Great pics as usual, Jim!

Must feel good to pull all that protection off 😀 for plants AND you.

Gotta say, impressed at this winter versus last year, despite the "socket pull".
GH collapse did no harm from this view.

Butia eriospatha is hardier than B. capitata?

Didyou sprout Princeps outdoors (a year to sprout?)
Yeah Tesan should be more than 4 inches from Princeps 😆 😆
Hadn't thought of using styro cooler, good idea.

Really impressed with Washies and Waggies 😯 😀

Man those Washies are huge!

IMHO your newly planted Agave..a bit too deep?

The that tree fern is already growing!
Bamboo looks right at home there.

What a great start for 2011.
Nicely done, Jim.

Barb

Excellent!
Remind me in September to use more of your methods.
Any thoughts on Barb's question about Butia spp.?
Also, in the last needle and Trachy photos, I thought I saw white crystals. Is that potassium or epsom salts?
And enjoy the black bamboo. --Erik

From what I've read, B. eriospatha is a little bit hardier than B. capitata (a.k.a. odora), but B. capitata/odora can take a little more summer heat than B. eriospatha.

Cam- I heard that they are all actually the same species!

Jim- Your soil is thawed enough to plant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paul--any chance we can get you to shift careers to palm molecular systematics? Butia, Sabal and Trachy all desperately need you!

Cam--I'd heard that, too, and my Summers are as brutal as winters. Plus the regular 'ol capitata/odorata (or whatever) are cheap down here.

Jim--forgot to mention (jealousy?) that the t-ferns are stunning.

Paul, where did you hear that? 😀 I thought that they were 2 different species, with B. eriospatha being recognizable by its wooly infloresence spathe, and "spatha" being in its name as a result!

Cameron, you are correct.
They are in fact two different species.
Eriospatha has proven to be much hardier in this area than capitata.
It is better suited for wetter climates also.
They come different parts of South America.
The differences also include what you have already mentioned.

Barb

The Princeps did not germinate in 6 months inside,
I threw it in the ground in June 2009 to get it out of my sight!

It sprouted July 2010.

The sand will settle around the Agave.
The Washys were a big happy surprise,98% damage free!
Only discolored where they(1) touched the top of the enclosure.

Paul the soil is about 46F(4") right now and
should be approaching 60F by next weekend.

B.eriospatha and Yatay are supposedly the hardiest Butia
a Capitata isn't far behind...we are probably talking leaf hardiness
in regard to the differences between these 3.

Nope- 100% same species. Which one of us is (has been) a taxonomist?
Cameron/Wes- I'm kidding. The definition of a species in plants, and palms in particular, is pretty loose though (my favourtite examples are in Trachycarpus; palms like 'wagnerianus' and 'nanital' and 'urkhensis')... And don't even get me started on palms that don't breed true from seed (e.g. 'Winsan') carrying the 'cultivar' name! I won't go off on that rant again right now, however.

Jim- What was your low temp and what was the longest freeze?

Coldest this winter was -8F.

What do you mean "longest freeze"?

To early to tell if Winsan breeds true.

I'm going to guess that no Trachy fortunei selection (or cultivar, or whatever people insist on calling it) breeds true when not crossed with another individual of the same 'cultivar'. You see this with waggies, they breed true when crossed to other waggies, but not when crossed with 'regular' fortunei (the inheritance of the dwarf characteristics is incomplete and you end up with a plant that is intermediate). I believe that Gary had commented on the % of 'Winsan' that came through with the 'true' characters (I assume that 'tesan' etc. would be similar). You also sometimes see the 'winsan' trait (i.e. round leaves) on 'regular' T. fortunei. It makes no sense to label something as a form when you only know 50% of the parentage!

That is off-topic, and my fault. I do that a lot. I'm going to stop now.

Back on topic:

Length of freeze refers to the longest amount of time, in hours, days, weeks, that your temperatures remained below freezing. For me it was essentially 5 weeks this winter. NOT good for the BLEs. I hope to get to the garden in 2 weeks time to have a look and get some pictures.

I'm still glad to see how well things have come through for you! -8f is not a bad winter at all for a zone 5b!

Just amazing. 8) 😯

Thanks guys.

Winsan probably is subject to whatever else is around it so not a stable trait.

Every Tesan I have seen(quite a few) has been very stout and robust,very
similar when small to what is referred to as Bulgarian Trachys.
In fact,Naini Tal,Bulgarian and Tesan look very similar when small,
almost like little Waggies!

My guess is this is a form of Fortunei from higher up in the mountains
or of colder origin,apparently these were bread for cold tolerance-
I am sure Garry could elaborate.

My Bulgarian and Naini Tal are tough as nails,esp considering there small size.
I hope Tesan is just as hardy,my first test in the poly-tunnel was not really fair,
to much moisture and to cold early in December last year-every palm in the
poly-tunnel pulled last winter,4 killed outright,4 sawed to the ground of which
2 recovered along with one outside the poly-tunnel.

On the bright side,the Princeps and Tesan seedlings survived with no heat,
only a styrofoam cooler-very impressive for any palms,let alone seedlings!

I moved the Tesan away from the Princeps today.