Needle palm purchased @ Walmart, in NORTH CENTRAL OHIO

Look at what I found for sale at my local Wally World in Bucyrus, Ohio! This "Cold Zone" line includes this needle palm, which the tag lists as hardy to zone 6, the "Coontie Palm" cycad which I think was listed as zone 8, the European fan palm listed as zone 8, the windmill palm listed as zone 7, and the dwarf sabal palmetto as listed as zone 7. It was 18 bucks for what looks to be a one gallon plant, which is a bit pricey, but still, it would appear that zone pushing is starting to attract the attention of big retailers. :)

What's next, the individual cultivars like "Hayes Stiffie" t. fortuneii?

-Joe

Needle Palms are very hardy, down to about zero degrees. I have many in my yard here, mature ones over 20 years old. Even though they are very hardy and therefore it would seem that they would be more commonly marketed in colder zones, its actua;;y very hard to find larger potted specimens than the one you found, and when you do, they cost $200 or more. Its because they are so very slow growing.

Coonties are native to Florida, there are actually 2 species, a Gulf-side of the state type and an Atlantic side type. They are hardy, but, it is not uncommon for them to burn or partially die back in zone 8 and have to re-leaf when we have a very nasty winter.

I am not certain if European fan and Mexican fan palms are the same palm, but yes they are very hardy, I have several 20+ year old specimens around my pool. Likewise Sabal is native here and extremely hardy.

Washingtonian's are often called Mexican Fan palm.
Congrats on getting the needle palm. They're a great plant. There's a prof at the Univ of Ohio (I think at the Cincinnati campus) that grows a lot of palms on the campus. One's you wouldn't think could be grown up there.
If I can find the link, I'll post it.
Barb

I have his book.

I already have one needle palm in the ground, and a trachycarpus fortuneii. The Mexican fan palm is washingtonia filifera. My needle palm is raphidophyllum hystrix. :) Sadly, the European fan palm, the Mazari palm, and most of the palmettos (except possibly sabal minor "McCurtain") are simply not hardy here.

I'm a zone pusher, so I'm growing a lot of other plants that also "don't grow here". I tell nursery owners to not tell my plants, because they don't know they're in the middle of zone 5b/6a if their needs are being met.

I'm successfully growing passion flower, passiflora caerulea, Stephan's jasmine, jasminum x stephanense, Carolina Jessamine, gelsemium sempervirens "Margarita", Japanese sour orange, poncirus trifoliata, mimosa, albizia julibrissin, crape myrtle, lagerstroemia indica, devil's trumpet, datura metel, empress tree, pawlonia tomentosa, golden grove bamboo, phyllostachys aureosulcatus, and Japanese fiber banana, musa basjoo. I've killed yucca rostrata, but next time I'm trying a more established specimen.

I'm working on finding a fig that will do OK here. There's supposedly a variety of ficus carica from central Michigan. I'm also going to be planting a few different varieties of gardenia jasminoides one of these summers. :)

I refuse to only plant petunias and marigolds when there's a world of plants out there to explore. :)

-Joe

What? No plumeria? ^_^

Not yet, desperately would love one though. I love things that smell great. My ginger lilies dried out over the winter too. :(

Actually the Mexican fan palm is Washington robutsa... Washingtonia filiferi is the California Fan palm.

TY Palmbob. :)