My windmill palm survived last winter with my winterization effort, so I thought I would share a few photos of getting the tree ready for this winter. This tree is located in zone 5b in northern Indiana. The tree is in a protected spot on the south side of the house.

I use a huge tomato cage with a saucer sled zip tied above the tree. I tie up the fronds and wrap it in C9 Christmas lights. I staked the cage down pretty heavily.

I cut the edges of the sled off and drilled holes in it for the zip ties. That's a wireless outdoor thermometer sensor hanging below the sled. The display is in the house so I can monitor the temperature inside the enclosure.

I bought a roll of burlap on Amazon and used wire ties to attach the burlap to the tomato cage. I'm using an outdoor GE Z-Wave Wireless Smart Lighting Control programmed through the ifttt.com to turn the lights on when the temperature drops below 20° F. The lights automatically turn off when the temperature warms above 27° F.

Last winter the temperature dropped to 11 below zero one night. The tree looked fine in the spring and did great all summer.