I am reading this thread , all is going well and then Alchris posts that it gets down to -30F where he lives and I'm wondering just how does one survive that kind of cold. I mean , can you breathe in that kind of cold? does your car start? can you let the dog out to go the bathroom? How cold are the drafts in your house? Its cold near the windows in my house when its 10F outside. What kind of plants survive that kind of temperature? Man that seems cold to me. Rock on you are a hardy bunch.

what are the secrets to digging up and replanting? Do I need to ig up as much dirt as possible and not worry about soaking in a bucket until I get back? Do I need to cut off all existing fronds? Anything?

Kansas you need to make sure you don't dig into the rootball. DIg down deep all the way around and then work the plant out. Yes you will need to remove all but the new spear. From experience if you leave the fronds on, they will take all the nutrients from the plant & it will die most often. When you dig them up you will see that they have a bulb like appearance with roots coming out. I will take a picture of one when I get home & post it.

Yes you will have to soak them in a bucket as well. I usually soak them for a day or two before transplanting them.

Oh, and the most important thing.... Make sure your not digging on someones property, you can get shot doing that 😉

At -30 F you usually have to breathe through your mouth if you are outside very long. Wearing a balaclava warms the air slightly so that you can still breath through your nose. Either way you don't breath quickly and deeply or you can freeze your lungs. We dress for the weather- long johns, insulated pants, parkas, mitts. Almost all vehicles come with block heaters(electrical heating coil that warms the antifreeze) so that you can plug them in and warm the engine & transmission for a couple of hours before you need the vehicle. Also most remote car starters sold up here have an automatic start program that starts the engine every hour or 2 for and lets it run about 15 minutes to warm the engine.

Shepherds, labs, huskies etc. can handle the cold. You have to keep them from running and they venture out for some of the worlds fastest craps. People actually put coats and booties on the little runt dogs before they take them out. My cat will go out in that kind of weather if there is exposed dry ground for her to use. She is usually banging against the door to be let in before I get sat down after letting her out.

I have been growing native evergreens plus arborvitae and other conifers for years. My Holly, cacti and yucca do just fine even without snow cover. I have some Yucca flaccida, bamboo, evergreen rhododendrons and Wisteria wintering for the first time this year.

We don't have it that bad with global warming. It only gets down to -30 F 3 to 5 times per winter and only for 1 - 3 days at a time. Minnesota gets just about as cold.

Before we started renovating the house, the aluminum sliding windows froze shut for most of the winter which eliminated drafts. Now we have triple glazed, reflective coated, argon filled crank out vinyl windows. They don't fog up and have an R 8.5 insulating equivalent. The windows are cool to the touch but that is all. They are expensive but pay for themselves over about 10 years with the reduced cost of natural gas.

I will be building an insulated, heated portable house for the palms and sticking to the Sabals and Trachycarpus as well as the hardiest of the bananas.

But it doesn't get over 95 F here and we don't get maritime or tropical storms and only an occasional tornado. Overall it is a good place to live.

Allen

Alchris, I think you will see an even quicker gain on your money with those windows.
This house I bought a year and 2 months ago has those windows and when my close friends told me there power bill was well over $200, I called the wife (she handles the bills) and asked and ours was just over $90 and that was for Feb. of last year.
I know they cost you a lot to buy, but they MORE than pay for themselves.

You know what, thats funny! I drive 6 hours north to go sledding ( snowmobiling ). Thats how it is up there. They have a hard time keeping grass alive I wouldnt have ever thought anyone up there would grow palms. Good luck!

Kansas;

So far my return has been much better than 10 years. My gas bill is about $90 per month through the winter while my neighbor, who will be putting in new windows next year, had a gas bill of $220 for December. Our houses are the same size,age and builder. I have 18" of fibreglass insulation in my ceiling and new windows & doors. He only has 6" of fibreglass in his ceiling. I also contracted my gas at $7.50/ mcf 2 years ago on a 5 year contract. Prices haven't been high this year because of the warm temperatures but peaked at $13 last winter. The price of gas may fall below $8 in the long term if everyone else starts weather proofing their homes.

The extra insulation and triple glazed windows sure make a difference. And they reduce greenhouse gases to boot. I guess that makes both of us 'treehuggers'.

Allen

S. minor trimmed for transplant.

alchris - thanks for the information. Just goes to show you why we have lived on this earth for millions of years. we can adapt to everything. hot, cold, etc. sorry to get so philosophical.

Macario;

I gave up trying to grow grass when we moved into this house. The lawn was nothing but quack grass, thistle and dandelions.

I'm glad that you like snowmobiling. I used to really enjoy it but there are so few areas now where you can go sledding. Too many fools who believed it was safe to travel on unfamiliar ground at 60-80 mph and then sued the landowner when they were injured.

Laaz;

Thanks for the pic of the Sabal.

Allen

Allen you have the largest shopping mall on earth up there. I was up there about 5 years ago, what a place !

Those pics are awesome. I am a huge sabal minor fan but I can not find a source of palms here in Vancouver. I may have to place an order for some from Broadway Nurseries in Ontario. It is frustrating that we can't get them here. They would naturalize here in the greater Vancouver area, a zone 8a and 8b climate. I have some seedlings but they are small and grow slowly.

Wes you are correct that they should take well to your climate. I'm sending you a nice batch of Minor & Palmetto seed Tues. morning.

The photos of the wild stand on Minor's goes about 5 acres back. I'm going to collect more seed tomorrow & will take some more photos.

p.s. Jay wheres the Charleston , SC weather up top ? 😉

Hey Laaz, Didn't you see it up top? Just kidding. I just added it for you. 🙂

Regards,
Jay

Thanks Laaz;

I used to hate going there until a few years ago when my wife finally got used to the place. Now she just wants to stop at a few stores instead of spending the day wandering from store to store.

I know it well enough so that I can drive in, park and take my grandson to the Dinosaur park, the amusement park, to see the seals,or to the rink to skate or watch the Oilers practice. So far he hasn't been interested in the water park but we do go mini golfing several times a year.. I'm still happy that we live across the city from The West Edmonton Mall so that we don't go there that often as the traffic can be a nightmare.

I still miss the dolphins. But after 2 of them died, it wasn't fair to the survivor to keep it by itself. The mall can't claim to have the largest submarine fleet in Canada any more. The government of Canada bought a bunch of used British subs and, even if they can't use them, they still own more subs than the mall.:lol:

Allen

Jay Charleston is not showing up, Las Vegas is the last city shown.