Jim, what was your low temperature and length of freeze?

Sounds like some bigtime damage... Hope you've got your Bordo on hand!

Lowest temps "The damaged"have seen is 12(F)with the exception of my poor little Trachy that's kind of"off the grid"
It has seen -2(F) for sure.
Smells like seaweed in it's enclosure. 😯
Yea Paul,I treated everything with fungicide that pulled,can't/won't get to everything.

I imagine the Cordyline will start showing signs of damage later on.

Usually plants look fine and the damage creeps up later especially next summer when it warms up, because the cells in the leaves just turn to mush.

It might be ok, I'd definitely go all out to protect the Cordyline though!

As you pointed out, many palms don't show damage until spring. It can be May here before the full impact is seen. C. australis is much the same. I'm quite surprised you have one in Iowa. I gave up growing them on the coast where I am.

I bought a small specimen as an annual and left in the ground, hoping for a miracle. Doesn't look like I'll get it: the leaves look pretty dead. I guess I can pray for it to grow as a perennial.

Oh Jim that's awful.
So palms severely damaged in one winter are LESS hardy going into the following winter?

They looked so good this summer!

Barb

There are so many variables to cold hardiness as there is types of freezes and resistance within individual plants.
For example,if I walked into a store and randomly picked some "cold hardy plants"I could very easily crab a bunch and have them all die.
This is why I decided to try 8 different protection methods and sample a large number of each type of plant.
Palms, etc exhibit different levels of hardiness-one of the wagxforts had spear pull one did not.
All my waggies are fine.
The Cordyline was knocked out last year by the combination of rain and sudden temps below 20(F),my bad,I didn't protect it in time.
I did this year and would bet that they are hardy to near 0(F) under the right conditions.This one came back from the roots and has changed it's leaf shape to more like a yucca,narrower.
Last year it showed damage immediately after the cold and it may still yet.
I think a lot of the damage occurred before the 12(F) temp event as we had a week of weather that for the most part was below freezing.

I bought a small specimen as an annual and left in the ground, hoping for a miracle. Doesn't look like I'll get it: the leaves look pretty dead. I guess I can pray for it to grow as a perennial.

Cover it from rain and mulch it.This Cordyline came back from the roots and is growing much more slender leaves.
It appears very solid as I just checked it again- it looks fine-pretty amazing but I think this plant has really showed some profound adaptation!
If I can find some pics of what it looked like last year and this year I will post them.

Oh Jim that's awful.
So palms severely damaged in one winter are LESS hardy going into the following winter?

They looked so good this summer!

Barb

Actually Barb if they make a FULL recovery they should be more hardy.
Interesting that the same fortxwag pulled and the other one did not.My guess is it will be fine next year and not pull again.
This one had an "advantage"over the Naini Tal in that it only lost it's 2 spear leaves,it regrew 6-7 leaves over the summer so it did not lose any mass.
Happily the Naini Tal which had spear pull and defoliated least year appears to be fine so far.
The Naini grew 9 leaves this year!
These palms never fail to amaze me,with what they do and what they don't.
I think the Tesan will recover too,although they do look a little more shell shocked,my fault really for not protecting some of the first year palms a little sooner 😥

I checked one of my small Trachy thats covered in styrofoam and snow and it's fine! Go figure,no heat.I believe this one stayed around 30(F) during the -2(F)event.
I also checked the Trachy that did see -2 and the spear did not pull yet,I gave it a treatment of fungicide and sprayed some freeze-pruf on it,for what it's worth.
It is also in a new enclosure now,very cool if this one somehow makes it-I mean smelling like seaweed and all 😉

bummer jim. pushing zones can sometimes be ugly. here's hoping for some milder temps and lots of sun this winter. as you know the damage will be more apparent next springtime and I hope its all good for you, and the rest of us cold hardy palm types.

Jim,
I'll do that for my little C. australis. If you hadn't spoke up, I'd have written it off.
Please let me know what fungicide you use. I used copper-based last year and am using neem oil this year. I'm open to using anything that works as our late winter weather really promotes fungus.
--Erik

if they make a FULL recovery they should be more hardy.

Yea, that's what I thought too. So it was your late-start at protection, you think?
November was so mild, the cold that followed caught most of us by surprise.

At least your temp is good for reapplying Freeze-Pruf.

And 9 leaves growing on that naini this year is quite the bounce-back! Wow.

I remember your protection summary after last winter.
You were really impressed with the styro covers.

Barb

The fungicide is copper based Bordeaux(sp?)
Oppalm
Usually what happens is the other leaves stay put or maybe you lose one or two,catching it early is crucial to slowing the rot.
If I lose all the leaves I cut down on the trunks to look and see if it's rotted.
My fortxwag held on to all it's leaves and recovered with one small one and then regular leaves.

Yea Barb
It was 60(F) Dec 1 and the next 4 days were not much above freezing,in fact the daytime highs would not have allowed them time to unthaw.
That's what got them.12(F) was insult to injury(and a little more injury) at that point

Speaking of adding insult to injury, I'd better NOT have a look at the big y.rostrata x 😕

Might wait until spring for that disappointment.

Barb