Needles are some pretty impressive palms, they can handle down to 0 and even -5 with no protection and little damage when its older. If you want a palm in a zone 5 with little protection, the needle palm is your only option. Sorry to hear about your other palms, but at least your needle is still doing good. If it gets below 0F again you should protect it really well. Also some palsm get spear pull in the spring because of the cold rain and the occasional night freezes after a rain storm, so watch out for those too! Good luck and post some pics of its progress!

You should buy some spanish moss and hang it on things for the summer months. They would make a nice "pirate theme look". You can get some at a good price on ebay. I tried some in my zone 7 last winter and most of it made it. I dont think it would make it in a zone 6 (or even well in a zone 7 during the average winter) so if you have an unheated garage it will do well in there with an occasional dip in a bowl of water (thats what I did with mine!). They dont like too much water in the winter and they dont seem to do too well indoors during the winter because of the heated air. Good luck! -Alex Good luck!

My needles arrived(7g)with most of the spears pulling,I did get my money back but I lost one,the other one is coming back from the side shoots and is doing quite well, some shoots are on their second to third leaf with the benefit of the root system of the main plant. I agree with DZ about the light and cover,since my needles were not favored by me to survive,I just built a leaf cage with moisture protection,(also wrapped the plants in burlap)they came through winter(lowest temps of -16F and -17F)with no added heat.One thing I wish I would have done is leave a min/max thermometer in with them to see how cold it got. think the main thing with needles(and other palms)this far north is to keep them dry and limit direct sun(during winter) and heat in an inclosure as the roots have a very hard time pulling up moisture when soil temps drop during winter.

I see this thread hasn't been active for months, but, I wanna ask are any of the good heat giving rope lights solar powered? I'm gonna guess, you can't count on them. And Sasha your last pic above is so damn cute. Seriously, some of those protection methods above are great ideas. I'm in zone 6a, I have 4-6 very small Needle or Windmill palm babies, I;m talking only 2-3 spears per plant. I want to eventually try at least one plant outdoors in the ground, but, I want the plant to look great and not be stressed. I am currently growing a Live oak (Quartz mountain) in zone 6, I have christmas lights on it, and if it gets below zero, I just may wrap it up like as if it were my 1st born. I have yet to try a palm outdoors, I have a potted Live oak protected now until it goes back up to at least the 30'sF. The christmas light wrapped live oak also has it's trunk protected by pipe insulation. This is the hardier Live oak variety, not like those in florida and Mississippi, the great southern Live oak. This is the tougher more cold and drier rougher area Live oak tree. This tougher Live oak grows in Missourri, Oklahoma, the drier parts of Texas. It is said to be as hardy as zone 6. I would think that would not be until it is at least a 6-7 ft tree, maybe larger. I am inclined to protect mine until it's too large to be able to do so anymore.