Texas Palms

[Robert Cade Ross]

Humble area this week while visiting a friend:) 

Everything in these pics survived 19° with minimal help unfortunately the kings are likely toast if we have another bad winter as he’s moving 😅

[Chester B]

@Robert Cade Ross  That place looks great.  Near me too.

[SeanK]

Bizzie and big Queen look great for 19°F.

[jwitt]

And those trachies look to be "LAFFING" at that Texas sun!

[NBTX11]

On 7/16/2025 at 12:13 PM, MarcusH said:

It still amazes me , 4 years after the big freeze we had in TX ,  the devastation you see in some areas like neighborhoods that were almost completely untouched and then a couple of miles down the road large amounts of Robustas didn't make it through the winter.  I recently passed by a house that had 6 Robustas  lined up on the side of the driveway , all dead.  You would think one or two would have made it but none stood a chance. That's all in the SA area.  Been living here since late 2021 and this time is the first time I see CIDPs looking nice, not perfect.  I'm not sure this palm is a good pick for the SA metro.  Doesn't mind the cold , apparently but unfortunately the fronds burn easily and take quite some time to recover.  Does look better near the coast . I think we dodged a bullet this winter but next winter is getting closer . Would be nice to see some milder winters in Texas,  especially NTX and CTX ( South Central) . By the way I like where Houston is heading.  Lots of new Sabal palm planting across the city.  

Marcus, before 2021 CIDP spent the greater part of 3 decades looking good with full crowns. 

[Robert Cade Ross]

Some  Brownsville coconut palms for everyone:) 

[Cindy Adair]

Hi Everyone!

I must admit that I don’t jump to read topics in the Cold Hardy section since I live in the tropics.

And some on PT may not have seen the TX travel post. 

I am very excited to be heading to Texas in December for the first ever IPS weekend Biennial. 

 

There are a few more spaces open and I especially want to encourage everyone who has never attended an IPS event to sign up. 
 

Here’s your chance to put faces to those who enjoy PT without a big price tag or need to be away from home as long as required for an international trip. 
 

Please share this link to everyone you think might be interested so we can add this trip to our list of sold out travel. 
 

I just booked my rooms at the lovely resort hotel with negociated price including free breakfast and parking and no resort fee. 
 

This trip (unlike most IPS travel) offers a la carte selections for those who choose to drive in each day or stay at another hotel or only attend one event. 
 

The clock is ticking on this event….

 

I will be duplicating this post in Discussing Palms Worldwide since many visitors only go there. 

 

[Fusca]

@Cindy Adair, I have to admit I was surprised to see you post in this forum (even though Sabal causiarum is cold hardy and native to PR)!  Looking forward to seeing you in December!  

[ASHCVS]

I’m looking forward to seeing both of you there! And hopefully many other palm talkers from the region. Andy 

[Cindy Adair]

On 7/21/2025 at 2:38 PM, Fusca said:

@Cindy Adair, I have to admit I was surprised to see you post in this forum (even though Sabal causiarum is cold hardy and native to PR)!  Looking forward to seeing you in December!  

Thanks!

Yes there are many lovely very big  causiarum palms near the Aguadilla airport about an hour from me. Not sure if I’ve ever seen any for sale here though. 
 

I have a few in the ground from seed I collected in PR but they are slow.

I expect growers prefer the fast growing palms to sell more quickly!

Great that you will be at the Weekend Biennial!

[fr8train]

I was talking to someone whose son had stepped on a rattle snake a few years ago and nearly died as a result of the envenomation, have any of you encountered venomous snakes gardening? 

[JeskiM]

1 hour ago, fr8train said:

I was talking to someone whose son had stepped on a rattle snake a few years ago and nearly died as a result of the envenomation, have any of you encountered venomous snakes gardening? 

Oh yeah.  I've seen a several rattlers when gardening, same with the coral snakes.  It's always been a fear that one of these days one would get me.

I am not too worried about the coral snakes though. They are shy and will move away as you approach, they also have very small teeth/fangs and really have to "chew" on you / take effort to get the venom in you.

The rattlers on the other hand will not give ground. They will not budge. So you just need to stay away ... 4-5 feet away.  I did hit a really big one with my push mower one time because I didn't see it on a flat rock in tall grass till it was too late. Had another large one sitring by a big rock near the front door for a few days. Had a small one last summer hanging out by the garage near a lot of my potted plants. They never stay in one spot for very long.

So I have a tendency to always look down and ahead of me when walking the property or sticking my hands somewhere. Another thing is to make a lot of noise as you approach an area ... that way the rattlers have more time to give the warning. It's stepping over a rock suddenly wo looking is what can get ya.

