In theory you can grow palms here, but I'd plant only one and try it for a few years before I spent the money on more than one, and here's why.

Obviously we have very erratic weather here. Often it is not our 'average winter low temperature' that kills plants that are marginally hardy here. Instead it is the way the temperature can plunge in one day when a blue norther (cold front) comes roaring in. One year we made it to mid-December without a hard freeze. Because the weather had stayed relatively warm all fall, the plants were not acclimated to colder weather. On the night the first freeze came in, our temperature dropped from around 60 degrees during the day to 18 degrees that night. I lost a lot of zone 7 and 8 plants that couldn't handle the sudden plunge.

The same thing can happen when a fairly warm Feb. and Mar. are followed by a strong cold spell in April. Plants that have the idea that spring has arrived and which have begun to show new growth can receive devastating freeze damage when a late spring freeze or snow storm hits in April.

So, often it isn't the standard cold night that gets them, but just the abrupt change from warm to very cold.

All the stores in north Texas and Oklahoma seem to carry a lot of tropical-type plants this time of year, some of which are hardy and some of which are not. Here in southern OK, the tropical-looking stuff usually appears about July 4th and is in stores until fall. I think it is because no one in their right mind is going to plant anything else at this time of year but can talk themselves into believing these plants can be planted now and will survive. (Some will, some won't.)

As far as the big box stores (and some nurseries) selling plants.....I have found they will carry anything that they think somebody will buy, and the stores don't care if it is winter-hardy here or not. For them, the name of the game is sales, period. It is, in fact, to their advantage, if somebody buys a zone 8, 9 or 10 plant in zone 6 or 7, because that somebody will come back and buy something else the next year after that plant freezes back. Am I cynical? Absolutely. I see zone 9 and 10 plants in Dallas-Fort Worth nurseries and big box stores every spring and I often wonder if they people buying them realize they don't stand a chance of surviving.

One more thing about Oklahoma, and this is true in many parts of the country. Remember that zones are averages and lower temperatures can occur. I'm in zone 7b and should expect temperatures as low as 10 degrees, right? OK. However, several times we've gone significantly lower than that....down to as low as 1 degree, so I will lose zone 7 plants to a very cold spell right here in zone 7. So, just because a plant is said to survive in zone 7 and you live in zone 7, that doesn't mean the weather won't kill it anyway.

Dawn

Just in case you are interested... There is a very nice guy here in Oklahoma City who owns a pet store specializing in reptiles and who also grows palms. Here is a website you might find interesting :)

http://www.amazinggardens.com

I grow 5 or 6 different palms in my yard. A couple require some winter protection but Sabal minors are actually native to McCurtin County in sounthern Oklahoma. I also grow S. lousiana, Needles, Tracycarpus forturei (windmill) and Washingtonia fillifera (fan palm). The needle, s. minor and the s. lousiana require no protection at all in Tulsa area. Paul

Thanks for the tips, folks.
GM

Hi everyone. I see that Sabah pines grow wild in mccurtain county which tells me they can handle the Oklahoma erratic, ever changing temps. Even hard freezes. I'm going on a limb and going to see for myself by visiting mccurtain county. I have a needle pal which I baby inside. It's about ten years old so I hate experimenting with it by leaving it outside.