How I Protect my Hardy Palm Trees in Zone 7, New York City

It is that time of the year, palm tree protection time! With my protection method and in my climate, I do not keep my palm trees protected all winter long. I am all about very low maintenance and cheap protection.

Tonight marks the 2nd night of protection for my Trachycarpus (windmill) palms. I have protected my Livistona (chinese fan palm) for maybe 6 or 7 days now, it is a much more tender palm. I try my best not to baby my palms, but at the same time I never want to cause their suffering intentionally - plants are living things and these palm trees did not sign up for 8 years and counting in New York City!

So here's the specifics about how I get my palm trees through the winter for all of you out there who are thinking of introducing palm trees or other plants that are borderline hardy in your climate. Whether you are trying to grow coconut palms in St. Augustine, FL or Needle Palms in Boston - I think a variation of the general protection method I use will work well.

Plant Line Up:

Out of the subtropicals I grow, these are the plants I leave outside and give extra help when winter comes along (from most needy to least):

Livistona palm: Protection when temperatures drop below 25F (I know. Why am I growing this tender, USDA zone 8b rated palm tree? I promise it is totally worth it for me and I've had it for 6 winters now!)
Mekong Giant Banana: Wrapped in burlap, will likely die back completely to the ground. No heat.
Musa Basjoo: Threw a bunch of yard garbage on it as an insulating mulch and am just waiting it out (if you are devote follower of this blog, you know my Musa Basjoo banana and I do not get along!)
Windmill Palms: My 2 oldest are protected when the forecast calls for temperatures below 15F. This has happened on 3 occasions so far this winter, including tonight. My smaller windmill palm is not receiving protection this winter.
Mediterranean Fan Palm: Protection when temperatures threaten to drop below 15F.
Loquat Tree: Protection when temperatures drop below 15F.
Sabal Minor: Protecting my more "tender" minor when temperatures drop below 10F. My other minor is flying solo unless we are forecasted to be well into the single digits.
Needle Palm: Protection when temperatures threaten to drop below 10F.
Hardy Gardenias: Protection when temperatures threaten to drop below 10F. (Varieties: Frostproof, Summer Snow, Crown Jewel)
Fatsia Japconia: Will protect if temperatures are forecasted to be well into the single digits. Under a layer of snow right now.
Soft Caress Mahonia: Will protect if temperatures are forecasted to be well into the single digits
Camellias: Will cave in and protect if temperatures are forecasted to drop near 0. We've had them for 20 years in our yard without protection, but they took a beating after a low of 1F and I do not want to lose flower buds AGAIN!

As far as the protection itself here are the steps. This year it cost me ZERO DOLLARS! I had the lights, I had the bins, and I had the cloths and yarn. The strings of lights cost about 2 dollars a box if you get them after the holidays are over (BIG christmas light sales). The bins range from a few dollars for office type bins to $20-$40 if you want to buy plastic garbage bins. I usually just use broken garbage bins that we are no longer using for garbage or random bins I find lying around the house. It takes me about 10 minutes to put on the protection for each plant for the first time of the season and to put on as needed beyond that, it takes maybe 1 to 5 minutes per plant. Like I said, I really try to make this easy and low maintenance.

Let's start off with the palms by the pool. I have my 2 Trachycarpus fortunei (Windmill palms) and my Livistona covered up underneath.

First I put a few poles down. At 6 feet tall, I need something to support the bins on top of these palms (and it will keep the cloth from hugging the palm too closely. You'll notice I also wrapped up some of the fronds in twine to make them easier to handle when it comes time to protect them.

Here are the lights I use. IMPORTANT: DO NOT USE LED LIGHTS. One year I did use LED lights and my trachys were okay (because it was a mild winter), but my pindo palm died and surprisingly my sabal minor was badly damaged. Led lights do not generate heat, that is what makes them so energy efficent. So I go for c7 or c9 lights. Be careful handling the bulbs because they are very easy to break. As soon as you plug them in you will feel the heat so use these bulbs sparingly or else you'll overheat your plants!

After the lights were applied the bins went over my palms and the cloths covered up the gaps. This is how they will look as they handle an overnight low temperature of 11F tonight. Without protection, the windmill palms would receive some frond damage starting at 10F after such a cold and windy day. The Livistona would be completely dead. With this protection method all 3 should be nice and green for the warmer rains coming later this week! 

My loquat was given similar protection. This is a surprisingly hardy plant and unlike palms they will survive some near fatal hits because they are capable of dying back (some people have had luck after a palm tree's central growing bud is killed, but it's definitely good to avoid that when you can!).

Here's the loquat after it is wrapped in twine (can you even tell the difference?!)

The cloths are on the loquat. After this I put a garbage bin on top to help trap in heat and repel moisture and that's it. (In case you are wondering, my neighbors don't even question this anymore!)

Next up was my needle palm. This palm can absolutely handle 10F without any problems if you get it from a northerly grower that has acclimated it to cold. It looked great after a low of 13F, but I felt bad letting it go through another brutally cold night and it really does only take about 5 minutes to protect it so I figured why not! 

