Hi palmmandan, I live in Southeast Michigan, in Grosse Ile. Right now, my windmill palm is about a foot and a half tall, pure trunk lol. No leaves, they all died off this winter, but its starting to regrow as of this week. Before the leaves were killed off, it was between 3 and 3 1/2 feet tall. I'm hoping that since I moved it to a full sun location last summer, it should grow fast this summer, and maybe I'll see 4 feet.

I live in Livonia but I don't have a windmill palm. I had one a couple of years ago but got impatient and put it in the ground in March. Spear pull, it made a slight comeback over the summer but died the next winter. I am putting a Robusta in the ground (sort of). I have it in a giant pot and am going to allow the roots to grown into the ground. I'm going to put some heat cables in the soil and build a makeshight greenhouse around it. We'll see. I left everything out last night for the first time and it's only falling into the 50s the next couple of nights.

I have a 7 foot Windmill being delivered today from Fed Ex freight. I am going to put her into a be pot. I have a 4 foot Windmill palm at work in a pot and a 1.5 footer at home. Have 2 Dwarf Palmetto's at home. Yesterday I got a 4 foot Pygmy Date Palm and a 2 foot Dioon Palm delivered to my work. I am in Roseville in Macomb county. I have heard all the techniques for winter protection. I like yours.

Palmmandan- How did you get FedEx to deliver your palm? I was told that they wouldn't ship live plants. Please share your secret...

I ordered this from www.paradisepalmco.com They shippeed it Fed Ex freight. Tree was 12 pounds.

Here is a picture after I platted it in the pot.
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Pq28Z3CS

I need a bigger pot or plant it in the ground and do research all summer on the best winter protection.

That was planted. LOL

I meant to say tree was 120 pounds

Awesome but I think you will need a bigger pot. My Robusta was p[ositioned last night. For the first time it will have no constrictions on where the roots go. Sunny and 79 today WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

FOR SALE For any Michigan Folks on here I have 2 Dwarf Palmettos (Sabal Minors) That are cold Hardy to 5F. They are 3 feet tall each. These would cost you $150. for these specimens on most nursery sites + shipping. I bought them and found out they are not big sun worshippers. I really don't have many places to put them where there is no sun. These like shady areas in the summer and moist soil. I would like to get $100. per Plant. Plus you pick them up.

I think your protection will need to involve a home loan to add on to your house!What an awesome palm!it took my computer an hour to load that picture,or maybe I got impatient because the first minute was spent looking at the roof and thinking,dang this is either a really big house are a really small palm,it looks like me trying to put my baby shoes back on.LOL Don,t know if putting it in the ground in the pot was part of the plan but everything I,ve read says bad idea up north just thought I'd mention that,I guess your planning on planting it soon so it will have all year to establish itself.If I was planting one that size I would dig a hole at least twice the size of that pot(and really loosen up the soil around those roots) use a root stimulater,blah,blah,blah,anyway unbalievably beautiful palm!Your neighbors are going to s***-AWESOME,can't wait to see it in the ground,way to much fun!

Dan, do you have pictures of your minors for sale?

Heres my Michigan trachy last summer. Right now it has only 2 leaves after some winter damage. Planted as a 15 gal that april. In the back thats a 1 gallon musa basjoo planted a month later. It's regrowing in the house and I'll plant it permanently out there.

That's a nice trachy wow !

Hey Southeast Michigan gang, do any of you know a nursery in SE Michigan that seels Musa Basjoo? or is my best bet to order online?

GO Wings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO Pistons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO Tigers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Andy, Goldner Walsh sells them, but they're very overpriced at $25 for a 1 gallon 1 foot plant. Although, when you incorporate shipping in addition to the price of the plant, it might work out to be the same price anyway. And usually online they don't offer 1 gallon plants, so maybe you are best off going with Goldner Walsh. Even if you don't wanna pay that price, I strongly recommend going there. Its like a plant lover's paradise. They have a huge tropicals section. They sell hardy bamboo, a ton of bananas and cactus, and I've even bought a big Saw Palmetto from them, although it didn't make it through the winter in my garage. If you do decide to bring anything home, just make sure you bring a pocket full of cash, because they're not cheap. More of an upscale nursery. They have, or at least last year, they had a Basjoo planted there in between their greenhouses with no protection at all except for being sited between the greenhouses. They guy there told me it came back after the winter.

Andy I would try e-bay,there is always someone who is selling 2x1'- 2' basjoo for $20,if you look hard enough,nows a bad time cuz its spring and everybody wants,good luck!

I'll at lease check out Goldner Walsh. I only want a couple and hopefully will get some pups from them by the end of summer. That way I'm not dealing with freight or podssible damage in transit. Who knows what else they have.
Fingers crossed I think last night should be our last frost. I have some pineabble plants in the ground i covered and a large potted Roebi that was too big to move back in. i think it's only supposed to fall into the mid 40s tonight.

I got the basjoo from hardytropicals.com it came out to like 18$ I think. The growth rate is amazing.

You've got another SE Michigan palm enthusiast (Troy Area). I have 2 in the ground since last Spring. 1 wintered very well (only 1' high) and the larger trunked one got bitten real bad, but looks like it make it. It lost it's covering during our single digit week. Otherwise, I'm still waiting for the Musa Basjoo to resprout. Any ideas of when this might happen?

