There are some fantastic specimens of coconut, royal, triangle, teddy bear, and bismark (among others) in Palm Bay--but they are generally the exception and not the rule. I think that the ones we see doing well are those that have achieved a good mature size before freezes--they've toughened up. It amazed me to drive through Palm Bay and see those "shouldn't-be" palms...some Arecas would be frozen others just fine...

Billheink, I see what you are saying and in general you are correct. Inland central Florida does not tend to be hospitable for royal palms (Roystonea regia). I feel Royals in coastal locations from Merritt Island on the east coast and Clearwater on the west coast are safe from all but the worst freezes. Even in 1989, I am sure there were some immediate coastal specimens still alive from and south of the aforementioned locations. Metro Orlando has been progressively built up during the last 50 years, continuing in earnest during the past 20 years. While average temps are lower than south FL, extreme minimums in the metro area in recent years tend to be more consistent with South FL locations such as Fort Myers and West Palm Beach (in some cases a bit higher). The urban heat island has a PROFOUND effect on winter lows in Orlando and I have watched many would-be freezes only bottom out at 33-35 in metro Orlando, while outlying areas, even to the south, reach well below freezing. I have two large royals (regia and borinqueana) and a large foxtail in-ground here in the northern Orlando suburbs. All were defoliated but had no problem pulling though the 25F we had early (and again in late) 2010. The executive airport, meanwhile, did not drop below 28-29F during any of the 2010 freeze events. I even feel that the city should frequently use Roystonea regia as a mainstay landscaping choice downtown, as I don't see this area getting cold enough to kill a royal more than once or twice a century now. Central FL microclimates adjacent to large bodies of water have similar results with royals and other 10a palms and those in these areas who want to attempt to grow such palms should not feel discouraged. My point is, these palms can survive and thrive for many years in coastal, metro and lakeside areas of Central FL. Coconuts are more marginal and anywhere in Central FL other than the immediate coast and large lakes in southern Central FL will have a difficult time with long term success. I do, however, know of a Coconut palm near Orlando that survived 2010. This post was edited by williamr on Wed, Oct 16, 13 at 1:14

I am by no means a palm expert, but Royal Palms are growing quite well in my zone 9 location of Houston . HOWEVER, I live near the center of our urban heat island where we may be more on the warm side of 9b. The last two winters were more like 10a winters. We didn't even dip below freezing this past winter. The royals also do very well South of here and closer to the coast which is borderline 9b/10a. But when you consider that we have some tall Royal Palms in a location that had a very hard freeze (low 20s) just a few years ago, I assume that with some added TLC, a royal palm can certainly survive plant zone 9. I do think more mature trees can handle the freezes a bit better than the younglings.

"Some growers advocate using a seed float test. The seeds are placed in water and those that float are discarded as non-viable. However, some palm seeds naturally float because they are dispersed in nature by water. Furthermore, some growers have found that if the floating seeds are planted, a sizable number will germinate. There are several recognized ways to quickly test seed viability on a random sample of the entire lot:" UF/IFAS Palm Seed Germination