Staten Island NY Palm Tree Update!

 I can't believe we had a blizzard two weeks ago - because on March 10th NYC hit 80F for the earliest time on record. In my parent's yard my weather station recorded 4 days in a row in the 70s (Just for some perspective, we only had 6 days in the 50s since Jan 1 and no days in the 60s prior to this week!)

    March 8     70/44

    March 9     74/41

    March 10    78/41

    March 11    72/48

    March 12    64/34

My fatsia japonica on Feb 16

Sabal Minor March 9 - unprotected on a 5F day but protected for the rest 

Windmill palms & Florida Anise on March 9. Anise was not protected - Trachycarpus were heavily affected

Gardenia Summer snow, Just put a bin over them and ran some C9 lights

Completely unprotected Windmill Palms

Musa sikkimensis could be alive! I mulched it 

Long Island Palm Tree Updates!

We finally had a mild week! It hit 80F in my garden on Long Island. In this post I'll show some of my garage plants & the plants overwintering in the garden. 

Weather Summary

March 8   67/44

March 9    73/45

March 10    80/45    

March 11    69/49

March 12    57/32

I took out the garage plants & they are looking surprisingly good. The garage temperature hovered around 40F for most of the winter so it was really quite cold and there's no sunlight in there. The subtropical made out great though 

   

Mule Palm, Livistona, queen palm, trachycarpus latisectus, cycads, primrose 

The citrus!

I covered my Washingtonia filifera with cloths a garbage bin and C-9 lights. It saw 20F but still looks green

Two Sabal minors, one is Sabal louisiana, the other is Sabal tamualipas... I don't remember which one is which! Whooops. 

First protected with just a plastic bin (and looks great). The second was protected with mulch and looks pretty rough. 

Sabal minors do not like being wet in my climate! They really need a dry winter spot.

My star jasmine is looking rougher than usual. I did cover it but not as fully as usual plus this was a pretty brutal winter. This cultivar is called Madison and should be more cold tolerant than the typical species

Fatsia Japonica had no protection and looks FLAWLESS so does the Fortune Holly Fern

Fatsia Spider Web

Cast Iron Plant

Hellebore breaking through snow

Livistonia chinensis saw 20F. It was below freezing for so much of the winter. Still has some green!

Not going to lie, the windmill palm was really well protected and so was the Chuck Hayes gardenia. I had a palm die in this spot last year and really didn't want to lose it again! The yuccas had a tent over them to protect from the snow load

This cast iron plant was covered, but the cast iron that was unprotected looks better!

My finicky needle palm. I covered with a garbage bin and C-9 lights because half the plant died last year.

Inside the house a lipstick palm I was gifted is unfortunately struggling a bit

My Tree Fern is flushing out for the second time this winter! First flush came in December

My dracaena fragrans smells amazing!