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I have many palms in the ground here in St. Louis and every year i slightly decrease protection but stay ready to add more if needed. My favorite amongst them is my 8 year old Pindo which i moved this summer to a warmer more protected spot in the garden. We stayed in the mid 40's and up until late decmeber, and then we had the coldest two weeks i can remember. Ten days below 30 and four nights that dropped below 10. Never did it go below 5, i keep wirless sensors amongst the leaves when i prep them for winter so i can get detailed reads on the true temperature of foliar exposure(amazon has them for cheap, at least they used to). It is already completely defoilated which i know is very very bad! Generally damage shows itself gradually and even in spring if they look fine it can end up being a disaster. I have applied fungicide on two occassions since then. I also went covered a frame with tekfoil to allow light in and maintain temperature. This had increased the temperature significantly for the air and ground... the roots never froze, i wrapped the planting area with heat cables when i transplanted it. I may have done too much without following through on the other things. I was just hoping that since the past three years its been fine that it would push through. To my own fault its dying becuase i forgot that i transplanted it and its no longer established.

Does anyone have any tips for me on how to keep this poor thing stable for the remaining month or so of cold snaps?

welcome to the forum, tropical love 7:

If the ground never froze during the cold spell, and you've added heat cables around the roots, maybe ground become too dry?

increased the temperature significantly

And it still completely defoliated?

Tekfoil seems like a good product
http://www.teksupply.com/farm/supplies/ ... ation.html

Since you've applied fungicide twice, maybe it's just transplant shock and it'll come back early summer.
Hope so.

Can you post pics of your palms and protection?
Barb

Welcome to this forum. I'm also new here, and also joined for help with Butia.
I have a little one in the ground for its 3rd winter with no supplemental heat, just hay for insulation, water bottles buffer temp. changes, and a big bucket over top to keep rain and wind off. It looses its fronds each winter and so has to grow new ones each Summer. I.e., I treat it as deciduous. (The little photo by my name shows it in late Summer.)
I bought a large Butia last May. It is not established so I used heat tape on the trunk and built a flimsy plastic greenhouse. It still looks great despite the same cold weather you had earlier this Month. I plan to do the same for the next few winters at least (maybe until I can move south a few hundred miles?).
So, for yours, I think you are on the right track with the fungicide, watering the roots, keeping temps moderate and the trunk/spear dry. It will look awful until June/July.
As with Barb., photos would be fun for us to look at, especially if you follow up with Summer photos from 2010!
--Erik

I lived in St.Louis for 30yrs(Go cards!)and you guys have been REALLY spoiled lately!
Not going below 0(F) for what? 10 yrs or something?Unheard of when I lived there.
I remember a few years in the 70s and 80s when it did not go above freezing for 3 weeks!
In the 70s there was snow on the ground for almost 2 months.I think the record is like 60-something days?
We have all gotten spoiled the last 10-15yrs.
Even where I live in Iowa now it has been 30below zero in the past(during the 80s I think 83?)



Anyway,to answer your question-I made a mistake with some of my newly planted palms this year
treating them like my more established stuff and really mistreating my established stuff!


Baby it,keep it as warm as you can with minimal low night temps.
Don't let it see any rain/moisture when freezing temps are forecast this spring,only warm late spring like rains.
Keep it covered later but DON'T let it overheat!
Wait until late April(especially the way the last 2-3 springs have been cool)to totally remove protection or-
at least cover it during cool/cold spells when rain is eminent.
I did this with a few of my Trachys that sprear pulled in Nov the fall before and they both were on line again by May 1-


Good luck-
Post some pics-
What area do you live in?

Thank you all so much. I agree with you that we have gotten spoiled here! I can remember the late 80's somewhat and i remember a lot of snow! I generally welcome the snow though with my palms, its the wind and freezing rain that gets me anxious.

Barb,
you are probably right about transplant shock becuase it did loose a few fronds when i moved it.
I can post pictures, i have tons of them, winter/summer pictures. People will probably be disapointed in my winter protection though. I do the bare minimum for the most part. Everything im doing is part of current research im doing for grad school applications, so i have to use a standard and control group, those are the ones which get most of the protection, well somewhat. I have been monitor cellular respiration and sugar production in
palms since 2000. Objective is to find a way to basically feed your plants anitfreeze naturally/organic. Results have been decent, maybe in a few more years ill have something concrete and effective for everyone! Im hoping! So far the only luck has been with heliconia rhizomes, still exciting.

