Zone 8A/8B recommendations

[btmansfi]

We live in Chesapeake, VA.  Borderline zone 8A/8B.  Average winter temps in the the coldest month (January) here are a high of 52 and a low of 32.  Temps vary a lot.  We can have 70 degree days in January, and we can also have a day or 2 where the low is in the low 20s.  Very rarely will it get below 20.  I can only recall a couple of times that has ever happened, and I have been here 30+ years.

 

We had tons of windmill palms, pindo palms, yucca rostrata, and yucca gloriosa at our old house.  We moved recently and have a ton of land so lots of space to add landscaping.  We are definitely going to add several sabal palms in the spring but I am looking at other options as well.  I'd prefer not to have to wrap or protect anything in the winter, but I am not opposed to it.

 

Any suggestions?  Options that are coming to mind are phoenix canariensis, phoenix sylvestris, washingtonia hybrid, and potentially syagrus romanzoffiana (Queen palm).

[kinzyjr]

@btmansfi Welcome to PalmTalk!  Windmill Palms (Trachycarpus fortunei) do great in that area, and the Pindo Palms (Butia odorata) there looked great last time I was there.  Most of the other Butia species would probably have a shot as well.  Sabal palmetto tends to do well if it is sheltered from wind.  For landscaping that isn't much of a risk, you'll probably want to stick with smaller, hardy palms like Rhapidophyllum hystrix, Sabal minor, and Chamaerops humilis.  Some other options you could look into are Serenoa repens (both forms), Nannorrhops ritchiana, Guihaia argyrata, Guihaia grossifibrosa, Sabal etonia, and Sabal mexicana.

I'm not sure how they would react to your soil and overall climate, but if you're brave, an experiment with Jubaea chilensis would be interesting there.  The Chamaedorea genus has some relatively cold hardy bamboo palms that might be worth a try near the house, but too much below 20F-25F and they'll get knocked down to the ground.

Good luck with whatever you decide to plant.

[btmansfi]

@kinzyjr Thanks for the reply.  Gonna be hard to pass on the sabals...we can get them trucked in from Florida for like $100 per 15' tree!  Worth the gamble on a few not making it at that price.  Windmills here are (in my opinion) insanely overpriced.  $125+ per foot of trunk.

 

We'll likely go with a few windmills, a bunch of pindos, and a bunch of sabals.  I might try a sylvester or CIDP just to see how it does.  Our property is very protected from the wind.  As far as soil, we'd probably have to amend it some to get ideal conditions but it is decent.