JohnnieB:

Thanks for posting your photos. I have several hardy palms & hope to plant one or two of them outside this spring.

I was wondering about the Fatsia japonica. How big was it when you got it? Did you use any winter protection for the first few winters? Any culture tips? I might be interested in trying this plant in my garden just outside the Beltway in Kensington MD.

Thanks & hope we get an early spring!

Dan

I grew all my fatsias from seed. Two batches were from commercial sources (I think Chiltern and either Park's or Thompson & Morgan) but the best germination & fastest growth I got was from freshly collected seeds. All were grown indoors for a year, then planted out in the spring of their second year. I covered them with christmas tree branches their first winter, but they have since survived lows of 6 and 7 degrees two winters in a row with virtually no damage and only mulch over the roots for protection. What seems to be more important is protection from direct sun during subfreezing temperatures--one plant that got sun in early March defoliated, but survived & recovered.

Here are some photos from last winter, showing what the plants look like during a deep freeze and their almost miraculous recovery afterward.

Here is a link that might be useful: January/February 2004 photos

I have several palms outdoors here in Ct as well... trachys, sabals and rapidophyllum ,,, the difference is that our ground freezes much deeper than zone 7 ,,, i hace them wrapped and mulched until about early march

Playing with palms and fatsia in Michigan - zone 6 near the big lake. Winter shade seems important to both ... also protection from wind. Grown some fatsia from seed, now have plants of the new Spiderweb and Variegated, the latter supposedly hardier than regular green. Fatshedera (tree ivy) hybrid seems equally hardy.

So Johnnie,

Are you a botanist? You seem to be knowledgeable about a number of plants. Do you know anything about aralioid hybridization, besides fatshedera? If I get any flowers this year, I have several members of the panax tribe I want to force pollinate. And nobody on this continent has fatsia polycarpa. I can't even find seeds. Sounds great, but just like ficus dammaropsis, it almost seems mythical.

Hi Jeff--

Yes, I am a botanist. But I'm also a fanatical gardener and I love plants of all kinds.

I don't know of any intergeneric crosses in the Araliaceae besides xFatshedera but there have been some molecular studies published in the last few years that suggest various relationships within the family. One of the most intriguing is that Fatsia and Oplopanax, a genus from western North America, are very closely related--somebody should definitely try some crosses between those two. Oddly enough, Fatsia and Hedera are not particularly closely related. Maybe this suggests that other wide crosses within the family might be possible?

The only source I know for Fatsia polycarpa is in the U.K., Crug Farms Nursery. If it's worth growing, I'm sure it will be more widely available within a few years.

I am busy tending to my new Sabal birmingham now, as all my other palms are doing well except the saw palmetto, which seems to grow so slowly! Any hints on speeding growth in these and other palms??

DrZ

despite the changes in the USDA zone maps- which now have Connecticut 1/3 zone 7- I would not plant palms here in the ground. I have a wonderful trachy wag and a fortunei which I bring in. I think yucca's would bring more bang for the buck and prover hardier. this winter has been a zone 7 in interior CT- climate change is making our summers hotter and winters milder- perhaps in another 10 years some of the cold hardy palms might have a chance here.

Sabal Minor and Needle Palms should be good long term survivors in Zone 7 as long as you get some good summer heat. Sabal Birmingham should be ok as well. Trachys even here in Virginia are hit or miss marginally hardy. Long term survivors will need protection.

My palm bed has lots of new additions, several small Trachy hybrids, 3 Takils from PDN, a large Trachy, a Sabal Birmingham from PDN and several small locally grown Sabal Minor seedlings. I also planted dwarf red bamboo, verigated Euonomous, Tasmanian Tiger and Calla lillies. My wife put in a Bouganvillia for annual interest. I'll try to post pictures soon.

What is "dwarf red bamboo"? Sounds interesting!

Mark:

I have several of these small clumping bamaboos and I will try to look up the proper name for you. They only grow about 2-3 feet tall and maybe 2 feet wide and the tips of the leaves turn bright red in the winter and gradually by summer turn back to green for a few months.

Are they forms of Nandina domestica? ("Heavenly Bamboo", not actually a bamboo, though).

Mark Nova: Methinks you are correct, it is a cousin to bamboo and not a true clumping variety as the nurseries would have you believe. They are nice and compact plants with nice foliage. Most nuseries have them.

virginian ..... do you like the stuff you get from PDN ... its small but very healthy ..... I have bought some plants from them and have been very pleased .... I have some of their dwarf "castor" sabal minors on the way .... like the big sabals but does not exceed 2 feet.

I have been satisfied with the quality for the most part, but yes, they are small. I'm hoping for some good growth this season.

Paul:

What is the best growing sabal minor variety in your experince in our area?

This is a rather old posting and the Yahoo photo album has since been deleted. I'm pleased to report that my palms have continued to do well since then. Sorry to resurrect this discussion but I just received an email from somebody responding to it; they don't have email enabled on their Gardenweb account so I can't reply by email. Here was the question:

"I can't view your photos but have a question. I am in PA, USA zone 6 and we planted three 'hardy palms' that were purchased over the internet and guarantee to survive to -10 F. We have been away and I just noticed this weekend that two of the three are turning brown is this normal or am I losing them? Any suggestions on what I should do or is it too late?"

Where in Pennsylvania are you and do you know what kind of palms you have? There are no palms that are reliably hardy in zone 6 without protection and the only two that MIGHT survive -10 degrees are needle palm (Rhapidophyllum hystrix) and dwarf palmetto (Sabal minor). Even those will be pushing it with a low of -10 degrees. If you have windmill palms (Trachycarpus fortunei), there is no way they will survive those kinds of temperatures without considerable winter protection. Brown leaves in mid-winter are NOT good but depending on the severity of your winter and your low temperatures so far, even with some foliar damage the palms might survive; I would give them until at least May or June to see if they put out new growth.

Johnnieb,

I don't mean to step on your post, but I live in cental PA, zone 6a. ANYTHING without protection this year is going to be dead or dying. We do not usually get below zero from now til spring so I would spray the palms with fungicide and put some kind of rain protection over them until spring....plastic garbage cans upside down work good for this.

I am using the insulation board boxes that Kevin introduced to the palm forum and will never use anything else. They are great!!
Craig

I have 1 windmill (this is it's 3rd winter), several more windmills, sabal texensis, sabal palmetto, sabal minor 'Hatteras' & 'Emerald Isle' that are surviving their first winter outside. I also have palms that I've overwintered in the garage-windmill seedlings, chamaerops humilis cerifera, phoenix sylvestris, butia eriospatha, sabal uresana (very tiny) & some other oddballs-a staghorn fern, various musa.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for their survival, spring is not too far away...