PalmsNorth.com

The weather is colder than announced (sounds familiar?) but I was still able to open some boxes.
First I brought out of the garage the agave. It's been there since fall with absolutely no water. Usually the temperature doesn't go below freezing, but this year it did at least a few times:



It lost a few leaves but it looks healthy otherwise. Moved it on the porch where it gets some sun and got some water.

Next , the magnolia that I left for dead 2 years ago is doing fantastic. It was in one of the boxes, in the big pot but no water since November.



Next, the needle palm. Not a single leaf burned. They are really tough:



The sabal minor is ok, has some burned fronds, but healthy otherwise:



Not the same thing I can say about Sabal 'Birmingham' that I brought from US last year. It's still alive, but bearly:



Yucca rostrata is fine. It was in a box for the second year in a row with no heat added but with a window facing south:



The little waggie that had the trunk cut is fine, all green, no burned fronds:



The washie is half burned but is OK, I know that they recover very fast. It will stay in the box during the night for a while, till the forecast will show no freeze.





The hut for the big trachy is coming down tomorrow. From what I've seen so far, I'm sure it will be fine.

Sorry for the long post,

Tavi

Great Job! by June/July, you won't notice a thing... Great pics
Dan

Looking good!

Nice job protecting your palms.

Good protection work.

Looking forward to seeing the big trachy hut come down.

Barb

That Birmingham is alive underground trust me, i would like to see it pull out few leaves this season.

Thanks for the update.

I'm jealous that your Birmingham has made it, mine died in its second winter last year:( I'm sticking to needles and minors now!

Yeah, my needle took a licking, but still alive. 2 sabal minors, 1 at 50% strong spear, the other at 20% green, strong spear. Worst winter in over 30yrs and still alive, stick with those for sure.

I was impressed with my little wagnerianus: all green. I'll protect it from rain while it's still below freezing during the night (one or two more weeks) as last year I had to cut it's trunk because of spear pool.
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Tavi

very nice day in southern Ontario, 12C full sun, so finally the big hut came down:







very happy with the results.

Tavi

There ya go, Tavi, pristine!
Congrats on its winter protection.

Nice job Tavi, glad to see everything looks good....my Washy looks like yours. Will uncover it and few other palms in the next days. To much snow still here, few place still having a feet ....but i see grass in some other place on my yard ..

Ben

Looks perfect, awesome job.

washy back in the box, tomorrow night there will be -8C (17.6F)

this morning:

Oh poop, Tavi.

Well, you have toughen em up some how. Just hope it was not too cold.

bananieru wrote:this morning:

Exactly the reason why i left 4 of my 5 boxes up... I had the same sight this morning by me.

Nice post. Great to see another success story when we've been reading about looses.

first time flowers on the trachy: is it a male or a female?

I don't know the answer (never had a Trachy flower) but lovely, and thanks for posting!

You never know untill they open up..

Tavi,
Can't tell while the sheaths are still closed.
Once they're open fully, flowers tend to be yellowish, sometimes greenish.
Then we can have a look again.

Barb

Yucca rostrata is dying. Crown rot I think it's called, it's similar with spare pull, the leaves are rotten. Is it anything that I can do? It looked so good when I opened it up after winter. It got one snow on it though, and I did'n blow it off.

Tavi

Yucca rostrata is dying.

Damn.

is it now to know if it's a boy or a girl, or still too early?

dying rostrata. All the top is mushy:

is it now to know if it's a boy or a girl, or still too early?

I can't help you with that, i dont know, you should check the internet.

You could either wait until the Yucca puts out some side shoots(hopefully)
or try cutting the top of it a little at a time to see if the center is alive,
it may be to far down though...should send some shoots out(eventually) if its just the top.

Tavi,

re the sex of the Windmill, here's an excerpt from link provided
"Here's a couple of photos to help you identify your Trachycarpus gender.
Each example shows the male flower on the left, female flowers on the right.
Note that the female is much greener in color and won't release pollen when touched or disturbed."

Scroll down to Photos in the March 27/2008 post by LPN here: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forum ... hp?t=36877

That was a gorgeous big Rostrata.

Barb

looks like it's a boy .

The rostrata was a beauty and I have only myself to blame for killing it. Had no problems protected from snow with no heat added. As soon as the snow and the rain touched her, this is what happen.

so, is anybody interested in some pollen?

a closeup on the rotten yucca. Based on the amount of dead trunk I assume that the rotting process started before I could see any signs.

Tavi,

rotting process started before I could see any signs

Usually does.
Reminds me of the demise of my 6 foot Bottle Palm, sadly.

Barb

Tavi here's another site with a photo and good description male/female flowers:

"Occasionally there will be flowers that are of both sexes on the same tree. These flowers will look like the male but be larger than normal. If this happens you will get fruits.
Female trees have flowers that are more of a green than yellow color and will produce the small fruits. They will be a bluish black once ripe and oval in shape."

From here, about 1/3 down the page: http://www.palmtreepassion.com/windmill ... 4ojznamX3A

Barb

They start to open slowly and give pollen.

Great shot, Tavi.

ok, so now that the flowers are spent (they were all male, so no seeds) what should I do with stalks? Leave them and they will dry out or should I cut them?

Tavi

I cut mine off...eventually.