Winterizing Palms

[Kyle Vancouver BC]

When should I start protecting my palms and banana trees for the winter. When I saw burlap at the garden centre this summer I bought tons because last fall it was difficult to find any. I had to go to a fabric store. Although the burlap alone I wrapped around my med fan palms that are in the ground didn't survive that Jan cold snap. Should I also wrap them with bubble wrap or can you suggest a better way to protect the new ones I replaced them with. They were in 5g pots when I bought them. They did quite well and it would be a shame to loose them too.

[DesertZone]

I always wrap my plants after the weather starts to freeze at night, sometime in November.
But this may be different for you, because of wetter weather? What is your min. temp. zone? And when does the wet weather start? If the plant has stopped growing due to colder weather then it may need rain protection.

[Wes North Van]

I usually start protecting the centre spears now of my less hardy palms like brahea armata and chamaedorea microspadix. I do not protect my chamaerops humilis unless it gets to -5C then I use a large golf umbrella, tarp and a string of Christmas lights near the spear. That usually only happens a few nights out of the year. How big is yours? Are you still in Surrey, if so you get quite a bit colder than I do so you may need to protect a smaller c. humilis and I would start soon.
Surrey would be a zone 8a.