Simultaneously, I protected my frostproof gardenia with the same exact method. Both should sail through tonight with protection. Frostproof gardenias have proven to be easily hardy to 10F for me and even with no protection during our coldest winters they have come back from the roots. But I really don't like seeing my plants suffer so if it gets near to 10F I do help them out now.

Needle palm

Frostproof Gardenia (Can you believe a gardenia looks this good after 13 degrees!)

My solution to having too many lights for a single plant was to extend the strand halfway across the yard (I have a small yard!). 

No cloth for these, the bins went right on! 

I did the same thing as above with my Sabal Minor and Mediterranean fan palm.

I will be honest, I am worried about my Fatsia Japconia (born and raised in Newport Beach, CA) and sabal minor which are both unprotected tonight, but I think they are up for the challenge.

I'll leave you off with a photo of my Daphniphyllum macropodum. It is so cold outside the leaves are shriveled up! They will bounce back when the weather warms up.

Thanks for looking! Good luck with the cold in your gardens. I'll post some more winter prep photos soon along with a post dedicated to the plants that look good even in January! 

OH NO IT'S SNOW!

Well last night's cold front came in and guys and girls, it was a real doozy! After some cold rain and wind, it started to sleet very heavily, which many forecasts did not exactly anticipate. The sleet occurred at a pretty warm temperature, but as hard as mother nature tried to hang on to the mildish weather, eventually the combination of the front and the evaporative cooling from the rain (sorry my meteorology degree is being put to work with this post!) led to some wet snowflakes at 2am.

So of course being the weather geek and tropical plant geek that I am I HAD to stay up until 3am so I could take photos of the snow before it melted. The overnight low was 33F, too warm for the snow to stay on surfaces for more than a very brief period of time. Some of the ginger flowers did not take well to the snow but believe it or not still no freeze damage to anything else. Mandevillas are blooming, and the cannas and bananas look good!

But what looks even better than some tender perennials clinging onto life are some PALM TREES COVERED IN SNOW (yes I am shouting!). Isn't that the fun in growing hardy palm trees. Maybe being able to live in a climate where palm trees can be covered in snow has its perks? It sure is beautiful.

Farfugium is still blooming despite the snowy weather. 

This subtropical cat palm can only handle brief dips into the 20sF, but fortunately we stayed above freezing last night.

Of course here are my trachycarpus loving life in the snow!

The ginger was not as pleased

Fall Foliage Season is Here

It is not very common to ever see fall foliage reach its peak here in New York City. You'd think that would have to do with the lack of trees available to watch the colors, but there are actually plenty of beautiful spots to watch the trees show their colors. The biggest issue is the weather. Nor'easter season is upon us and the wind and rain usually knock down leaves prematurely this time of the year. But this Autumn has been extremely calm and perfect for the trees to put on an incredible show before winter. The drought and heat in late summer was horrible for gardens but a perfect set up to incite some stress in the trees which led to some nice fall color. More warm and sunny weather followed for the next few months leading up to now. We still have yet to see a heavy rain or wind event since early summer in my neck of the woods.

So the trees has held onto their leaves like never before even as they change into brilliant shades of reds, yellows, and oranges. Here are some photos of the awesome sight (which was even more awesome out in the mountains away from the city by the way!)

Thanks for looking. Sorry this was not a "tropical" post. I'll make up for it! :)

It's amazing what a few days of hot weather can do!

Growing tropical plants and loving hot weather go hand in hand, you can't have one without the other (for the most part!). In my yard just a few days of hot weather is all it takes to really bring out the beauty in my tropicals. The flowers are healthier and more abundant and the cannas, bananas, ginger, elephant ears, and palms are really starting to grow.

In this post I'm going to show how much the plants can grow with just a few days of heat! Prior to this week, we hadn't seen an 80F day since March in my yard and we didn't get into the 90s since last September. So the heat was a long time coming! In case you're interested in the specifics about the weather (what good meteorologist wouldn't have a post without some weather data in it!), here are the numbers from my backyard...

Date - Hi/Lo
5/25 -  91/55
5/26 -  89/62
5/27 -  85/66
5/28 -  92/69
5/29 -  85/67

So as you can see, lots of heat and equally as important for good growth, warm nighttime temperatures. To start here are some before and after comparison photos. The "before photos" were taken on May 25th and the "after" photos were taken on May 28th (yesterday).

Before (watch the Ensete Banana)

After. It's still looking ratty from the springtime wind, but now it has a new fresh leaf and another on the way.

Before shot of the mandevilla planter. The pink mandevilla flowers were sparse and the yellow mandevilla flowers (actually Pentalion luteum - but always sold as mandevilla up here) were not opening at all. 

After. The vines are happy as can be and twining up the poles at a rate of an inch or 2 per day!

Before. My Magnolia Ashei was growing well, but the flower bud was not budging for several weeks.

After. A few days of hot weather was all it took to bust open that flower! This picture was actually taken just a day or 2 later (I'll be revealing the flower in a seperate post when it completely opens up). You can see how much the bud swells in just a day or 2.

That's all I have for now, but if you click on the "month" tabs to your right, you can see the progress of my plants yourself as the hot weather intensifies. Thanks for looking! 

