Comments on: I Have Three 9 Month Old Mexican Palm Threes That Have Been Frost-bitten. I Live In Arizona. Question Is?

By: pon n

pon n — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:55:36 +0000

Most cold hardy palms represent the tropics and it can be hard to believe that some cold hardy palm trees can withstand a deep winter freeze in subzero temperatures such as Needle Palms. The Needle Palm tree is cold hardy down to a temperature of -10’s degrees F.
Hardy palms can be grown successfully in Texas (Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio), California, Florida and much further north.
Hardy Palm Species Variety
There are many growers, wholesalers and retailers of landscape and landscaping palm trees but Sun Palm Trees specializes in the following cold hardy palms (in parenthesis is the estimated minimum temperature that the palms can withstand):
Mexican Fan Palms (Washingtonia robusta) (cold hardy to 18 degrees)
Cold weather slows the growth of palms, reduces activity of the roots, and can weaken the plant to the point where a disease can become active and kill the palm. Sometimes, the only above-ground portion of a cold-damaged palm that is still alive is the protected bud. In most cases, the death of the bud soon after a freeze is due to bacteria that is present at low levels of a healthy palm, but becomes a problem only after the freeze damage

By: G

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:25:06 +0000

My advise is to cut the whole tree down and get oak trees, oak trees are more beautiful and will provide great amount of shade. Palm trees are for the Islands Brother tropical weather. What i am saying get a tree that can stand any weather.

By: Chris C

Chris C — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:29:47 +0000

anything that is dead you can clip off — its not doing any good dead. yellow is not dead yet. palms grow from the center so you can’t really kill it trimming it. trimming them usually makes them grow tall and skinny instead of full.

By: T

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:07:49 +0000

Hey T -
Definetely do not cut down/chop the palm tree (or stem) because it will never grow back on a Mexican fan palm (Washingtonia sp). The Mexican Fan Palm is cold hardy; so, I would agree and glad to hear that you feel they would come back from the freeze – because my advice here would be to do nothing other than (if possible) protect them from further cold.
Now, your question about clipping/trimming the leaves: Clipping the leaves will not cause the green to ‘grow back’; in fact, it may add to just further browning along the edges which you had clipped. Because this is a (very – here in SoCal anyway) fast growing palm, I would wait. If looks are important (and, why shouldnt they be) – then when you do your fertilize and the weather is warmer – then, you can trim the brown parts off. You will find that this is a very fast growing palm and cold hardy (to a degree) – not sure what part of AZ you are in, but I believe you know what you are talking about given your question and you should be fine. Clip when you do your fertilize and hope for the best!
Good luck