You are right, outside is not an option.

I would water the dickens out of it, and then find a very bright (protected from the scorch of full sun) location in your home. These plants can be grown as houseplants, but lack of light is often a limiting factor. Once the plant has been watered properly, it should be treated almost as a xeric plant and allowed to dry out quite a bit until the next watering cycle. Once spring hits your location, and the amount of light increases, you can bump up the watering and dose occasionally with soluble fertilizer.

These plants lose their bottom leaves as they develop new ones....which will happen very slowly. Yellowing is the sign of approaching abscission.

They can be quite prone to scale insects, so if you have any suspicion that your plant might be harboring an infestation, you should begin treatment. I prefer a water and alcohol solution applied as a mist, along with the hand removal of any adult scale that you find.

A pebble tray will be of benefit to this plant, as they do seem to like humidity. Unless you have humidity control in your home, consider a moisture providing pebble tray for this plant. Don't let the plant sit in the pebbles, though.

I have a sago palm also. What do you mean by a pebble tray? Just curious. Where do you put the plant if not on top of the pebbles?

I didn't make that clear, did I? Put the plant container AND IT'S SAUCER on the pebble tray, rather than sitting the plant in water. Does that make more sense?

The sago palm mentioned in my OP is getting much light in a room that gets to 78°F in the day and 53°F at night [There really isn't anything else I can do with it until the wife's contractors get through with whatever they are doing.] The sego, or is it Sego, seems to be holding on. Will these conditions encourage, discourage or have no affect upon the 'bugs'?

SAGO is the correct spelling of the common name. I didn't address the 'white spots' because without an improved description or good photograph, I have no way of knowing what they are, or if they are even alive. Scale insects were merely a suggestion, something for you to look into.

Just a thought about those white spots--especially if its ever been outside. Could it be from birds?

DD brought a large palm home from Lowes last week with those, and I'm pretty sure thats what they were. (There are always birds in there around the plant section.) I don't know what they felt like. Just washed it off and they haven't returned. Sandy

White spots, especially if on the undersides of the fronds, could be mealybugs, a type of scale.

Sagos can make great long-term container plants, but they do get large over time.

Best to move them outside in the summer -- to shade first, then over 3 or 4 weeks to part sun or full sun (to prevent leaf scorch).

Sago fronds will begin to freeze at between 15 and 20 degrees. So if you get that cold, bring it in. I usually leave mine out until night lows are predicted to go to lower 20s.

As new growth develops in spring or summer it is important that the plant gets lots of light or the fronds will get very long stretching to the light. And they will be all out of proportion with the rest of the fronds.

Here's mine that I started from seed. You can see new growth beginning to stretch out.

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I heard they grow extermely slow like on or two fronds a year,( maybe thats only if kept indoors) but they more then make up for it in size i've seen 20 foot giants in cal while in los vagas. Make sure you have very very high light. a good way to tell if it needs humidity increase is if it gets brown tips.

When grown indoors, they do stay small for a while. From seed, they usually only grow one or two fronds per flush (growth spurt), in the first couple years. As they get older, like mine, each flush will yield at least 20 fronds. In pots you may only get one flush per year. In the ground they may flush as often as 3 times per season.

Dave--may I ask, how old is your sago? I am in NOVA also, and just got mine last summer. It is smaller than yours a little. I leave it outside for the summer and it is wintering inside my sunroom, where it does receive a good amount of light.

Hi babywatson,

Yes, my sago is around 24 years old, from seed that I collected in Galveston. And that photo is a few years old. It now has a trunk over a foot high. It's starting to get REALLY heavy too. It's all I can do to drag it in and out. I left it out until December this year. Got a little frost bit on the leaves, but will be OK. I keep it in the basement where it gets very little light. I'll move it back outside with the next warm spell.