If I had to guess I would say it is to late. Here are a couple pics of mine after last winter-they were cut back almost to the ground. In this 1st pic you can see how pale the spear,etc is- the whole thing pulled out. Here is a pic of it cut back,I didn't think it would make it because of how far down I had to cut to find live tissue. You can cut down(for starters)as far as down as the socket went that pulled-don't worry about hurting the palm at this point,my guess is it has no chance without being cut back. Keep cutting down,if you do not find white tissue before the absolute soil line it's dead. My guess is you will find a cored out center but hopefully you will find some healthy tissue, if you do it won't take long for it to pop up,maybe a week if in a warm sunny place and if the roots are still alive. Anyway,here are some pics of the process from this past season. Another one- and...another 4 days later(in April) Palms recovering-7 weeks later- Here they are(recovered) in fall(Oct 8th)- GOOD LUCK!

We are currently working with Nassau and Suffolk County on getting a minimum 5 Acre location for a nursery. We have a 3 acre location being developed in Old Brookville. While there is a trade off between the full root system of an easily shipped 3-5 footer(Trachy), our feeling is that customers will want a legit looking palm asap so the minimum 8 footers make sense. I'm hoping that the palm's maturity will spark quicker regrowth of its root system within a max 2-year period. So during those two years, at least the customer will have a palm of substance to look at and brag about. We will be offering a 1-year guarantee on all palms provided the customer uses our winter wrapping service. We feel the crucial months for protection (before establishment of the palm) will be Dec-Feb...Possibly first 2 weeks in March. Hey, the way I see it, covering a palm in NY for 3 months-to have palms isn't that bad. Our targeted market is pool owners-who are used to officially closing/covering their pools, BBQ, deck chairs....OK, so now include your palms. A ritual they are already used too. Shipping will be choreographed to spend as little time in transit as possible. We are currently speaking with different nurseries in GA & NC. Obviously, dealing with NC would provide us with the closest and most cold hardy of the species. Our goal is to get our nursery up and running ASAP so we can get our 1st generation of NY'ers followed by future generations-hopefully winding up with "New York Tough" lines of different palms species. We will also be test planting Dates, Sabals, Washingtonias, Yuccas and Agaves this spring to see how they cope with the next winter. I'm also going to be getting some Jubaea and Butia Hybrids. We will be experimenting with chemicals, sprays...trying to stay away from anything requiring electrical. One thing we will be working with is Beet Juice. Believe it or not, there is a company that has a patent pending on beet juice as an ice melt. In STL they use it instead of salt to melt the roadways as it is all natural and not corrosive. Can beet juice lower the core water temp freezing point inside a palm? Maybe, wont know until this winter. I just hope it doesn't dye the darn palm red :). Also, purely by accident, I discovered that I have seepage form a broken line in my leaching field where cesspool water is coming up. The grass in contact with that water is lush, growing and green as can be while the grass around it is frozen, brown and lifeless. A fertilizer rich in potassium and nitrogen may do a NY palm well in helping survive a winter. Each area in the US is different, even if they are listed in the same zone. There are Fortuneis on Long Island that are 20+ tall over 45 years old living on Long Island-no protection(Not having anything to do with me...www.nypalms.com. Our goal is to get them through the first 2-3 winters and then they should be able to cope. Butias may require winter protect for 5-10 years or until they are at least 15 feet high. I'm really looking forward to experimenting with other species and sharing the finding with all of you.

Hardier palms only just started showing up in NYC/NJ Metro Area nurseries within the last year or so. They are still considered exotic because most people can't believe it's possible. Last winter I was shoveling the walkway from a two foot storm. My neighbor came over and couldn't believe the four foot Trachycarpus palms in the front yard (I planted mine about three years ago). PS., Believe it or not, palms I can grow, HOSTA I can't. Why? Hosta are known as 'deer food', deer never touch any palms.

Just a quick update.... The 2 windmill palms I took a picture of are now covered in blue plastic and hopefully some type of burlap material as well. Im glad that they decided to at least protect them from the moisture and as long as they dont stay in there too long, I think they will be fine (I think it was too early to cover up the palms since its actually a warm day outside today so I would imagine that its probably really warm inside the plastic). I think the reason why they were protected like that was because some people see fig trees protected like that (these days, I dont even see figs around here protected too much), but the difference between figs and palms are that figs go dormant and dont need sun or air during the winter. Palms dont go dormant (they might slow down to a stop in cold climates, but naturally, they have the ability to grow all year long) and do need sun and air all year long. So wrapping a palm in plastic isnt the best method for protection, but its probably better than nothing! And Im glad that some of the landscapers here at least have some knowledge of cold hardy palms! -Alex