Aridandtropical, if you see my username, you would see and know that I am WELL AWARE of my zone. Also, Palm trees are native only as far north as extreme SE, North Carolina. They will not grow in DC without protection, except for Windmills, which are marginal, and Sabal Minor and Needle palms, which are almost fool-proof here. Bananas, well, Basjoos can be grown much much farther north than here with no protection other than a pile of mulch. The only difference between here in Michigan is that our winters are considerably more mild, and we need to protect stuff less. We still have winters, just like you though, and sometimes, as witnessed by our record all time lows, and some winters snowfalls, can be just as brutal as they are far north. 77" of snow in the winter of 2010 was nothing to shake a stick at, even by the snowiest places in the country standards. yep, we had that here. =o) One of the biggest differences is DURATION of bitter cold here is much much shorter on the infrequent occasions we do get down near 0F. I was giving mr banana dude back just what he was putting in. Nothing more. I found it much more hilarious than anything else, and if you think someone typing words on the internet is getting to someone or makes someone angry, well, I'm not sure you know too much about the text only form of communication. In stead of presenting his "opinion" in a constructive manner, he was nothing more than arrogant, rude, and down right insulting to almost everyone here. I might expect that of someone age 8-10, but most people by the time they are 17 usually have a grasp on what being opinionated is, and the difference between that and just being down right rude and insulting. Glad you are having successes with your tropicals so far north. Oh, and thanks Hunter M. It was mainly meant to be FUNNY, and I think it kind of was. ;-) Personally, I think Hunter M, for being his age, participated in a much more adult manner here than did mr banana dude. you'd think that would be the other way around now wouldn't you?

gatraffic,I meant to tell you all your palms look very healthy and happy.There was an old post where I took a picture looking out my front door.You asked me if I lived across the street from 78 or Bankhead Hwy.I meant to offer you a invitation to stop by next time your down this way.I've been out in the yard planting every since I got off work today.My mother tells me I've gone palm crazy,LOL. I thought about it and I didn't plant any palms in there pots.I got thinking about it an figured like Greg said,you would play heck digging the palm up if you ever had to move it.Plus I just don't think it would be good for the long term health for the palm. When I found the article I didn't know what to think at first,I had never heard of planting anything in the ground in its pot if its going to stay in the ground from now on.My second thought was I didn't like the look of the top of the pot showing above the ground,there were pictures with the article.I just wanted to see if any of you had heard of planting in this manner,or is planting in this manner and what results you were getting.Anyhow it was interesting and totally different from what I've been taught. I know one thing,I'm dieing to go back to HD tomorrow,even though I've already spent nearly 100 dollars already.I guess I have gone palm crazy.LOL :)

Came through ok here as well. Minor damage from winds, couple small trees down, some large limbs down are common. Winds only gusted up to around 50MPH here during heavy rain bands. Only knocked over my 5' windmill in its pot, but no damage. Bananas got a bit of shred, but not real bad. The water came up to the drain tops here, and moved up in the toilet some, but nothing like we saw before. We had sandbagged and prepared yesterday. IT figures we didnt flood. I would put money on it if we had not had the sand bags ready, we would have flooded massively. Just how things go it seems. LOL! Cute citty Jonnieb. I found my cat the night after Isabel went thru. I was helping my friend move into his new house in columbia heights, and i saw this tiny little dot in the yard. Just a couple ears sticking up. I approached but he ran away, but kept coming back, we put water in ice cube trays for him ( its all we had at the time) and he would come and drink, but was very skittish. I finally got him, no mother be found anywhere, no cat calling, nothing. We think his mother may have perished during the storm / flooding. He was flea ridden and terribly imaciated, just skin and bones really. I took him home that night, and took him to the vet the following week. At that point we did not know he was a boy, so I named him Isabel, after the storm. At the vet, the vet said to me.. well, Isable, IS A BOY! LOL! I had to bottle feed him with an eye dropper for a couple weeks. He weighed a whopping 6 ounces and completely fit in the palm of my hand, tail and all. The vet said he was likely the runt, and he was barely 4 weeks old. Hes now 5 years old as of the last week in august, and is a happy, healthy, but lean, and smaller house cat. Hes got the most beautiful ocean green eyes. Hes still got that "WILD" in him tho. He was after all a wild ferral city kitty. Heres a couple of pics of him.

No problem CD! I actually work for TVI, but at a different campus than the Main, so I am not at that Main Campus all too often. However, I was there yesterday for a meeting, and when I walked out of the building into the courtyard area, I was pleasantly surprised to see such liberal utilization of palms for a small piece of landscaping! To find the building, here are some admittedly very rough, rough general directions. If you are heading east on Coal, youd have the Jeannette Stromberg building on your right south side. JS has an elevated walkway that takes folks from the JS building, over coal, to the other side of Coal the north side of Coal where there are several other TVI buildings. Such buildings over there are the A building, the M building, the N building, etc. The building you want is the N Building (North Building), and the eight mid-sized palms are planted in a long row on a long outside wall of the N Building. It is a wall that is somewhat to a corner on one side of it a connecting corner between the N and the M Buildings. You find that N Building, and it will be very easy to find. I think youve got the right plan with leaving your palms outdoors now. Great to hear they are doing well! As for how mine are doing, I have got a total of four who are approximately 2 or 3 years old, have been in the ground at my house for a little over a year each a very small T. Fortunei (north-west facing exposure, no wall protection in front yard), one mid-sized T. Fortunei (north-west facing exposure, no wall protection in front yard), another mid-sized T. Fortunei (west-facing exposure, wood fence on east side for some protection in back yard) and one mid-sized Washingtonia Robusta (west-facing exposure, wood fence on east side for some protection in back yard). They are all doing great! The one doing the best (somewhat surprising to me) for early spring is one of my mid-sized T.Fortuneis (the one with north-west exposure and no wall), which already has sprouted two new large, mature bright green fronds, with 2 more coming up and is getting taller. Really, the next-best right now is (again, possibly even more surprising this early in the year) is my Washington Robusta, whose trunk is slowly thickening, getting taller, and has shot up already a large, mature bright green frond Robustas, while far quicker to burn off fronds in late autumn and much more sensitive to cold - once they get growing in the spring, they sure are quick growers! The two lagging a bit behind are the other two T. Fortuneis. One, still be very, very small, I believe it doing well, but I think due to its small size, will take it later into March, early April, before it really starts hammering out new fronds. The other T. Fortunei (my mid-sized one that is more protected) is growing new fronds, but much more slowly. I almost thing it has too many dead fronds on it, (it really produced tons last year because it grew so well) and that is slowing the reproduction of the new ones now. I think I will thus cut off a number of the dead ones soon, however, I have read that keeping the dead ones on until the last freeze is a good idea for additional protection for the new production. Sorry for the bookas you can tell, I am rather a geek for these trees, especially at this time of year! But all four trees are growing and doing quite well, and I have three more Washingtonia Filiferas to plant (that you kindly directed me to) once we get to the end of March that are still in their pots. Sorry for the length of thisI tend to ramble on with talk of my palms, and it is really exciting at this time of the year when you see a tree like a Mexican Fan shooting up new green fronds. I also have a mid-sized large peach tree that got into full blossom/bloom, and I think I successfully protected it through the unusually cold weekend to where most of the blooms didnt freeze offlooking for many peaches in summer! Let me know how you liked the TVI palms!