Summer Recovery

[GregVirginia7]

Hard to believe June 21, 2025 is here. What a cool, wet Spring we had. Getting our first summer heat wave here in the DMV zone. The winter was a cold one in my estimation with two nights in single digits(5f and 8f) and corresponding days below 32f. Nights were consistently in the 20’s but day temps did tend to moderate above freezing. A cold winter and spring though. @Allenmy big Trachy got the dreaded single digit pin holes and some segment damage but all in all, had a good, relatively unprotected winter. I did give it some crown lights and black landscaping cloth wrapping but nothing too drastic.

It’s neighbor, the Needle, is undamaged as always and is really bulking up some trunks.
 

 

The Brazoria has always had a really hard time with its fronds in winter. I cut all the damaged fronds off and it’s got two new fronds following the slightly damaged 2024 spear. It’s also sending up spikes. I really like the trunk on it.

And it’s fronds are massive…so it’s a catch-up challenge every spring.

the small Trachy got lights around the trunk and wrapped in landscaping cloth. The fronds remained uncovered did extremely well unprotected so I have a feeling it’ll do as well as the big one in this south facing backyard.

This is the accidental, squirrel planted Butia Odorata. It’s a long story and a very slow grower but as soon as I get a pinnate frond, I’ll be posting it…it gets some lights on the ground and leaf pile cover for now while it is so small.

This pair, total protection Chamaerops and zero protection McCurtain are growing in to each other but I like the way they look together. 

Hard to believe the Chamaerops came back from near total destruction a couple years ago.

Then there’s the good old no protection stand by shady Needle. 1/3 the size of the bigger fuller sun Needle but happy just the same.

Welp, that’s about it. No winter deaths and I can’t complain about the recovering ones. I’ll have to order some fertilizer and give them a good dose. Before you know it, it’ll be Christmas 😂

[SeanK]

I was outside an hour ago and noted the big temperature difference from a week ago. Prolonged cool, rainy weather has finished.

Sabals prefer sun although they will grow in shade. Those in shade take forever to get big.

[JohnAndSancho]

Beautiful. How old do you guesstimate your Brazoria is @GregVirginia7?

[Zone7Bpalmguy]

@GregVirginia7 Your windmill looks great and is getting big! Needle palms are great but I have zero luck with them. I do have one in a lot of shade that grows slowly though. Maybe one day...

I'm curious about your Brazoria. Do a follow up pic, if I may request, when the seed stalk is completely grown. 

I agree, that looks great with the chamaerops and minor together! Your place is looking good man!

[GregVirginia7]

3 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Beautiful. How old do you guesstimate your Brazoria is @GregVirginia7?

Thank you…I put it in the ground around 2014. At its peak it may have had maybe 7 fronds in one season but it’s definitely a startup every year. But the fronds are so big they take up a lot of space and by the end of July it’ll look full.

[GregVirginia7]

11 minutes ago, Zone7Bpalmguy said:

@GregVirginia7 Your windmill looks great and is getting big! Needle palms are great but I have zero luck with them. I do have one in a lot of shade that grows slowly though. Maybe one day...

I'm curious about your Brazoria. Do a follow up pic, if I may request, when the seed stalk is completely grown. 

I agree, that looks great with the chamaerops and minor together! Your place is looking good man!

Thank you for that…the Brazoria has seeded before. I’ll send out a pic at the end of July and let today’s pic be the before. Here’s some pics of its humble beginnings.. Trunk production has been pretty good 😂

 

[Atlanta Area Palm Guy]

4 hours ago, GregVirginia7 said:

Hard to believe June 21, 2025 is here. What a cool, wet Spring we had. Getting our first summer heat wave here in the DMV zone. The winter was a cold one in my estimation with two nights in single digits(5f and 8f) and corresponding days below 32f. Nights were consistently in the 20’s but day temps did tend to moderate above freezing. A cold winter and spring though. @Allenmy big Trachy got the dreaded single digit pin holes and some segment damage but all in all, had a good, relatively unprotected winter. I did give it some crown lights and black landscaping cloth wrapping but nothing too drastic.

It’s neighbor, the Needle, is undamaged as always and is really bulking up some trunks.
 

 

The Brazoria has always had a really hard time with its fronds in winter. I cut all the damaged fronds off and it’s got two new fronds following the slightly damaged 2024 spear. It’s also sending up spikes. I really like the trunk on it.

And it’s fronds are massive…so it’s a catch-up challenge every spring.

the small Trachy got lights around the trunk and wrapped in landscaping cloth. The fronds remained uncovered did extremely well unprotected so I have a feeling it’ll do as well as the big one in this south facing backyard.

This is the accidental, squirrel planted Butia Odorata. It’s a long story and a very slow grower but as soon as I get a pinnate frond, I’ll be posting it…it gets some lights on the ground and leaf pile cover for now while it is so small.

This pair, total protection Chamaerops and zero protection McCurtain are growing in to each other but I like the way they look together. 

Hard to believe the Chamaerops came back from near total destruction a couple years ago.

Then there’s the good old no protection stand by shady Needle. 1/3 the size of the bigger fuller sun Needle but happy just the same.

