Hi Calli-wanna-b
Oh no, you lost a needle palm...how sad.

Re watering, my plants are inside a very cold building (barely heated) and I don't water them at all from November to February or March. But I don't get the sunshine through the top like you would in a greenhouse. I find vermiculite is like a sponge and holds water. Perlite makes for a very fast draining mix, very light pots. Barb

Cali, thanks for the tip on the Floor vs raised in a greenhouse. That will help next fall.
Also, I personally have found that despite many folks talking about how great Perlite is, I have found that Vermiculate is the best thing since sliced bread.
I was out of Perlite one time and had a bag of Vermiculate that I had not opened because I didn't know how to use it. I took a chance and mixed 1/2 potting soil / Vermiculate. Those trees are all thriving and put out new spears over winter in the basement. I am a Vermiculate user now!!!

Craig I'll set you up with some more Butia's . Give me a little time, got backed up when my truck spun a bearing & had to replace the motor.... 😡

Re watering, my plants are inside a very cold building (barely heated) and I don't water them at all from November to February or March. But I don't get the sunshine through the top like you would in a greenhouse. I find vermiculite is like a sponge and holds water. Perlite makes for a very fast draining mix, very light pots. Barb

Barb, I have not had the same problem with vermiculite. I have found it does retain more water than using a coarse sand aggregate, but not to the point where the plants suffer. Our winter air is very dry here in central Pennsylvania, maybe that has something to do with it? The way my green house is positioned it does not get much direct sun during december and january, which I don't feel is a big deal since nothing is really growing anyway. Next year I am going to do what you do and not water during the coldest part of the winter.

Cali, thanks for the tip on the Floor vs raised in a greenhouse. That will help next fall.

I have my greenhouse sitting on part of an exposed concrete slab which is why I think my floor temps got so low. Next year I am going to insulate the floor with 2" ridged foam board and see how that goes.

Craig I'll set you up with some more Butia's . Give me a little time, got backed up when my truck spun a bearing & had to replace the motor....

Todd, I broke a rod last fall in my truck. I found a rebuilt motor from Rhino engines online for $2,800.00. It took me and my buddy 2 days to get the engine in. I will never do that again!!!! At least I didn't have any parts left over when I was done.... 😆

Don't give up on the needle.
If you can provide it as much heat as you can and it will produce some suckers hopefully. These are amazing palms.

Winners - Another winter and my meyer lemons live on. My brahea armata doesn't even have a scratch on it, my large chamaerops humilis survives its fourth winter, all my trachycarpus species are doing great, all bananas are fine, pineapple guavas are rock solid in this climate, bamboos are fine, all yuccas are fine as is all the succelants, tree fern has some brown fronds but it still looks good, chamadorea radicalis and microspadix have about 10% leave burn but will be fine, my euc is fine but the lower leaves have turned brown and have fallen off. Kiwis are going on 10 years outside and they are rock solid here. cannas and hedychium are all fine. Needle palm is totally unscathed. So all in all almost everything is fine.

Losers - I have spear pull on my small chamaerops humilis, the verdict is out on the passion flower vine. It will probably regrow from the roots but all above ground growth is fried. This is the first time this has happened. My cordy has had three of the five trunks fall over. It will regrow from the ground but it was quite large and probably would of flowered this year. The flowers smell great by the way. I lost one of my new zealand flax. Not sure if it regrows from the ground or not. That is it for loses. Not that many considering this was a brutal winter for here.

Hey cali, from what kansas said, I'll be buying vermiculite too...I think my stuff is TOO DRY in the winter, but I've never seen the point of watering stuff in a very cold environment when, as you say, nothing's growing anyway.
And since your greenhouse doesn't get much sun in winter, I bet watering is not called for very much.
Do you mist occasionally in winter? or have pots of water that provide humidity?
I hope your needle makes it.

Wes, thank goodness you had few losses. The winners...and there are lots, would make nice pictures here????? (hint)
You too cali...?
Barb

I still don't know for sure about the rest of my plants, but the snow melted enough for me to see the top stems of my bamboo. Half of the leaves are green. It should make it.