You should read the findings from "Growing palms in Colorado springs USDA zone 5b"
They covered all this info pretty well-I can e-mail it to you if you PM me your e-mail address.

disapointed in my winter protection

And then you can laugh at some of ours!
We're all flailing around doing the best we can, wishing we could leave them unprotected so they'd all look like the Trachies in English Bay Vancouver.
It's kinda difficult to look out the window to enjoy your palm when it's encased in plywood for 4 months

Cool research you're doing.
Dr. David Francko was on here some time ago since he developed the Freeze-Pruf.
Great discussions.
I tried it (a little late I think when it was already -8C 17F) and a month later the leaves look shredded, even though they were protected from all wind.

Heliconia are gorgeous tropical plants.
Maybe your research will work for Bird of Paradise too...also fleshy.

Jim's suggestion re that article is worth pursuing, a very good read re palms flourishing in Colorado.
We just had a link to that story here a couple of weeks ago...can't find it.

So...camera? pics? let's start with winter, since that's unfortunately where we are...
Indoor tropical pics are welcome too.
Barb

sorry for the delay, it took me a long time to figure out how to upload pictures. Then i had to set up a photobucket account so i could do so. I only grabbed a couple for now from years past. I will post more recent ones later. these are summer and winter photos.

Hopefully this works!

IMG]http://i588.photobucket.com/albums/ss33 ... G_0373.jpg[/IMG]]









[/img]

Thanks for the photos! We love them here.
I, too, struggle to load photos on this forum so it isn't just you. I'm glad you persevered.
Can you help me identify what all is in the first photo?
--Erik

Nice pics of better days for that Butia.
What side of the house is it? east? south?

Great third pic...what is that lovely shrub that blooms so profusely?
What's the other one? a cordyline? striking burgundy leaf edges. How have you protected it this winter?

Ya, I've never been able to post a pic from my hard drive, but I've had a Flickr account for years so find it's easy to post from that repository.
The buttons (above) are toggle on/toggle off, paste URL of picture location in between.
Easier than learning code (yawn...)

Your other palms outdoors...were they all planted this year, or have some gone through a protected winter previously?

Have you got some palms overwintering indoors too?
My house is too full...of palms and fungus gnats

Barb

I'm sorry- Is this post about you failing to protect your Butia in zone 6 St. Louis? It looks good in that picture!

Love the Crepe Myrtles, wish they could take temps below 0f and look good the next year... But, alas...

Is that a Yucca alofolia cultivar in the third picture?


Welcome aboard
Thanks!

Barb,
[quote]Great third pic...what is that lovely shrub that blooms so profusely? [/quote]
I think I can help with that. It looks like a variety of crape myrtle (Lagerstoemia indica). They love heat and humidity and so are a staple down here. In tropical areas they are evergreen but in my garden they are deciduous and don't need protection (well, we'll see. I planted three in May and gave them no winter protection other than mulch).
I think you could grow them as a perennial where you live.
--Erik

Erik, and Paul (thanks!), I've never seen the c.myrtles here or even when I lived in Vancouver 30+ years ago.
This area could supply enough heat in summer, but zilch humidity with desert-dry winds June July & Aug day and night.

Barb

Barb,
give one a try. They are cheap (at least here). I'd grow them even if they were annuals.
--Erik

Variegated Aloifolia is beautiful,I have two of those in my little cactus g-house/winter shelter.
How long have you had it/do you protect it at all?

They really turn a beautiful shade of red as the nights go below freezing and when they get hit again(uncovered)with spring sunshine.

Wish I would have been doing this in St.Louis when I lived there,would have been nice to use more temporary covers.

