Glad the trachys are still looking great! That's especially impressive since they are pots. I hope they pull through, it looks very promising. The Roebeleniis are definitely not too happy haha unfortunately I think they died a long time ago. I've had really bad luck with Roebeleniis as indoor plants and they are not hardy enough to grow outdoors either. This year I had it in my unheated garage and I take it out every time temperatures stay above 25F at night and so far I haven't had any of the problems I've had in the past. For me they have been high maintence but if it looks good in this spring, it will definitely be worth it. Also I realized I had my email disabled so I clicked the box to enable people to see it so let me know if you have any issues with that. Glad to see palms looking good on Long Island! -Alex

Hi P.J., thanks for the advice and the pictures! Your palms do look healthy! I'm happy to report that my Pygmy Date Palms are starting to perk up a little after more watering. I had given them extra water concentrated on the immediate area around the trunk on Wednesday evening, and when I went to the office today they were not drooping quite as badly. I added about another .75 gallon to each plant and hopefully they will be feeling even better shortly. Here's the same one looking just a little happier: It's interesting you've found them to do better indoors. As for me, I've been a little paranoid since the day they arrived that they weren't going to thrive. I've read that they can even die if grown in full shade, so that might have contributed to my light deficiency concerns. Before I had these palms in their current containers, they were just in the large nursery pots that they came in with saucers underneath. And as I was under the impression at the time that they needed to be watered more-or-less daily, I was watering them a lot and then shop-vacing out the massive amounts of water that began to collect in the saucers. It became quite an operation. Once I potted them in the self-watering containers, adding a lot more soil, the soil was retaining so much water that I became less concerned about watering them as frequently (the soil they came in was really airy, and probably more roots than anything else). But what I like about these containers is that there's a gauge that shows how much water is in the reservoir at the bottom, and in addition to filling the reservoir directly, any water that flows through the soil from top-down watering flows into the reservoir too, and hence adjusts the gauge. So you can always know that you're not leaving the plants in a puddle, which is essential (for anything but cat palms, which seem to like puddles at my place). Anyway, I was unaware that the other little plants in the container could be affecting a big tree much. I have a Creeping Charlie that is slowly taking over the base of the other palm. I'll have to give some thought to whether to do something about that. About insects, both palms have had some insect stresses, but not too bad. The one in the photo had a scale infestation that started accelerating a few months ago. I treated it by wiping every leaflet of the affected fronds with a paper towel soaked with Natria, and so far I've only seen signs of a couple scales returning. The other palm has a few spider mites here and there, not too bad, but which I'll be chasing down in a similar fashion as soon as I have a chance. But I think there's something else going on on the spears that I just noticed the other day that looks potentially dangerous. Sorry I couldn't get a clearer shot of it. Could that be mealybug? Whatever it is, I'll be soon eliminating it. It can be quite a chore, though, to apply a treatment to feathery plants like these when you can't just spray it on. My thought was that maybe these bugs are keeping the new fronds from opening, but since the other palm doesn't have any bugs like that, I don't think it's a going theory. I'm sure the plants are rootbound, so my main conclusion as of now is that I have to aim the watering can for the rootball, and do so more often. But I still don't know what to do about the new fronds not opening -- maybe better watering will help, but I don't know, we'll see. Thanks again for your help. -Ben

I have two of these growing in pots, which were in the same pot originally. I split them in mid summer and both of them look great still so I'm assuming it can be done since mine were successful. Just be careful and try untangle as many roots as possible trying not to tear. Also if there are any that are to hard to untangle, I have heard its better to cut them the rip them. That's what i did and it worked out for me. As for the other questions I'm really not sure. Good Luck!

Thanks everyone. Yeah I was pretty shocked and stoked at the same time when I discovered it in the basement trying its hardest, using every last bit of stored energy it had to recover. I placed it outside as you see in the first photo before any of the new "mini" fronds opened. The first 4 or so that opened were only 1/4 to 1/2 fronds and were tiny. They were clearly severely damaged and stunted / disfigured towards the tips. Then the fronds started getting larger and larger. Eventually it started putting up more normal sized fronds but still slightly smaller than usual. I think it is still pushing out fronds that are not quite full sized yet but close. The new growth this spring / summer is more lush like what you would see in a greenhouse likely due to the very moist and mild conditions. I suspect it suffered no burns from sun because the first time I put it back out none were "open" and this year I put it out early in the season before the sun was very strong, and also had it in a partially shaded area so it did not get full sun all day. I moved it to its current (and usual) outdoor location around Memorial day. It does slow down growth when I bring it inside, but it stays in a fairly bright, although mostly indirect sun location during winter. The other thing I do (mainly to combat spider mites to which these palms appear to be magnets) during winter is on warm days, usually once per month I take it outside and hose it off fairly hard. It knocks back the mites to manageable levels (almost none) and by the time I get to doing it again they have not built back up too much. I find it helps putting it outside for a day or two on the warmer days in winter with sun. Usually 50F or higher. My other one which has substantially larger fronds, but is much shorter also got mealy bugs this past winter and I used the same hosing method on it this spring and it appears to have worked just fine. I see no signs of them anymore. It's a bit of extra work to haul them in and out several times a winter, but so far I have found that it helps keep them substantially healthier than they were in the past when I just left them inside for 4 straight months. This year they both seem to be doing just fine although the one that survived that harrowing ordeal of severe freeze then neglect seems like its pushing up fronds that are slow to come fully out / open. They appear to eventually get there though. The newer one that is shorter that I mentioned (not pictured that I mentioned that was infested with mealy bugs) has 3 bloom spathes on it so its getting ready to flower. As for the windmill its looking a bit ragged but still chugging along and getting big. I need to pull out out from its location and take off most of the fans as there are lots of fronds either dead or very burned. The new fans look great though, but its going to look a bit naked as there will only be 4 or 5 in the center left. I also lost a few plumerias, and all of my sago palms to that same freeze. The plumies just melted. The sagos struggled next season to push out very mini leaves. I chalked them up as a loss as well and after the first freeze last fall they were toast. I do still have my miniature plumeria however and that thing is doing fantastic! It bloomed for me last year and may do so again this year. For the life of me I can't remember exactly what it's called. Perhaps I named it in an old post but I will have to now search. Part of its name is small southeastern asian country.