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Potted windmills outside all winter.......

islandbreeze
12 years ago

Just noticed my neighbor across the street left his potted windmills out all winter long. So far, they're still green, but don't look too hot. They are on the north side of his house, and our winter low temp has been somewhere between 3 and 6 above zero, my thermometer on the north side of my house recorded 3, but Weather Underground says 6. It will be interesting to see how they survive this mild winter here in Michigan.









Comments (9)

  • tropicalzone7
    12 years ago

    I wish your neighbor brought them inside! I doubt they will survive those kind of temperatures in pots (and especially in pots that are actually raised well above the ground like that). My potted windmill palms have been outside for most of the winter, but I brought them inside for about 5-10 nights when temperatures dipped below 25F or when it was just plain freezing cold outside!
    I hope those trachys make it, keep us updated!
    -Alex

  • jimhardy
    12 years ago

    My guess is that these are already dead unfortunately....
    Can't imagine the roots surviving/or that we have seen our coldest temps! 0^:

    Not hard to imagine a planted Trachy possibly surviving this winter-so far.(-:

  • wheelman1976
    12 years ago

    I doubt the roots have frozen in those pots.... the ground hasn't been anywhere near frozen yet here in West Michigan yet. But I'm assuming there's more to the roots freezing that'll kill them.

    Based on where we are at this winter I am starting to wonder if I even needed to wrap my boxes my windmills are in for the winter....today was close to 60.

  • HardyPalmFreak
    12 years ago

    They also have a lower chance of surviving, because of their placement on the north side of the house.

  • islandbreeze
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    The only bright side I see with these palms, even though they're looking rough, is that the newest emerging leaves were all that bright green color that only live palm leaves have...The rest of the leaves were that dark hunter green color, like they were freeze-dried. The other thing they have on their side, besides very mild temps, is that even though we hit single digits, it was only 1 night, and we were warm on either side of this cold event, so the pots may have defrosted pretty quickly.

    Alex- I will definitely keep everybody posted about these palms. One of my in-ground windmills was from the same nursery batch as these(grown by Monrovia).

    Jim- I have a strong feeling that we have seen the coldest temps here in SE MI for this winter. Temps are forecast to be well above average for at least the coming week, and the Lakes have not froze. After a week into February, averages start to rise pretty quickly. I hope I'm right.

    Wheelman- There have been a few days that the grass has been a little bit crispy, but I agree, the ground has not frozen solid here. It's funny that you mention not wrapping your windmills, I was thinking the same thing. I have only used Xmas lights 1 time this winter. I am wondering if just burlap would have been enough protection.

    HardyPalmFreak- I do think they would have had a much better chance right up against the south side of the house, but the benefit to the north side of the house is they don't have the winter sun dessicating the leaves while the pot is frozen.

  • jimhardy
    12 years ago

    Ryan

    "Dat's a bold statement"

    That it is not going to get any colder....but,that's a tough
    call right now-for one think the last 3 years were so brutal
    that I think a nice mild winter/spring is in order,not sure
    if it works that way though but maybe this year will be different.

    Usually this warm of a winter means a rotten March,April....?

    We'll just have to wait to find out but if it stays as mild
    as they say the next 15 days,I may only be protecting from rain...
    probably lift the covers on the Sabals,Needles and a
    few others,if it is forecast to continue out of Feb that way too-(-:
    but who knows we could get our first real Arctic outbreak in March )-:



    Click for weather forecast!

  • bill_ri_z6b
    12 years ago

    Jim,
    You're right. Nobody knows what the weather will do.........it's all up in the air at this point. Pun intended!
    But I'll enjoy the mild winter while it lasts! I had tons of flowers on my winter jasmine this season, right up until mid-January. There was one cold night (14 degrees) that fried the flowers that were open, but now it's opening more again.
    And the buds on my camellias are swelling, which could be bad if we get any really cold weather in the next several weeks.
    Here's the jasmine around the end of December.

  • User
    12 years ago

    My camellias are blooming again. They opened a few flowers in mid December. Nice jasmine, is it aromatic?

  • jimhardy
    12 years ago

    Beautiful!

    Reminiscent of a pic from Dr.Francko's book.


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