Yes, those are Larg. Var Tuscaro, they struggle in the winter, but its probably becuase i put them on a burm which recieves no protection from wind, and is a direct path of cold downflow from the hill above my yard. I wrap some burlap around them when the cold is prolonged just to protect the wood. There are many varieties of crepe myrtles that can take more, the smaller shrub forms like razzle is hardy to 4 and it makes a great border plant!
That is yucca aloifolia V. Marginata, its the tricolor of the variegated, but it only seems to be coloful during the fall and spring. Hardy to at least zone 5b i would think, yuccas are easy if you keep the crown dry and the roots. I like y. Aloifolia, becuase it can take much more humidy and rain. Something i have tried which works wonderfully with yuccas is to take a cheap nursery pot and cut it to fit the trunt on the bottom, i leave about 3 inches total exposed, so an inch and half to two inches from each side of the trunk. Then place it around the base of the trunk so it covers the rootball leaving ir open to grow downward into the planting hole, which i dig an extra 6 inches deep then fill with a mixture of orchid bark, beach sand, a little bit of gypsum to allow this mixture to penetrate outside the area dug for the roots. This prevents the hard missouri clay from just forming a water retentive mold around the roots. As with all the non branching plants, protecting the crown is important. I Just tie up the upper most growth and wrap some plastic around it to direct the down the trunk instead of threw it. Normally i would not recommend doing this, but with the pot around the roots very little water gets in to them reducing risk of freezing. I did spray no wilt on them this year, similar to freeze pruf. I do this probaby three times in october to build a thick layer so i do not have to reapply during the winter. Those yuccas have been in the ground for 4 years, i planted 3 and 1 did get crown rot its first winter so i relocated it to a dryer area. They are some of my favorites becuase of growth speed, hardiness and color.
The butia in the picture is my smaller one, its been in that spot for 5 years now, its dever defoliated completly. That was from two winters ago. I need to add my newer photos to this new computer, they are on a seperate hard drive. It did have a wind barrier around it, i pulled it off to take the picture, you can see the stakes in the ground around it.
My most important factor in protection for the majority of my sub tropicals is the additive ive been experimenting with with my research, so its like a miracle grow, disolves and is fed twice a month spring through fall. I want to reveal it very badly, but it still needs work, and becuase this research is importnat for admission to graduate school i can not talk about it in detail .
My indoor palms are 2-adonidias, spindle, and a 25 foot queen palm variety which now goes to a greenhouse for winter storage since i cannot fit it in the house, or even through the door.
In the ground i have many needles, a few varieties of sabal minors, including V. Louisianna, Trachys-fortuni, wag, and fort V. Bulgaria....extremely hardy! The butias..odorata..fatter trunk with silvery leaves is most cold tolerant through my experience. Sabal palmetto, birmingham, mexicana, phoenix robellini, Jubea chilensis, small washintonia Filifera's and this spring will be adding some citrus and 2-15 foot washintonias, and 2-8 foot sabal palmettos, these are the are going to be used to finalize my data from the spring 2010 to 2011 so i can submit my work... been a long 9 years!
The only palms i planted this year are; a 30 gallon needle palm and 15 gallon trachy, i got these from Morning star nurseries for $40.00! it was a clearance in the parking lot of a walmart. What a steel.. 30 gallon needle palm would normally be over 250.00 and even that would be a great price! The butia which is problematic isnt new, but i transplanted it, so it basically is like new. I have had that one since 2002? It was a monster! until i transplanted it.
I am very glad i stumbled across this forum, its nice to see so many enthusiast with so much passion and insight into what i believe is a growing hobby that will eventually be as common other gardening practices. If were not places like this where people can give and take information strategies would not be able to reach a perfection which will decide the fate of growing palms in cold climates. I thank you all so much.
Becuase i have so many photos, i will probably just upload all them to photo bucket and provide the link. Tonight or tomorrow. Anyone have any experience with Ponicuros or cittranges?

i can not talk about it in detail

we can wait! good luck!

What a collection you have! Looking forward to seeing the link to your album(s).

I continue to be amazed at the low prices of valuable plants in the U.S. (even at regular prices).
Generally a third to maybe a half of what we pay here...that's IF we can find them (and it's a big IF).
Most keen palm folks north of the border will drive 100 miles just to look at another nursery's stock, when local nurseries disappoint.
Yes, we have WalMart here too but they seldom have anything decent in the way of palms.
Certainly no cycads.

We're looking forward to learning from you, too.
Barb

Here is a picture of my Y.aloifolia when it was smaller in warm weather(green and white)and
after cold stress.Very hardy little bugger-


I wonder if you remember seeing a patch of Y.aloifolia in La due(I think)at a gas station there?
I seem to remember seeing some there years ago.Wonder if they are still there?

