Both the chinese windmill palm and monkey puzzle tree are available from Burnt Ridge Nursery (you would be better off waiting til spring delivery I'm sure, though).

Were my yard bigger I'd consider adding one of the palm's (there is a guy on one of the forums I read who has one in the chicago area). It is likely that you would have to give each of them protection (at least on the coldest nights of the year) for a couple years, until they are well established.

I'm in Macomb County, about 1/2 mile from Lake St. Clair. I've also got a couple bamboo (though I will be moving one or both of them to my brother-in-law's house), a fig (though my neighbor's fig is much bigger) and a passion flower growing outdoors.
]

~Chills

I never new we could grow some of the mentioned plants here in MI...wow I learn something new everyday still!! Palms??? I think of FL when I think of them. What is "monkey puzzle?" Now passion Flower I have heard of..will have to look that one up. Can you get them near here? I'm in Genesee CO..Flint

You will not find any of the plants we mentioned at any of the local nurseries (though someone at Telly's might know that such plants can survive here, they are still not likely to carry them)

If you are truly interested in such plants, ordering from reputable online sources is likely your only option.

~Chills

Your Lucky your all in the states. I live in Windsor, across the river from Michigan and we also, can ONLY grow the Chinese Windmill Palm / Trachycarpus fortunei. (That I know of for certain - there are others being tried) Unfortunately, being tropical, the plant has to be brought in from BC where the climate there is more like California except BC does get hit with some severe winter weather. This is how we know it will survive (after a few years of winter protection) here in our climate.

The plants I can order are small (1gallon-$18cad)and they take a long time to grow, I heard 2-4 palm leaves a year. And you can't mail order bigger than a 1 gallon plant from them and they have a smaller one, probably the 2 1/2 inches. They also want 30% of the total order for shipping or $32 whichever is greater. Ouch... Tropic.ca
But places that carry these plants have other hardy tropicals such as 2 hardy BANANA TREES (1 definately for our area with winter protection Musa Basjoo (Japenese Fiber Banana)& Musa Sikkimensis (it's a beauty to and said to be as hardy as the Musa Basjoo once established (2-4 years) You have to cut down banana's in our area down to 2-3 feet and insulate.
And the Canna's...outstanding(need to lift root to over winter inside.) They have bamboo and hardy paw paw fruit trees and figs, makes a tropics fanatic yearnful. Mind you, you'll find great prices for some of these at one store and better prices or availability and sizes at another.

Best info I found for Tropical Hardiness for our area is at www.Bambooworld.com For you people over the border (US)who want to find a closer place to order from search the words 'Trachycarpus fortunei' (Chinese Windmill Palm) and those Latin words should bring you up mostly stores selling them and any tropicals you can think of. If your not after the Chinese Windmill Palm particulary, but a tropical on-line store that may not even sell the Chinese Windmill Palm, use 'Musa Basjoo' (Japenese Fiber Banana). Happy hunting!

Yardman, you must be right over the river in the Michigan area to have that Zone. Though I've never seen that area classified as a 7, I know it has been classified a Zone 6 as is our area, though I still tend to stick with the better known Zone 5. Just don't have the money to be risky, some Zone 6 plants would survive here while others won't, so I just wait till someone incites my curiousity over a rare plant in our area and check it out. And if I want it bad enough... ;)

Anyway, Yardman and anyone else growing tropicals in the Detroit Area/Lower Michigan, which tropicals such as bamboo, yucca's and figs do you have growing anyway? At least those plants you've had overwintered for winter or two.

- Sandy

As far as Monkey Puzzle Trees, I've seen them grow in Eastern Hungary which has a much more continental (much more cold in Winter) than SE MI. I think that the drainage is more of an issue.

Has anyone else had success with Palms or Monkey Puzzles in Great Lakes Area?

Let me know, I'll probable start them inside late Winter and transistion permanently outside in late April/early May 07.

I have palms, yuccas, cacti, bananas, and all kinds of neat plants in my yard in the Chicago sububrs. For the palms, I simply gather the fronds in bungee cords, string rope lights around the ground, working my way up the trunk and leaves, and then wrap several layers of frost cloth around it. I do this during the coldest weeks of winter, which has been three the past few. For 345 days a year my Windmill Palm does fantastic. Yuccas and cacti are very hardy.

