Another climber that does well without spray for fungal diseases here in blackspot-land is Dublin Bay. The beautiful deep red roses last quite long in a vase. I am growing him as a shrub. Cresupule is a beautiful, no disease, thornless climber (Noisette) but the stems are short for cutting. Naga Belle is a beautiful deep pink hybrid tea from India that is black spot resistant for me. Other Buck roses that have performed well are Quietness, lt pink, Prairie Harvest, lt yellow and Western Sunset, deep yellow. I put in Earth Song, deep pink, and Pearlie Mae, apricot, both Buck roses last year but so far they are puny. Country Dancer is another buck rose that is reputed to be good in the South. I perfer roses that are good for cutting. All of these I ordered from Roses Unlimited. Wonderful company and I am close enough to get the lowest shipping rates. Hope your Mom enjoys her roses as much as I do. It was my teenage son that get me into them years ago.

No, it's definitely not a stupid question! If winds were calm all the time then you might not need to actually put much additional protection other than some lights , but since winter is often very windy it would never work. You dont have to protect Mule palm fronds for that long though! During the average winter if you protect the fronds of your palm from mid December to late February, maybe the first week of March, then your good to go. They will only be covered 6-7 weeks of the year during the average winter and during winters like this one you wouldnt even need to protect it at all yet since we have not gone below 22F (not sure how cold it got in the hamptons but that's my lowest temperature so far in NYC). You really only have to protect the fronds below 20F and we have definitely not see temperatures like that too much the past 2 years! -Alex

Actually, I just remembered a long time ago my friend had a California fan palm in his back yard, and it was grown locally from seed. I believe it was in the ground for quiet a few years and it was well established. It pulled through the winters unprotected, but his neighbor hood "code" made him cut it down because it still had the beard on it and even when pruned they still did not like it, he was not so happy about that. But I think I will be going with the California fan palm. Our winters are dry and it only gets really cold here for about 2 weeks until it starts to warm up. I'll give it a try!

I would say that Sabal Palmetto is the best one out of those for you to try but I also recommend Butia Odorata, Capitata, and Yatay. I'm in zone 8b Montgomery, AL and these are very tolerant of cold. We got down to 13F a couple of years ago and almost all got through it with no damage whatsoever. However if you're willing to protect a palm extensively it's worth trying almost any of them. Right now I have a Phoenix Roebelini, Queen, Cat palm, Majesty palm, and two Mule palms planted in my backyard. Most I planted early this spring but the Phoenix Roebelinii survived the winter in a heated, portable greenhouse. Our minimum low this past winter was 24F and when I took the greenhouse down in March there was only a tiny amount of cold damage on the newest fronds. Since then it's recovered fully.