<a href="http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/mm22 ... -08024.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm22 ... -08024.jpg" border="0" alt="Var.trunking yucca"></a>
<a href="http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/mm22 ... -09032.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm22 ... -09032.jpg" border="0" alt="Var-Aloifolia"></a>

i am in the ladue area and there is a gas station with a very mature clump of those yucca colorgaurd ones, i don't know which ones they are, but they aren't trunking. Perhaps they are though and i just cannot tell becuase sometimes the cold makes the trunks lay down and run across the ground...i hope mine don't do that, i am very excited for when they get bigger. They seem to double in size in every, unlike my other yuccas. There are a lot of yucca rostratas and thomsponias around slu's campus, im thinking of giving the breverfolia a try, i know they are not as hardy, but if the roots and trunks stay dry i think they would be fine. It is easier to keep tropical/subtropical yuccas in my opinion. They can take cold, just not moisture, and the dryness from the winds is what kills a lot of palms when its cold, but yuccas just keep on going, and if they do die, the roots should survive no problem through zone 5 for most. trying to get my photos into an album on photobucket is not working very well!

This would have been 20+ years ago,possibly.
Who knows new owners,cold-they could be gone.
I seem to remember Y.aloifolia at a gas station,thought it was Clayton and Ballas/La due?
Not even sure if any of these intersect- LOL-kinda.
Anyhow are the ones you are talking about like this?
I am not sure which these are.I think Bright edge,maybe colorguard.




<a href="http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/mm22 ... -09045.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm22 ... -09045.jpg" border="0" alt="Bright edge Yucca"></a>

That looks more like it. I'll have to keep my eyes open next time i'm in the area. Yes, clayton and ladue do intersect, good memory! I made some progress with photobucket, apparently i was having trouble becuase i already had a photobucket account so when i could upload it would only take my new photos. Nice suprise becuase i lost a lot of photos when my old computer crashed, finally forgetfulness paid off! here is the link, i am also providing a link from one of our news programs on a family overwintering there california fan palms. I found it interesting becuase they make it look soo easy in the video clip..if only. http://s588.photobucket.com/albums/ss ... recover.

That video is very cool,nice to see some people going for it!
It was also funny to read some of the obviously jealous peoples comments-don't you have any stories for regular people?

Or whatever they said,or yea they most have a lot of money.

I also thought it was kinda funny they took the time to wrap saran wrap(?) around that,don't they know that comes in big sheets?
They could cut an hour off their time!

I'm really curious where the space heater goes,man that is a small area.

I guess I'm just jealous of those rich people with their big palms!


I am curious about their palms going into decline,I wonder what St.Louis's GDD is? They most be awfully close to being not
warm enough for full recovery.
There was a guy Iowapalms that had some similar sized Washys in Dubuque Iowa,he did a hurricane cut on his too.
They had really pushed out a decent crown by Memorial day but by August of the NEXT summer they looked
less far along then they had the previous spring.Appeared to be in decline.



Anyway,nice to see people going for it and it working for them!

Thanks for posting the link to your album.
Great pictures of great plants.
I can see why that palm is stored in a GH over winter...
Beautiful yard, love the blue pots!
...and is that a Selloum under the tree adjacent to the house?

Great video. A 3 sided enclosure! what a good idea.
It makes sense a sloping wall would "shed" wind more readily than a flat surface.

How do they find room in there for the heater!

What they're using is called PALLET WRAP (saran wrap only stronger, heavier).
Manufacturers who ship boxed products on pallets always use this stuff to keep stacked boxes from sliding, wrap the entire pallet with it.

Agree that some of the posted comments were sour grapes...

Thanks again!