Im on Grosse Ile also, lost a needle palm this year and a windmill 2 years ago, didnt have time to winterize at all, I plan on doing a windmill this year and winterizing, I have a few trunking yucca and some cacti doing good with no winterizing.

Thats really cool to hear Scarab. Do you own or work at Grosse Ile Marketplace? I have had my windmill in the ground for 4 years now, gone through 3 winters and has been exposed to countless single digit nights, along with zero this past winter. The zero degrees is what killed the foliage, but it has started to recover since I first posted in this thread.

I also have been trying trunking yuccas. I have a yucca gloriosa that looks promising because it did not rot this past winter, completely unprotected, and is still alive with a few green spear leaves. I have a couple different types of bamboo that are now sending up new shoots, along with a dwarf palmetto that went unprotected and is sending up a new spear leaf. I have a couple needle palms that made it, but are in rough shape. I'm hoping for a hot summer to help them to recover. Glad to hear there's another palm enthusiast here on the island!

nothing to with the farm market, just like trying to strange non-local plants.

Ok. The reason i asked is because i talked to the guy who owns the place and he said he is growing a couple different bamboos at his house, and when i went there a couple weeks ago they had hardy bananas along with windmill palms. I'm not sure where you got ur windmill from, but I know that Supples on Telegraph between Van Horn and West has them for $29.99 and a pretty decent size too, I think they're 7 gallons if you wanna try again.

Thanks, I'll take a look, I ordered the windmill a few years ago on line, I usually dont see any around here, or bananas. Bamboos shoud not be a problem here, heck, some are native to Ohio. There is a site, http://mibamboo.com/, that sell them too.

You're right, windmills are very uncommon around here. The only place I've found them after a lot of searching is Supples, and luckily they're close to home. Meijer in Woodhaven sold bananas 2 summers ago, but they haven' carried them since. Goldner Walsh in Pontiac sells bananas, but I got 1 of my musa basjoo from a trip to Chicago. They sell them there at Lowes. Not sure why they don't here, we're the same climate. My other basjoo was a pup of a larger plant from last summer that I purchased online. I tried overwintering it in ground but it rotted. This is the second time I have tried and failed in overwintering them.

As far as bamboo, I got 2 Fargesia Rufa from here on the island from Grosse Ile Mktplace. I bought a yellow groove bamboo from Ray Hunter in Southgate (way overpriced), and 2 more yellow groove from Michigan Bamboo Company. The guy's based in Royal Oak, and has much better prices and his plants were the ones that held their leaves over winter. The Ray Hunter plant fried and lost its leaves, but has been sending up new shoots and putting leaves back on. But with these wonderful deer that eat anything and everything, they ate all the shoots off that plant, so I don't have much to look at. I have chicken wire around the other 2.

SE Michigan guys stand back and watch the growth, starting Thursday here is the forcast:

86-71 91-71 87-62 92-71 93-70 87-64 85-63 84-58. That's why I put so much work in the winter to keep my palms going. with the rain we're getting today and tomorrow and the June sun this could end up being the best growing weather we get all summer. I'm glad I fertilized this past weekend. Just need to get some lightning in the air to release extra Nitrogen.

Finally some warmth)
I stopped at Supples and they were empty of palms(

Andy- I'm already seeing growth on a lot of my stuff. My trachys that had spear pull are pushing up new spears, my sago is starting to flush, my bananas are sending up new leaves, and my oleanders are starting to get flower buds. Hopefully this hot weather we have coming will push new growth out of my needles and get my yucca gloriosa growing again.

Scarab- sorry to hear that. Last year they got 2 windmills in, and I bought 1 of them. They keep them inside in the greenhouse area near the cut flowers. Not sure if they'll be getting any more in this year though. They sell them as houseplants, but I know something they don't LOL.

I stopped in to the GI farm market and got a windmill for $50 with about a foot of trunk and a small banana for $17

$17? I'll have to pay them another visit. Last time I was there they had 5 gallon bananas for $79, a little overpriced in my opinion. I wonder if they guarantee their windmill palms

So who noticed some growth spurts over the past few days. Just My king palm has exploded as well as my bottle seedlings. Even my pineapple plant si put in the ground in April that were on life suppurt are pushibg up new growth.

Well here is the newest pics of the front of my house in Macomb County.

Front of my house faces south.
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm160/turbodan321/IMG_0672.jpg

My 7 foot Trachy after I removed quite a bit of older fronds. After I planted it a lot of the older fronds started to die. Went into some sort of shock. New fronds coming out of the top and she looks a bit more healthier
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm160/turbodan321/IMG_0674.jpg

Meditranean Palm
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm160/turbodan321/IMG_0676.jpg

Banana and Sago's
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm160/turbodan321/IMG_0680.jpg

I have a Dioon Cycad that I thought was on its way out. I chopped off all the leaves 2 weeks ago. Within the last 2 days I have new growth growing fast from this weather.

Nice pics Palmmandan! that's a nice size trachy. The remaining fronds look really healthy too. Are those sagos pot planted, or planted right in the ground? My sago is pushing up a new flush right now too. I can't believe I'm getting a flush this early in the season. Its not even summer yet! Dare I even think about a second flush this summer?

Thanks.

Yes, I left the Sago'sin their pots and placed them into the ground.

Here is a pic of the new flush on my Dioon Cycad.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm160/turbodan321/IMG_0724.jpg