Howdy,

I recently acquired a fairly large S. uresana. I am pretty confident it was owned by a member of this forum at some point in time. I can’t find much info on growing uresana in 8b wet winter environments other than it grows slow. The one I have is green. It’s hard to know if it will get some blue coloration in full sun (it looks nursery or green house grown.. really long upright petioles). I’ve also read about experiences where people have seen their uresana lose the blue coloration, only for it to come back several years later when the plant was much more mature. Time will tell if this is truly a green form or not. The newest leaf is more blue but not dramatically so.

it’s about 9 to 10 feet tall to the tip of the tallest fronds and I’ve planted it on a mound with steep sides in a full sun location in the middle of my yard. I’m wanting to give it the best chance to shrub off winter rains here in 8b Oregon.

Either way this will be an interesting experiment. The fact that it’s so large gives me hope that it might grow at a reasonable pace once it’s fully established after a few years in the ground but we will see. I imagine the new leaves will be smaller and on much shorter petioles while it focuses on root development over the next couple years. I planted the root ball about 90% intact without much disturbance or damage to the roots. Anyone have any insights to share on this sabal or how it handles cold/wet winters? I’ll post updates along the way, wish me me luck!

I do. As far as I know I was the only one attempting this palm. I grew one for years in Clackamas Zone 9A and they had one planted at Raintree Tropical in Silverton Zone 8B. I'm not sure if its your camera but the color looks yellow to me. Doesn't look like the blue form, but not dark green enough for the green form so time will tell. However when you look at my videos below the blue color doesn't come through all that great either. If yours is a green form it will be less hardy. I had the Highlands or Silver form. I currently grow both forms of this palm, and green is a much faster growing palm, similar to other large Sabal species.

The one at Raintree in the display gardens was maybe 3-3.5' tall and was killed one winter when Salem got some pretty cold air. Mine survived, but barely grew, it got a little bigger every year. It would hold about 4 fronds and was under 2' tall. Planted full sun, well draining soil and watered regularly in summer and fertilized with Palmgain each spring.

My last year winter in Oregon, we had that winter bomb cyclone 2022/2023 and it killed it with protection. I cut off all the fronds and left the stump in place, but around late June it reappeared and regrew all the fronds it lost.

Now that I am down here in Houston, and live in a very Sabal friendly climate I have a better understanding of these palms. I grew at least 8 species/hybrids/varieties of Sabal in Oregon and here double that number. There are mature uresana here in Houston, although they are rare. If I move back to Oregon would I want to grow a Sabal uresana? - the answer is no. At best they're going to limp along and remain small, but larger ones are likely to fade away over a few years. You can't replace the heat and sun intensity that we get here, and uresana and a large number of the Sabals really need it. So I think you got a great palm and starting with a larger one is likely a good move, but I don't think your chances for success are in your favor.

Based on my experience I would say the best performing Sabals for Oregon are minor, Louisiana, Birmingham (so slow), Brazoriensis (will trunk), Rosei (trunking) and palmetto (hardiest of the trunking Sabals). Rosei was a real surprise, they are much hardier than reported.

These are the last videos I posted of it. Apparently I had two, but I don't remember the smaller one.

Picture of one of my current Highlands form. Its far more silver in real life.

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@Chester B what was your experience on Rosei’s growth rate when you were in Oregon. That’s definitely not one that is on many people’s radar here! Very cool.

As for the comment on yellow coloration I think it must be a combination of late evening lighting and iPhone camera setting. This is a picture of it from the same day before it went in the ground.