I haven't watched the video yet but the backyard album is great. I'll borrow some ideas for the area around my pool.
My wife wants a big queen palm in a pot. I just don't want one that big as I know I'll be the one moving it
--Erik

St. Louis is right on the border of USDA zones 5 and 6, 5b/6a, the city and about a ten mile radius around it is in the new zone map as 6a. I have never fully understood how they come up with the zones, but it seems to be fairly reliable. Although being in zone 5 would a winter minimum average of -20F, i dont know where that average comes from, but obviously zones dont matter much people like us anyway, we'll grow what we want to regardless. I think that area is a bit small for the space heater myself, kind of a fire hazard, and i wouldnt want that hot air blowing directly on my plant, i cooked a parajubea palm by using a heater in a small area. But this is the beauty of washintonias, the like arid climates, and in the sonoran desert it regualrly dips into the 30 and 40's and colder. So the main is keeping it dry but not suffocating the roots, maybe that's why he builds it so small? gives the roots some access to to water perhaps? I also would not be able to hurricane cut it, i know washintonias grow fast but still, i think spraying the foliage to retain moisture and wrapping them tight would do the trick, and make for a taller enclosure. Yes, i think the traingle is a great idea! i went through hell yesterday trying to anchor the new enclosure i threw together, the wind kept sweeping the thing right off the tree!

The wrap actually works very well. I like it becuase it goes on so quickly, no nailing or stapling, and becuase it adheres to itself it is quick to repair when it rips. Which is why its a little ridiculous that they pay them to come back out and fix the holes in it... its basically thick plastic wrap! they sell it at lowes near the boxes and moving supplies, and it comes in nifty for bachelor parties when want to wrap your friends car up. I have done work the man in the video, he also the owner of the company who i got the queen palm from, and where i store it.. that monster was dirt cheap! Problem is, it keeps growing, and eventually ill have to find a way to set the poor thing free, or if i get to move south find a way to take it with me.

Lucky1,
Those are acanthus mollis v. summer beauty, i love them Mostly becuase the look so much like the phillodens, my spelling is awfull on the scientific names. They go down to zone 5 if you put a lot of mulch on them, and there another variety Acanthus spinosa is hardier, they do well in temperate climates, and they struggle here where it gets hot during the summer. Plantdelights nursery has multiple cultivars. Have you used plant delights before? They are a fantastic mail order source for people who are looking for the new and unusual plants.

HardyJim
what is GDD? is like the usda zones?

Your acanthus looked so similar to my selloum, which requires almost total shade:



Plant Delights nursery?
Funny you should mention it. They are indeed a fabulous nursery and I continue to enjoy Tony's newsletters.
I was looking for yucca rostrata last year.

Plant Delights had them but by the time I found out where they were located, and that I needed a phytosanitary certificate....
To make a long story short, I bought 6 gorgeous--but little--"Sapphire Skies yucca rostrata from them (about $14.00 each U.S.).
By the time I was done with US exchange/phyto/shipping/import permit/etc. etc. those 6 little plants cost me approx. $360.00CDN.
60 bucks each...needless to say I take very good care of those yuccas.

In case Jim's asleep....GDD = growing degree days, I think.

Barb

A few points to clear up here. My Master's research was in molecular phylogenetics, and taxonomy, obviously, played a major role in that work. I'm not a taxonomist by training, but it grates me to see horticultural varieties referred to as something like (not to pick on you) Yucca alofolia v. marginata... Which would mean that marginata is an offically described, probably naturally occuring, varietas of Yucca alofolia. It is almost certainly not. The botanically correct name for this plant would be Yucca alofolia 'MARGINATA', which means that it is a cultivated variety of the species Yucca alofolia. If I were to be really correct I would also italicize the species name, but this is a message board... Just pointing that out. I also gave Garry heck for referring to T. forunei 'Tesan' seeds as though they would breed true to the cultivar... Which is simply not true in an obligate outcrosser.

Second, the USDA zones are based on average extreme minimum low temperature. So St. Louis, as a zone 6a, would have an annual average extreme low between -0.1F and -5.0F... Similarily, Toronto, Ontario, Canada has an average extreme low of -2.3F and is also considered zone 6a. Personally I don't feel the new map includes enough data as the information should be based on the entire weather history of a location...

Thrid, good luck with your experiment. Not sure what you're testing, assume it must be something to slow respiration and increase sugar content in plant leaves. Sounds interesting. Freeze-Pruf IMO was released to the market without adequate research. There is still, to date, no peer-reviewed paper showing that the stuff ha any effects. It really bothers me when people say things like "Freeze-Pruf worked" since it got my palm through the winter in zone 7... Where are the controls? Where the formal data to back up the claims of the product manufacturer? I've seen some pics, but nothing more substantial then that. I do hope that it works, but I am waiting for the data to back it up.

