This past winter not kind to palm trees, they aren't native to area (San Antonio: garden, poisonous)

[Roadking2003]

I'm not from California, but I like palm trees. Mine have lost their foliage due to cold before and came back quite nicely. I'll give them until about April.

[jdevelop2]

Originally Posted by Roadking2003

I'm not from California, but I like palm trees. Mine have lost their foliage due to cold before and came back quite nicely. I'll give them until about April.

Please don't give up in April. They might need until June.

[carlson_mn]

So have the ones that browned recovered well after the mild winter of 2011/2012? I'm from MN but lived in SA and Austin for a bit and love palms. All the palms in SA look great right now, am here for work. In 2010 they looked rough with the combo of bad drought and winter cold temps.

[G Grasshopper]

I know of several in my neighborhood that are dead - never recovered - and need to be removed. But I have not studied this. Maybe many of them recovered.

[Trainwreck20]

Many recovered in our neighborhood, although they have a long way to go to get back to where they were. Also, some palms (according to my naturalist dude here at work that raises them) are native to the area. I couldn't tell you the names of them, since he rattled off about 20 varieties that were non-native and native, and my brain doesn't have that bandwidth....

[atxcio]

All except one in our neighborhood seemed to survive. I did notice that the ones that had the all dead foliage trimmed off completely and immediately recovered the best. So although I don't have a palm, if I did I'd have it immediately trimmed after a freeze.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Also, some palms (according to my naturalist dude here at work that raises them) are native to the area. I couldn't tell you the names of them, since he rattled off about 20 varieties that were non-native and native, and my brain doesn't have that bandwidth....

Yes, absolutely. There are many palms that are native to this area.

It's green lawns that are not native!

[BJB817]

I'm too lazy to post a link backing me up right now, but actually the only palm that reaches tree size and is native to Texas is the Texas Sabal Palm. That said, it's only found in the wild in the RGV.

The shrublike dwarf sabal palmetto is native to a larger portion of the state, particularly east TX. These are typically shrubby and trunkless, reaching a mature height of only around 6' typically.

There are a number of introduced palms that do perform well here, however. California Fan, Pindo, Texas Sabal, Windmill and Meditteranean Fan palms all pulled through the deep freeze and drought of the past few years by and large. Many without dieback even.

The ones that fared poorly were Queens, Dates and Mexican Fans. I haven't seen any queens that pulled through. The Dates and Mexican Fans are more of a mixed bag though. While all defoliated, I'd say unscientifically that at least 3/4 of the dates and 1/2 the mexican fans have come back.

If your palm hasn't come back by now, please cut it down. Nothing more attractive than barren "telephone poles".

[KerrTown]

In that brutal winter a couple years ago, my palm tree looked dead. It was brown all over and I thought I had to dig that thing out. The palm was planted in the backyard when I moved into my house almost 10 years ago; it had grown substantially since then, from the pot that I purchased at the neighborhood Home Depot.

I gave it until the middle of the next summer to see if it was just dormant or dead. During that spring, I wallowed in the sorrow of having to dig that thing up if it was really dead. It recovered! I'm happy to report that it has grown a little bit taller since then.

[palmwind1]

Being from Houston, actually Humble, 27 miles to the north, we have a relatively safe growing area for palms. Houston has about 6 micro climates starting with Galveston and ending with Huntsville. Palm cultivation can be completely and safely grown in Galveston however anything away from Galveston will have slightly higher risks of palm frond burn. The Houston bay area; Nasa, League City,etc up to the inner areas of the I-610 loop, (Houston central core) are also excellent environments for palms. From Bush Int'l Airport going north to the latitude of the Woodlands, you may get more severe palm frond burn but the plants will grow back. Kingwood has a bastion of palm trees but less so does the Woodlands and the Woodlands seems to be the cutting off point for palms grown in abundance. Commercial areas in the Woodlands rarely use palms or tropicals for landscaping but they will be found in residential areas though less than in Kingwood. When we had a severe freeze about 10 years or so ago, my pygmy date palms died but they were in the front yard and exposed to a north wind. Other palms such as Mexican fan palms and Mediterraneans did fine. Jacksonville, Fl, seems to get just as many cold days as Houston if not more, and Houston is further south in latitude, yet Jacksonville, has far more palm trees in their area than Houston and is willing to risk cold weather to that Florida look. They do use an abundance of cold hardy palms in their landscaping ,I noticed. I feel that Houston has a northern florida climate and should promote this tropical palm look / live oak look to our terrain as this is all we have to promote. Just like Florida, we're relatively flat, ...not completely however....and palm trees enchance and give some kind of personality/ vacationey feel to the area. I'm not sure how colder winter climates in Texas such as Austin and San Antonio can justify growing palms but to each their own but Houston,....is definitely a palm tree city.....