Welp, that’s about it. No winter deaths and I can’t complain about the recovering ones. I’ll have to order some fertilizer and give them a good dose. Before you know it, it’ll be Christmas 😂

Those are some great pics!  NoVA has been trending warmer in recent years.  I notice there are a lot of palm growers in that area (and unique tree growers, in general).  The yard looks very healthy there.

[Allen]

Your yard is looking great!  The before and after pics are awesome!

[NMPalmjunky]

@GregVirginia7 Great garden! Your needles especially look fantastic! What temp do you start to see damage on your Brazoria and Med?

[GregVirginia7]

10 hours ago, NMPalmjunky said:

@GregVirginia7 Great garden! Your needles especially look fantastic! What temp do you start to see damage on your Brazoria and Med?

Not real sure but teens will fry the Med and the Brazoria begins to show damage. Too long a duration or a drop into single digits finishes off the Brazoria fronds. The Needles are well suited for our climate here. I think they could be a “native” so to speak and have been in ground and unprotected for 11 years. Seems the warmer the climate, the worse Needles do. They like this mid Atlantic latitude.

[GregVirginia7]

10 hours ago, Allen said:

Your yard is looking great!  The before and after pics are awesome!

Well you sure know your stuff, sir. As soon as we hit those two nights of single digits I went looking for the pinholes and sure enough, there they were. Oddly enough, the smaller Trachy was not as affected. Maybe the difference between a 14’ palm and a 4’ one. But the big Trachy as a whole takes it all pretty well. I get real picky about fronds that don’t look that great but have gotten a little better at just letting it be. Your yard and palm varieties for your tougher climate are a fantastic example of incorporating cold hardy palms in the landscape. I always rely on you for the “science” of it all.

[Allen]

2 hours ago, GregVirginia7 said:

Well you sure know your stuff, sir. As soon as we hit those two nights of single digits I went looking for the pinholes and sure enough, there they were. Oddly enough, the smaller Trachy was not as affected. Maybe the difference between a 14’ palm and a 4’ one. But the big Trachy as a whole takes it all pretty well. I get real picky about fronds that don’t look that great but have gotten a little better at just letting it be. Your yard and palm varieties for your tougher climate are a fantastic example of incorporating cold hardy palms in the landscape. I always rely on you for the “science” of it all.

Most people would never notice it

[MIKE82397]

Lookin good brother! The heat wave is starting here too

[Las Palmas Norte]

2 hours ago, MIKE82397 said:

Lookin good brother! The heat wave is starting here too

We've had a cool down since the official start of summer. 68°F to 75°F.

[GregVirginia7]

4 minutes ago, Las Palmas Norte said:

We've had a cool down since the official start of summer. 68°F to 75°F.

 

4 minutes ago, Las Palmas Norte said:

We've had a cool down since the official start of summer. 68°F to 75°F.

Yes…saw that big blob of sagging blue on the weather map…we’ll be hoping for that by the end of the week.

[Swolte]

Wonderful pics!

Last winter has been the mildest in several years for me. However, it wouldn't be Texas if we didn't get a curveball. It went down to 15F twice (temps in between were in the 80s). In general, recovery was slower than last year when we went down to 12F. 

I'll highlight a few 'recoveries'. 

Sabal Domingensis

Frankly, I was disappointed with this tree. I had placed it in a prominent spot and, although it grow fast, it completely defoliated after 15F and showed leaf damage at higher temps. I decided to move it in the spring to an area in the back of the yard where it could meet its end.  Despite the punishment, it is recovering very well!

 

Washingtonia 'Austin Survivor'

Got this from @Sabal King who, I believe, sourced it from a palm in Austin owned by @NBTX11. I made the soil a bit too well draining and it did suffer through the drought and looked terrible after winter. Props for the recovery!




Trachy Washy x Princeps

Beautiful healthy palm for several years. Fronds were unaffected last winter but it did have a spear pull this winter. Took a scarily long time to start pushing a new spear. I was very excited to see new growth.

Livistona Nitida 

Same story here. This one did fantastic last year and showed lots of growth. Although it has been a perennial the last 5 years for me, this winter I was pulling quite some stuff from the spear and it took until recently before I got some (explosive) movement.  
 

 

Trachy Nova

This is one of my oldest palms. Got it from TCHP who told me that it was one of fastest growing palms, however, this one has always been struggling for me (could be the soil). Spear pulls every year but it does reliably return. This year, same story as many of the other palms, it returned very late (this one is probably the latest). 

 

 

 

[KPoff]

On 6/21/2025 at 10:13 AM, GregVirginia7 said:

Hard to believe June 21, 2025 is here. What a cool, wet Spring we had. Getting our first summer heat wave here in the DMV zone. The winter was a cold one in my estimation with two nights in single digits(5f and 8f) and corresponding days below 32f. Nights were consistently in the 20’s but day temps did tend to moderate above freezing. A cold winter and spring though. @Allenmy big Trachy got the dreaded single digit pin holes and some segment damage but all in all, had a good, relatively unprotected winter. I did give it some crown lights and black landscaping cloth wrapping but nothing too drastic.

It’s neighbor, the Needle, is undamaged as always and is really bulking up some trunks.
 