-Matt

[fr8train]

20 hours ago, JeskiM said:

Oh yeah.  I've seen a several rattlers when gardening, same with the coral snakes.  It's always been a fear that one of these days one would get me.

I am not too worried about the coral snakes though. They are shy and will move away as you approach, they also have very small teeth/fangs and really have to "chew" on you / take effort to get the venom in you.

The rattlers on the other hand will not give ground. They will not budge. So you just need to stay away ... 4-5 feet away.  I did hit a really big one with my push mower one time because I didn't see it on a flat rock in tall grass till it was too late. Had another large one sitring by a big rock near the front door for a few days. Had a small one last summer hanging out by the garage near a lot of my potted plants. They never stay in one spot for very long.

So I have a tendency to always look down and ahead of me when walking the property or sticking my hands somewhere. Another thing is to make a lot of noise as you approach an area ... that way the rattlers have more time to give the warning. It's stepping over a rock suddenly wo looking is what can get ya.

-Matt

Are you in the city itself? I like snakes, and I grew up catching them, but I also grew up in a part of the country where there were no venomous snakes. Do you have rattle snakes removed when you see them, or do you just let them be? I worry about my wife or mom stepping on one at night, or getting bit while gardening. 

[JeskiM]

2 hours ago, fr8train said:

Are you in the city itself? I like snakes, and I grew up catching them, but I also grew up in a part of the country where there were no venomous snakes. Do you have rattle snakes removed when you see them, or do you just let them be? I worry about my wife or mom stepping on one at night, or getting bit while gardening. 

I live about 1/2 mile due west of the city line of Georgetown, TX.  I am 1/2 mile off of Hwy-29. I have an acre and a half that is trisected by an arroyo that will run fast with water during floods.  Solid limestone. Heavily vegetated.

I am the only person who walks around outside the property away from the house. My wife and daughter prefer to stay inside and aren't all that interested in much outside, away from the house ... at least with landscaping, etc. Our pet is an indoor cat.  So, with that in mind, I just let the snakes alone.   But yes, it's always a worry because there are so many hiding spots up close to the house and I have seen snakes come into the garage before too. I was moving a block in a small retaining wall one-time right along the driveway and when I pulled the block out there was an adult coral snake burrowed in right behind it ... it just slithered away slowly, not aggressive at all.

I think the snakes have a lot of predators around here. I have hawks constantly on my property and I have found numerous dead snakes and their skeletons hanging out of my oak trees.  I don't really see many snakes.  Maybe a few every year in the areas I frequent. Seen more in the past. My guess is they stay further back on the property where there is zero human activity and much more hiding and basking sites where the rocks drop down into the arroyo.  Most of the snakes I do find are the non-venomous kinds.

-Matt

[MarcusH]

Washingtonia Filifera and W.Robusta are really taking off this year.  These are planted in our front yard.

[Ben G.]

29 minutes ago, MarcusH said:

Washingtonia Filifera and W.Robusta are really taking off this year.  These are planted in our front yard.

Very nice Marcus. I am glad your Washingtonias are speeding up for you.

[MarcusH]

1 hour ago, Ben G. said:

Very nice Marcus. I am glad your Washingtonias are speeding up for you.

Me too. I can't wait until they reach a certain hight to provide more shade in the backyard , at least the Butias will take over providing shade at that time when my Washies grow to a point where they don't block the sun anymore . Took some more pictures.  Unfortunately the St Augustine grass didn't recover as much as I hoped for but that's just cosmetical for now. 

[jwitt]

9 hours ago, MarcusH said:

Me too. I can't wait until they reach a certain hight to provide more shade in the backyard , at least the Butias will take over providing shade at that time when my Washies grow to a point where they don't block the sun anymore . Took some more pictures.  Unfortunately the St Augustine grass didn't recover as much as I hoped for but that's just cosmetical for now. 

Got the bug, don't ya?

[MarcusH]

10 hours ago, jwitt said:

Got the bug, don't ya?

Haha yes I do , oh wait there's one more palm I forgot to post. Home Depots neglected Butia that i got for 20 dollars.

[MarcusH]

1 minute ago, MarcusH said:

Haha yes I do , oh wait there's one more palm I forgot to post. Home Depots neglected Butia that i got for 20 dollars.

It already grew 2 new fronds

[Robert Cade Ross]

Palms are growing like weeds with the plentiful rainfall this summer. The Bismarkia both recovered well from 100% defoliation (15°) F guessing in January 

 

my baby mule I brought home from Florida is taking off like crazy and I included a picture of my silk floss 😄. 

