Hey welcome. I am in zone 7a. But we hit -7f a few weeks ago with the article blast puts us back to 6a/6b. Even if that cold was only for two hours, I think I have encountered my first casualty of the arctic blast. My largest trunking Yucca faxoniana has taken a major hit... All the leaves are soft and floppy 🙁

But my unheated yet boxed Trachycarpus fortunei is looking great
My poorly heated pindo is alive but fried... It should recover

All my other plants and palms are doing great. In fact, my Medjool date in a double insulated and heated box have been growing in there!

In any case, your chances are good.

P.S. The arctic blast had us below freezing for 99 hours straight. Longest stretch in years!

Welcome!

Yes the trachy will be ok during most winters, with some form of protection. The butia will make a nice potted palm you can bring out in warm weather and put up in cold. They're are probably the hardiest pinnate palm, but still far lacking in hardiness than a hardy fan palm. Note that I am not saying it's impossible, just difficult to protect once the palm gets larger. I would focus more on needles (Rhapidophyllum hystrix), dwarf palmetto ( Sabal minor), and trachies. Heavier protection for the first three years at least , then possibly backing off a bit once established. Like Adam stated, our USDA zones are based on a 30 year average of lowest lows. So if you're 6b, you should expect 6a some years, and 7a some years. With rare excursions colder, and warmer. However, the USDA climate zone doesn't directly address duration of freezes, amount of winter precip, radiational heating, etc. That all makes a difference. It's why a 6b in Witchita is different than a 6b in Albuquerque. Abq can grow Mexican fan palms with little difficulty, but me, just north of the 7b line, cannot. All things to consider, LOL!

I have never seen them, but hardy palm lore says there's a church in Wichita with Sabal minor ("McCurtain") growing there. Legend has it, they took -24F and lived. Is this true, and if so, have you seen them?

EDIT : Maybe Albuquerque isn't such a good comparison city, it seems they've moved up to a higher zone than I thought. But the point is, is that even though cities may have the same USDA zone, they can be far, far different in actual climate.
EDIT2: Santa Fe, NM would be a better example of a similar zone city, but very different climate than Wichita.

Hi KS, welcome aboard! 😀

Steve (KNNN) is near Beverly, Kansas (I think), but he's not on here much.
He's got a Washy outside, winter protected.

Hopefully he'll chime in here again.

Barb

Welcome!
I mostly want to "ditto" what KrisK said: best bets are needle palms, dwarf palmettos and Trachycarpus; plan on protecting them all, and electric heat for the Trachy.

I managed to keep Butia alive in the ground in Oklahoma but it was quite an effort. I 2nd KisK's suggestion of growing in a pot. Pot plant (stick the whole pot in a hole in the ground) each March/April (they can take some cold) and dig it up each October/November and bring it in.

Welcome !

I'm north of Salina, KS, been down to -12F so far this winter.
Have a robusta and a Trachy in ground, a basic shelter of 1/2 foam board on a wood frame, so far so good 😀

Just goes to show you how the same zone can be so different. most 6B people on here had double digit lows but I only got to -5 for 1 day has not been in the single digits or negatives since then. Checked out a huge "mccurtain" today that gets no protection here and it was prestine. I know of a local Butia that has seen 8F and made it. There is a 16ft queen palm left out this yeah with plastic and heat tape. I will take some pics when they pull off the plastic. the 2 16ft washys beside it as well.

Thanks for the tips, everyone! Feeling more optimistic!! I think I'll stick to Trachys and S Minor, and yes, I have seen the Sabals at the church in Wichita, for those that know the area, it is right west of the I-135/Kellogg Freeway interchange in downtown. The palms are visible from the highway.

ks,

Welcome aboard. You should have no issues with Trachy's or sabals with the right protection. I'm just outside Toronto in a 6A zone and I've been down to -13F this year several times and on warm days (mid to high 30's F) I've been pulling of the protection and looking in on my plants and they look as good as the day I boxed them up in October. A couple other members Beny and Mike are from the Ottawa and Montreal areas zone 5A have been doing palms for years and they regularly get down to the -22F area and their palms certainly live on.

What I do is use 2" Styrofoam on top of a 2x2 frame and a various amount of C9 Christmas lights (25 for a box >8 feet, 15 for a 4 foot box and 5 for any of my rose cones) The lights get triggered by a TC3 thermocube. This is my first winter doing all of this but so far everything looks very successful. I'll know for sure in the spring.

Good Luck!

Steve, that robusta looks fabulous.
Well done!

Barb

It got up to 70F today, so I placed my potted Trachy out where I'm wanting to plant it this spring, I was wondering, however, if it is alright to mulch around base of the tree, or would this encourage fungal growth and rot?

Good advice from everybody!
I looked and think I found the fabled wichita minors using your info, on Google streetview! Is it a Nazarene church?

Yes mulch is beneficial. It insulates the roots from heat and cold, plus helps prevent evaporative losses.

KrisK, can you do a screen grab to show us?

That's a nice looking Trachy, KS, and a great spot for it.

Ditto the mulch reply.

Barb

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I just did google map search for " churches wichita ks" and looked at the closest one based on kspalmguy's direction. I've always wanted to see them. They're between "of" and "the" on the churches name. If you look around the building they're more by an AC unit.