Great thread, I love out-of-zone plantings! Can a windmill palm really be grown in zone 3 or 4, even with generous winter protection? That would be great, but is seems way out of zone here in the Cdn prairies. I checked out the website, and I've seen them growing on the west coast of Canada (pic included below), but that's a very mild climate, like zone 8 or thereabouts. Catalpa seem reasonably hardy for prairie gardeners looking to test the limits. I've got a small one (two feet high and several years old) growing in my increasingly shady back garden here in Edmonton. It's still very small and is sheltered from winter winds by a nearby fence, but it doesn't seem to have suffered much winterkill during the past couple of winters (but they weren't harsh winters). Ginkos are great... I had a small one but it didn't make it past it's first year in Edmonton's suburbs, yet I know of one on the University grounds downtown that has survived at least 10 years. Actually, I haven't seen that tree in about 10 years, so I really need to locate it again and see if it is still doing okay. I used to also watch a ginko growing in Drumheller, Alberta, near the Red Deer River (pic included below) -- last I saw it was small but healthy, but I haven't checked it out for the past decade so I really need to take another look. My sugar maple is about 12 feet high, growing more as a bush than a tree. It is maybe 10-12 years old, and has a fairly thick trunk. It can winterkill quite severely, but has been doing pretty well the past 5 years or more. I have a butternut tree roughly 12-15 feet tall, at least 10 years old, and it has produced nuts for the past several years. My grapes (Valiant) produced heavily this fall, and the wine from them is now bottled. Pears (Ure) are usually ignored when they ripen, but they are tasty and the tree has been growing vigorously for 15 years. Magnolia and Northern lights azalea survived several winters but seemed to get increasingly smaller each year, eventually discarded. Forsythia did great in a mild winter, but crappy otherwise, and were a pain to chop out, including all the sucker-plants. Well, that's all my info on out-of-zone plants. If I can actually grow palms here in zone 3, please let me know! Ginko growing in Drumeller, Alberta - 5 to 6 feet tall, healthy but with some winterkill of top branches Windmill palm growing in a garden on the Sunshine Coast, north of Vancouver, British Columbia.

GREAT QUESTION JIM! my first memory of palms was at my grandmas house seeing this very tall palms. at the time i didnt no what kind they were but ever since i was very young palms always caught my eye, though i didnt think much of it. my grandmas house is in the city of south El Monte about 15 mins. from downtown LA. i bet most no wut palm am talking about now, good ole mexican fan palm! i think i was about 12 or 13 but i remember asking my dad if we can dig one up at my grandmas house and bring it home since most got mowed anyway and if they made it to their 1st or 2nd year they ended up getting dug up and tossed in the trash, but he said no cuz they get to big & messy =( i never thought about them again. that is until i was 18. i was at my uncles house and a palm caught my eyes, the same one as at my grandmas(still didnt no the name of it.) which is weird cuz i no i came across tons of palms before now but i just notice them again. i started asking him questions about it like how long hes had it for & wut kind it was. he didnt no wut kind of palm it was and said it just grew there. i guess he sensed that i was intrigued by it so he said come back in spring and he'll help me dig it up to take to my house. this time i didnt ask, i just told my parents that i was gona plant a palm tree in the front of the house & that it'll make the house look nice lol! THATS WHEN IT BEGAN! ive been addicted ever since.i wouldnt call it a hobby of mine but a passion. & it kept me out of trouble for the most part. it kind of seems like they were suppose to be in my life in a funny way! i dont no wut i would be doing if they didnt come along & keep me busy. anyways washingtonia robusta were my first palms then phoenix canaries, brahea armata, then at 22 i tried germinating palm seeds for the first time. now 24 years old i grow (most) of my palms i have with over 30 different kinds of palms/cycads & totaling close to over 300. then finding this forum it started getting me into yuccas,cactus,agaves,bananas & now ive come to admire my native joshua trees! tune in to pics now that their starting to fruit!!! everyone on here opened my eyes to different plants. now i cant wait till spring/summer. i got alot to do & grow plus i cant wait to see everyones pics! its gona be a great year, not only does my girlfriend encourage my addiction but she'll buy me palms on my birthdays on holidays & out of the blue palm/seeds gift! wut more could a man want? besides for her to be as simple as me wen it comes to gifts lol! am slowly teaching our daughter everything i no about palms and plants so she one day might admire & love them as much as me but she definitely knows to stay away from the pokey ones & she even has her own palm! which is funny cuz shes only 2-1/2 & by the time shes in high school it'll be like 20ft tall! im looking forward to all those pics & ill post some come spring. i hope winters almost done for all of us(fingers crossed) so we can get back to our lives lol! jk nr!

Laura I got your email this morning.Yea it makes me sick everytime I look at it.I planted that palm 11yrs ago this spring,and for years that was the only palm I had.I was so proud that I was growing a pindo,when everybody told me there not suppost to live here.Gary at Gary's Nursery said they dont do well in my zone,if they live at all.He told me Trachycarpus fortunei is the only trunk type palms that should do well here.I told him that everyone I have ever planted died on me from something.They dont do well for me I think because I have no shade or windbreaks,they get shreaded by the wind if they do live,like the one I have now.Gary dident believe me till I sent him a picture of the pindo palm.So you liked that picture of that cycad?They can live for hundreds of years,some more than others.I should post a picture of it on here,because I dont think it's a cycas revoluta,I've seen some that tall but not that robust.Mabey somebody on here could tell me what type of cycad it is,and about how old it is.I've been cutting grass and weed eating all day,so that's why im just now getting back to this post.Thanks everyone for the advise on my pindo palm :)

I'm in central SC, zone 8a, and I, too, have had issues with Windmill palms growing happily for years, and then slowly dying. I've noticed the emerging fronds begin getting progressively smaller, sometimes over a period of 4 or 5 years, until they finally stop producing new fronds and then slowly start to die. I've tried digging them up and moving them, but nothing helps. Applying anti fungicides is useless. Now, when I notice this happening, I cut them down, even when they're still green and still look good from a distance. I have no idea what the culprit is, and it's very frustrating and disappointing. I don't plant windmills anymore, because of this baffling phenomena. I now grow Butias and Palmettos, which grow beautifully for me and don't display this seemingly random 'up and die' disease.