How old or large are you palms? If they're very young, this cold winter may have done them in. The fronds on these fan palms always burn and look cruddy in winter (at least here in NM). They even burn pretty bad in Las Cruces. However, if they're larger palms, and the trunk didn't freeze, they should recover quickly in spring and start growing new fronds.

And just as an FYI (forgive me if you already know this), a much better palm for Albuquerque is the Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei). I recently saw them for sale at Osuna Nursery. They are much hardier and frost tolerant than Washingtonia robusta (Mex. Fan Palm) and grow very well here.

Good luck-

cd

One of them is pretty young...about 2 feet tall and maybe a year or two old. The other one is pretty good sized...its trunk is about 4.5 feet tall. The larger one, however, was not growing so well this last summer. The little one really took off. Thanks for the advice on the Windmill Palm. I really didn't like the way they looked as much as the Mexican Fan, but if these don't survive I may try the Windmill. Where is global warming when you need it??

Is there anything I should do to kickstart them if they're not dead?? Thanks!

Hey iblowstuffup -

I wouldn't give up quite yet!

First off, if you prefer the look of Mexican Fan Palms to Windmill Palms (I have both growing in my back yard and I do prefer the Mexican Fans as well), a good alternative perhaps would be to try California Fan Palms. They are a bit harder to find than Mexican Fans in nurseries, etc., up here, but they are more cold hearty than Mexicans and look very similar.

However, having said that, I have two Mexican fans growing in my back yard, and they were both planted very young and small. Every year the fronds, as Cactus Dude mentioned, completely burn...but generally by early march, the new green fronds grow back in, and they grow back in rather quickly and by mid-March, early April, it looks great again.

My advice with Mexican Fans is to - as it sounds like you may have - protect the heck out of them in the winter. For mine, because they are smaller, I wrap them in burlap, then thick blankets, and then plastic coverings (to keep moisture out from the blanket/burlap fabrics) and I generally thoroughly wrap the tops as well during the colder nights.

Also, a trick I learned in El Paso is to thoroughly tie "up" all of the fronds together tight and pointed up for the cold season. This will add extra protection to the middle spear area (which is the area that is pivitol in a palm's ability to survive). In El Paso, these palms grow everywhere, however, it still gets well below freezing often in evenings, so when they tie up the fronds like that, they are aiding protection of the key middle area of the palm.

If the fronds all brown and die off, that is to be expected in our winter climate. But it doesn't mean that the palm is dead...just give it protection (and no watering in the winter) and it should survive. Also, it surely helps if it is south or west facing...

Thanks alot! I'll see if they come back.

I just wanted to report on the progress of my palms.

The larger one is coming back. Its pushing up some Green Shoots and it looks like its going to survive. The smaller one, however looks rotten on the top. But I'm still not giving up yet!

Hey iblowstuffup -

That is great to hear. Yes, your big one will be just fine. Once you see that green growth coming from the middle, you know it'll be fine. Plus, a palm that size...once the green growth starts coming it, it greens up very quickly.

*One warning. It is currently (March 29) particularly cold for this time of year at night. The last night and next couple may be near freezing at night. If I were you, I would give the palms - especially that middle, lower "spear" area of growth, some protection in the evenings with burlap, etc. Just keeps them a little warmer and protects against freezing. Even if you don't protect it, it should be OK because it isn't getting much below freezing, however, if anything, protection will help it keep growing quickly come Saturday, Sunday, etc., when the warm temps return.

As for your smaller one, I would agree with you that the "rotten" look is reason to be concerned. Typically, that is a possible sign of death for a palm...the rot typically means that the middle spear - the bud area - froze. If you *lightly* tug on the middle spear, as to pull it out, and it slides out (and is slimy, rotten-like, etc.), you know that unfortunately, the palm is dead. If it does not pull out and is just still brown/burnt, it very well may be alive and will come back...just a little slower than the big one.

Either way, the good news is that at a minimum one of your two will be just fine and the warmer weather will be fired up again in a few days. I believe this spring/summer will be a particularly warm/hot/dry spring/summer, which while not great unfortunately for the environment, will be very good for your palms' growth.

The other good news is that the longer your palms are in the ground, and the more winter(s) here they are in, the more acclimated and aged they will be, and the better their survival range for future years.

