Welcome to AZ and to the forum. We sure hope you post often. It sounds like you've gotten the information you need from mangled--great information as usual. Despite swearing I'd never buy queen palms since they don't LOVE it here the way so many other palms do, I did purchase some awhile back and they've done well. Mine at only about 9 feet tall and they get ten gallons of water twice a week, plus palm fertilizer in early spring, late spring, and then mid-summer. That *should* help keep the yellow fronds away but you never know. They are not the easiest palm to keep happy here (the way Mexican and California/Desert and date and pygmy palms are) but they sure are lovely when happy. I would never recommend them to friends who like super low maintenance plants, but I do a lot of things I wouldn't recommend. :) Good luck and keep us posted! Take care, Grant

Here in the greater Savannah area, there a re lots of scattered queen palms around town. Those on the "wst" side seem to get fried every year with the 18-20 degree temperatures, but do revoer by late summer. In general, though, they look much weaker than the ones downtown or on one of the islands. I have several in my yard, one that saw 19 degrees in jan. 2002 ( albeit briefly...but the palm was only 6 feet tall). This same queen is now over 22 feet with @ 12 feet of grey trunk, and heavily laden with seed. It appears to have the "silver queen" characertisitics of fat trunk, dense crown lof fronds, and very small seed/fruit size. BTW, I have never heard anyone refer to queen palm fruit as good to eat, and after sampling many "regular" queen palm fruit, I'd have to agree. However, the "silver queen", at least mine, has absolutely delicious fruit, better tasting than many pindos. In short, a regular queen most likley can and does withstand short periods @20F, but the "silver" variety can take a few degrees more...the only caveat is that ( according to COD Palms in Ovideo, FLA) most queen palms can't truly be differentiated in to "silver" or "regular" unitl they are @12 feet in overall height...and even then, there is no "set in stone" criterion. My 2 cents.

Dear Greg Since I am lazy,I prefer to make it as easy as possible,really. It has nothing to do with having over 60 palms/cactus to protect! LOL Here are 4 methods I have tried and like,all but the bigger "hoop" house are heated with X-mas lights...my favorite(: All of them together. O.k. really 5 ways,there may even be a few more in there somewhere. I covered my Sequoia with this umbrella greenhouse, I love these things but they take a lot of heat. This is what I used the first year for the first 2 Trachys I ever planted. I have no name for this but it is kinda my favorite... one layer of green plastic coated fencing with 2 layers 1" clear bubble wrap and a layer of opaque foam between the another layer of fencing to hold it in place. I use a trash can lid with a burlap coffee bag in-between for insulation,it can also be draped over the south side if the sun is heating them to much..15-20 7wt(x-mas) lights. Large "Rose cones" protected all my Tree ferns etc. 8/7wt bulbs all hooked into a thermocube/on at 35F/off 45F. Washys cover this way-same double b-wrap,thermocube etc, I will need to add 2' to these this year-and more x-mas lights. I opened the top on these when I could. Heres what I did the first winter(-: pretty wasteful but fun! Now that the palms/etc have grown so much I can't afford to light up the neighborhood!-LOL More insulation less lights these winters! Anyway,that is some of what I have done over the years (not all though)hopefully this will give some of us some better ideas on how to improve protection-like me! Temps in the garden have ranged between -18F and 106F over the past 4 years.

I have a coconut palm in a pot that I've had for about 3 years now. It stays in my bedroom during the winter next to a south facing window so it gets plenty of sun. I had 2 before that. The first died after I tried to winter it in my garage. Too cold and dark. The second one died the next winter in my greenhouse. Plenty of sun but still too cold. The heater doesn't come on until it dips to 40. Humidity has never been an issue with them. It's always been temperature. They do NOT like prolonged cold. Mine stays on my deck in partial shade all summer long here in North Central TX. Even after this last record dry, hot one. It's looking great and is about 7ft tall including the pot. -Stacy