I'm going to be doing a make-shift home garden experiment starting this summer. This is in no-way related t my PhD research and is more to contribute meaningful information to those of us trying to grow palms on the edge. It will involve T. fortunei, protection methods, and fungicide treatments. Not sure if I'll have the n to get significant results, but it'll be fun anyway (and I have 60 T. fortunei seedlings/small plants kicking around)!

Good luck with your project.

Paul,
lots of good stuff. As for taxonomy, I feel really ignorant as I am a zoologist by training and know that botanists have different conventions. Also, you'll notice I generally limit myself to genus names on this forum as I don't feel confident making IDs below that and am not sure which nursery labels/store labels to trust. I see the wrong tag in plants at stores all the time!

As to the experimental design you mentioned, and the problem of low N, one brainstorm I have is to combine the talents of the more experienced folks on this forum (e.g., Barb, Jim; NOT me ) and run a multi-site study. Statistically, we could include "study site" as an independent variable. While I don't know nearly enough about growing palms, I do know a bit about experimental design and statistics. With effort, it could even be a blind trial ("fungicide A and fungicide B") with blind coders of foliage damage photos. I.e., the "double-blind" gold-standard in medical experiments.
--Erik

I appreciate your help, I am always welcome to whatever critisms others may have. The misrepresentation was just pure sloppiness on my behalf, for that i appologize. Yucca alofolia 'MARGINATA' is simply the terminology for vaiegated isn't it? I understant the zone map, I just think they could find a better way to assign climate categories. We have been sone 5 here according to the map unitl the new one, and i was always thrown by being told we have an apparent average winter minimum of -20F, maybe a wind chill on a rare occasion could possible hit that.

I did look into Freezepruf when it came out, but decided to stick my NoWilt instead since i can get it from local hardware stores. Peer review is extremely important, and i have to say i am a little suprised this wasn't done. Possibly just a quick way to make a buck, like celebrities creating their cologne and perfumes. I suppose i cannot say much, i have never used it, but i dont see where the active ingredients differ from i already use.

Thank you again, when i am done with my work and submit for review i will be glad you gave me this information. Though i doubt the department of psychology will care all that much, it is important to me. They just want to see research experience, but what is that worth if the experiments do not follow the proper methodology.

----

That Paul sure can be right.



St.Louis is in z5 on the old usda zone map because of the all time record low -22(F)
their record high is 115(F) the midwest is a great place to live.

Paul you should move here.

In the last what? 30 years they are more like zone 6 according to the Arborday foundation(0 to-10F).

I like the Arbor Day maps, too, as they reflect typical weather around here (Zone 7a, b) vs. the occasional dips colder (zone 6a, b). I have not experienced Zone 6 weather here even once since moving to the area in 1997. I'm sure it will happen, but I don't base my plant purchases on that eventuality.

--------

Just for the record-
I like to call my little corner of Iowa z5b
but the last 3 winters are not,they are close but -18(F)
last year?
You have to step out into that to truly appreciate how %-ing cold that is!
I couldn't believe it when i saw it on the thermometer,until my ankles and feet felt like
they turned into glass in less then a few minutes!

In that weather you make your repairs and get back inside asap!


Anyway,more like straight up z5

I cannot imagine -18 oF!
My wife is from Michigan, where she lived 40 years before coming down south. (I'm originally from Portland, Oregon, which is zone 8 in a bad year). The night it dropped to 0 oF here on the farm a few years ago I thought the world would end. She just looked at me funny.
The reason the pipes froze in early January this year, when I was in Belize, is that it "only" got to 3 oF. She couldn't conceive of building codes so lax that protection would be needed for temps merely that cold. I had always taken care of pipe protection in previous winters and she had always looked at me like I was silly for bothering.
Now, we're looking at Texas!
--Erik

The cold is following you Erik!
Take one for the team and move up north

No, no!
Granted, the cold weather followed me to Belize (it hit 48 oF one morning!), but the warm weather followed me back to Oklahoma.
I think we'll keep putting down palm roots here for another decade, and then move to Texas.
Anyone want to buy my farm--with established palms!--in a decade?
--Erik

Hey, I'm often wrong too! It's all part of the learning process, right? I've just been trolling these message boards for too long... I think my new approach of being 100% realistic is good, but might be
misinterpreted as 'old-school' or conservative... Which I can assure you, I am not!

