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IMO it's the needle palm in my zone. It can handle the cold with 'ease', probably down to about -22C without serious foliar damage... The only problem is that they are prone to rot, and do not recover nearly as well as Trachy's!

Thoughts?

In my zone the hardiest palm is tr. fortunei. This palm is quite cold hardy and manage with long periods when temperature drop below zero by celsius.

Needle.

Needle is the toughest most likely here. With a snow/rain cover I bet it would take my temps fairly well, trachys are tough buggers too, need wind and moisture protection though. Sabals are staying out this year with just snow/ice/rain cover so I'll report on them next year.

Bill

Here's how John (Growing palms in Co.Springs usda z5b)rated them.

Remember Takil was not the palm tested in this group,
probably the one he lists was Naini Tal-



Minimum temperature cold tolerance of selected palm species based on low volumetric soil
moisture during temperature event. 0.070%

0.143% -22F/-30C (Rhapidophyllum hystrix)
0.139% -16F/-27C (Sabal minor)
0.133% -14F/-26C (Trachycarpus fortunei 'Greensboro')
0.127% -12F/-24C (Trachycarpus takil)
0.125% -10F/-23C (Trachycarpus fortunei)
0.115% -4F/-20C (Washingtonia filifera)
0.111% -2F/-19C (Serenoa repens)
0.107% 0F/-18C (Butia capitata)
0.082% +25F/-4C (Howea fosteriana)

Jim- I appreciate the work that John does, it shows what is possible in a warm, dry, zone 5 climate... I can tell you right now that those low #'s can't apply here (moisture, cold duration, length of extreme cold, etc.), but they might be somewhat accurate in your area, which I assume is drier and has cold of shorter duration...

But, I get back to the original topic, what is, in your experience, the hardiest palm? Would it be needle palm? Sabal? Trachycarpus?

For outright cold I don't know if anyone can argue that needle palm takes the prize, but, for resiliency, I'd say you can't be a good old fortunei!

Yes, you asked for personal experience. I've killed three Trachy in the past dozen years, along with two Washingtonia.
As odd as it must sound, my only long-term (3 years) palms are Chamaerops humilis and Butia. Of those two, the Chamaerops keeps a bit more foliage than my avatar Butia, which loses pretty much all foliage each winter. (BTW, it already looks even better than my avatar image!)
If you'll accept 2nd hand data, I follow the palms at the nearby Tulsa Zoo pretty closely. Their Sabal minor do fantastic; their needle palms not quite as well but definitely survive.
--Erik

Personal eeh?

Hmmmm,well my Needles Sabals and Fortunei are all still here.


I think if we are talking total defoliation the Trachy wins with it's ability to come back.

All my palms had leaf damage this year and pretty much all saw the same temps,(except the inadequately
protected Fortunei which saw -2f)
the least damaged palm was a Naini Tal,who knows,it was sold as Takil a few years ago

The next 2 palms with the least damage were 2 Waggies,they are the slowest Trachys I have planted.
The Naini Tal is fastest and had the least damage,I always say-hardiness is as hardiness does.

Hopefully we will have a less severe winter this year because(among other reasons)a lot of the damage
to my palms is from moisture in the enclosures and repeated cold waves.


The problem last winter was sudden cold with no hardening off period.


The Fortunei mentioned saw the coldest temps,
my palms have not seen cold enough temps to answer you question.

To become fully cold hardy palm r. hystrix need hot summer. Our average temp for june is in range between +18 +20 by Celsius. Even in the my greenhose r. hystrix grows only 2 leaf per season

Of the big three (Needle, Sabal Minor, Trachy), I would say I cannot honestly answer. I give the Needles and Sabals minimal protection while building the new Berlin Wall around the Trachys. None of them come out of the winter unscathed. The Needles probably weather things better by a hair.