THE MOST HARDY PALM TREES TO PLANT THIS SUMMER THAT CAN SURVIVE A TEXAS WINTER

by MARC HESS, EDITOR OF “GARDENING SOUTH TEXAS”

With over 2,600 palm tree varieties to choose from, only a handful have have the best chance of surviving the “new” Texas winter weather patterns. The following is a comprehensive guide to help you select the most hardy palms for your landscape.

trouble. Two of them, the Dwarf Palmetto and Texas Sabal Palm, while not a native plant, even grow in the wild. Palm trees are known to withstand powerful winds, they require little attention once established and people with no gardening experience can easily grow them. But, while many palm tree varieties are wind-resistant, far fewer are cold-resistant.

Palm trees give Texas landscapes an interesting, almost enchanting aesthetic. With their cool tropical vibe, their soothing colors and breezy patterns, palms are being deployed more extensively as ornamental plants in a greater climatic range throughout Texas. No longer confined to the coast, numerous palm tree species grow in Texas without much

Texas is growing increasingly vulnerable to mid-winter cold snaps. Historically, a normal Texas winter would have only given us a couple of days that were entirely below freezing and only a few nights when our thermometer dipped to the freezing point.

This is not so in the last few years. While the average winter temperature may be the same, we have now come to expect random mid-winter cold snaps that will leave us buried in ice and week-long freezing temperatures that last the whole week.

Harsh winter weather hits the tropical trees the hardest. Unlike hardwood trees that sprout new growth from multiple spots, palm trees only grow new leaves from one spot—the heart. The palm heart sits right in the center of the tree’s canopy, and if it’s hit with harsh cold, the damage trickles down to all the future palm leaves growing from it. A hard freeze will leave your palm fronds brown and drooping, a terrible sight. But you will not be able to tell from the looks of it if the heart is dead. It’s quite difficult, even for the most experienced arborist, to predict the future of a freeze damaged palm. You may remove fronds that are completely brown to improve aesthetics but there is nothing that you can do to improve your palms chances of survival. If it’s dead, it’s dead—if it’s not it’s not.

Palm fronds do not grow quickly. You will have to wait until April to know if your palms have survived. Your palms won’t show any new growth for months after the freeze damage is done. Even if leaves are mostly brown, any sign of green could mean the tree has a chance at survival. When your palm shows green at the very top or green sprouts at the base you can provide a moderate amount of water and a small amount of organic fertilizer that incorporates micro-nutrients like iron, manganese and magnesium. Be careful not to overwater. The quickest way to kill palms (and other heat tolerant woody perennials) is by giving them too much water. Trust nature. Palms are tough. Eventually your palms may return to full beauty. It may take about six to eight months, but have patience and they’ll likely rebound. After the Great Texas Freeze of February 11 to 20, 2021, when even the southern part of our great state spent eight consecutive days below 32°F and Dallas plunged to a low of -2°F, arborists in San Antonio expected they would lose almost all of their Mexican fan palms (90%) and cold-tolerant Sago palms (70%). As it turned out over half of them survived.

Choose Your Palm Tree Wisely

As with all other plants the best way to assure the longevity of your palm is to choose a palm tree that is most suitable for your area.

Sago Palms

Sago palms are a popular, slow-growing tree due to their small stature and easy upkeep requirements. The secret to their cold hardiness is that they are not, technically, a palm tree at all. They just look like one. They are cycads, a group of plants that have been around since prehistoric times. The tree can grow up to 10-feet tall and has a large, round trunk with a crown of stiff, feather-like fronds. Unlike many plants, they do not flower, rather they create large, cone-like structures instead. They are easy to grow indoors as rugged houseplants or outdoors in containers in warm areas. Don’t let the mature height of these plants frighten you off. These slow-growers take many years to reach their final height.