I have a windmill palm, no idea of the variety, that I planted last fall, that seemed to be doing fine. It's in a protected, southern spot near the house, but just recently, I noticed spots on the fronds & the center spear was yellowing. Yesterday, I went out & tugged on it, it pulled out easily-not good news! I sprayed it w/ Neem, anything else I can do? I was going to get another windmill, but maybe I'll try a needle palm instead.

They're just so pricey, I hate to kill a plant like that (I also have 2 Japanese maples that are giving up the ghost this spring). I'm going to add a few bananas, but they just don't have the presence that palms do...

Thistle, fall is the worst time of year to plant a marginally hardy plant, and windmill palms are definitely marginal in zone 7. BUT if it still has green leaves, it has a good chance of surviving but you won't know for sure until it shows new growth. Depending on how badly it was damaged, that could be anytime from tomorrow until well into the summer.

The spear has pulled on my own windmill palm three winters in a row; the first two times it put out a new spear by mid-May and recovered fully (almost miraculously, in fact). This year it suffered a lot more damage so I'm not sure if it will make it. Some people use fungicide when the spear pulls, but I've never given it any special treatment. Several more experienced palm growers in the DC area have told me that it's common for windmill palms to lose their spears during the first few years, but as they get bigger and their trunks grow in diameter they get hardier.

BTW don't dismiss banana power! They grow very big, very fast, and look every bit as tropical as palms. Musa basjoo is one of the most impressive plants in my garden--in fact it's the first thing people usually notice when they visit.

Oops, forgot to include the photo--this is what I see out my back windows all summer and well into the fall--hard to believe that the Musa basjoo dies all the way to the ground every winter!

{{gwi:409921}}

Wow!
I've never considered any of these for my vast spaces, because I just don't know anything about them. They're beautiful.

Good luck with them -- and if there's something that takes evil, mean sun and no protection during the winter? Do tell!

Christine

Beautiful pics & a great composition!-what's the silvery tree, w/ horizontal layers, to the right of the musa basjoo?

Thanks Christine, except for my palms (hidden by the japanese maple in the second photo), most of the plants in my garden are completely hardy. My Musa basjoo has made it through the past 5 winters with a good mulch; although it dies to the ground, it grows back to about 15-20 feet tall every summer. It slowly forms a large clump and if you have room for it to spread, I highly recommend it.

Thistle, I think you're asking about the aralias. The leaves aren't silvery, it's just a trick of the lighting. The really tall ones in the back are supposedly our native A. spinosa (devil's walking stick, very appropriately named!) but I'm not certain about the i.d. The one with white flowers in front of them is Aralia elata, a close relative.

The large-leafed plant on the left next to the cannas is Firmiana simplex. This grows into a fairly large tree, but as a seedling or on shoots from a stump it produces enormous, tropical-looking leaves, especially if you cut it to the ground in the spring (much as you can do with a paulownia). It is completely hardy here. The cannas are C. indica 'Red Stripe', one of my favorite but I think I lost them--I took a chance and left them in the ground last fall, and they haven't come up yet.

BTW this is only the upper part of my garden; the yard slopes up away from the house fairly steeply. My yard is very narrow (only 20 feet wide!) but it is surpringly deep for a city lot.

I have lots more photos, feel free to peruse my photo album, or send me a private email if you have any questions.

Here is a link that might be useful: July 2006 photos

christine, musa basjoo loves sun, the more the better, as long as it has adequate water. The leaves do tend to shred badly in a windy location. In zone 7b, I'm guessing you might do OK with just several inches of leaves/bark mulch for the winter.

johnnie, how do you mulch your basjoos? I use layers of frost-killed banana and canna leaves/stems, laid on top. Has worked well for me for the last three winters. But mine is next to a sheltered south-facing foundation wall, with a pond on the other side that had a deicer running all winter, so the soil stays pretty warm compared to my zone.

