I wouldn't give up yet, Yardman. I'd throw some heavy-duty fungicide down in the cavity (captan, some type of copper fungicide, whatever), maybe even bubble it out with some hydrogen peroxide first.

I'll share the story of my "Miracle" pindo palm -- I planted a three gallon, mulched heavily, covered with a foam structure, etc. Next spring, same as you, extensive spear pull, rot, etc. I thought it was toast, so I planted cannas over the top of the stub and forgot about it. In the fall, despite being buried all summer under the heavy canopy of cannas, I discovered it had not only lived, but it had actually pushed five or six healthy looking, albeit about half-sized, fronds. Since it was already October at that point, I dug it up again, and it's now resided in a pot, wintering indoors in a cool room, for four or five more years, and it's about 4 feet tall and fully normall looking now.

So, don't give up, you just never know, it may work out.

And yes, it was our harshest winter in probably six or eight years at least. I'm in West Bloomfield, not too far from you, and I hit about -16 or -17 air temp a couple of times last winter, first time in probably a decade I went much below -10 or -11.

Dennnis

Hey Dennnis,

Thanks for the encouraging info. I have 3 other palms outdoors (all made it, although, much burn off this year). Do you have any outdoor palms? I also have bamboo, cactii, and a monkey puzzle tree.

I love this pushing the zone limits way too much!

I would keep the rain out of it and slice the drunk down to where there may be a spear.

Yardman, I have no more outdoor-all-year palms. I gave up in disgust about 3 or 4 years ago and dug everything up and potted it. Not because of the cold, I was able to overwinter things against that, but because of the voles getting into my covered plants and decimating them winter after winter, many of my nice (and not inexpensive) specimens being completely ruined. The ate two Italian Honey Fig trees that were 8 feet tall completely, so much so that there was literally only some sawdust left. They also killed a number of palms and other plants. I found out that voles like to eat: palms, figs, pomegranites, persimmmons, jujubes, aspidistra, acuba, live oak, bottlebrush, nandina, pampas grass, and gingers.

I still have some zone-pushing things I winter outdoors every year without any vole problems, or at least minimal vole problems -- mostly bulb plants -- crinums, pineapple lilies, alstroemeria, and agapanthus. Also, I have LOTS of bamboo -- been spreading it all over my yard every year. I have two fairly large mimosa trees that bloomed last year, but look like they have some dieback this season after the harsher winter.

I'm getting sick of moving the collection in and out every year, so I'm considering some of the protection strategies that Artictropic uses in Utah -- I assume you've seen his awesome pictures of his palms and the foamboard structures he uses to overwinter them.