HI,

I am orginally from West Islip Long Island and familiar with what you are doing. I think you are in good shape overall depending on how south or east the house faces. When was it planted? How mature was it 1,2,3, years? How many feet from the house? 5 feet or less gives you a half to whole zone. I recommend a 30 gal plastic garbage bin weighed down and placed over the tracky either the whole winter or at least during artic blasts and snow/ice is NEEDED to protect the bud and leaves for Spring. This is ez.

Merry Christmas.

Its recommended cold palms are planted in the spring so its established which adds a half zone hardiness.

I think the main problem will be the winter moisture. It will have to be protected. Just like brooklyngreg said, put a 30 gallon garbage bin on it druing rain days. I also have x mas lights under mine to keep it warm. A frost cloth is also in the garbage bin and all of that keeps temps abot 320 degrees warmer in there than outside which is more than enough to keep it growing. I remove mine when the cold is over, but you dont really have to. Just remove it once the worst of the winter is done and turn off the x mas lights when winter lows are above 20F.
i think once it is establihed it will have no problem in long island. The ocean influence is very great there and ir buffers temps by a few degrees too.

good luck and welcome!

I live within the immediate NJ/NJ metropolitan area and have have larger Trachys in the ground for three years now. I protected for the first two years but am not protecting this year.--Other than X-mas lights but that's more for decoration now. Size really does matter here I'm afraid. Big ones will have a better time overwintering, and the longer they are established, the higher the likelihood of success. Mine are located on the south side of a house and do get a ton of sun (Winter and Summer). They handle the COLD and WET combination better than most any other variety of palm I can think of. There may be some winter damage but the crown should survive and mine start to show growth in March if not earlier. Being that this is their first winter (When exactly were they planted?)--I would protect though--especially if small. Good luck and Happy Holidays!:)

Thanks for the advice!
I'll have to try and get my folks to at least cover the Trachy with the 30 gallon garbage bin. That sounds easy enough for them. The palm is planted approx 3 1/2 ft from the house so this will help with protection. I'm not sure how old it is but, it's got just under 2 ft of trunk so maybe it's just a few years old? I planted it mid-July 2009 so hopefully it had enough time to get somewhat established. I'll try to get a picture of it to post soon.

THat all sounds good Noral916. Mature specimens roots are deeper and thus more protected just for starters. July planted is GOOD. I was afraid you put it in November.

3.5 feet from house - good too! You gain a whole zone of hardiness in location, plant maturity and the season you planted it. Especially needed now; we haven't had a hard winter but we have had some cold temp drops into upper teens, high winds and they're callin for a Noreaster now. I'm sure you recall noreasters and you would like to have some snow for Christmas:)

PS. Placing sand bags or rocks by the base of the tree also adds protection. That with a bin should do it.

I would DEFINITELY cover that thing up and add christmas lights (NON LED LIGHTS) to it. Long Island is under a blizzard watch, and that could severely damage or kill a newly planted aything, let alone a windmill palm that is not well established.

First year planted Trachies often develop spear rot. For me this problem normally takes til spring to become evident. It is usually in late April or May before I get spear "pull" on a damaged palm. I've read that fungicide applications also help to prevent/alleviate this problem. Include insecticide since earwigs LOVE to accumulate in damaged palm crowns in spring.Water freezing in the crown is apt to produce damage leading to spear "pull" in the spring. Best wishes for success!

Bareroot trunked windmills are very tender the first winter. I bank shredded leaves around young trachys over winter. Be generous with the leaves as this will protect the bud from extreme cold.

Just a follow up...Spoke to my Dad on Long Island today for the first time since the big weekend snowstorm..I was pleased to hear him say that he did protect the Trachy by placing a large plastic garbage container over it the night before the storm! Luckily he happened to have an extra one in the yard...I was a bit concerned that it was going to be totally unprotected so this is a sigh of relief! Looks like the local NYC/LI 7 day forecast isn't too bad temp wise so I wonder if I should have him remove the container for now until the next major cold blast/snow ? He did mention that he kinda doesn't want to leave the container on all the time since it looks weird being in the front of the house. Is it ok to constantly remove and cover the container throughout the winter?

I rather leave the container on it from the posts I read. Last nite was in the teens on LI and it was good that it was covered. If he's not selling the house, they don't have to worry about the way it "looks".

Selling point to parents - It shall look great in the Spring if given a fighting chance.

Norcal,
Its going to be a tough one for the tree. I think if you planted it in mid May, it would have gave the roots more time to grab. Im from Wantagh, which is very close to where you describe. I have a trachy I planted in the front of my house, about 2 feet away and kind of wind protected from the stoop. Its also on the South side. It has lived through its first winter, but took a major beating. The branches rotted and the center spear pulled out this spring. I left it for dead, but I did treat it with copper fungicide and it came back to life. Ill be surprised if it makes it through this winter. I don't protect it at all.

My other trachy in the back yard is about 4 ft tall. This is its 3rd winter. First winter went well (I covered it). Second winter I removed the protection too soon. It looked fine in the spring, but decayed rather quickly. It rained then it became really cold. The center spear pulled. I treated it as well, and it bounced back rather nicely. This is on the west side of my garage.

Its a hit or a miss. I also had Butia Capitata and Yatay and they didn't make it.

Ill post pics when I can