I was actually going to try the other way. I have six Windmills in my Lewes, Delaware (zone 8a) garden and wanted to give Pindo/Butia and Med Fan a try in the sunniest/most protected parts of the garden.

Where in NJ are you? We're a bit milder in the winter down here than in most parts of NJ (other than Cape May, perhaps). I don't believe in wrapping them, so will take the risk. If they fail, I'll continue with the tried and true Windmills some of us in Coastal Delaware have been planting.

Im also planting more tender things. Actually I think Im going to take a break from planting hardy palms this year so I can focus on growing more tropical plants in the ground and increase my tropical palm collection in pots.
But if my livistona chinensis can survive this past winter in its protection with no damage (it did get some damage late winter when it was out of the protection and hit by a temperature around 20F), then I figure that pretty much any palm hardy in zone's 8b and lower should be okay with protection here.
My med. fan palm survived with just christmas lights and a garbage bin and it had no damage at all.
One of my windmill palms only had a garbage bin over it (which means that it saw true zone 7 temperatures for sure!) and it had only a little damage to the lower fronds and is perfectly green overwise.
And all my other palms also did well. My sabal domingensis is the only one that is hanging on to a very very small thread, but Sabals dont give up their spears easily and its definitely holdling on.

Good luck! I dont blame you for trying more cold tolerant plants, but for some reason, winter hasn't defeated me yet!
-Alex

Does anyone in NJ know of any Garden Center that are selling Windmills or pindo palms yet? I cant seem to find any

Thanks
MIke

I'm completely hard headed too! Just started peroxide treatment for spear pull on my windmill cause I didn't protect this year. Yet I planted a sabal palm and a pindo. And still might plant my large pindo, who knows. However I also did stay with the hardys too. Since my large needle is doing so good I planted 3 more. Also planted 3 more windmills and a wagnerianus. 2 birmingham sabals, 2 brazorias, 2 sabal minor lousianas and 2 sabal minor savannah ga.

I started with tropical palms in pots that I cultivated from seeds or "orphans" I found on trips to Florida or Hawaii (coconuts, Christmas palm, dates, etc). I just got tired of carrying potted palms in every November and back out every April. So after noticing the success some locals had been having with Windmill palmettos, I planted several around my wrap around back porch. I've thinned out my potted palm collection along with the back aches from doing so!

I'm definitely gonna give Pindo and Med Fan Palm a try this season along with another Windmill out front.

I have planted 2 Takil seedlings,1 Brahea (super silver)and a Princeps....
that's probably all the palms I will plant,with the exception of a larger Princeps possibly.

Time to get the Brugs and Bananas in now(-:

I plan on planting 2 more palms in the next couple of weeks. A European Fan Palm, which I have ordered. And I am thinking about ordering a Sabal Tamaulipas which is on Ebay. It is very small, but it should be interesting to watch it grow.

I never had any luck with 2-3 Tamaulapas,it's a beautiful palms none the less(-:

If you want to try a fun Sabal,I recommend S.Louisiana,beautiful
and a pretty fast grower-mine put out 4-5 leaves a year
even after being defoliated and they are not even that big!(:

@lascapa: Where are you located? You have a similar zone (7b/8a) as I do in Coastal Southern Delaware. I'm very tempted to try Med Fan Palms, but more cautious about Pindos from what I've been reading about them in the winter.

Jim, I may just do that, try a Sabal S.Louisiana. I was looking for something that was not considered a slow or very slow grower.

I am about 60 miles south of Atlanta, I say 7b/8a because i've seen both zones for my area depending what map you look at.Same here, I originally wanted a Pindo but decided to try Med. Fan Palm.

I was working in Social Circle Ga. last year for a couple weeks and everywhere I went in Ga. I seen huge pindos. I would go with the pindo even if you had to grow it in a pot until in got larger.

NJoasis;

I've gone 5 or 6 years without a Pindo palm. I lost a nice one to snow in the bud. It didn't start to fail until the following September.

I just planted one today under the canopy of a Laurel Cherry and a Sweetbay Magnolia. Temps have been good in the Atlanta area since 2003, but snow and freezing rain are an annual threat.

