WOW!!! GREATEST JOB, JIM!
The first, the hardest experience is successful. Hope you exotic garden in Iowa will grow happily in years. You*re really winner today!
With great respect Antti

Jim, awesome pics, thanks for sharing!

Where did you get those green trimmed plastic domes, and how much were they?

Thanks so much Anttisepp,can't wait to see how your palms,etc are doing as well!

Treeguy,I bought them off e-bay for I believe 12 bucks(small ones)and the large was maybe 25?

jim my palms here in zone 8 got hit with 20 degree temps no protection and thought i would share with you my experince, my nedle palm small and 20 ft look good probably the best palm for cold weather the sabal palmetos look real good about five ft, the pindo or butia are all looking good but the chinese fan palms and the european fan palms about 6 ft bought from home depo last have all the leaves brown hope they will come back the sego have winter burn but will come back that might be a good one for you with your experience in protecing them. Next year if yhe ones i am having trouble with Ill try what you do, great job, Hightider

Jim, I am also curious about the plastic domes. I built mine from 2X2s and stapled plastic on them. It was OK but difficult to take apart on warm days. What did you search for on ebay? Nice job with your garden by the way.

WOW! I had no clue sequoias were sensitive to cold temperatures. I always assumed they could take any cold since the native groves (Mariposa Grove is the biggest) are just 45 miles east of my place in the mountains where they get snowed on from November to April. we learn new things every day

Thanks Hightider,I thought about planting my Sago but it flushed this past summer and I kind of feel attached to it,I am also not sure how cold it got inside the cages and I think less than 20F would be tough on a Sago.
I am planting a B.eriospatha and currently have C.cerifera and W.filifera?(could be robusta) in the ground.Thanks

Pthompson/treeguy,I put in mini g/houses in the search box on e-bay,they are pretty cool and do have zippered doors to vent but you have to be carefull with the zippers cuz they do freeze up and can tear in winter,oh the other cool thing about them is they work like an umbrella!they come with spikes and the center piece extends into the ground,to bad they don't make really big ones!

Cali,the Sequoias are very cold tolerant as proved by them surviving -16F,-11F and several other below zero events,however they are prone to wind/cold burn during winter especially when they are young and don't have a lot of sap that acts as antifreeze,I kept my little one covered more this winter and its still green but this big one has some nice buds ready to pop when it warms up,we also had a late warm spell in Nov and they started to grow again and the new growth got nipped by the cold,it will be interesting to see if any of the discolored tissue comes back.

One thing I forgot to mention is how nice it felt to be working in the yard again!!!!!!!!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: mini g/houses

Well after a couple of days the Needle palm that was more exposed has a little"freezer" burn,I really can't complain though as this one was more exposed an did face winds that made the windchill -60F one night in Jan,so all in all the leaf cages had a pretty good test this winter,the other needle is in good shape,most of the palms(except those in g/houses spent their first night without protection as temps yesterday were in the low 70s last night was 40 and today is going into the mid 60s,everything gets covered again as heavy rain(this weekend) and cooler weather is expected next week,its nice to get a taste of where things will be going in just a few short weeks!

Hey jim have you thought about getting one of those large needles?

Jim, I am so so amazed that you didn't put any heating device to protect the palm. If it worked for you and wxman(saw his experitment), it should work for everybody!

What's that palm tree that you just covered with leaves?

Again, AMAZING!!! :D

Hey Mike!thanks for checking back.I am going to keep these around so I think now I'm good on Needles(I have another one too),so three total but keep me in the loop as far as when you go and I might want something else(I always do!)I would like to coordinate it with a trip in spring to see your yard-Thanks again,bring on spring woohoo!

v1rt,I havn't used just leaves,I was going to try that in the future with these if they get established better-