Same windmill....

Another windmill. Same setup minus the thermo cube

Another windmill

Next three will be sabals, two minors and one birmingham. One was covered similar to the windmill and two just had trash cans covering them. They look the best ironically

Sabal

Sabal

Your sabals look good. As far the windmills the largest looks like it will make it. Cant really say about the smaller ones. You will have to wait till spring and wait for the spears to start moving. I would not be using the christmas lights unless the low temp falls below 20F.

My thoughts are had you not protected them they would have been done GG that's all she wrote, But I think most of them will pull threw the one windmill is done. that is what I would classify as Catastrophic damage it will not recover from that. Question did you have protection on the one in the 3rd pic? It doesn't appear to have been protected. I have all true tropical in my yard but I live in Central Florida. Even here they require protection 2-3 times a year.

Some of the trachys might still pull through! I hope that they make it for you. The sabals look great so they should have no problems at all in the spring.
Keep us updated, Thanks for sharing!
-Alex

@patbatzu yes the windmill in the 3rd pic was covered. I know that one looks the worst. Even through the summer that one always seemed like the 'runt' of the litter. Oddly enough we had a 60 degree weekend with a bit of rain so I took the lids off all of them and that one actually greened up compared to its pale appearance in that photo so I'm hoping it's got some life left in it. I guess just like many of you it's a wait and see thing at this point. Warmer temps can't come soon enough. I have really grown attached to these palms

Here is a link that might be useful: GardenWeb

Hfactor, do you know what you minimum temperature was? The one in the first picture should make it, but not sure about the other Trachys in your post. What is a 'thermo cube', btw? The pic. below was taken from above (cluster of three palms, about four feet tall). These got covered with mini lights and light fabric. My other smaller ones, black, plastic garbage cans. All seemed to be okay, along w. Sabal minor and Needle. As for the lights and other protection, I only use them below 10 F. (which is very rare). I will also add, full winter sun is NOT an advantage if a plant is unprotected, combination of arctic cold with full sun will really burn the leaves, so my covering is as much protection from cold as it is for full, day-long, unobstructed, southern exposure!

Coldest temps we got according to the news was around 3 degrees with wind chills reaching the minus teens. Thermo cube is a plug adapter that has a temp sensor built in so it kicks my lights on when temps hit 25 degrees or colder. Then shuts off when it goes over 35 I think. Saw some others using it so I went out and found one but am hearing that may not be necessary for the trachys. I dunno. Just trying and learning

I was amazed at how much my dying saw palmetto greened up the rain. I'm sure it's not actually green in my case, but it's very interesting that it looks completely alive and well when it's wet outside and 100% dead when it's dry. I thought it was just a saw palmetto thing but since you said your trachys are doing the same thing, I wonder what brings that color out in it when it's raining. I'm sure it's not a bad sign that they are green even if it's only when it's wet!

-Alex