January 2026 - East Mississippi

[JohnAndSancho]

Welp, I ended up covering most of the outdoor plants. Got some surprises and some no surprises. We hit lows of around 12-14 and all of my palms are tiny soooooooo 

 

Trachycarpus Fortunei - covered with a heavy plastic pot. 2 spears pulled. 1 gallon size. 

 

Trachy Princeps x Waggy - even smaller. Covered in a small Styrofoam box. Absolutely fine. It's even pushing a new spear. 

 

Big Washy Filibusta - covered with a big Styrofoam box - already frost damaged from before. Spear pull. 

 

Small Filibusta - unprotected. Ummm it's very, very brown. 

 

Sabal Birmingham - strap leaf. Unprotected. Laughed it off. 

 

Sabal Etonia. Unprotected. Laughed it off, it's even growing. 

Sabal Bermudana - covered with a Styrofoam box. Laughed it off. It's growing, too. 

Washy Filifera - this plant has looked like crap for so long I honestly can't tell if it's any worse. But it's not dead. 

 

The Fortunei surprised me, the Princeps x Waggy REALLY surprised me (it came from @N8ALLRIGHT in KC so I guess it's seen real winter). And what's really cool is I get to cover everything back up in a day or two, but I figured I'd let them get some air and some sun. I think they'd all be cooked if I didn't listen to @Chester B. 

 

So I guess the moral of this story is I just need to go balls out with Sabals. 

[N8ALLRIGHT]

Glad to see the waggy x princeps did well. It certainly was subjected to cold here but they went inside at mid 20s. I wonder if it being under Styrofoam as opposed to just plastic for the fortunei was at play as well? Any heat from the ground would be trapped better with the foam. Anyways I hope everything else comes out of it, I got to figure y'all should be done with the extreme cold for the season but who knows. My palms have got a month or so before they get unwrapped. 

It's been a fairly mild winter here, only this little cold snap we are just coming out of.  Coldest it got at my house was 1.  If that holds everything should look good come March 🤞

[SeanK]

21 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Welp, I ended up covering most of the outdoor plants. Got some surprises and some no surprises. We hit lows of around 12-14 and all of my palms are tiny soooooooo 

 

Trachycarpus Fortunei - covered with a heavy plastic pot. 2 spears pulled. 1 gallon size. 

 

Trachy Princeps x Waggy - even smaller. Covered in a small Styrofoam box. Absolutely fine. It's even pushing a new spear. 

 

Big Washy Filibusta - covered with a big Styrofoam box - already frost damaged from before. Spear pull. 

 

Small Filibusta - unprotected. Ummm it's very, very brown. 

 

Sabal Birmingham - strap leaf. Unprotected. Laughed it off. 

 

Sabal Etonia. Unprotected. Laughed it off, it's even growing. 

Sabal Bermudana - covered with a Styrofoam box. Laughed it off. It's growing, too. 

Washy Filifera - this plant has looked like crap for so long I honestly can't tell if it's any worse. But it's not dead. 

 

The Fortunei surprised me, the Princeps x Waggy REALLY surprised me (it came from @N8ALLRIGHT in KC so I guess it's seen real winter). And what's really cool is I get to cover everything back up in a day or two, but I figured I'd let them get some air and some sun. I think they'd all be cooked if I didn't listen to @Chester B. 

 

So I guess the moral of this story is I just need to go balls out with Sabals. 

I have a T.fortunei in the front yard, seed sown in 1999. Winter 2000 spear pulled. Like most of them, pushed a new leaf in June. It's 30-ft tall today.

[JohnAndSancho]

6 hours ago, SeanK said:

I have a T.fortunei in the front yard, seed sown in 1999. Winter 2000 spear pulled. Like most of them, pushed a new leaf in June. It's 30-ft tall today.

I ain't gonna lose any sleep over it then. 

 

Here's pics. 

The Filifera. It's always looked like this, so I really don't know if it's damaged or not lol. It is NOT happy here. 

 

Oh, this Filibusta is cooked. Confirmed squished in my hand, it's very much dead. 

 

Birmingham. I honestly wish I had done more research and read how slow these are, and I woulda put it someplace other than front and center. But like 30 years after the apocalypse it'll be a nice tree. 

 

Bermudana did fine. Granted this is all facing east and it's all surrounded by bricks so it was all protected from the north and west winds, but still - just a little Styrofoam box with a brick on top of it and it's coolsies. 

 

This is the big Washie that I covered. It spear pulled and already had some frost damage. I'll cover it up again. 

 

The cold didn't seem to phase the grass or the weeds and I've been so busy running the grow room.... Anyway there is in fact a Sabal Etonia in here and it's totally unbothered despite its size. 

 

 

Trachy fortunei. Covered with a heavy plastic pot... 

Trachy Princeps x Waggie - totally unphased. 

 

And just an update - if anybody was wondering if a coconut can germinate in the ground in Mississippi in winter, so far it has not - but it's only been here for 3 months so don't give up hope. Sancho even peed on it for good luck. According to r/composting that makes everything grow. 

[SeanK]

IMHO, if W.filifera is to grow for you, it will have to start in a pot. Then planted out when it fills 14" planter. It will probably require a berm of fast draining soil.

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, SeanK said:

IMHO, if W.filifera is to grow for you, it will have to start in a pot. Then planted out when it fills 14" planter. It will probably require a berm of fast draining soil.

I just don't think it's a good fit for this climate. I think I got this one from @Dwarf Fan a couple years ago and it's just never been happy here, pot or no pot. This is definitely Sabal country and I've got just a couple seedlings going. Mexicana, Louisiana, Bermudana, Etonia, various exotic Minors, normal minors, palmettos, and I really wanna get my hands on some Causarium and Brazorias. The hot, humid summers and cold wet winters aren't great for everything. I'm getting to the point where if I'm gonna plant it out, I don't want to have to worry about babying it. I don't want to deal with thermocubes and lights and plankets and all that. The grow room is taking up all my energy.