I shouldnt say defoliated. a few were a total loss and some look slightly damaged.

Being new to Florida, where we have lots of palms, I am so amazed that people are able to grow them so far north of here. We have had so many problems with several of our palms and this is sort of, kind of, close to their native environment. I would have thought the stress of surviving the northern winters would weaken the plants and some insect or disease would be able to weaken it further and eventually, over time, kill it. I have been lurking in this forum for a while and I see the pictures, it seems like people have grown them with success. I am surprised you dont grow it in a pot for a few years so you can bring it indoors or into a garage during the freezing temperatures. When it outgrows the pot then plant it in the ground. Please dont take my post as negative, its not intended that way. I am probably jealous, several of my palms require constant chemical maintenance for scale, mealy bugs, etc.....I am just surprised how many poeple are able to successfully grown them so far north. Good luck:)

Thanks for your concern GK. These palms are meant for weather resembling england and seattle because of their origin in northern China. When protected from single digits and wind, they can be grown in many places.

here's a pic from summer from the patio, theres about 15 inches of trunk there. I got the 15 gallon because Id have to wait a few years for a 1 gallon small palm to reach this.

Are your palms very exotic that need all of that treatment? Everything looks thriving when im down there.

That's the advantage of being a northern palm grower, is that as long as we get healthy plants, we really never have to worry about diseases such as lethal yellowing or other palm specific diseases or pests, because our plants are the only palms around!

Don't get me wrong, I'd move to Florida in the blink of an eye if given the opportunity, always wanted to live there, but living up here does have advantages, even for palm growers. We have better soil here too compared to down there.

My robellinis cause me the most grief....one is tucked into a shady area and I think it should have been planted in full sun. It forever has mealy bugs and one trunk never looks as good as the others. I think moisture and humidity prevent the area from drying out, so it remains a perfect environment for these "problems" to live. We didnt plant that one, it came with the house. It fits the area nicely, too bad it doesnt get more sun. We added a hugh sylvester palm, which is another form of a date palm....and scale took over. One day I was pulling in the driveway and noticed the tops of the new fronds were dead! After constant spraying for 9 months, the scale is gone, but I live in fear of it returning. Not to mention the damaged fronds havent reached the point where I can cut them off, so its a constant reminder. I read not to remove green fronds so I am still waiting....I dont want to stress the plant by removing too many fronds just to get to the ones that were damaged by the scale. I guess because we dont get the cold weather, certain insects never die off, we do yard work year round:( I long to move back to NC:) We are in zone 9b, so I don't think we have any exotic plants....queens, arecas, foxtail, chinese fan, cat palm, sagos (infested with asian scale...another constant battle) and one hugh pineapple palm (which I just sprayed this week, I think it has a scale on it too....because of its size, I might have to call a professional to really treat it correctly).

Good luck with your palms!

You could try to put some sand around them after you have treated them then put coffee grounds on top of that.
This will help keep the mealy bug situation down . Scale is a whole new story .

You might try building your box with 2 inch or 3 inch thick styrofoam (blueboard used in constuction). It makes a great insulated box. I've grown palms in zone 3-4 for over 10 years with these boxes (see post on winter protection near the top of the posts in this forum) to see pictures of the boxes. They have survived -39 F. temperatures in the past.

I have a similar enclosure to Arctic tropical's made out of 3" styrofoam board. I have insulated the roots as well as the palms. It disassembles relatively easily for storage and has withstood -30*F with a wind chill of -60*F. The inside temperature was 22*F at it's lowest.