Great book! Just read it after seeing this post and its inspired me to put something in the ground next year. Probably a Trachy as it would have the best chance. Also may try some of the other plants/tress he suggested.

Mark

Nice Mark glad the book inspired you! Everyone should grow palm in zones that they don't belong.

Bill

I'll never use a Rhodo cone again, worst protection ever.

Reading back over this I noticed this comment. Is that the same thing as a rose cone, a styrofoam cone that has a removable top? Just what I was thinking I'd use on my Trachy seedlings this year too. Perhaps I should just stick with leaves for now then?

Don't know if thats what he's talking about but rose cones
are awesome,pleanty of light and easy to heat.Mine never got more tha10F above the outside temp when the sun was out.I just wish they made them the size of trash cans so I would not have to make something 😕

Jim how do the rose cones hold the heat if you use minilights or something? might be good for my gardenias.

It might be a 'rose cone'. The tag said 'Rhodo cone', and it is basically a styrofoam cone (think a large styrofoam pot that you invert over the plant to be protected.). No part of it was removable and the light allowed in was 0. Really a terrible thing. I know that the evidence says a dormant Rhodo doesn't need any light in its dormant phase, so maybe the removable top is the difference?

Anyway, here's the problem: NO light, NO air flow, Collects heat (prone to 'cook' plants) in the sun. I don't know about heat retention, but it must be able to hold heat pretty well...

I used it the one time and it performed so terribly that I threw it out and vowed to never use one again. It makes me mad just thinking about it... 👿

Paul, sorry it didn't work too well for you.

I see some of these cones have removable tops and some don't. In Calgary they sure sold well for roses.

You could remove the tops to stuff in straw, or whatever, to help insulate and then remove the tops on warm days. I saw some here last year but they had no removable tops.

Now I'm wondering if large nursery pots would do the trick as they do have some holes for venting and then are black to soak in the heat. 😯 Of course perhaps I should cut a trap door in the bottom or just say to heck with it and throw my composter over the top of a plant or I could get a few garbage cans like others have suggested. Cut a hole in their bottoms maybe?

This are the best pics I can find of the rose covers I used,they have 4 holes in the top(bottom)they are upside down.I had a sensor inside.On a sunny day they never went above 10F over the outside temp.When it was really cold I had the holes covered with bricks(they were anyway) to hold them down.Whenever it was over 40-45F I took them off,they were bright inside in daylight like the plants were covered with snow.I used c-7 lights(a little smaller than c-9) 5 wts a peice,about 3 in each one kept the plants well above freezing in any cold,down to -17F. I love styrofoam for covering palms,etc,I wish they made these 2-3x this size.They are around a half inch thick I believe and cost $5 at a major hardware store.

<a href=" " target="_blank"><img src=" " border="0" alt="Leaf piles(needle palms)"></a>

<a href=" " target="_blank"><img src=" " border="0" alt="Needle palm"></a>

Those look much thinner then the one that I used! Glad they work for you, and maybe something for people to try this coming winter... The first picture (centre) I assume is a banana, and that is similar to the protection that I use. I just wrapped the stems in frost cloth (with lights inside some of these) which could be analogous to your use of the styrofoam cone!

Has anyone used the plastic 'chicken wire' to hold leaves in place? Thi stuff is 1/2 or less the price of regular chicken wire so I'd like to know if it works as well!

Paul,my Needles were inside the leaf piles.
I have not tried plastic,the wire fencing I used was about as flimsy as I would want to go.

The plastic fencing should work well though I don't think it would last too many winters but I do have some of the wire chicken fencing in my back yard near the shed.

I'm thinking straw would be better than leaves as in not collapsing so much or maybe I could do a straw/leaf mixture. I sure don't look forward to cleaning straw up in spring though. 😉

Here's a link (I hope it's okay if I put it here) about using a double rose cone... for roses but I think it would work for palms too. This link is from public television in Wisconsin. (I hope some enthusiastic souls are growing palms there as well.)

http://www.wpt.org/garden/details/template.cfm?program_seg=304d

🙂

Ron is straw the one that is full of weed seeds? I guess it dosen't really matter to much in the winter. I use salt marsh hay and think it work quite well. I only have maples in my yard no oaks to collect the leaves.

Bill

Bill, the straw you mentioned or rye straw are both much lower in seed content. Unfortunately I can only find wheat straw right now and it's loaded with wheat seed heads and perhaps more. 😯

Oak leaves are great if you can find them. As for me I've got a huge Manitoba Maple in my back yard that supplies the neighbourhood with leaves.

I have heard that maple leave compress when they are wet, and oak leaves don't. If you keep your enclosers dry it dosen't matter anyways.

Bill

Yea Bill,you definitely need to keep the leaves dry,as you can tell from my cages I had the plants covered with a "rose" cover,then leaves,there were leaves stuffed up into the cones as well.What I found when I opened the cages up was that moisture had gone around the r-cones and had formed a shield of frozen water around the outside of the dry leaves under the cone,pretty neat.