Toasty 😀

Washies hardier?
or rostrata?

Just so I know which one to have a funeral for come spring 😆

Yucca rostrata is hardier than Washingtonia robusta. My rostrtas need to have snow-load protestion in order to keep their emerging spear from rotting, also helps to keep dry in the winter. But my neighbour five doors down has a rostrata as well and it is gorgeous... and they do NOTHING to it! But it is west facing with good siting and mine is on the south wall. We are zone 7a. Washingtonia robusta will not survive here unprotected like the Yucca rostrata. I killed one three years ago that i heavily mulched, but that was it. It was sited EXACTLY where I ended up putting my Y. rostrata. I believe it kept green until January-ish when we dropped below -8c for four days and went down to -17c:

Jan 2009:
14† -11.0 -16.4 -13.7 31.7 0.0 0.0 M 0.6 5 31 37
15† -9.9 -15.9 -12.9 30.9 0.0 0.0 M 2.4 11 2 37
16† -12.3 -17.5 -14.9 32.9 0.0 M M 3.0 10 26 48
17† -8.2 -14.5 -11.4 29.4

It did alright with a few hours at -16c and a couple of days in dec at -10 and -11. A mature w. robusta palm may do even better. this one was five feet tall grown in Florida and was planted in Sept '08.
A mature well sited W. robusta may do okay unprotected perhaps in 8a.
Sorry I have NO pics.

Suspected Washies couldn't handle as much cold as rostrata.
Didn't know the spread was that big, though.

Too bad there's no pic of your Washy...I should put all my failed plant photos in a photo file called Obituary.

I know older Washies (OK, really old) can handle a lot of cold, but not of much duration.
So that's where the y.rostratas would excel if kept dry.

Despite mine being in plastic, there's a lot of airspace in the "tent", very little moisture beading up on the inside of plastic.
I think the "roaring" woodstove in the basement adjacent to the wall the rostratas are planted against might be keeping the outside of foundation wall a bit warmer.

Thanks Adam.
Barb

Hi Barb,

what's hardier Washy or Y. rostrata? Kinda like what's hardier tomatoes or Abies. :bootyshake:

my rostrata survived with little to no damage at -8F. The trunked Y. treculeana died in the same cold event.....they were planted right next to each other. I have not gotten cold enough to kill a rostrata. Washys will be dead in late November here.

There are some 'rostrata' forms with rigida genes in them.......these will be less hardy.

Photo in March 2005.....the Y. treculeana trunk is dead....the leaves died one month later.
<img src= >

what's hardier tomatoes or Abies

Turkey! :evil4:

I should've added Washy doesn't see sun for 4 months protected.
As another factor in mortality?

The treculeana wasn't as pretty as the rostrata anyway.
:booty:

Barb

Tim is funny but right on, at least based on the experience of others.
Two years ago we had lows of about -30 C hereabouts.
There are NO washy in town now, but Yucca rostrata (even trunked ones) are fine.
(Well, I today did see three small Washy palms planted last spring that might be alive, but that doesn't count. And I doubt they're alive.)

My potted Yucca came inside per advice on another thread, but only because they are in pots. Yours will be just fine.

Barb, I bet your plants will be fine. Even your outside temps have been on the mild side. If you want to plan a furneral, do so for a few I might bury. :salute:

I hear ya with Washy's being out of sun light for 4 months.............mine seemed fine last spring when I uncovered it.....it didn't skip a beat. I have more difficulties protecting Sabal minor. 😕

Y. rostratas surviving that super cold blast of -30F is fabulous. :hello1:

Y. treculeana is a beauty when not dead 😆

It looked OK in these photos prior to it dying.

<img src= >

<img src= >

Y. rostratas surviving that super cold blast of -30F is fabulous. :hello1:

Y. treculeana is a beauty when not dead 😆

It looked OK in these photos prior to it dying.

Did your rostrata survive -30F? That's a keeper! 😯

Y. treculeana, was stunning!

I have also seen when plants look fine after winter only to die later.

those rostratas which survived -30F were out in Oklahoma.......we don't get that cold here. 😯

funny thing about the treculeana dying was that the trunk died first............we know the weakest link! 😉

keep the trunks warm! 😛

Wasn't my Y rostrata, it was the personal one of the guy I bought my trunked one from. He showed me photos, and I believe'd him. His was also trunked and out by his mailbox on his rural street. We had snow first, so the roots would not have frozen.
And I meant -30 C, but still....

funny thing about the treculeana dying was that the trunk died first............we know the weakest link! 😉

Have you seen this in other trunkers?

When my j-tree died, the crowns died first, and on my big one that lived the crown rotted off.

I wonder if the infection came from the roots up on your plants, being from wetter country? 😐

I have had some rot off from the roots/small trunk but was in low wet ground. I then learned stuff here only lived on higher ground. Of cource I see your yuccas are high up and in well graveled ground. But it did make me wonder about the high rain fall and wetter soil. 🙂