Watergal, I do the same thing you do: in the fall after a hard freeze has killed the leaves I just pile on whatever leaves, unfinished compost, and everything I've cut down in the garden, I have on hand, in a big mound over and around the pseudostems. I don't wrap them or try to give them any other special protection. They do die all the way to the ground (except for the mild 2005-2006 winter, when about 2-3 feet of pseudostem survived) and come up late, but once they start growing their growth rate is amazing.

Yes, M. basjoo likes a lot of water (and fertilizer) but it has done well for me on fairly dry soil with irregular watering. I think as long as the soil doesn't get bone-dry they will be okay (but they will definitely do better with more water!). I do try to water it about once a week if there hasn't been any rain. You're also right that the leaves will shred in the wind; my own yard is fairly sheltered and there are large trees in the yards upwind--people often comment that my banana looks like it was grown in a greenhouse! But when we get those late summer thunderstorms with high winds, they can start looking pretty ratty.

Hmmmmm......

I'm picturing another garden.....

These are too cool!
C.

My Washingtonia robusta bit the dust. Not unexpected, I planted it in the fall and it's marginal here.

But my Musa basjoo did great - looks like there was partial stem survival on about 5 pups. I covered it with a mound of hay and leaves and reemay.

The banana has moved to the palm's former home, where it will get more sun. Don't know if I'll try another palm (though I'd pick a hardier one for sure) as my space is limited.

Thanks for the info & encouragement, I'm not giving up on my windmill yet. I'm thinking about how to replant this small (5' x 12') protected southside bed. Things that are staying are the windmill palm, 2 figs (Conadria & Battaglia Verte), the other fig (unidentified) took a hit over the winter but is resprouting from the roots, I may dig it up & put it in a pot. Other plants that are flourishing are 2 hypericums (Albury purple & something else) & centranthus (blooming its head off). But since I want to put some bananas in this bed, I got a soaker hose , so it can be watered more than 'infrequently', which was how it was last year-these plants, which are used to no water may not adapt.

Some new plants I just received, which are not tropical, but very cool, are a thujopsis dolobrata, sinocalycanthus chinenses, & 2 small loropetalum 'Daruma'. None of these are destined for the 'pseudo-tropic' bed, but it's going to be fun to fit them into other spots in the yard. I think I'm going to be busy all weekend, moving plants, & grubbing in the dirt...

I finally have my new tropical/pseudotropical bed planted. It's about 8.5x22 feet, a former veggie garden. I have a musa sikkimensis in the center. I'm trying this instead of basjoo since it gets more wind; not sure if it'll overwinter or not but I hope to get a pup to take inside as insurance.

The lower end of the bed stays very soggy, so I've got a variegated red twig dogwood in there (winter interest), along with assorted umbrella palms, cypress, elephant ears, louisiana iris, rain lilies, calla lilies and cannas.

The rest of the bed has a dwarf forsythia and variegated miscanthus (spring and winter interest, respectively), more cannas, assorted hardy and annual hibiscus, a mandevilla tuteur, variegated ornamental pepper, fiber optic grass, japanese bloodgrass, candylily, and verbascum. I'll stick some extra daffodils in there in the fall, so I have something else to look at before all the tropicals go back in next year.

If you want a basjoo, I can try to get a pup rooted for you, but it will probably take a month or so, at which point it will be too hot to mail it safely. We could try to rendevous somewhere in Alexandria or Vienna when I come down to visit friends. Or you could drive up to Westminster, MD to pick it up if you are willing. Let me know. Email me at SJohnson13 at aol dot com.

