Greetings,

I am new to this list. I have a question about helping a Sabal minor recover from winter damage. I am located in southeastern Wisconsin where just makes it into a zone 6a. I have a Sabal minor that has been growing on the south side of my house for about 20 years. I protect it each winter with an insulated box filled with dry leaves. It still sustains damage by spring but ends up growing 2-3 large fronds by the end of the summer. For a number of years now, it has been producing a flower stalk each spring and has been producing berries. Last year was a productive year where it produced a few hundred berries, although the growing season here isn't quite long enough to allow the berries to ripen before the really cold weather sets in.

This past winter was particularly bad for my hardy exotics between the cold spells, strong winds and overall lack of insulating snow. The Sabal minor was hit harder than usual. To make things worse, a rodent managed to find its way into the insulated box and decided to chew on the emerging spear. The palm survived and is pushing up a new frond after doing what it could with the chewed spear. I also see a flower stalk emerging again this year.

My question is: should I remove the flower stalk to allow the palm to focus on producing new fronds or just let the flower stalk continue to grow? A few years ago, it produced several smaller flower stalks--so if I remove one, it may just try to grow another. I'm not sure whether the presence or absence of the flower stalk will make much difference in the palm's recovery.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I know many recommend removing the seed stalk. This may be true but I'm inclined to leave them,I figure the plant knows how to take care of itself and may make it prone to disease or fungus.

Wisconsin, man you're one of the few on this forum who have it worse than me. 20 years is legit in Wisconsin. Personally I'd just keep doing what you're doing because it seems to be working

Removing stalk might help. Make sure to fertilize when temps are in 80's