Hi Erik,

The obsession is mine! I just love its large, blueish leaves and wish that they survive my Oakville winter. I confirm that the snow cover makes wonders; I can see exactly how high it was, the leaves over that line turned brown whereas under it, they are so beautiful... The snow definitely helped the Texas palmetto (x Brazoria), too, which is in principle a bit more sensitive than the main species.

I have not seen any damages on the needle palms!

We had about -20 C for a couple of days in Oakville, so this is a good - hopefully successful - test. I covered only the bases of the palms and whenever I had snow, I shoveled it on them, but that is it...

More news to come in spring!
Take care,
Rob

Obviously even a light canopy PLUS snow cover is the recipe for success.
Good pics Erik, thanks.

Barb

You are fortunate to be able to get sabal minors there.
There are none here and we won't even have to protect them.
They would breeze through our winters.

Wes, Sabal minor is irritatingly difficult to obtain here. No nursery in the Tulsa metropolitan sells them even though they clearly grow here, and there is a local interest in native plants. 😡
The nearest nursery that sells them, Bustani, is a retirement project of a horticulture professor in the college town of Stillwater. It does mail order, but not of palms. The owner gathered seeds from McCurtain county and has grown them up to 1 gallon size for local sales. He (Steve Owen) is only open a few weekends each year but I'll try to get out to see them in April.
I have two Sabal minor I bought from Amazing Gardens in Oklahoma City--a north Texas ecotype and a "Lou".
My own small ones were dug up from the Tulsa Zoo for me by the head horticulturist, but Sabal do not transplant well. In the meantime, I am growing some from seed I gathered in north Texas (Fort Worth) in 2009.
You have heard of "get rich quick" schemes? It seems that growing Sabal minor from seed to 5 gallon size for mail order sales internationally would be a great, "make a few bucks slowly" scheme for some dumb entrepreneur. 😆
--Erik

Erik, I have thought of that but we just don't get enough summer heat so they grow soooooo slow.
I have some that are 4 - 5 years old and they still do not have a mature frond yet.
Our winters are mild but our summers just do not get past 85F very often.
I may just have to wait for my seedlings to grow and plant them out.
I hope I live long enough to see that.

those minors seemed to get fried above the snow line. Nice update, thanks for posting.

Yes thanks a lot for that Erik....

I find it strange, first that palms are easy to find here in So. Ontario (At least 3 different nurseries carry them, more if you include nurseries that carry Butia and Windmills as 'patio' palms) but hard to find where they might actually be hardy Vancouver (certainly some palms are 100% hardy) and Northern OK (a bit more of a stretch). Wes, you can ask Kevin at Southcoast. He has not only Sabal minor and Rhapidophyllum, but also things like S. 'Birmingham', S. minor 'Brazoria', etc.

Thanks Paul.
I will try them.
Sabal minor and needles have proven to be hardy here.
They breeze through our winters even with the rain.
Yes you have to make sure that the soil drains well but I even have cactus that survives here.
We do have native cactus also that grows in sunny drier locations.

Wes- I presumed that any palm that we grow here (with the exception of Washingtonia) would be bullet-proof out there. 2 Full USDA zones will do that!

We have only 2 native cacti in Ontario, 1 the Eastern Prickly pear (Opuntia humifusa; This is at Turkey Point):
<a href=" http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2998878080072511707bwJOD R"><img src=" " alt="imgp0973"></a>

The other is the brittle prickly pear, Opuntia fragilis (the same one that grows on the West Coast). This is near Kaladar in Eastern Ontario. This area is also prime lizard habitat!
<a href=" http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2978850980072511707QoJyx y"><img src=" " alt="picture 006a"></a>

I beleive that B.C. has 2 confirmed cactus 'species' (O. fragilis and O. x columbiana) and possibly a few others (O. polyacantha, E. vivipara, and P. simpsonii)...

Just and update to this post.
I know have four needles and three sabal minors now.
My largest sabal is about four feet and has been in the ground three years.
I just ordered a seven footer from CoconutMike.
My largest needle is also about four feet but I have a really wide 30 gallon that is about three feet tall but about 6 feet in diameter. I also have one that has been in the ground for five years. Hasn't grown much but that is to be expected with cool summers. I just ordered a seven footer from Mike.
I also have a seven foot waggie fortunei hybrid coming on the same shipment.
Looking forward to them arriving in May.
It is going to make the back yard so full of palms. Can't wait.

Wes,

It's a given that sabals and needles would make it in Vancouver, if they survive the rains.
Has Vancouver ever seen -24C (referred to in Erik's original post as the Tulsa Zoo mins).

Looking forward to seeing photos of that 7 foot waggie hybrid. 😛

and your Trachies again when they bloom.
Spectacular I bet.

Barb

Reminder, the Tulsa Zoo foliage above the snow line all died at that temperature.

Barb, I have been down to -9C once since I started recording temps and that was in 2008.. I started planting palms in 1994 and I am sure 2008 was my coldest year. That was the year we got to -9C.
My last two years lows have been -4C and this winter so far -2.6C. I think that would put my last two winters as a zone 9b.
The rain doesn't seem to be a problem but the lack of summer heat makes them grow sooooooo slowly.

I was at the Tulsa Zoo today for other reasons and decided to take a cell phone snapshot to show you how a representative Sabal minor there looks today.
In brief, they all look great and continue to naturalize.

<a href=" http://www.flickr.com/photos/drterdal/8553103858/" title="IMAG1613.jpg by drterdal, on Flickr"><img src=" " width="383" height="640" alt="IMAG1613.jpg"></a>