i've been thinking the same - coconut genetically engineered with genes from perhaps some of the more tropical looking date palms which are cold hardy... I'm in the Phoenix area, almost any palm does really well here, just needs water...

It certainly would be a good idea. Maybe once Monsanto realizes that if they do something like this, and have the palms sold through something like wal-mart, and form a partnership where only this one store can sell them, both parties would come out very profitable. $50 for a cold hardy coconut with 2 strap leaves (like they sell now in tropical areas for $10) would be a 5 to 1 increase in profit, and people in many more areas, such as California, where people would kill for a coco, would have access to them.

I haven't seen a lot of results from the so-called "biotech revolution" yet. I know that a lot of people are against genetic engineering, but personally, I too would be the first in line to get something like a citrus or palm which has been genetically engineered to survive in my climate, and I'd be willing to pay a very high price for such a plant.

So far, the only thing I've ever personally seen that was genetically engineered have been a line of carnations produced by Floragene Corporation which have color genes from petunias spliced into them, resulting in a range of purple shades not ordinarily found in carnations. These are called the Moon Series, and have names like MoonAqua, MoonShadow, etc. While pretty, not exactly an earth-shattering achievement in my book, not at the level of genetically engineering an orange tree to survive a Zone 5 winter would be.

In the meantime, for those of you in Zones 8 or 9 where true coconuts won't grow, have any of you tried the various species of Parajubaea, the Bolivian Mountain Coconuts. There are a few sources on the internet, and, while still rare, these sound pretty promising for a coconut-like effect.

Flower wise, the results aren't too impressive, but with major crops they're making big changes. They don't even use genes of plants for many results, mostly bacteria and animals. If they could introduce the anti-freeze producing agent from animals such as the frogs and crickets that can be frozen alive for years and thawed successfully it would be very possible that they could produce the desired results. Maybe not as far as zone 5, but likely up to at least 7, where the antifreeze agents would help keep cell walls from rupturing, but there would be enough sun for the palms to still grow.