Yeah, well, coldest winter in 20 years + borderline plant, what can you do. I'm glad the one at the Smithsonian wasn't removed before it had a chance to recover. Fingers crossed that we don't have back to back bad winters, but, personally, I'm not optimistic as they often tend to cluster. And the anomalous cold waves haven't really stopped this year.

At least w/respect to palms, I'm not sure if this was actually as bad as 94. I think 94 would have killed ANY trachy in DC, no matter what. Though in other ways, it might have been worse. I think a small yucca rostrata would have survived 94, but I had 2 die. The problem was wet snow covering the ground for weeks on end. But...there was also benefit in having good snow cover for things that were true geophytes, and it probably helped keep BLEs from drying out. Like my Escallonia 'Apple Blossom' survived. I'm sure it would have perished w/o snow cover.

I was also impressed down in Virginia Beach that many pindos survived there...different climate, some miles away but at least a palmy looking place isn't a far drive away. It's funny how 20 years ago it was completely different, you had to hunt all over VA Beach even to find a Trachy. Now Sabal, Pindos, and Trachys are everywhere.

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Sun, Aug 31, 14 at 13:28

For us, farther west...it wasn't that it was terribly cold...it was that it was terribly cold three different times. The first time, everything held up...the second...looked ratty...the third, dead.

Darn weather...but yes, erratic weather contines this year..so I don't hold my breath either.

According to the farmer's almanac, at least for the southern great lakes region, we're supposed to have another bad winter again. Hopefully the almanac is wrong...but thank you for your post. You have a lot of good information there. At least I know what would happen to my windmills here in an average winter unprotected.

Regarding Virginia Beach, I was actually surprised how rough the pindos looked when I was there in late june but how good the windmills looked on the other hand. I can't recall seeing any palmettoes though...

Availability is why you see more palms in Se Va.. The cold period there from the mid 50s -the 80s were aweful for subtropicals, specially in the 70s and 80s. Prior to the 60's genrally SE Va could have grown palms and subtropicals like you see today, but availabilty was not there.I hope we return to xome more cold again cuz we dont need all this silliness of global warming.

Yep, my relatives told me 1985 was so cold that every last oleander in SE VA was killed to the ground. Still I doubt it was ever as palmy there as it is now. They are friends w/a retired local landscaper who was friends with Fred Huette (sp?) and I've read his book. I barely remember much but it implies many of those kind of things were considered experimental even back in the 60s. Back in the early 1990s he once literally took us on a drive to see a _couple_ Trachys he know about _in the entire VA Beach area_! They were very uncommon. There was also a Chamaerops in an alcove in Williamsburg (not at the excellent Dewitt Wallace garden, which is now gallery space) but I never saw it after 1994 and I'd doubt it is still there.

I personally think it's been a kind of internet "crowd sourcing" since the late 1990s. I think that even though the various hardiness zone maps, even going back to the Harvard one (the very first) have grouped VA Beach's zone with the interior gulf south, most nurseries there had a long history of telling people "oh no, we are colder, you can't grow those windmill palms" etc. Back in the mid 90s, there were only a couple nurseries that would even sell those. I bet the few people who had pindos back then had to get them on the outer banks. Then people started to altavista, then google "palms in virginia beach" and probably found reports of how well they can do. Now all of these are offered by almost every nursery in the area.

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Thu, Sep 25, 14 at 20:12