Just wanted to let everyone know I have been growing Trachycarpus (Windmill) palms for a while. I just ordered 8 1 Gal from Marc @ http://www.hardytropicals.com/palms.html . Great healthy palms. I got 4 Trachycarpus latisectus & 4 Trachycarpus takil. Very cold hardy plams in excellent condition.

Laaz, the Lipstick Palm (Cyrtostachys renda) that I purchased last year, has finally started to grow. It has put forth its first new leaf. The trunk is also turning a nice red. Like Marc at Hardy Tropicals said on his web site, "Palms can be slow to establish" that's the case with the Lipstick Palm. - Millet

Millet most palm will take up to a year to begin to grow once they are transplanted. Sabal's down here are notorious for super slow growth. Hope the palm puts on some super growth for you this year.

Just ordered some nice Silver Saw Palmettos from these guys, will take some pics when they arrive.

http://www.thepalmshop.com

Funny - I have 6 Fortunei's in the ground, my largest one has about a 5' trunk. It suffered the most damage in our November cold snap (a brief 10f) along with snow and ice.The Centre spear is OK. The rest of them had minor damage to no damage at all. I am sceptical of trees sold as Trachycarpus Takils as there are very few real ones out there. Though I do have 2. They are an endangered species and only recently re discovered- about 13 years ago. So most specimens will be small.

I also have these( in pots for now):

Washingtonia Robusta 1 ( wont survive in vancouver in the ground)
chamaerops humilis 1
Butia Capitata 1
Jubaea Chilensis (2 small ones)
Trachycarpus wagneranus 1
and some sort of a coconut palm grown from seed (indoor only)

Hey gregn. I have a bunch of T. Fortunei's as well. The first year I planted them we had a quick drop to 17 F all had the spear pull. They all recovered nicely & have never had that problem again. I think they gain more hardiness as they age. I also believe that some plants have more hardiness than other of the same species.

Have you seen Banana Joe's snow cover Trachy's up there on Salt Spring Island ? He just sent me a huge bag of seed from these tree's.

Laaz, I havent seen banana joes pics. I have some pics too but i unable to put them in the forum. Unless you will do it fore me... The trachy fortunei's are common around here. The other varieties are quite collectable. this is the only area of canada that one can grow palms outside. What are your native palms in South carolina? Do you think they would handle our wet winters?

Hey gregn. If you email me the photos I can post them for you, or show you how to post them. Joe Clemente's palms can be found here.

link

As far a SC native palms, we have Both Sabal Palmetto and Sabal Minor. Saw Palmetto and Needle palms.

Both Sabal Minor & Needle palms should do great in your climate.

On a side note, Butia although not a native grows like weeds down here. You may want to give them a try. I know Barrie has a nice size Butia growing in BC.