Gains: 3 evergreen rhododendrons came through fine; my Fargesia murielaie bamboo should survive.

Losses: it is too early to tell for sure, But my wisteria was exposed for most of the winter and is now under water temporarily. It would take a miracle for the existing stems to survive. The root system might live to grow another day. 2 of the butterfly bushes are out of the snow and they look dead.

Too Early to tell: the rest of the Butterfly bushes, the Kolkwitzia, Yuccas, holly, pardancandas, belamcanda and one evergreen rhododendron are still completely covered by snow. I expect the holly, belamcanda and rhododendron to survive. The rest were all new last year.

But my bamboo is still alive. It was the one that I expected to have trouble with.

Allen

Hold onto your horses, Allen, re the Buddleia (even tho' they were fairly young in the ground).
Buddleia always looks stone cold dead in March.
And when I cut mine down to the ground, it still looks dead, nothing green shows even on the cut stems. And then around the third week of April, early May, look out 😯 the buggers grow a foot a day!

Since your 3 Rhodos made it (under the snow), I bet your Butterfly Bushes will live even though they're not under snow. (they're tougher than rhodos).

I've got two ~15 year old Wisteria. They don't burst (even from the roots) until it's real warm (third wk of May usually).

Sounds like you've got a lot of successes...
Barb
PS - - pics???

Barb;

I will post pics when there is something to show. The rhodos are still more than half under the snow and the top 1/3 of the bamboo is lying on top of the snow. All I have to show so far is 2 dead looking butterfly bushes and a wisteria, all buried in the mud.

I've got my fingers crossed. After tomorrow night the lows should stay above -5 C with the highs close to +5 C. I should have a lot of the snow gone by next weekend.

Allen

Well I made more than a few mistakes this winter. My green house needs a fan to circulate the air better I noticed mold on the old leaves of my W. Filifera. Also I found out that one of my yucca isnt hardy enough to even experiment with it froze then wilted and died fast lol. Also my meyers lemon was indoors and for no reason I can explain it decided to die.

As far as victories, This was the first time I took very large banana plants and over wintered them in the basement. They came through solid this year not mushy like last year. Also my poncirus trifoliata " flying dragon " is alive and well spending its first winter outdoors. I experimented with 50% limestone gravel and 50% potting soil on most of my potted plants and my potted T. princeps and it has great drainage and they have done nothing but grow grow grow. Last year I more than a few plants died from root rot. This year not one plant with my experimental mix has rotted and all are growing very well. Also my yellow groove bamboo made it through this terrible winter with some fried leaves but looks great still.

My mistakes,

1, I did not put my rhododendron on the southwall and most of the winter it was getting
more shade and cold north west winds.

2, It was also exposed to the Ice storm but my other plants were covered.

3, I also did not cage it up so the rabbits could chew of its little twigs.

4, My palm in the basement was watered to much and its brown and
losing fans.

I did not plant any needle palms or bananas,trunked yuccas in the spring
because I was worried and see how this winter was like, well it was completly terrible.
I been hit by every type winter weather. Rain,Ice storms(8Hours),Snow 72CM,Ice pellets,hail,Cold snaps (Long ones)

Do you mist occasionally in winter? or have pots of water that provide humidity?
I hope your needle makes it.

Barb, I keep a large plastic garbage can full of water in my greenhouse. I use it for watering and humidity purposes. The prognosis for my little needle is not good, he might not make it through next week..... 😥 I will put him in my critical care unit and see if a sucker forms.

My Yucca flacida Garland Gold made it. It's yellow where it is supposed to be, green where it is supposed to be and only brown in a few spots.

Now, if it warms up, I'll take those pictures. Right now it is -7 with a 15 mph wind, just too cold to be outside.

And, I can't chuckle about everyone that buys bedraggled mislabeled tropical plants from HD and Wally World. I am embarrassed to say that I am now the proud owner of a reasonably healthy $10.97 'yucca cane'. 😳

Allen