I am in a zone 6 in Connecticut- and planted two mature windmill palms last summer- one was a wagnerianus, the other a Fortunei- both plants have been hardened off over the years- putting them out in pots in late February early March, and leaving them outside until nearly Christmas. Subjecting them to 15-20 degrees and a cover of snow.

I planted them in a very good southern location, protected from the north by my house- I protected of course starting last late November. To protect I used Flower House plastic greenhouses. Plants where mulched, trunks wrapped in towels and plastic.

We had a low here in January of 1 degrees, and last month 6 degrees- but the wind chills where brutal.

In your location- you will of course need to protect.
Both of my plants look good- no visible leaf damage- and the spears have not pulled- so despite the cold, they look like they have survived. Protection will be needed in zones 5-6- and sometimes in zone 7. Trachycarpus are tough plants- tougher then I thought. But they need to be kept dry, and protected in these zones.

I planted one last spring and I wanted mine to make it no matter what. I plamted mine facing south . October I built a small structure with 2 by 4's . In between the studs I insulated with 2 inch foam and wrapped with plastic. I left 2 openings 2 by 3 ft. for windows. I set over palm and roofed it with osb with shinges. I then ran electric and mounted an outlet inside where i placed 2 spot lights in the ground below my windmill palm. I also put small fan to get air movement. I ran a switch inside to control the outlet. Then I filled all around the structure with straw. On top I put more plastic over straw to keep it dry. The windows I made are removeable so I can get inside or remove when it get above 40 degrees. I am able to monitor the temp inside from the house. The lowest temp was 32degrees when it was below zero. It keeps the temp. 25 to 30 degrees above the air temp. the best thing is that it stays dry. I will remove the 2 windows in a week or 2. And then when all the Aptil rain is over I will remove the structure. It weighs about 200 pounds so I will be able to lift with help and store it till fall. I did it this way so I would not have any chance of losing it. I spent 2 hours building it so its not a big deal. I will have to build a new one if it grows alot bigger. You can do it this way or you can take your chances and pray for a very mild winter. They are not meant to grow here after all. Hope this helps,,,Bill

Wow, sounds like you guys have alot of good ideas. Dragontek, how big were the palms when you planted them? I just ordered one and it's about 3 or 4 feet tall that I want to plant outside this spring.

Bill, wow I really feel the same way as you. I wanna plant mine outside and be able to see it grow, I really hate failing. Your structure sounds really complex and I'm not sure I'd be able to build one like that, but maybe similiar. How big is your palm?

Bill, I would love to see a pic.....your green house sounds very interesting!

I have the photos in my pictures. Im not sure how to attach and include here. Any tips...Bill

Here's how we protected ours. Was easy to build and is modifiable easily.

What you see here is during its construction. It now has layers of bubblewrap on the South and East sides, foam insulation on the North and West sides where no sun shines.

The roof is also bubble wrap with layers of poly to sandwich it all.

Inside, there's the main tree (in the ground) and 2 needle palms in pots. There's a 25 gal pail of water to buffering and a blow dryer connected to a baseboard type thermostat to automatically control the heat. Works perfectly.

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This is a small palm, protected by a little plastic greenhouse from Home Depot. It also has the same pail and blowdryer hookup. You can see those in the picture.

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Bill, I think you have to have image hosting such as Photobucket..