hiya,
i have planted a large phoenix for a customer (against my better judgement) two years ago. The first winter, i was very nervous and built a kind of shelter around the palm - a number as it was 3.5 mts high - wrapped the palm in fleece and covered the lot in polythene. Came through the winter fine so last year, I just wrapped some scrunched up fleece between the fronds around the crown and the palm again thrived. Like you, in Essex, i live in Cambridge, also v.dry so try to get the largest palm you can (the bigger they are, the hardier they are) and plant with generous humus and grit - cold waterlogging is much more of a killer than frost or snow.
Annoyingly, my next door neighbour also bought a much smaller phoenix around the same time and hers is left in a pot, all winter, with complete neglect. Despite my gloomy predictions of it turning into brown slush, it also appears to be doing well )although we have small walled gardens. So, I say, go ahead and try one - they look fabulous although can take a while before forming a definate trunk.

i have a few out in different gardens in warwickshire. the first year i carefully wrapped them all up, but since then less & less until lastyear i just put dry leaves in around the growing points. so far ive not lost a single one. they actually seem pretty hardy.

hi
thanx for your advise.
i have had these palms from last summer and they have just gone from strenth to strenth.

we only had 1 day of snow last winter and apart from that cold snape most of the winter was mildish.

well hopefuly all 4 will b ok this winter 3 r phoenix and 1 is a washington.

the reason i asked on here is because i was looking on the internet and all the pages were saying 65f only was the min temp when we had temps of 25f a big differance.

well i let u all know if they last this winter.

------------david----------fishmaduk-------------------

My two have been out all winter with lttle protectin and are thriving along with the Chinese fan palm.

One question, if you cut the lower branches does this encourage these trees to grow taller quicker ?

well, i don't think they grow faster but this is how the trunk is formed, from losing the lower leaves. From what I understand, they sort of mosey along quite slowly for about 8 years then have a little spurt.