filifera in Fair Oaks Ranch, it's the only Washingtonia around here that isn't completely burnt to a crisp.

This area gets a bit colder than San Antonio from what I understand, but maybe it's a hybrid. Even European fan palms here are burned. Sabals and Trachycarpus are unscathed though. 

[Axel Amsterdam]

That’s an interesting palm, it seems similar to this one in Portugal with very long hastula’s. Do you know the name of the street?

[Axel Amsterdam]

Or perhaps even more similar to this one in Spain with the long hastulas, where my own plant originates from. 

[NBTX11]

3 hours ago, fr8train said:

Here's what I think is a filifera in Fair Oaks Ranch, it's the only Washingtonia around here that isn't completely burnt to a crisp.

This area gets a bit colder than San Antonio from what I understand, but maybe it's a hybrid. Even European fan palms here are burned. Sabals and Trachycarpus are unscathed though. 

Ok they’re not burned as bad in New Braunfels. They range from no damage to a little damage. Here’s my big one with little damage. My medium sized one has no damage. 

Edited January 10, 2023 by NBTX11

[fr8train]

1 hour ago, Axel Amsterdam said:

That’s an interesting palm, it seems similar to this one in Portugal with very long hastula’s. Do you know the name of the street?

Here's it is, the last time the Google car swung by was over a decade ago though:

29306 Sumpter Dr
https://maps.app.goo.gl/1H7fHh7Eo3WZuLTr8

[fr8train]

17 minutes ago, NBTX11 said:

Ok they’re not burned as bad in New Braunfels. They range from no damage to a little damage. Here’s my big one with little damage. My medium sized one has no damage. 

Yeah I drove through New Braunfels today and the palms looked less burned than in my immediate area. 

[Axel Amsterdam]

Thanks, are you both convinced the one in fair oaks ranch is filifera?

[fr8train]

58 minutes ago, Axel Amsterdam said:

Thanks, are you both convinced the one in fair oaks ranch is filifera?

Not sure, maybe it's a hybrid? 

[NBTX11]

12 hours ago, fr8train said:

Yeah I drove through New Braunfels today and the palms looked less burned than in my immediate area. 

Maybe you got colder than the airport low of 16F. 

[amh]

The Fair Oaks Ranch area was 12F to 13F, which isn't abnormal.

[NBTX11]

3 minutes ago, amh said:

The Fair Oaks Ranch area was 12F to 13F, which isn't abnormal.

Looks about right based on the damage. 

[amh]

15 hours ago, fr8train said:

Here's it is, the last time the Google car swung by was over a decade ago though:

29306 Sumpter Dr
https://maps.app.goo.gl/1H7fHh7Eo3WZuLTr8

Geography helped, If the palm was in a lower area, there would be a lot more damage.

[Axel Amsterdam]

On 1/10/2023 at 1:22 AM, fr8train said:

Here's what I think is a filifera in Fair Oaks Ranch, it's the only Washingtonia around here that isn't completely burnt to a crisp.

This area gets a bit colder than San Antonio from what I understand, but maybe it's a hybrid. Even European fan palms here are burned. Sabals and Trachycarpus are unscathed though. 

I found another one in Portugal, aimilar to yours. I don’t know if this is filifera

[Axel Amsterdam]

1 minute ago, Axel Amsterdam said:

I found another one in Portugal, aimilar to yours. I don’t know if this is filifera

Not too far, there is also this classic filifera

 

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by Axel Amsterdam