Just saw the NOAA map for the next month... Colder than average in the east. I hope it's wrong, I'm looking forward to spring flowers!

I do think that the USDA zone map is probably the best available. Other maps (the Canadian one esp.) try to incorporate too much data and simply confuse. See my end-note thing...

This probably isn't the place to post this...but we did talk about Plant Delights Nursery in the Carolinas (where I got my Sapphire Skies y.rostrata), but here's Tony Avent's latest newsletter, always interesting (hope I'm allowed to copy it...)

Love Tony's motto:
"I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least three times" - Avent
Interesting that his minimum temps are 0 to -5F (-20.5C !!!!)

Long, but interesting, newsletter follows:

This winter season sure started off with a bang as one cold front followed another throughout most of the country. While we only dropped to 16 degrees F twice, we had several consecutive weeks of high temperatures around the freezing mark which put plants in the garden in a deep freeze, while our soil also froze several inches deep. Temperatures have since then moderated back to normal for the season. Now, we hope that because many plants have received their required winter chilling hours, they will have the good sense to stay dormant. Oh look, here comes more cold weather.

I have been speaking around the country this winter and was in south Florida
(Naples) for the deep freeze there, then off to Houston which hit 12 degrees F just before I arrived, after enduring only light frosts over the last 15 years. It will certainly be interesting to see what comes through after these freezes, which is where we really get useful winter hardiness data.
Here at PDN we welcome the cold as we look to establish hardiness limits on our new trial plants. Our lows of 16 degrees F took out some of our test agaves including A. bovicornuta, A. congesta, A. hiemiflora, A. shrevei v.
magna (A. shrevei v. shrevei is fine), A. horrida v. horrida (A. horrida v.
perotensis are fine), A. deserti, and A. garciae-mendozae).. These are plants that we expected to die, but wanted to confirm our suspicions.

We have also been testing a number of cycads, which have proven to be an interesting experiment. Over the last few years we have found Cycas taitungensis, Cycas panzhihuaensis, and Dion edule to survive 9 degrees F.
This year, we planted Ceratozamia hildae, Ceratozamia kuesteriana, Ceratozamia latifolia and several others outdoors and so far, they look great...so we're ready for colder temperatures to arrive.

Despite the cold weather, there are still plants in flower. Iris unguicularis has been amazing, producing flowers as soon as the temperatures rose past freezing. This is such a wonderful iris, we hope everyone that is within its hardiness zone gives it a try...for the rest of you, it's a great plant for the sunroom where you can enjoy the sweetly fragrant flowers.

<http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Cu ... age41.html>
http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Cu ... age41.html

One of the winter chores many gardeners engage in is cutting back old hellebore foliage. While we endorse the practice, I'd caution you about doing it too early. I like to wait until the first flowers are just ready to open before removing the old foliage because despite being often tattered, the foliage serves to keep the plant cool and slow down the development of the flower buds. If the foliage is cut too early, the plant develops faster and the buds and flowers reach a size that can become damaged if the temperatures drop into the low- to mid-teens F. If you're a neat freak and have already trimmed your hellebores, a light layer of evergreen branches or pine straw will really help to protect and slow them down in the case of upcoming cold temperatures. The great thing about hellebores is even if the earliest buds are damaged, new buds will still be produced as long as the plant isn't too far along.

Another task that we like to perform in the winter is to removing the old wood chip mulch in our garden paths and replacing it with fresh wood chips.
We usually do this task every 2 years by shoveling the old broken down chips and tossing them into the adjacent planting beds. This effectively uses our paths as a compost pile, and is a great time to perform this chore, since most perennials are dormant.

Not only have we been working outdoors, but we've spent the winter writing plant articles. Since we already have 5 new articles posted on the web on topics including Colocasias, Epimedium, Salvia, Hellebores, and Pulmonaria.
Some of the articles are updates/expansions of previous articles, while the others are entirely new. Web experts tell us that no one reads anything other than short articles on the web, and if that's the case, these aren't for you. If on the other hand, you like more detailed information, we hope you enjoy what we've put together. We're still writing, so there are many more to come, but check out the completed articles...

