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....

I doubt you would be the first to do that!

Bill
Were you referring to Phoenix loureirii

create counterfeit "sale item" tags

attaboy...

Phoenix loureirii, that's the one thank you Jim!

Erik, you have a big property right? You might need to fine a nice sunny obscure spot somewhere to plant all your above 50 dollar specimen palms!
Just think you can sneak in a few washies too 😉

Bill

Thanks for all the good ideas. I've been thinking about them. Here's what I've come up with...
Phoenix: no way. After this winter, I'm just grateful to (hopefully) get Chamearops, Butia and maybe Trachy through. I lost my Washies in Spring last year, so I am not counting my eggs just yet (get the hen joke, Bill? 😉 )
We're forecast to have a cool, wet March. Perhaps better than last year, when mid-March was sunny with temps in the 80soF followed by a heavy snow March 28 and freezing weather into April.
So, I expect to be busy with what I have for another couple of months keeping them dry.
My main decision this Spring will be with what to do with the palms that have been in the cold "ballroom" (Sabal mexicana, Trachy, Waggy, Brahea, Jubea).
What do you think about Sabal mexicana up against the West wall? Can they handle the heat? I could give them Barb's "outhouse" treatment in November.
Barb's hedge proposal: a great idea, and one I've thought of. But I can't/won't do it.
It would block my view to the west, which is important to me. I want my pool-side tropical garden to blend visually into the Bermuda-grass pasture beyond. Bermuda grass is a tropical exotic here in Oklahoma that does great in the heat of summer and is very high in nitrogen for the horses. So, the effect in Summer is to sit by the pool and see palms and bananas in the foreground and horses, goats and chickens on tropical grass in the mid-ground. In the distance (~300 yards) is a dense woods maintained by a neighbor. In the evening, the sun sets over that forest, back-lighting the horses, palms, etc. A wind-block hedge would block that fabulous view-shed. So, I'm stuck in winter with those horrible NW winds. They just are not usually so strong as they were this winter. Remember, we had our first EVER blizzard this year.
What I'm going to do instead is probably too little to make a difference. I'm going to plant a mini-hedge of BLEs. I planted a few species as trials last year. The dwarf Burford holly has been a champ. It has remained a bright cheerful green all winter. So much so that a horse even broke into my poolside garden one day last month to try eating it. (He didn't like it, but broke a few twigs off.) Nandina and Euonymous have done OK. The Indian Hawthorn has struggled even though I protected it with hay and a bucket. I think it will survive. An unprotected Photinia with no protection has really struggled but will probably recover. So, I think I'll design a low border of plants like these to the N and W of my palms to give some (trivial?) winter wind protection to the palms in future winters. Feel free to chime in with, "not worth the trouble."
Bill, about hiding palms out back: I might get away with that. Our 7 acres are long (300 yards) and skinny (100 yards). My wife rarely goes out to the back acre so it is "my" space. There is no piped water or electricity out there. I'm thinking Sabal minor. If she spots them, I can say we have a newly discovered population. We'll get rich hawking "Sabal minor 'Tulsa' " seeds on eBay! 😆
Actually, that back acre plays into my plans in another way. Her hobby is horses--Andalusian horses. She just agreed to "rescue" a couple of mares in poor condition from an owner of 15 who cannot afford to feed them as her business is struggling. The "W" figures she'll spend US$3,000 on them this first year. She plans to put them on that back acre next week. So, I figure she has to put up with a few palms costing >US$50 if I help feed and care for those poor mares, right? 😀
--Erik

Erik, thanks for giving all our suggestions sooooo much thought.

You mentioned your cold weather in March and April last year. We had a lousy spring, too. Very cold winds in April, both 2008 and 2009.

Your other palms that can't make it through winter outdoors...have you considered just putting them into gorgeous pots, and siting them around the pool, looking very tropical (which is what you want to see from the window anyway) Every winter back into the ballroom until they get too tall for ceiling. I have no experience with Sabals (my mexicana is 6 inches tall), but sounds like it's your west wall/"November outhouse" candidate.

But unless you really want that mini-hedge in that spot, don't bother.
A low hedge will not protect a growing palm from winter's brutal winds.
An insulated structure will.

The way you described the bermuda grass pasture, the neighbor's forest and the farm animals in between sounds really lovely.
I wouldn't wreck that view either.