I'd like to try another Med Fan, but I need to build up some higher, faster draining areas in the yard. Most palms love water only in the heat; never in the cold.

I get the idea that in addition to cold, they really resent winter WET, and my Winter climate is just too wet for these--have had fewer problems with COLD/WET with Trachys and even Med fans. So for the time being, my remaining Pindos are in containers. Right now my biggest containerized are P. canariensis and Queens but the Pindos will soon become the biggest ones I have to lug around. Have a Chilean Wine but don't trust the stability of Winter weather as of late--so it'll remain containerized too. Good luck with your newly planted Pindo, Alex 7b.

TZ, I have enough cold palms as well and i notice they are selling some a med. fan palms and (bluish)sylvester -both cold hardy at my local hardware store. Its in Park Slope Brooklyn on 5th Ave located between Prospect Ave and 15th Street. Its the Hardware store with the Spanish guy. He wants $25. What a steal. I have enough already. What a sylvester palm?

Alex 7b. You are a warm 7b. Even pindos do not want too much wet and cold. Mine lived thru this winter but I kept it covered and dry here in NYC.

Wow greg, that really is a great price! Wish I could get them also, but I am completely out of room for plants in the ground (I actually had to get rid of some shrubs to make some more room in the ground for the tropicals this year). A sylvester palm is in the Date palm family. Very nice, blue fronds, and they sure look beautiful when mature!
Enjoy the weather everyone!
-Alex

All of six of my Windmills' winter spears have opened into nice green fronds with this week's mild weather. I have never protected any of them during the winters. The growing season has begun.

Alex wrote....

Wow greg, that really is a great price! Wish I could get them also, but I am completely out of room for plants in the ground (I actually had to get rid of some shrubs to make some more room in the ground for the tropicals this year)

I love it!

Haha jim thanks! The shrub I got rid of wasnt only huge, but apparently Im allergic to it! Im glad that its gone because it was also in a really warm and sunny spot and the tropicals are really going to love it there (I already planted some ginger, a philodendron, cannas, and a blue java banana in its place!). Hopefully the yard will look more tropical this year than ever before! I'll post some pics when the sun comes out on thursday!

I had to laugh when I read that because....

in order to set up my garden I removed a 75-100 year old
11' tall Yew and dug up about 12 nasty bushes!

Let's go ahead and add trimming 3 50' branches off a Maple tree
on the east side of the yard...this gives
the east side right of the main walkway about 3-4 hrs more of sun!(-:

There is basically nothing left to dig up or remove anymore!

Wow, digging up your shrubs alone must have taken a huge amount of time! It took me at least 20 minutes to get rid of each bush for me, but the soil is probably a lot rockier and heavier here than by you. I got rid of this thorny shrub that I hate and this yellow shrub that everyone has. Now I have a fig and a banana so a basket of figs every year and maybe even some bananas are a much better deal than some common and ugly shrub (not sure why, but the less tropical a plant is, the uglier I think it is. There are definitely exceptions, but not many!).
-Alex

I agree,out with the native plants in my yard!(-;

I think I spotted a needle palm seedling growing in my garden. While I scattered a bunch of various hardy palmetto seeds I gathered in the Carolinas in March, its too soon for those to have sprouted and grown.

But last winter I gathered some needle palm seeds from growing in a local garden and scattered last spring. So perhaps it sprouted over the summer and wintered over. It only has one blade and the tip is a bit brown from the cold, so it looks like it wintered over underneath some perennial liriope grass. I'll have to keep my eye out for more. Only time will tell, but it looks like every other palm seedling I have growing inside.

They are naturalizing in your garden.

If you define NATURALIZING as: "borrowing" seeds from someone's seed cluster in a nearby town, and throwing them in my own garden, yes! But it's pretty much the result I was hoping for!

I live in NJ and have been growing trachys and banana palms for years now. These palms do great in central NJ. If anyone is interested in obtaining some larger, cold hardy palms, shoot me an email at ELMAN23@aol.com