Now I'm a big fan of winter, and cherish those cold blustery days, especially weekends peppered with snowfall and comfort food. However, last weekend, having experienced our first warm temperatures of the year, I disassembled and destroyed the palm pavilion in my back yard (I'll write more about that later) cut back the dead leaves, fertilized heavily, and banked on the beginning of Spring.
The problem is that the long range forecasts were wrong, and winter has returned for a real slap in the face, with cold blustery winds and lows in mid 20's. One of my prize palms, a Mexican fan palm (Washingtonia Robusta) is nearly as tall as my garage, and is now fully exposed to the cold winter chill. Now these temperatures should not pose a life threatening event to the Mexican fan palm, but not being able to live with myself if it did, I've taken late winter emergency steps and have wrapped the trunk in heating cables and old blankets. I'm protecting the main central core from the extreme cold, and have accepted the fact that I'll likely lose most of the leaves.
I've read that these palms can withstand blasts well into the lower teens, but I'd be much more complacent if this specimen was just a bit older.
It's a bit embarrassing revealing this poor specimen in what looks like something constructed by Jed Clampett (old enough to remember the "Beverly Hillbillies?") but there it is. It's actually a very pretty palm when it's not battling the Cold Miser. Since I've flashed a shot of this bed, I'll add that sharing this space, but decidedly hard to see, is a four foot tall Pindo Plam (Butia Capitata), two smaller European Fan Plams (Chamaerops Humilis), a Saw Palm (Serenoa Repens) and a Sabal Minor. None of these palms are even noticing the cold, and are faring quite well unprotected.
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