Our coldest night of the year was 10F. It was a zone 8 winter (barely), but I had dead plants left and right. The problem was the duration of cold!
The temperature dropped into the teens:
December: 2 nights
January: 7 nights
February: 5 nights
I covered my front yard palm for pretty much every old night. It was my most covered palm for sure, but it honestly looks worse than any other others. There's some green left but it's pretty horrible. My Chuck hayes gardenia looks like it made out better (but we'll have to wait until spring to know for sure).
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Needle palm was covered with a tarp to protect from snow and ice because it also receives no sunlight during the winter. It is looking damaged but probably not terribly. I guess we will see!
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The gardenia really surprised me. Frostproof just had a plastic bin over it and it looks good. The cast iron plants and fatsia all look good too. It seems like broadleaf evergreens in general faired better than the palms this winter.
I left my backyard windmill palm uncovered during our coldest nights of the year back in December