Windmill Palm summer 2004

{{gwi:868290}}

Windmill Palm fall 2006
{{gwi:868291}}

Christmas Eve
{{gwi:867427}}

Mid January 2006
{{gwi:867429}}

During a large January Snowfall
{{gwi:867431}}

Front bed with Yucca Rostrata and other desert plants
{{gwi:868292}}

New Windmill Palm
{{gwi:868293}}

Backyard

Check out our record early Chicago snowfall on thursday! (We didn't even get frost, and yet it snowed.

{{gwi:868295}}

{{gwi:868296}}

{{gwi:868297}}

{{gwi:868298}}

Generally, for the past several years, growing the plants I have been growing hasn't been too much of a challenge, and it sure looks exotic and is original. I really enjoy it.

Kyle

I'm glad you posted more pics. I've always enjoyed the ones you've posted before. You've got a much neater and better organized garden than I have. (as I'm the kind of plant collector who just wants one of everything)

~Chills

Very cool Kyle! How exciting. I know that the Royal Oak Public Library north of Detroit has had outside palms for at least 40 years and now they are very hardy and are very mature. It just happened to be on the south side of the building and stick closer to the ground and have some help from being in a microzone caused by the building; as a result, many residents have been planting palms/tree trunked yuccas/banana trees for years with much success.

I'd like to know what you do with the banana trees in the winter? Do you have to cut them down to the ground, wrap, or rope-light them ? Please let me know. I have one outside and it still looks very hardy with lows already down to about 30F.

Thanks,
Gerry

I'm curious about the hardiness of these palms. I noticed it was in the single numbers above zero this morning in Chicago. Did you have to tie and wrap the windmills for this cold snap, or in your experience, is the current level of cold in your area perfectly OK for unprotected palms. Also, have those palms in the picture experienced a truly cold Midwestern winter with prolonged stretches of subzero temperatures? I'm just trying to get a handle on how much protection is required, in reality, over the long term to keep viable and healthy palms in highly visible areas.

I have heard of palms growing in zone 4 after a few years of protection, and withstanding some of the harshest winters that grow here. Although I don't remember exactly the location or place in zone 4, I do remember reading about how certain palms have florished with little to no protection what so ever. This was about 5 or 6 years ago, when I read of this. I don't remember exactly the name of the palm either, but I do remember reading of them growing in zone 4 for sure though. Our Summers are pretty long enough, even if it doesn't alway's get up in the 80's and 90's everyday, we are at least mostly in the mid 70's to low 80's; but hot summers up here in the north central states, are common for the most part, being we're usually hotter then the tropics in the summer, being we don't have the wide bodies of water to influence our weather, like they do more south of us. Remember this principle though; land heats rapidly and with no large bodies of water to regulate the temps, it'll stay that way, explaining why we're so hot up here, winters on the other hand, another story, and there goes the chance of having anything growing at all. Although water on the other hand warms slowly, and cools slowly as well, thus creating the moderating effects of climates with land near and around them. But nothing to regulate the weather up here. I said all that to say this in question form, if a cold hardy palm is planted in the ground early enough, after the last day of frost, and goes throughout spring through fall, wouldn't this condition the palms to be able to witstand the rigors of the winters up here? being after they have been babied for a few years or so first, of course? also I'm certain of specific Trachy's that survive in the Chinese mountains of 8,000+ feet so I wonder with all of the harsh winters they are sucombed to there and most of the year on top of that, couldn't they survive here in the north central states? being our snow and frost does disappear in the summer and late spring, once to reappear in late november, early december give or take; in the chinese mountains where these trachy's grow, the ground is frosted most of the year and or snow, not to mention frigid temps to boot. I don't mean to bable on but do you get where I'm going with this? Anyone have any ideas on what I'm saying, please let me know. I'm thinking at least trachy's will survive zone 4, zone3 maybe??? and maybe other similar palms like these wether in the trachy class or others as well, and thanks.

I knew the Monkey Puzzle in Portland, Oregon and Eureka, California, both milder than here in Michigan. I am in Monroe, Co and I've never seen the Monkey Puzzle here. 6 inches of snow tonight.