[Fusca]

2 hours ago, Robert Cade Ross said:

Palms are growing like weeds with the plentiful rainfall this summer. The Bismarkia both recovered well from 100% defoliation (15°) F guessing in January 

 

my baby mule I brought home from Florida is taking off like crazy and I included a picture of my silk floss 😄. 

Nice recovery on both Bizzies!  I planted 3 Ceiba that I grew from local seed this past spring - they grow pretty fast too!  Yours has a headstart on my largest but it's already got the trunk thorns going. 

[ntxpalms]

Hi Marcus,

I am growing palms in the northern suburbs of Dallas. Our area is good for palmettos, windmills and pindos.  There used to be lots of Washies around here but 2021 pretty much wiped them out except for a few survivors. 

[Robert Cade Ross]

1 hour ago, Fusca said:

Nice recovery on both Bizzies!  I planted 3 Ceiba that I grew from local seed this past spring - they grow pretty fast too!  Yours has a headstart on my largest but it's already got the trunk thorns going. 

I have another small silk floss maybe 3’ I bought it as a tiny dormant twig in February hopefully it takes off next year. 

[MarcusH]

20 hours ago, ntxpalms said:

Hi Marcus,

I am growing palms in the northern suburbs of Dallas. Our area is good for palmettos, windmills and pindos.  There used to be lots of Washies around here but 2021 pretty much wiped them out except for a few survivors. 

Very nice , hands down , me personally I prefer Sabals over Washingtonias , especially with boots still on the trunk . I recently planted a couple of Sabal minors.  The reason why I haven't planted any Palmetto or Mexicana are the costs for installing multiple palms . The only palm I have that might not see the daylight someday is my Robusta,  even it's a hybrid I'm not 100 percent convinced that it will survive a Feb 2021 event. My young Filiferas sailed through the last cold winters though.  

[MarcusH]

21 hours ago, ntxpalms said:

Hi Marcus,

I am growing palms in the northern suburbs of Dallas. Our area is good for palmettos, windmills and pindos.  There used to be lots of Washies around here but 2021 pretty much wiped them out except for a few survivors. 

Also , can you name me the type of banana tree you're growing as well as the other plant growing in front of the Sabal?  I'm here in San Antonio I see people growing successfully large banana trees . I'm growing musa basjoo . They're very little but slowly growing in size.  Just want to confirm that I picked the right banana tree. 

[Chester B]

I’m posting photos of my Bismarckia as it’s looking pretty great these days.  This may be the best it will ever look. 

[Xenon]

1 hour ago, Chester B said:

I’m posting photos of my Bismarckia as it’s looking pretty great these days.  This may be the best it will ever look. 

 

It's still just a baby! Will become a monster in a few years as it puts on the first few feet of trunk

Some more bizzie pics~

[Fusca]

Here's my newest Bismarckia - just 4 weeks since collecting seeds.  I decided to direct plant the sprouted seed in the ground rather than mess around with it's sensitive roots.  A week after I picked them the two adult palms were cut down!   

[Robert Cade Ross]

4 hours ago, Chester B said:

I’m posting photos of my Bismarckia as it’s looking pretty great these days.  This may be the best it will ever look. 

I should get updated pics of the ones in Galveston it’s been a hot minute 

[Robert Cade Ross]

2 hours ago, Fusca said:

Here's my newest Bismarckia - just 4 weeks since collecting seeds.  I decided to direct plant the sprouted seed in the ground rather than mess around with it's sensitive roots.  A week after I picked them the two adult palms were cut down!   

Did you break the end of the tap root ? 

[ntxpalms]

9 hours ago, MarcusH said:

Very nice , hands down , me personally I prefer Sabals over Washingtonias , especially with boots still on the trunk . I recently planted a couple of Sabal minors.  The reason why I haven't planted any Palmetto or Mexicana are the costs for installing multiple palms . The only palm I have that might not see the daylight someday is my Robusta,  even it's a hybrid I'm not 100 percent convinced that it will survive a Feb 2021 event. My young Filiferas sailed through the last cold winters though.  

There were numerous large filiferas around Dallas until 2021, now there are a few survivors. I had 4 that had been in the ground since 2008 that even survived 2011’s 100 hours below freezing but died in 2021. Most sabals pulled through in ‘21 and now they are the palm of choice in the Metroplex.  The Texas sabals are a little larger than the Florida sabals, and the Texas sabal shows leaf burn before the Florida variety, but seems to be equally hardy overall.  I like them both.  

