Glad it's warmed up Aaron...there's a big system out in the Pacific. 👿

Barb

I hope it don't bring the "S" word with it! 😡

big system out in the Pacific

the bugger must've been in third gear, because it arrived. 👿

Oh yeah, Aaron, hail this afternoon, cold winds.

1-800-Pan Am? I want to go south already.
Permanently.

Barb

Barb with the fiberglass insulation I took about half of the 6" thickness and wound that on the trunk first then wrapped the C 9 lights and then finished with another wrap over the lights. I also wrapped the fronds with the fiberglass when it got cold in Jan.

John

fiberglass insulation I took about half of the 6" thickness and wound that on the trunk first then wrapped the C 9 lights and then finished with another wrap over the lights.

Good idea, John.
I may try that this time versus wrapping the entire teepee in house insulation and then another layer of plastic.

How do you keep the ground warm though?
Last year I laid the C-9s on the ground in a circle around the base of the palm.

My theory was cold soil should also be warmed.

Barb

Barb I put 8" of mulch on the ground around the filifera. I like your idea of having the lights on the ground. It could be serious fire hazard with dry leaf mulch though.

John

Hi Barb,

I'll leave the gingers in the ground and place some mulch over them..........they are along a basement wall........I hope they will return like last winter.

Hi Aaron,

I assume our excess moisture causes premature damage to the desert willow leaves?? I hope they can survive the winter here.

8" of mulch on the ground around the filifera

John, that doesn't work for me, because the bed has a gravel mulch...it'd be a pain to try to remove bark mulch off rocks for the summer.
I'm also concerned about fire from C-9's laying on dry leaves/bark mulch.
So I'll just keep warming the rocks. 😉

leave the gingers in the ground and place some mulch over them

Tim, let's hope you have a mild winter; they're nice plants.

Barb

Barb, we are going to get our first snow and a hard frost thereafter tomorrow or a day after tomorrow. I'm gonna get a hard time tomorrow bringing the stuff in.

Guys, you're not alone. The forecasting first snow in Poland on Thursday. Unfortunately not at my place, but today will be the last warm day of fall 😥

Ouch Barb...23F this morning there?

We may be there by the weekend...in the mean time,
summer like temps with lows in the 60s and highs 80+

-also,we have now had about 5.5" of rain this month!

Hi Aaron,

I assume our excess moisture causes premature damage to the desert willow leaves?? I hope they can survive the winter here.

I think it should winter ok for you. I had one in the past and did ok until it got like -12F and lots of snow. I do know they much better the bigger they get. I'm going to cover mine this first winter. 😉

Tim - What type of gingers are those?

Barb - I like to let my hardy tropicals get hit with as much frost as I can possibly let them get hit by, without death or massive damage. In my mind im acclimating them to winter.

Barb

I just saw the post about putting mulch down.

You can always put a tarp over the rocks and then add
mulch-keeping moisture and freezing temps away
from the roots as much as possible is critical....what
I mean by that is(if not mulched) that they will die.

Good idea about mulch placed on a tarp Jim.

This is their second winter in the ground.
Apart from some fungus on the fronds last spring, they made it fine.

Still gotta add more insulation...when it stops snowing, 😆 😆

Barb

Better then Cal;gary barb!

We still haven`t got our first frost here yet. Bananas still in the ground and green. Now I`ve jinxed it. Damn fricken cold is going to be back soon 😯 .

John