Glad your wife's adopting the two horses...I bet she's worried how the 13 remaining will fare.

Erik, thanks for taking the time to provide the description of your place...got a good feel for how lovely it is.
Barb

I have been really curious how this winter is going to finish out here but
also in places like where you are Barb.
In my area a warm winter or winter with periods of significant warmth
usually this means a seriously f-uped spring.
I hope that doesn't play out for you guys there.

Strange thing, having had 2 lousy springs in 2009 and 2008. Cold and raw in April, really unusual.
Years ago we'd be in shirtsleeves in the garden in March.

Winter of 2008/09 saw tons and tons of snow and the normal Siberian outflows for a cold December.
Winter of 2009/10 saw zippo snow (a few inches, twice) and the normal cold in December, but for a short time only.

We may have a horrible spring again; hard to see any pattern emerging.
Barb

Erik your property sounds really amazing! Great description too, it was almost like being there.

As for the palms, they really need at least 2 years of babying in the ground before they become fully hardy. (I'm sure you know) So don't give up totally on the tough ones yet.

When you had your washy die what went wrong? How did you protect it, and when did you take the protection off? Leaves cut off or left on?
I really think you can get away with a washy if you plan it out step by step from the beginning. Maybe your ph was way to high, they don't like acid.

As for the sabals tough as nails regarding heat! Try a brazoria they grow really fast for a sabal, the color is really nice too. I should have got on in NC.

By the way my burford hollies are doing good too with no protection out in the open for there first year, just a little burn.

Bill

ph was way to high, they don't like acid.

I don't mean to be a nit-picker 😉 but high pH would make it alkaline; low pH is acid.
Barb

Thanks Barb!

I don't know what I was writing apparently, I think I was trying to say the ph was probably off and acidity was to high. 😆

Bill

That's it...verbal shorthand 😆 😆

I get those right about half the time...like saying, "turn right here" no, "left here, yes that's right."

When you had your washy die what went wrong? How did you protect it, and when did you take the protection off? Leaves cut off or left on?
I really think you can get away with a washy if you plan it out step by step from the beginning. Maybe your ph was way to high, they don't like acid.

I was afraid someone would ask this. It was totally my ignorance. 😳
The Washy filifera made it through the winter of 07/08 in a leaf cage filled with hay up to the crown. No cover. Leaves turned brown but new ones grew great. Trunk got taller and much thicker over the summer of '08.
I thought this was easy, so I convinced my wife to let me plant one of her robustas in May of '08.
Fall of '08, I again made the wire leaf cages. Instead of filling them with nice, clean hay, I used hay chaffe from the horse stalls. I.e., I scooped up what was on the floor of the stalls. Recycling, right? 🙂
Again no cover. They did just fine through a mild winter, with lows of 10oF. Green petioles come March '09. Temps got into the 80soF. Hmmm....should I remove the now rotting hay/manure mix? Nah, it might get cold again. It did, with 10" snow March 28 and temps into the mid-20soF to mid-April.
By late April, the poor Washies were feeling mushy. I applied LOTS of copper fungicide. Is there such a thing as too much? If so, I gave them too much. Spears pulled. I applied more copper. Removed the rotten hay/manure. Applied more copper. No sign of green. I told my wife to be patient--they'd come back. The remnants of the trunks are still there. Praying for a miracle. Won't happen.
So, what I think I did was kill them by creating the perfect conditions for fungal growth: manure and moisture, accelerated with warmth in March.
If I had used fresh clean hay, and covered them on top to keep rain out, I might have made it. Esp. with the filifera in its 2nd winter. Instead, I just made my wife mad for killing one of her two robustas. All summer she pointed to the robusta in the pot, which grew very well, and said, well, you can imagine what she said. 😡
So, Bill, will I try Washy again? Maybe. I've recently made contact with someone (using EPS, of all places) with a tall Washy in downtown Tulsa (urban heat island and all). I plan to visit his garden in late March to learn his tricks. I am now comfortable using heat tape on palms. I love how well Washy grows in the summer heat here. I guess the answer is yes, I'll try another filifera in the ground. And hope my wife doesn't notice. 🙄
--Erik

I'm sure you can find a real beauty for 50 bucks 😀

Cut all the fronds off, use DRY hay, and cover it in plastic to keep all the rain off and you'll have a winner every year there.

Bill

Amazing how H-D will have a sale on 15 gallon palms in May this year. 😉