[ntxpalms]

1 hour ago, Robert Cade Ross said:

I should get updated pics of the ones in Galveston it’s been a hot minute 

Here’s an amazing one I photographed in St Augustine in 2023.  

[ntxpalms]

9 hours ago, MarcusH said:

Also , can you name me the type of banana tree you're growing as well as the other plant growing in front of the Sabal?  I'm here in San Antonio I see people growing successfully large banana trees . I'm growing musa basjoo . They're very little but slowly growing in size.  Just want to confirm that I picked the right banana tree. 

The bananas are Musa. The other plant is papaya. I grow the papaya’s as annuals and they usually produce fruit because we typically don’t get first frost until late November or early December. I got these in the ground a little late this year, but if I get them in the ground by early April, they are usually about as tall as the palm. On a side note, I noticed a variety of banana in Louisiana that I had never seen before and after much Googling found someone who was selling them and called them Apple bananas. I ordered two and we’ll see how they do. I’ve seen them growing in northern Louisiana and they freeze but come back from the ground every Spring, and make a huge clump.

[Fusca]

2 hours ago, Robert Cade Ross said:

Did you break the end of the tap root ? 

Nope, it just popped a couple of days ago so not a long radical yet.  They're so root sensitive that's why I decided to plant it now.  I previously germinated 4 others in deep 14" liners but only one survived.  I still have other seeds still in baggies on the heat mat.  I'll put the next sprout in a 14" liner in case my experiment doesn't go as expected. 

[ntxpalms]

7 hours ago, Chester B said:

I’m posting photos of my Bismarckia as it’s looking pretty great these days.  This may be the best it will ever look. 

I would think they would do great in Houston. Saw a huge, old one in Saint Augustine in 2023 and I would think the climate in Houston would be similar as far as cold and rain. Are there no large specimens in Houston? We get to Houston about three times per year and I see very few Phoenix canariensis anymore, but tons of beautiful Washies and Sabals. I envy your climate down there. Dallas is such a stretch, sometimes, for palms and semitropicals.

[Xenon]

13 minutes ago, ntxpalms said:

I would think they would do great in Houston. Saw a huge, old one in Saint Augustine in 2023 and I would think the climate in Houston would be similar as far as cold and rain. Are there no large specimens in Houston? We get to Houston about three times per year and I see very few Phoenix canariensis anymore, but tons of beautiful Washies and Sabals. I envy your climate down there. Dallas is such a stretch, sometimes, for palms and semitropicals.

Yes some mature 10-20+ year old palms here and there but they all froze in 2021. Same with the once plentiful queen palm. Bismarckia survived for the most part along the southern shoreline of Galveston Bay and the island...so they are suprisingly bud hardy. 

I'm happy to do my part in the replanting effort 😄

P.S. I went to that coffee shop in St. Augustine a few years ago and noticed that nice Bismarckia too!

[Xenon]

Orinoco aka burro banana is the most common/"generic" banana plant you see everywhere in Texas. It's 100% root hardy through zone 8 and is the best banana to grow both for the tropical look (it's super vigorous) and fruiting potential imo. The fruit is very tasty if allowed to ripen fully to the brown stage; it has a dense texture with some fruity acidity. Also great for cooking in the green stage.

Even in San Antonio, all you need is a mild winter (low above ~25F) to have a large trunk survive and produce fruit the following season. 1 in 3 to 1 in 4 odds of getting fruit every year is a pretty decent chance for no effort. 

Musa basjoo is the worst banana to grow in the southern half of Texas imo. Makes seedy inedible fruit and it's not as vigorous as Orinoco. No reason to grow it when you live in a climate that has a decent shot of producing edible bananas imo 

[ntxpalms]

11 hours ago, Xenon said:

Yes some mature 10-20+ year old palms here and there but they all froze in 2021. Same with the once plentiful queen palm. Bismarckia survived for the most part along the southern shoreline of Galveston Bay and the island...so they are suprisingly bud hardy. 

I'm happy to do my part in the replanting effort 😄

P.S. I went to that coffee shop in St. Augustine a few years ago and noticed that nice Bismarckia too!

We may be in Galveston for a weekend this Fall and I will look for the Bizzies. I haven’t noticed them before. There used to be a large rubber tree in front of an old house but it froze. I heard there were some fairly large Royal palms in Galveston at one time but I am sure they froze, too. I never saw one. 

[Robert Cade Ross]

12 hours ago, ntxpalms said:

Here’s an amazing one I photographed in St Augustine in 2023.  

Some from my Florida trip this spring they are so magnificent.