 

The Brazoria has always had a really hard time with its fronds in winter. I cut all the damaged fronds off and it’s got two new fronds following the slightly damaged 2024 spear. It’s also sending up spikes. I really like the trunk on it.

And it’s fronds are massive…so it’s a catch-up challenge every spring.

the small Trachy got lights around the trunk and wrapped in landscaping cloth. The fronds remained uncovered did extremely well unprotected so I have a feeling it’ll do as well as the big one in this south facing backyard.

This is the accidental, squirrel planted Butia Odorata. It’s a long story and a very slow grower but as soon as I get a pinnate frond, I’ll be posting it…it gets some lights on the ground and leaf pile cover for now while it is so small.

This pair, total protection Chamaerops and zero protection McCurtain are growing in to each other but I like the way they look together. 

Hard to believe the Chamaerops came back from near total destruction a couple years ago.

Then there’s the good old no protection stand by shady Needle. 1/3 the size of the bigger fuller sun Needle but happy just the same.

Welp, that’s about it. No winter deaths and I can’t complain about the recovering ones. I’ll have to order some fertilizer and give them a good dose. Before you know it, it’ll be Christmas 😂

@GregVirginia7 I planted two chamaerops humilis on the south side of my house last April so they’ve seen one winter. I’m in 8A and I protected them with a fleece wrap and frost cloth in the cold snaps we had but gave them no heat. They saw 12 F one night and had 3 days following below freezing. One of them got hammered and I cut off about half the fronds and it’s growing back nicely but won’t be there completely by winter again. The other one took no damage at all and has ripening seeds on it I’ll germinate because it has to have good genetics. I believe they get tougher every winter but we’ll see. All of your yard looks great and healthy!

[GregVirginia7]

22 minutes ago, Swolte said:

Wonderful pics!

Last winter has been the mildest in several years for me. However, it wouldn't be Texas if we didn't get a curveball. It went down to 15F twice (temps in between were in the 80s). In general, recovery was slower than last year when we went down to 12F. 

I'll highlight a few 'recoveries'. 

Sabal Domingensis

Frankly, I was disappointed with this tree. I had placed it in a prominent spot and, although it grow fast, it completely defoliated after 15F and showed leaf damage at higher temps. I decided to move it in the spring to an area in the back of the yard where it could meet its end.  Despite the punishment, it is recovering very well!

 

Washingtonia 'Austin Survivor'

Got this from @Sabal King who, I believe, sourced it from a palm in Austin owned by @NBTX11. I made the soil a bit too well draining and it did suffer through the drought and looked terrible after winter. Props for the recovery!




Trachy Washy x Princeps

Beautiful healthy palm for several years. Fronds were unaffected last winter but it did have a spear pull this winter. Took a scarily long time to start pushing a new spear. I was very excited to see new growth.

Livistona Nitida 

Same story here. This one did fantastic last year and showed lots of growth. Although it has been a perennial the last 5 years for me, this winter I was pulling quite some stuff from the spear and it took until recently before I got some (explosive) movement.  
 

 

Trachy Nova

This is one of my oldest palms. Got it from TCHP who told me that it was one of fastest growing palms, however, this one has always been struggling for me (could be the soil). Spear pulls every year but it does reliably return. This year, same story as many of the other palms, it returned very late (this one is probably the latest). 

I’ve been really lucky with my Trachy’s…trying to keep the protection to a minimum. Some of your palms seem to hang on but your climate in Texas really seems like a rollercoaster challenge. Good to hear spear pulls are recovering for sure.

 

 

 

[GregVirginia7]

17 minutes ago, KPoff said:

@GregVirginia7 I planted two chamaerops humilis on the south side of my house last April so they’ve seen one winter. I’m in 8A and I protected them with a fleece wrap and frost cloth in the cold snaps we had but gave them no heat. They saw 12 F one night and had 3 days following below freezing. One of them got hammered and I cut off about half the fronds and it’s growing back nicely but won’t be there completely by winter again. The other one took no damage at all and has ripening seeds on it I’ll germinate because it has to have good genetics. I believe they get tougher every winter but we’ll see. All of your yard looks great and healthy!

Thank you. I agree…the more establishment the greater the chances of handling our winters here. The protection I give my Chamaerops is really minimal with a ground blanket of lights and a loose shroud of landscaping cloth…the cloth is so thin you can see through it but it’s just enough to take the edge off any teens and low 20’s…my Medi has been in ground since 2014. So establishment and minimal protection works well in my south facing back yard as well. I do believe that is probably the link holding all the other stuff together. Face it any other direction and the results will probably be totally different.

[GregVirginia7]

23 hours ago, Atlanta Area Palm Guy said:

Those are some great pics!  NoVA has been trending warmer in recent years.  I notice there are a lot of palm growers in that area (and unique tree growers, in general).  The yard looks very healthy there.

Thank you…I see a lot of Basjoo bananas in my neighborhood but no cold hardy palms. I do see a lot of palms in Bethany, DE though. I’ve got a couple old Sabal minors there that have been great, unprotected palms for sure. But I do see some different looking fruit trees…have no idea what they are.