Looks nice Jay I remember you said you were not far away from planting some of the more tender stuff,I felt the same way,and so did the same on saturday,we have some of the same plants in,sure will be fun to watch them take off,I call the bananas the big fireworks in the show,mine will get leaf burn but since they grow so fast not a prob,the fun begins!I guess if it gets cold we can morn together,not!

Here is a link that might be useful:

Thanks Jim. I was looking at your pics earlier. Everything looks great. I'm gonna keep an eye on the temps in Iowa now. What is the name of your town or closest town? Those yucca are huge! I saw some at Lowe's the other day about that big for $25! I'll get some soon. I definitely want some trunking yucca too. I love having the bananas because they give me instant gratification. Most palms grow too slow but I still love them. Its not like we can all afford to buy a 20ft trachy. It'd be nice though. Someday.

Jay

Yea,I originally thought to buy 4'-5'trachys but the price slowed me a bit and befor I knew it I had dozens of palms I ordered so many that they were giving me "free sabal","bonus palm"etc so I ended up with even more!I will enjoy watching them grow and they will be easier to protect which is just as well,I can see what protection works best and which palms are willing to be shut down in a leaf cage,(with cover)anyway back to spring,I live in fairfield Ia.in the s.e.corner of the state-52556-zip,(we are the county east of ottumwa) what is your town and zip?I think were all right now(I say that knowing full well we had snow flurries last weekend,and now I'm planting bananas LOL-(I hope)usually these solidly cold winters once we transition into spring it is spring!and great one at that, the last time we had a spring were the flowers did not get toasted was 2000-01 and that was a SERIOUS winter!The yuccas only have a foot of underground trunck/root I hope they don't rot they were bullied out and left as trash,you have to see these in person to really appriciate they are 4'-5' accross!I figure the bananas will be over the railing on the porch by june 1 they are such a blast to plant and watch grow and nobody around here has any so people will really be surprized in a month are two when they get going!

I see a spindle I need to nab or you can just send it to me.

Better watch it orchiddude,he is "palm crazy"

Maybe so but orchiddude is spindle crazy lol !

Jay: I think you are OK as the chance of frost is virtually nil after this week. Nice photos as always.

Keep your hands off my spindle Rob. Step away from the spindle. LOL! One of these days I'm just going to buy a larger one. Thanks the virginian. We'll see what happens.

Jay

You go Josh....I'll try to hold any Canadian cold air back I can...lol - Just so you know they had 50 cm (almost 2 feet) of snow in Saskatchewan and everything they get comes east, really depends on the jet stream though - I put my Brugmansias and my agave, yucca and a few other things outside on Saturday but they are coming back inside on Wed...I've got them this far I'm not taking any chances.We are going down to 34'F Friday night and I'm not sure how far away you are from me - I'm in London Ontario.

Jay whats your zip or town?I like to put fellow cold hardy palm pioneers area forecast on my watch list for weather.com(I also look at weatherunderground)I have lakers1982(waterloo Ia)and islandbreeeze?(livonia michigan)that I watch;If anyone else wants to give me there zip go right ahead,I promise I won't give it to orciddude LOL

Sorry I meant to give you that before. Chambersburg PA 17201

Jay

Looks great, I hope you stay frost free the rest of spring.

jim, here in chicago mine is 60638 you can add it to your watch list if you would like. thanks brian

Thanks guys,I have you plugged in,anyone else?

lol, yeah I am spindle crazy. I just took mine out of the greenhouse a few weeks ago.

Well jay now that my bananas are planted outside I guess I will see what happens!Tonights the night and hopefully the last subfreezing night!

Hi Jim. I hope everything makes it through the night alright. My turn is Wednesday night. Although the low is only 35f so I might escape unharmed. Some stuff might decline slightly but like you said, it should be the last night to worry about. We'll see what happens.

Jay

Wow Jim, those yucca's are too sweet! Any idea what kind they are? Love the porch on your house too, would love to have something like that for my potted plants one day. Where in Iowa are you at? I'm in Nevada, just outside of Ames.

