Erik,
Glad you're having a break in the weather, albeit shortlived if more snow is on the way.

The big Butia is impressive, looks like it shrugged off winter due to your protection...and the dog curling up in there at night.
The C. humilis looks surprisingly good.

Hey, the hen's sitting on the Butia spear!

Too bad the Trachy spear is soft, but it may surprise you since your soil remained so warm under snow this winter.

Barb

All you can do is wait and watch.
It's also a good idea to keep them on the dry side until the soil warms up and to keep the crown/spear dry,
at least during periods where freezing temps at night are possible.

Erik,
That Butia is looking fantastic under your palm hut!!! Great Job! The med fan looks good too.

As for that poor trachy, it looks like it got jumped into a Houston gang or something. It will live but it might need some intensive care.
Good thing your weathers warming up. By the way my washy looks like it joined the same gang 😉

Nice chickens! By girlfriends always telling me to leave them alone. She caught me in the act this time.

Bill

Bill, is that prod supposed to stimulate egg production? Your weather looks good to me. 😆 😆

Bill,
try turning them loose in your garden this Spring. At first I couldn't stand them in my garden as they ate seedlings. I put up a fence to keep them out. They got in anyways. Then I realized they ate weed seedlings, too. And ate every bug, tick, chigger, etc. And use their feet to till the soil for me (to them: to look for bugs and germinating seeds).
About the Trachy, Barb called it right a couple of months ago. The wind is a killer. I'll be the only one amongst us to lose a Trachy while keeping Butia and Chamearops. I haven't given up on it, but it will sure struggle to recover this Spring before the blazing hot weather arrives in June.
--Erik

You might be better off with a Waggie Erik

Barb
I think your kind of right,the chicken had just turned to the side! 👿 😉 😈

Barb,
I'll do that!
I have a nice Waggie I bought in 2007 (actually December 2006) from Cistus, in Oregon. It has lived in a pot and done nicely. I think it'll go in the ground this May.
--Erik

Jim, no way to get an egg OUT... 😆

Erik, did we mention Trachies hate blazing hot weather as much as cold winter winds? And high summer winds!
Yup, they do.

Like we suggested earlier, a spot that seems to prevent those conditions is usually close to a building, southeast, or east side.
Mine's on the east, and by noon when the real heat hits in July and August (100+ F), it's happily in the shade.
Morning sun is fine for Trachies in hot climates.

Baby your Trachy for a year or two until it's recovered enough to withstand transplanting to its final location.

Jim's got a good idea...and Waggie fronds can handle wind better than fortunei.

Or why not a Washy, plant it 4 feet from the south side of one of your barns...in late fall, a plywood "lean-to" can be added for winter with a heater, or the chickens can keep it warm. 😉

😆 😆 I just don't want to be the only person with an "outhouse" against my residence... 😆

Barb I never posted pictures of my structures, I have 3 out houses in the front and two in the back. Who cares winters ugly for the most part anyways, except for the first couple days after the snow. Like today another two inches, it just about goes away and then it snows more. Why couldn't it have snowed the whole month I was in Florida, I would have been ok with that.

Erik you might need to give your trachy a South Beach style umbrella to keep it from cooking. You'll be the first one on this site to protect your palms in the summer 😆

See here's the comedy we've been missing, all it took was one picture and a chicken 😈 😈 😈

