We've got a palm tree over here in Gallup, too!
A Village Inn restaurant re-opened as some other restaurant and they "planted" a large plastic palm tree out front.
It looks stupidly out of place. Ha-Ha!
Bruce

cactus dude, I saw the same palms while driving by on Central today. Thought the same as you did about the Queen palms. Shame, too, nice large specimens. I believe in pushing the envelope, but somebody should have done their homework on what will reasonably grow here.
dl

You're right desertlvr, someone should've known better about the Queen Palms. I hate to see such large trees be at the mercy of our cold winter temps. They would've been better off with Trachycarpus fortunei and maybe even Washingtonia filifera.

cd

cd - you can bet those Queen palms bite the dust in our predictably cold temps this week.
In Fall 2005, a restaurant in Las Cruces planted several Syagrus, only to replace them with Filibustas this year!

Hi desertlvr-

Yes, those Queens must be suffering mightily right now. As I right this it's 21 degress F outside, although it feels more like 10 degrees. Our high today is only going to be about 35 degrees F. I haven't had the heart to drive by lately to see how bad they look. Queen Palms are even risky in Tucson, so I just don't know what they were thinking. They must have paid a lot for them too.

cd

Dear New Mexico Gardeners:

I am very curious about cold-hardy palms. Moreover, I have been impressed with the descriptions of large palms in Albuquerque despite occasional very low temperatures. For example, during this past week, I noticed that temperatures have dropped into the single nunbers in your area. Do the palms you describe do OK with these low temperatures?

Rockman-

We haven't been hit with this much snow in a looooooong time, so it remains to be seen how well our palms here in the Duke City will emerge from this weather. Most of the palms found in the metro area are Trachycarpus fortunei, as well as a few Washingtonia filiferas and W. robusta. The trachys all seem to handle our cold with minimal damage, but the fronds on the washies always burn. They recover quickly in the spring.

There's a house a block away from mine with three trachys and all three look pretty good. Amazingly, I know of a Phoenix canariensis and a P. dactylifera that have made it through at least 2 or 3 of our winters, although I haven't had a chance to check on them since this blizzard hit.

Regards,
cd

Thanks for the information. If your area experiences a rather cold winter, I will be very interested in which palms faired the best. I think snow is a good thing for your palms. It acts like a good insulator, keeping the ground "warm" when air temperatures plummet. Some folks in southern/coastal New England do grow palms but I am not yet convinced that they are worth the added effort to keep them alive through a "normal" winter here--it was in the 70's here yesterday which is most certainly NOT normal!

cactus_dude:

There's a recent reference to these (dead) palms in a popular albuquerque blog. See link

Here is a link that might be useful: Duke City Fix

Thanks for the link adp. I have a photo below of the queens before they really bit the dust.

cd

Here is a link that might be useful: Queens in ABQ

Interesting about those queen palms on Central (I saw them too, even though I only go to Albuquerque once a month or so). Don't know what someone was thinking.

But a word of comfort for all those zone pushers... my sister in law just told me that the queen palms at her place in El Cajon, CA are looking horrible right now too (she's not a plant person and referred to them as dead, but I'm sure they'll come back in the spring). She's in Southern California sunset zone 23! The thing is it looks like people are moving away from the Washingtonia palms there, in favor of the queens and such. To me there's no comparison, W.filifera is much more impressive. Anyway, I guess they're seeing that they have to be careful in inland areas and at elevation even in SoCal. I guess wherever you are there are special considerations to be made when choosing and siting plants, something that the people at that New Mexican restuarant on Central didn't know.

I like the washingtonias better as well.

Chris, as a fellow zone pusher, I think you may enjoy "Palms in Snow', posted a few days ago on the Palms forum. Huge needle palm in Wash., DC. Pretty impressive. I'm going to have to get this species.
Enjoy! dl