<http://www.pulmonarialungwort.com/> http://www.pulmonarialungwort.com/

<http://www.helleborehelleborehellebore.com/>
http://www.helleborehelleborehellebore.com/

<http://www.epimedium.net/> http://www.epimedium.net/

<http://www.colocasiaelephantear.com/> http://www.colocasiaelephantear.com/

<http://www.perennialsalvia.com/> http://www.perennialsalvia.com/

We're also spending a good bit of time each week selecting and sorting hellebores for our Winter Open House coming up February 26-27 and March 5-6.
If you've never joined us for our mid-winter event, I think you'll find it a delightful and amazing experience. Between now and then, we'll hand sort all of our flowering hellebores, discarding over 50% and grouping the rest by color. Winter Open House provides you the opportunity to select your favorite hellebores in flower. Of course, everything else in the nursery will be available including many plants that didn't make the printed catalog. We hope you'll put us on your schedule.

The economy continues to devastate the nursery industry, and the latest casualty is Green Valley Growers of Willis Texas. Green Valley Growers was the 59th largest nursery in the country with 300 acres and one million square feet of greenhouse production. There are many other large growers who are still hanging on while operating in Chapter 11 or Chapter 12 bankruptcy...we wish them the best in trying to save their businesses.

I am sad to report the passing of a plant friend, Rick Nowakowski, 57, of Nature's Curiosity Shop in Nevada. Rick had collected agaves since age 10 and is the person most responsible for collecting and distributing variegated agaves around the world for the last 30+ years. Rick also had a passion for other succulents and his amazing gasteria hybrids are grown worldwide. Rick had suffered from Reflexive Sympathetic Dystrophy
(http://www.rsds.org) for many years, which made it difficult for him to not only work with plants, but tolerate severe pain. Amazingly, he persevered and still had plants for sale on Ebay when he passed away due to a heart attack.

Also lost this month was Pat Bender, Past President (1997-1999) and stalwart of the North American Rock Garden Society. There are probably many folks who don't realize the impact of the North American Rock Garden Society seedlist in distributing cool new plants around the world. Several plants that we eventually offered in the nursery were acquired thanks to this amazing seedlist. Pat ran the seed exchange for years and provided invaluable support in later years. If you like growing plants from seed and you aren't familiar with the seedlist (no photos, common names, or descriptions), you can find out more at <http://www.nargs.org/> http://www.nargs.org

Pat is survived by her husband, John. You can write to John and the family at 4123 NE 186th St., Lake Forest Park, WA 98155.

Another huge icon in the world of horticulture passed away on January 20.
Dr. Will Carlson, retired Michigan State horticulture professor died after an extended illness. Will's former students include powerhouses such as Allan Armitage, and many more of the movers and shakers in the world of horticulture. Carlson, 68 was a influential and powerful bedding plant specialist who retired from MSU in 2002, but continued to write a monthly column as he had done for 36 years in Greenhouse Grower Magazine, a trade publication that he helped start. An example of one of Will's columns can be read at http://www.greenhousegrower.com/viewpoi ... oryid=1347

Will also founded Bedding Plants International in 1969, a group dedicated to the promotion and marketing of bedding plants. Will is survived by his wife, Barbara, sons William and Wayne, six grandchildren, brother Robert and sister, Dorothy Albee.

Only a couple of weeks remain to submit your entry for the PDN Top 25 Contest for a chance to win a $250 PDN gift certificate. To enter, simply go to this link and select your choices for the Top 25 best sellers for 2010...good luck! http://www.plantdelights.com/New/contest.html

I'll stop here and let you get back to enjoying the new catalog online at <http://www.plantdelights.com/> http://www.plantdelights.com/

As always, thanks for taking time to read our rants and most of all, thank you so much for your support and orders this year!

Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com.

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Thanks and enjoy

-tony
Tony Avent
Plant Delights Nursery @
Juniper Level Botanic Garden
9241 Sauls Road
Raleigh, North Carolina 27603 USA
Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F
Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F
USDA Hardiness Zone 7b
email tony@plantdelights.com
website http://www.plantdelights.com <http://www.plantdelights.com/> phone 919 772-4794 fax 919 772-4752 "I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least three times" - Avent