Bill

Bill,
I'll do that; it'll be a funny thread for June.
When I was at Belize Botanic Gardens, I saw some of there protection. There were a few rainforest understory palms they had planted under a large tree, but then that large tree had died. That left the understory palm in full sun. They built protection with four upright sticks, connected at the top, and then covered with cut palm fronds. That might even be aesthetic, if I let vines grow up it. 🙂
I have been wondering if part of why the Trachy is suffering this winter is that it suffered last Summer. I planted it in May, then went to belize in June. While gone we had a week of 100oF days and it was not watered. However, it looks good when I got back, and the rest of the summer was cooler than usual with good rain (plus lots of watering from me). I thought it looked good when winter started.
I did place it on the NE side of a gazebo to shade it from afternoon sun in the summer. It is also protected slightly from dry winds blowing from the SW in August. I'll plant the Waggy somehwere in that area. It has spent each summer in a pot there--terra cotta, no less, which lets soil dry and get hot. It has been happy there and grows each summer in that spot.
Barb,
my wife and I divided up the gardens. I got the west and north sides of the house; she got the south and east sides.
To the south, she grows cool-season vegetables. We plan to enclose it in a green-house-type structure in hopes of getting garden-fresh veggies all winter. In the summer, that spot gets so hot nothing grows there.
To the east, we face the street. My wife has a pink-themed garden. However, there is a spot between two boxwood shrubs she is not using. I'll ask if I can put the new Trachy (5 gallon pot) I bought in Texas in October in that spot. It would get morning sun, afternoon shade, and terrific wind protection. I can plant pink annuals around it. Think she'll go for it?
I have not planted anything at all on the north side of the house. I might put a fern garden in.
all my palms and tropical-looking plants are on the wind-blasted west side of the house around the pool. It looks great for pool parties June through October.
I could probably put in a winter outhouse up against the west wall to protect something like a Washy. However, that spot gets amazingly hot in summer. Would even Washy put up with that? Would a Phoenix? I was planning to try figs (Ficus carica) there. Date palms and figs seem to me to go together.
-Erik

Erik,
On your North side you should plant acuba's (gold dust plant) they would do perfect in the shade. As for the South try a oleander or 5, I'll let you know if mine survived. They are bullet proof in the sun, really poisonous though, just don't eat it 😉

As for the washy I don't think you could overheat it, It will most likely just grow like a weed which would be ok. I don't think the chickens could eat it.

Bill

Bill,
I think I will try an Aucuba there. The only one I planted here in Oklahoma died in its first winter. However, a locally-owned and very responsible nursery sells them. The main problem I see is that it will be blasted by winter winds.
I generally avoid poisonous plants, but made a major exception for a Brugmansia last summer. The chickens left it alone. And yes, they leave Washy alone!
My wife's potted Washy was in a pot on a gravel "beach" where it also gets astoundingly hot. You're right--it did just fine.
Any thoughts on Phoenix and high heat? Yes, it would need the "outhouse" treatment.
--Erik

I haven't really done much research on any of the Phoenix species, there is on that starts with a L I think that is supposed to be the toughest. Sylvester's are cheap in Florida so I'm sure there cheap in Texas too. There pretty tough as well.

My guess would be they could take the heat coming from the desert. Give one a shot there easy to tie up as long as you don't get stabbed in the process.

As for the acuba they do fine here unprotected as long as there out of the sun in the winter. They would be very easy to throw a frost cloth over to if heavy cold winds where coming too.

Bill

Erik, your wife got the best deal on "sides of the house".
The prospective east "pink" location...5 or 6 feet from the house, I'd recommend, would be perfect.
Not too far re extension cord for heater, and if you absolutely had to, you could nail up an "outhouse" or lean-to.

"the wind-blasted west side around the pool" sounds like it could use a perimeter (3 sides) evergreen windbreak.
Not only gives you privacy, keeps the wind from getting at plants and blowing lawn furniture and umbrellas to the next county.
A Fir hedge can be clipped once a year to maintain boxy shape, slowly increasing to, say 10 feet high.
We have a fir hedge on the windward side of driveway, it's filled in nicely and keeps snowdrifts from closing driveway.

On the north side of my place, I've got periwinkle and ground ivy.
Both a mistake. Are there cold-zone ferns?...(ferns also don't like wind) 😆

Washingtonia filifera like it hot hot hot, the hotter the better, south and west, but be prepared to keep soil AND air warm in Fall,winter & spring...a tough proposition. Prepare for inevitable power outages with a generator and something to start it up if you're not home...a tall order.
Same with CIDP-canary island date palm...loves the heat as much as a Washy does, but I'd never try it in the ground.
Terra cotta pots are good for succulents etc, but require soooooo much watering for palms.

Maybe plan a BIG sunroom addition with a dirt floor? I'd love to do that but H says "nope".
He thinks it would look like a BIG outhouse...

Bill,
saw your structures before you set them up.
Did you post a finished picture?
Barb

I'll do some reading and thought.
About the "H" saying "nope", I got a dictate from the "W" last night saying no palms costing >$50 could be put in the ground ever again.
😯
I may have to create counterfeit "sale item" tags....