Palm seeds need to be started fresh as viability decreases over time. The outer coating needs to be peeled as it has germination inhibitors in it. Most varieties will usually start in peat, although soil can be used. Depending on the variety, they can take 6 months to germinate. I usually donÂt scarify mine unless they have hard seed coats. They can be planted densely and transplanted when young, but as they age they do not like their roots being disturbed. Here is more info: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/EP238

Great thread, I love out-of-zone plantings! Can a windmill palm really be grown in zone 3 or 4, even with generous winter protection? That would be great, but is seems way out of zone here in the Cdn prairies. I checked out the website, and I've seen them growing on the west coast of Canada (pic included below), but that's a very mild climate, like zone 8 or thereabouts. Catalpa seem reasonably hardy for prairie gardeners looking to test the limits. I've got a small one (two feet high and several years old) growing in my increasingly shady back garden here in Edmonton. It's still very small and is sheltered from winter winds by a nearby fence, but it doesn't seem to have suffered much winterkill during the past couple of winters (but they weren't harsh winters). Ginkos are great... I had a small one but it didn't make it past it's first year in Edmonton's suburbs, yet I know of one on the University grounds downtown that has survived at least 10 years. Actually, I haven't seen that tree in about 10 years, so I really need to locate it again and see if it is still doing okay. I used to also watch a ginko growing in Drumheller, Alberta, near the Red Deer River (pic included below) -- last I saw it was small but healthy, but I haven't checked it out for the past decade so I really need to take another look. My sugar maple is about 12 feet high, growing more as a bush than a tree. It is maybe 10-12 years old, and has a fairly thick trunk. It can winterkill quite severely, but has been doing pretty well the past 5 years or more. I have a butternut tree roughly 12-15 feet tall, at least 10 years old, and it has produced nuts for the past several years. My grapes (Valiant) produced heavily this fall, and the wine from them is now bottled. Pears (Ure) are usually ignored when they ripen, but they are tasty and the tree has been growing vigorously for 15 years. Magnolia and Northern lights azalea survived several winters but seemed to get increasingly smaller each year, eventually discarded. Forsythia did great in a mild winter, but crappy otherwise, and were a pain to chop out, including all the sucker-plants. Well, that's all my info on out-of-zone plants. If I can actually grow palms here in zone 3, please let me know! Ginko growing in Drumeller, Alberta - 5 to 6 feet tall, healthy but with some winterkill of top branches Windmill palm growing in a garden on the Sunshine Coast, north of Vancouver, British Columbia.

My large trachy (windmill palm), needle palm, and musa basjoos (hardy bananas) will be wintered in the ground here in MN. Needle gets a rosebush cover, mulched, and with a small string of Xmas lights. Basjoos will get rosebush covers, and tons of mulch, and cut off with about a foot or two of stem remaining, as they do grow over 10-15 feet during the summer, and with 5-6 inch wide stems. These are tried and true methods of wintering these plants in ground in zone 4/5. The large trachy will get a large version of a foam rosebush cover, a foam box with lightweight wood frame. Xmas lights, and/or a CFL bulb or two inside the box during the coldest times, to keep the temp in the box above 20F when it gets below zero outside. Fronds will be tied up somewhat to allow it to fit in a 2x2x8 foot 2-piece box. Again, a tried and true method for wintering larger palms in cold zones. For those Minnesotans who think I am nuts, do a little reading in the "palms and cycads" forum here... The mature trachy and needle palm are good down to the 10s, even single digits above zero*F without significant damage. I also have a friend in MN who has similar trees in ground, and there is a lady in Rochester who does similar. Here is a link that might be useful: Link to some pictures

That's exactly why some neighborhood associations in SoCal ban the. The skirt of old brown fronds attract rodents. When they get too tall for the home owner to remove the dead fronds it can get very costly to hire a company to go up there and cut them off. My friends in San Diego call the young Washys that sprout and grow in get garden "weeds". I wish I had that problem!