Jay I was not going to worry about it but it only reached 46F today and although the temp is holding on to 40F at 1 a.m.we have been blessed with cloud cover so far,I put sheets over the bananas,and plastic over the sheet on the large dwarf,I also put a temp probe under one of the covers so it will be interesting to see if its any warmer under cover.Stokesjl they are the basic variety you see up north,I have heard them called gloriosa or adams needle,they are the biggest of this type I have seen anywhere,the one on the right in pictures is at least 6 ' in diameter.I am in jefferson co.(fairfield Ia)

Much to my surprise our low only reached 33F and under the covers (so to speak)the temp only reached 44F(the bananas were covered to the ground so soil warmth helped out)so all is fine for this latest and hopefully last round of silly chilly weather!

Jimhardy, I think that's Andy that lives in Livonia, MI. You can put me on your list. I'm in Grosse Ile, Michigan 48138. Weather.com says we're only supposed to get down to 34 degrees tonight, just as warm as the city of Detroit(luckily), while most other cities in our area are forecast to get down into the mid to upper 20s- Burrr! Although, the local weather man says I'm supposed to get down to 30, and the city is gonna get down to 32, so I'm not sure who to believe. Supposed to get close to record low temps tonight.

I brought everything potted inside yesterday just to be on the safe side, even all my potted windmills. I'll usually leave them out through the upper 20s, but I figured leaving them out in the cold this late in the season would slow their growth back down again. Hope eveybody's bananas(and potted Roebellinis) make it through. Not really sure if my basjoo is still alive. I have a stump, seems very firm in the ground, but no signs of life yet.

Yea,I get you guys confused sometimes,got ya plugged in.It certainly is wise to pull (or cover)plants in this kind of weather,one thing I noticed with these predicted lows,one indicater is dew point and now andyx2,waterloo(which did hit 24F last night) and where you are as of this morning the dew points are in the low to mid 20s so it bares watching,our dew point last night stayed at 32F and we only hit 33F,sounds like you have it covered though,thanks for the zip input,and good luck with your musa-

27 out at the airport here in Waterloo Ia last night. coldest it got in my yard was 32. What a difference being in a 100k+ area as opposed to out in the middle of no where. Put the potted Palms in the garage. While I was expecting there to be some frost on the in ground Windmills and Needle,there was none.

Not sure where weather underground gets their temps(they actually said 25F) L1982, glad to here it was not as cold at your place ,and hopefully we are done with the 30s till next Oct at least!

WOW! We squeaked by with 32.5f and it only lasted for 5 minutes. Beginning at 6:42am then started back up at 6:47am. I covered everything that I could with upside down pots just in case. Everything looks fine like nothing even happened. My shell ginger looks bent out of shape because of the pot being over it all night. It should bounce back. I hope we're done with the borderline frost for the season.

Jay

How can you tell it was 5 minutes I thought I monitered this stuff closely,but I can't touch that!LOL anyway surprised it got that cold there you guys were the warmest place I checked last night of all the people that shared their zip's,my stuff(bananas only) reached mid 40s under protection,did you cover your nanars?how are they looking?

LOL! I just go to the Weather Underground site and go to weather history for my location. I have to use LMS Station Greencastle PA but thats right down the road. Looks like 41f (on weather.com) for tonights low so its all good. The nanners look just as they did before our little non-frost last night. As usual heres some pics. I finished planting everything today.

Burgundy ficus, ficus elastica var, cordyline red star

Final basjoo planted

poncirus trifoliata

The bananas haven't liked the spring winds or the hail storm the other night but they're still pushing out a new leaf each.

The hail even ripped all the leaves on my largest canna I've been growing all winter!!!

Looking good!

Looks great Jay,should be fun to watch everything grow this year,my trachys are the only ones really doing much now but thats pretty cool considering the up and down temps and that they were planted not so long ago,they have all grown more in 4weeks than they did all winter!