Here's a photo of one of my "waggie" (Trachycarpus wagnerianus) seedlings that survived the winter. This was one of the runts of the litter, grew slower and stayed smaller than the rest and I finally planted it out last year just to stop thinking about it. It was watered irregularly, shaded out by other plants, and I forgot to mulch it until after cold weather hit. A cold winter including a low of 7 degrees did quite a bit of damage to it, with the spear pulling and all but one leaves frying, yet here it is, pushing out a new spear already:

Closeup of the emerging spear:

I've also been pleased with the survival of a hardy cycad, Cycas panzhihuaensis. I could hardly believe reports that this species was so hardy, but my own plant survived and although it lost all its leaves, new ones started pushing out a couple of weeks ago. Here are the emerging leaves at about 3-4 inches long:

And here they are less than 2 weeks later, almost fully expanded (that's my kitty Isabella playing peekaboo):

Fabulous plants AND a cat all in one photo. Heaven!

Looks like I'll have to give Trachycarpus a try.

I am SO happy to report that my ailing windmill (w/ spear pull) looks much better, w/ 2 sets of fronds (although the tips look burnt) emerging...I think it will pull through! I've got some sabal minors ordered, I'm planning on putting a low-tech drip watering system in the beds around the house, & the bananas & elephant ears are getting larger!

The other 'sort of tropical' plants I'm thinking about adding are loquat & fatsia-any advice? I know the fatsia would need some shade & a protected location.

Thistle, I'm glad to heard your windmill is recovering. My own ailing palm--Trachycarpus fortunei "Taylor form"--is still looking pretty awful. It hasn't gotten any worse, and the 3 or 4 living leaves are still hanging on, but there is still no sign of a new spear. And as with most palms, if that vulnerable growing point is dead, the whole plant is effectively dead.

Can't comment on loquats but regarding Fatsia japonica, these have done VERY well for me, and I know others around the area who are growing them successfully. They are not supposed to be hardy in zone 7, and do generally suffer some damage in their first winter but once established my plants have taken temperatures as low as 6 degrees with very little damage (although they do turn blackish green, go limp, and generally look like boiled spinach when it gets that cold--their subsequent recovery is almost miraculous). Shade, especially in the winter, seems to be critical. If it ever goes below zero that may fry them but it hasn't happened in city in quite some time, and not in the 6 years I've been gardening here.

Here's the infamous "Fatsia flop", photographed after 7 degrees last February--believe it or not, these plants recovered fully, and suffered no leaf loss and very little damage:

Your fatsia flop looks a lot like a Philodendrum selloum flop that happened to one of my indoor plant clients in a foyer next to a cold parking garage last February. They bounced back too. The Janet Craig dracaena lived but I had to cut off the leaves on the bottom half because of cold damage. :(

Question about Sabal minor - I have to move mine if it's ever going to get enough sun. I have a garden on a slope - the top is normal, somewhat amended clay. The bottom is clay that holds water for days; I've taken to putting bog plants there and so far they like it. So where on the continuum should I put the sabal? It will get a lot of irrigation from the soaker hose over the summer and fall but not in the winter.

Watergal, I don't have enough experience to give you a good answer, but I do know that S. minor will grow more slowly in dry soil, and that it often grows in low-lying areas in the wild, and often in areas where there is period flooding (but not standing water). I would suggest putting it in a spot where it will have a continuous supply of moisture, but where the soil is not consistently waterlogged.

Thanks, johnnie! One more question, if you don't mind - how deep to you mulch your sabal minors, and what do you use? Do you ever use frost cloth or boxes or Christmas tree lights or anything else during severe cold snaps? Are you in an urban part of DC? I'm sure that would be quite a bit warmer than the outer Baltimore suburb I'm in. (I guess that was three or four questions, wasn't it?)

Here's an update with some photos I just took; first, Trachycarpus "takil", putting out good growth; spear did not pull on this one, although it did suffer some damage:

Closeup of damage that only became apparent after the spear opened:

Waggies (T. wagnerianus) did well also, with no spear pull although one did have damage similar to the T. takil; not sure why but for the second winter in a row the one on the left suffered quite a bit more damage than the other two; that sad-looking thing behind them is T. fortunei "Taylor form" which, just when I had given it up for dead, is just starting to push out a new spear:

Here's a closeup of new growth on one waggie:

And a closeup of the damaged waggie leaf: