Texas Palm Lovers' Advice Requested

[donalt]

hello from Florida! As you know, we are about to experience a wallop of arctic cold similar to the one you endured in February 2021. So, I'm asking your advice and tips on how to proceed . I'm especially interested in those of you in extreme southern Texas (like Brownsville) .....how did palms such as Royals do after the freeze? Did they recover? What about adonidia palms (Christmas palms)? Did they survive? Bottle Palms? What about plants such as crotons? Any information you can help with would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!!

[idontknowhatnametuse]

I'm a bit more south of South Texas, in Monterrey, Mexico which is a similar and slightly cooler climate than Brownsville due to the altitude. Most of the well established Adonidias that were the size of yours survived that freeze (~ -5⁰C) and are thriving. Here is a local one that is like 4 meters tall almost reaching the roof of the house.

I don't know about many bottle palms here. They are not a popular palm like Adonidias and Roystonea. There used to be 2 in a microclimate in Escobedo, one died in 2021 and now that house only has 1.

Roystonea is very popular here. I can safely say that around 90% of the Roystonea planted here survived 2021. They are very bud hardy.

[Fusca]

1 hour ago, donalt said:

hello from Florida! As you know, we are about to experience a wallop of arctic cold similar to the one you endured in February 2021. So, I'm asking your advice and tips on how to proceed . I'm especially interested in those of you in extreme southern Texas (like Brownsville) .....how did palms such as Royals do after the freeze? Did they recover? What about adonidia palms (Christmas palms)? Did they survive? Bottle Palms? What about plants such as crotons? Any information you can help with would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!!

I live about 20 miles north of Brownsville but didn't move down here until 2022.  Depending on what area of Orlando you're in but if you bottom out at 24°F then you're going to get a similar low temperature that Brownsville had.  On the positive side, it looks like you won't experience the freeze duration that Brownsville experienced.  I do know that several large trunking royals survived as did at least one bottle survived (most likely protected) but I don't think they're popular or readily available here.  Smaller barely trunking royals were killed in my town and even some queen palms but these were newly planted and almost certainly unprotected.  I'm not aware of any surviving Adonidia but like bottles aren't common.  If you can add some Christmas lights to your wrapping it would add a few degrees and better your chances.  My bottle is about half the size of yours and I wrapped the trunk and fronds with a canvas tarp and a string of party lights and it went through 27°F with minimal damage to foliage.  This past weekend we hit 27°F again and I only wrapped without lights and foliar damage seems to be significant but spear is solid.

[donalt]

thank you; this is encouraging to hear. I will take a couple of extra protective measures. the hardest part is realizing that I can't save everything, so it's making the decision of what to keep and what is on its own. I don't think we've had this severe cold since the 1980s. Even in 2010, there were many survivors. I know it's going to look like a bomb went off a couple of weeks from now....but if there is life still, I can tolerate the look until spring.

[Robert Cade Ross]

Here is a 2021 survivor bottle on port Isabel.