Late June Yard Update!

Hi there everyone! As June comes to a close I figured now is definitely as good of a time as ever to post on things around the yard!

First a quick look at some weather stats in my yard from the weather station... 

The month of June started off cold but we had some periods of warmer weather after the first few days passed.

We didn't quite make it to 80F for an average daytime high this June which is pretty cool. Here's how every month so far has looked in my yard. 

So far the warm weather months have not been horribly below average compared to winter. April and May were a little above average, but June has been below average by a bit more than a degree here.

The plants aren't really seeing any negative impacts from it though. No impressive growth but everything is on track. 

The front yard is coming together. Similar set up to last year except I added a salvia by the swamp hibiscus, put in some caladiums and a lot more colocasias, threw in some lantana instead of verbana, and I have a Brugmansia squeezed in as well. The Brug is off to a slow start (you guys know my opinion on that one if you read the "Ugly post" haha!

View from the back.

My washingtonia robusta is on its second summer in the ground. It is growing well after winter. The last front it put up was very weird looking which you can see in this pic a bit. It may have been delayed cold damage (the first 2 new fronds of the season were completely normal) but I'm not worried, I think the next frond looks great and it's well on its way.

It takes a lot to bring hummingbirds into a NYC yard, or at least that's what I thought. They have a few favorites in my yard and this black and blue salvia is definitely one of them! I love this plant too, it's quite a vigorous bloomer! 

Speaking of my brugmansia you can see it in this pic. The flowers will be pink when it blooms so if you can't exactly separate the plant from the background in this pic, you might be able to later on this season when it starts to bloom.

 I was introduced to Mexican Sunflowers last year and I think they are pretty incredible. The foliage has a fuzzy tropical look and the blooms themselves look tropical too and attract a ton of Butterflies. I started these from seed and they aren't that close to blooming yet but they are definitely getting closer every day. They were extremely slow to start but are quick growers now that the heat is here. 

The Ensete is definitely the star in the front yard, at least for now!

Philodendron planter. One of my favorite plants.

A view of the backyard from the "Pella Room" It has a pretty nice view of the whole yard with the bonus of AC so you don't have to go into the sun and heat.

I like the view in the sun and heat too though. I think it's hard to beat the feeling summer gives but I can understand this weather is not for everyone. My plants all love it though! 

I got this monstera from shop and stop 5 years ago. Now it's over 6 feet tall! 

I really like the way ti plants and begonias look potted together and I think the color of the ti plants contrasts beautifully with the white siding of the house. These plants are still recovering from a winter indoors but I am looking forward to them being at their former glory again soon.

Got to have a pic of my largest plumeria in every update as I'm sure you might have noticed! haha. 

My largest plumeria seems to get special treatment but it probably gets the least attention in terms of care. I like my other plumerias too and they get the bulk of the waterings and fertilizer! 

I'm not sure if a lot of people recognize the spanish moss I put on my trees vut I love the look. I think its such a relaxing plant and pretty incredible that it's even considered a plant! 

 My Mekong Giant is growing very well for a newly transplanted banana. This first leaf will probably look a little ratty but I think it might start to really look like something nice by the beginning of August which I can deal with! 

So as you all know I love bringing the tropical look to my yard. Over the past few years I have become a little bit more interested in actually getting something out of the yard other than a lot of satisfaction and relaxation. This year I'm trying edible plants out. I haven't been too successful with most of them. The Cucuzza alone gives enough food to make me pretty happy (and it looks beautiful too). 

This is my smaller batch of Cucuzza (and some basil).

So far I haven't gotten any tasty "Lungo Bianco" Zucchini but I've been loving their flowers!  

I stuff each flower with a little ricotta cheese and a basil leaf from the yard and then I dip in an egg batter, cover with flower and fry them up! Tastes great.

Speaking of flowers, although they aren't edible I love the fragrance and size of Southern mags! My tree didnt suffer die back from the winter cold, but it is looking a little bare this year. I think it is in too much shade so hopefully transplanting it into a little more sun will help it out in next year. 

Daylillies are so fantastic.

My plumerias have been rewarding me with flowers nonstop since Christmas time. I don't know what I am doing to deserve so many blooms, but I will take it! 

A good friend of mine gave me this hibiscus many years ago before she passed away. I am really happy that it is still doing well years later. It was on the verge of death just 2 months ago.

Black Eyed Susans

The lilies are up and blooming for their 2 week show. They'll be hidden again for the season in no time.

My Brugmansia in the front hasn't bloomed yet but the one in the back is a repeat bloomer. I think it's 4 years old now. It's so easy to overwinter and not finicky at all during the summer either.

I've killed a few Desert Roses over the years. This one has been around for a few years and it doesn't seem like it is going anywhere. It blooms indoors and out. When it's inside it usually blooms without any leaves on it! 

I haven't been too impressed with the bloom habits of my "Double Yellow" oleander. If it's cold hardy though it would be absolutely worth it! I'll definitely give it some protection but I do not want to give it heated protection this winter although I may have to.

Digiplexis Illumination Flame. I love this plant and it hasn't even bloomed yet!