Outdoor palm protection!

[Paul Ont]

Hey all!
I come to you for ideas on outdoor protection for some palms I recently obtained... I've gotten my grubby hands on a large Needle Palm and a large Sabal Minor (who can resist 50% off?). Here's the problem, I don;t have room for them inside, so I'm going to have to plant them NOW and really baby them through the winter! I have experience with small palms, i.e. I know I can get a needle palm through the winter with minimal effort and damage, but I want these palms to retain 90%+ of their foliage. Here'swhat I'm thinking: A styrofoam insulation box topped with a double layer of frost cloth and a layer of plastic to keep the wet out... I would either fill the enclosure with a loose pile of leaves or just set a couple of jugs of water surrounded by a heating cable (the type that activates at 38F to keep pipes from freezing)... The heating cable might be the best way to keep the plants from getting damage...I'd also have to look into something to keep the enclosure from blowing away in the wind...
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Paul

[Cowtown Palm Society]

Hi Paul,

Here's a link to a thread on "iVillage Garden Web". There's a guy in zone 4 Utah who seems to have perfected a styrofoam / lightbulb enclosure method to preserve his Trachy without any defoliation. Scroll about a quarter of the way down the page to see the pictures. Pretty amazing stuff! Good luck with the new palms!

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load ... 22623.html

Duncan