Hmmmm, you must be relatively new to Gardenweb! (smile) The amazing hardiness of certain palms is a favorite topic! I'll attach the search for 'cold hardy palms' I did for you in ALL of the forums. Take special note of thread number 49 from the Tennessee Forum. You will find a great deal of information and some good images.

Here is a link that might be useful: Stretching the boundaries with palms

And don't forget that according to another recent thread, Atlanta may well be considered zone 8 now, which makes some of that boundary stretching more likely.

It will likely be mentioned in some of those other threads, but careful site selection of certain plants (to provide wind and cold protection by proximity of walls, thick hedges, etc.) can allow you to have more plants from the zone beyond you. However, a freak snow or ice storm may put your plant out of business! The last really big snowstorm we had was in 1993, I believe (we got 13 inches).

They got snow in new orleans a couple of years ago and showed snow on what looked like sabal palmetto.
There's some palmettos on cheshire bridge rd at a mexican rest that have been there for years and they are plentiful in SC, even the upstate portion so I have no doubt they would grow here. Of course I'd much rather you decide to plant a real tree with shade and nice fall color but oh well to each his own. :-)

That part of Atlanta proper is probably zone 8, and was considered 7B. I live about 45 miles NE of Atlanta, and my blooming season is about 2-3 weeks after theirs, for azaleas and crepe myrtles, etc.

I also think I'm in a micro climate. Tuesday morning, I had hard frost on everything (the rain from NYE soaked everything and it then got cold). But when I went 1/2 mile away from my house, I didn't see any frost. I'm in a little depressed section so maybe the cold air sinks, I don't know.

QQ, you cut out that whispering! (lol)

Buford... Ah buford.
Where I am in unicorporated buford/N. gwin is around 1300' elevation. Makes for warmer heat and cooler cold. That could have something to do with the bloom times but not necessarily mean it couldn't be a zone up. Or maybe it's the opposite... maybe it's being in a much lower elevation than surrounding areas. Like Rome. So elevation would be my guess. I could be wrong.

My neighbour has a HUGE palm tree, I thought it would have gotten a bit beaten a last month with some cold temps, but it's looking fabulous. It is 17 years old.

GGG