The 23 watt CFL's (100 watt equivalent) get fairly warm, but not too hot to touch. The cooler bulb temp means that they are less likely to overheat the box as has happened to many who put too many C9's in their protection, or have thermocubes fail in the "on" mode. The foam boards are expensive, but at least they last forever.

Canadian Tire still carries the C9 strings and bulbs. In fact, they put up a bigger display of old style bulbs this year, and when I asked the manager why, he noted that they are becoming popular in North Vancouver for those who want a different look to the now typical entire streets of LED displays....weird.

Arctictropical's story down in Utah was pretty interesting. He had an 8' tall Styrofoam box with 3 CFL's at the top sitting on top of a 4' - 6' high pile of railway ties (wife wouldn't let him build a bigger box, so he cheated with the wood ties). I have no idea how the minor heat of the 3 bulbs could provide any heat at all down to the ground in those crazy cold temps, but it did, and his palms looked flawless every year. He switched in 2013 to a wrap and heat tape method and the old Trachy cooked to death that winter. Then in 2014 lost a 20 year old Chammie when someone left the power cord unplugged....sad.

Good luck with nursing your Phoenix back to health. Hope it's a good spring for you so that it sees some early warmth to grow out the damage.

You can try trunk cutting that palm when it warms up,you never know-just ask Barrie 😀

yaaay,we just hit 0(F) as write this...winters over! 😉

Phil, Interesting details, thanks.
The Utah guy's info is sad indeed.
Never thought to look for C9s at Cdn Tire; thought gov't "outlawed" sales ages ago. 😆

Jim, you're the trunk cutting guru.
The only time I tried it was on the Nainital years ago.
Bombed.

Cherry trees are in full bloom in Vancouver BC; incredible cold trough in the East.

Barb

Cherry trees are in full bloom in Vancouver BC; incredible cold trough in the East.

Barb

I'm tired of hearing in the news: " Record breaking temps! Never seen in 100 yrs!" Seems like we've heard this now in the last 2 years and to think last summer on ONE day, was above 30C, when we normally have scorched grass and wicked heat.. What's going on with the Jet Stream!??

Side note however... Palms are still looking ok... 🙂

hold on 905palms, spring is almost here, I can already see deer in my backyard:

😆 that deer pic is sooooo funny.

Okay...the CIDP is stone dead so I pulled the cover off entirely.

<a href=" https://www.flickr.com/photos/southslope/16647424382" title="004 by edible_plum, on Flickr"><img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="004"></a>

<a href=" https://www.flickr.com/photos/southslope/16028539043" title="005 by edible_plum, on Flickr"><img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="005"></a>

Crap happens! 😥 I'll cut off the fronds and see if something happens in summer.

Doggone it!

😐

Ya never know.....crown/roots might still be alive.

Had a Mexican Fan palm that was in 5 gallon bucket sunk into ground that got hammered by 9F temps and looked just like that. Left for dead until weather warmed up and low and behold a new spear pushed up. That palm is now 2 ft tall in new pot and over wintering in garage with 15+ plus other palms and doing nicely.

I would definitely open up the crown this spring when it pulls and treat it. Give it time and cross your fingers.

Thanks guys.
I think we're often too hasty pulling stuff out that might come back.
Probably because we don't like the look of "99% dead" 😆 😆
Barb

Wow Barb you really uncovered your plants early this year. I was going to be tempted at first of March but I see -9C in forecast for next week. My sons new pup uncovered a couple of plants for me. lol. Will wait another week or two .

Barb- Too bad about the CIDP! At least you were bold enough to try one, and who knows, maybe part of it is alive? And now, apparently you have spring... Great, send it our way!

Hopefully we're almost done with the brutal cold here... Colder minimums and more sustained cold than last year, and last year was cold relative to the last 10 years!

Hey Keith, hi!
Yeah, it was early to uncover stuff, but sometimes it's a toss-up getting rid of the plastic covers and all that unwanted humidity.
Our south facing place was pretty warm, nice to have Tshirt weather in the afternoons.
Saw that -9C forecast but nothing's getting covered again here.
How'd the plants look that the pup uncovered?
And I bet your GH plants look fabulous.

Paul, the jet stream seems stuck. Alaska is setting warmth records day after day.
We're drier than a popcorn fart (as the saying goes), no rain to speak of.
I can almost hear the rubbing of bureaucrats' hands as they plan the next round of water rate increases for the "dwindling resource". ARGH!

On Friday's Bill Maher TV show, with guest The Science Guy (Nye), it was mentioned that eastern snow could be shipped out west, even in a pipeline (intended for oil), and Nye said if anyone could come up with a desalination plant that uses less energy, that'd certainly be an answer to rising sea levels that will eventually force evacuation of Florida and Louisiana...and the water could be used to irrigate California, despite it being 3,000 miles from where the snow is. Sounds like science fiction, but gotta admit it provided a glimmer of hope where otherwise there had been none in the sea level rise scenario.

I'm rambling...that's what happens when palms are outside in BC in February 😆 😆
Let's hope the eastern cold finally ends early March.
I simply cannot imagine the hardships for everyone, but it sure provided some great YouTube clips of tossing the cat out in an 8 foot snowdrift at the door so he can do his business.

Hang in there, easterners.
We in the Okanagan won't be able to afford water on our toothbrushes this year.

Barb