Best of luck and let us know how they continue to go!

I'M IN SHREVEPORT, la. I have 8 Mexican Palms, they are so beautiful and then winter hits. I wish someone could come up with a way to keep their beautiful frongs from freezing.
I also have several Windmill Palms, my Chinese Palm also turns brown. They always come back in the Spring...none have ever frozen.
We also have 4' Varigated Century Plants and they DO get covered.

I feel your pain, gerrij. Every year in Southern NM, our Mexican fans look like crap by January. I swear I won't plant another, then Spring comes and by May, most are beautiful again. The California fans winter over here without burn, but are slower growing and more expensive, so everyone plants the less cold hardy yet fast growing Mexican relative. Amazingly, El Paso, TX, only 45 miles away, is a half zone warmer and most of their Mexican fans look good all year.

Very interesting about the Mexican Fan palms in Albuquerque. That is one palm we cannot grow up in the
Great Basin desert of southwest Idaho, although we are
having success with others. I should try the California
Fan Palm, since we are having alot of success with the Trachycarpus [Chinese Windmill Palms]. We wrap the trunks
thoroughly with burlap [2 - 3 layers], especially towards the top. We do not ever cover the leaves since the plant
must carry on photosynthesis. We mulch the area around
the base of the palms heavily, and water them well in November and then about twice a month during the rest of the winter. We had the most snowiest winter in over 40 years this winter, and the leaves of the palms came through with no damage. I do wrap several strands of lights around the trunks also. There was a problem when I wrapped the leaves of the palms --- they developed fungus
and crown rot, and several died, even though the Northern
California palm expert told me to do that, plus not to water them during the winter. I have had no mortality since I changed the procedure with water, wrapped just the trunks. I remove the wraps around the first of March. The palms in my front yard are already showing new leaf growth. This warming trend is perking us all up.

We also are trying to Sabals and hopefully some others soon. Good luck with the palms there in New Mexico.

IDAHOCACTUS-do you have any pics of your palms in Idaho,are they being planted at business or homes?I think the california might have a tuff time there,I have seen some California fans here die,even larger ones but not too many,but I have seen some that get no protection and come back looking perfect in the spring,so who knows.

DESERTLVR-I seen the mexican fan palms there 2 weeks ago and the Mexican fans did have leaf burn but atleast they will look better in a couple months,I prefer the look of the California palms over the mexican fans and I wish they would plant those more,the ones they do have in Las Cruces look great,and while on my way down to Las Cruces I went to El Paso and they also plant the Mexican fans more,but they do look better.

I have one California fan that I mummy wrapped with burlap and it kept more of its green color than the others that I just wrapped the trunk.I also have some windmills,a mexican fan,and a european fan.On all of them I just wrapped the trunk with burlap and my fronds on my windmills have taken a beating with cold and winds but they'll be fine, you can search this forum in this section for new mexico palms trees or webshots and see some pics of local palms here.

It is always great to hear from the ABQ palm growers. My big box bought European fan palm had a small trunk and a pup when I planted it last spring (5 gal. size). This winter I covered the palm with some blankets on a couple of cold nights and left a frost cloth on it in Dec. and Jan. Amazingly, the little strap leaf pup is unscathed this winter and fully green! The 'mom' however browned out but the spear is solid. I think the fans browned due to being frozen while bent by the blanket. Hopefully it will come back.
Two palms worth trying in Albuquerque are Chamaerops humilis 'cerifera' and Trithrinax campestris. I think these would do well here. Anybody growing these? I have the former but only as a seedling (inside for now).

As everyone in Albuquerque knows we hit -7F here in early February 2011. I have read on various web-sites that the trachycarpus fortunei is cold hardy to 5F and some web sites that cite cold hardiness as low as -17F. I would be interested in any advice concerning the care of these palms and whether or not they will survive. The fronds on all my 13 palms are dead looking and the spears are slightly green. I sprayed the spears with copper fungicide to try to prevent rot. My palms have been planted for over 5 years and had no protection. Any ideas? Thanks

Dennis, did you try giving the spears a gentle tug and did they pull out readily? If if you haven't done this yet and they come our readily, try copper fungicide again. But not more than once more as it is somewhat toxic. You can also mark the emerging spear with a sharpie to see if it is pushing new growth. Other than that all that's left to do is wait.