We had 23F here last winter (Temecula, CA), and many of them were damaged. But they did survive. Trees such as Archontophoenix cunninghamiana (great on the coast, but not here) and Howea forsteriana were killed.

Mine grew from 3ft to about 12 ft this summer,greenhouse only 10ft tall,so it's following the hoop house at the top.
If it grows that much next summer,will have to give it to the zoo,for there jungle exhibit.

{{gwi:1168787}}

Looks great !

We had short duration 20F last year and the large queens didn't show damage at all. 17F fried them in 89' but the duration was longer that year.

Cycad when you say fried do you mean killed and they didn't recover ? or fried and they recovered ?

There actually were some deaths on the north side of town where it is colder. Even 14 footers with thick stems died. Of the plants that had total burn off, I'd say only 10% died, so it is possible. Half the others sent out stunted crazy looking leaves even into July on some of them. There are lots of marginal plants that don't have the same energy as good plants for many different reasons. Chances are, most of the people who lost trees might have saved them if they had fed them with triple super phosphate during the winter and layed off the nitrogen around November, that usually gives several palms about 2 extra degrees.

ya'll know so much about palms--i know nothing. i have 2 about 9 foot queen palms that were planted back in may. one tree has one frond that is turning yellow. am i supposed to feed these or is it normal to turn yellow from time to time? i'm just clueless as to the proper care of these trees. thanks in advance for your help.

Sounds like a manganese or magnesium deficiency.

Here is a link that might be useful: https://www.lutzcorp.com/palmtrees/

thank you so much, topher----i'll definitely get some spikes!

Real good people to deal with. I bought some 1 yr ago and the owner has already called me twice asking how they worked. Now that's the kind of support i need from a supplier !

I live in Hemet CA where it does sometimes get to 20F or LOWER. I have six queens palms 12 to 18 foot that show no discoloration, tough buggers!

I got them from Get Palms in Temecula, i think this is their site:
http://www.getpalmtrees.com/

Here is a link that might be useful: Where i got my queen palms.

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.

My north Florida 9-12 ft Queens (at that time) took 22 degrees with very minor leaf damage.

wilmington_islander - I planted a couple Silver Queen seedlings this past spring. (growing fast) What, in your opinion, is the most obvious difference between a Silver and reg. Queen? (adult or young)

For me, personally, it is the overall "robustness" of the trunk, i.e., the trunk caliper...IMHO, this almost always coincides with a fuller, denser crownshaft. Some people say that the fronds have a silver sheen to them after a hard frost, but perhaps this woodsman's eyes just aren't color sharp enough, becasue I haven't really seen a color difference. Another somewhat distingusing characteristic is the darker area where the frond comes out of the trunk....the petiole may be the correct word, but I am not sure. COD palms grows ( or grew) them in Ovideo, from "true" silver queen palm seeds from Santa Caterina island and surrounding environs. However, even the grower says that most, but not all, do not come out as "silver" or "robust" types. And this leads me to believe that it is a variety of the traditional queen, and not a separate species, as I have seen some refer to it..i.e., syagrus littoralis ( sp?).

I have two queen palms. They've both been in the ground 2.5 years and were about the same size at that time. One is next to the house on the east side and the other is about 15' away from the house, next to the hottub and a fence. During winter, I place a 3' high and 3' diamter circle of chicken wire filled with pinestraw around them. This past Spring, the one next to the house, which is now twice as big as the other (due to more watering during the growing season), had cold damage. The other did not. I was surprised at this, but think it's because the one next to the hottub was protected from the cold north wind by the fence. This past winer, it got down to 18F, but once one or two nights.
I've been thinking about not mulching he larger one this winter and am really considering it after reading this.
The link shows the palm located next to the house the first winer it was in the ground. Now, the trunk is about 6' tall. Sorry for the small picture size.
Barb

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1168785}}