Have a queen palm that needs protecting from the harsh frigid-ness of winter? Then you’ve come to the right place.
Regal-looking with a delightfully asymmetric crown and large fronds, the queen palm, Syagrus romanzoffiana is hardy in Zones 9 to 11.
Capable of reaching mighty imposing heights of up to 50 feet, S. romanzoffiana is proof that patient plant parenting pays off.
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Part of being a responsible green thumb is safeguarding your plants, even during the dormant season when the outdoors aren’t quite as green as normal.
And as a member of the Arecaceae family, the queen palm is susceptible to the cold, especially when compared with more temperate plants.
In our guide to growing queen palms, we discuss how to cultivate these plants in your landscape. And our guide to winterizing palms covers general information about winter protection for members of the Arecaceae family.
In this article, we’ll discuss how to keep your queen palms warm and cozy during wintertime. There are a handful of different tips, tricks, and techniques, so you’ve got plenty of options.
Here’s what we’ll be covering:
Queen Palms and the Cold
S. romanzoffiana can be grown outdoors year-round in Zones 9 to 11, and you shouldn’t have to do anything to prepare them for winter, save for a bit of mulch around the rootzone.
These plants can tolerate temperatures down to 25°F for very brief periods. Any extended freeze will cause cold damage that can ultimately kill the plants.
Thanks to horticultural knowledge, technology, and straight-up ingenuity, gardeners are able to pull off “zone pushing.” This is the process of keeping a plant alive and well in outdoor climates a bit outside of their preferred hardiness Zones. In this case, colder climates.
All of the below techniques can help you to insulate a queen palm during cold periods, to the point where your specimens may be able to survive in USDA Zone 8, or possibly even Zone 7.
Winter Protection
Although these plants can handle temperatures as low as 25°F, it’s best to be safe and take winter-protecting action before temps dip below freezing.
The water uptake will slow down significantly in temperatures below the 50°F, which is why it’s helpful to give your plant a nice, soil-saturating drink of water when a freeze is predicted.
Ample fertilization during the growing season will also keep your plant healthy and robust, allowing it to survive stressors such as low temperatures.
S. romanzoffiana can be deficient in nutrients such as potassium, manganese, and iron, so a palm-specific fertilizer can be applied regularly during the growing season to shore up these deficiencies.
You can learn more about how to fertilize palms in our guide.
Despite all their charm, queen palms aren’t self-cleaning. This means that once a palm frond dies or becomes damaged, it won’t simply fall off the tree by itself.
Unfortunately, leaving dead fronds on a palm can lead to pest and disease issues, which can be deleterious for a plant’s health, especially going into the winter months.
You should prune any dead, diseased, and/or damaged fronds whenever you happen to notice them.
Use sharp and sterile cutting implements to make your cuts. You may also need some vertical assistance to reach them, such as a ladder, a bucket truck, or a long pole saw.
However: don’t prune away foliage during winter. Dead frond tips actually serve a vital function of protecting the living leaf tissue underneath during cold weather.
The following tips and tricks should help keep your S. romanzoffiana nice and cozy during chilly times.
Bring Potted Plants Indoors
If you are growing your queen palm in a container and it’s also a suitable size, then bringing it indoors may be all you need to do to keep it warm.
By situating your plant indoors, you’ll not only protect it from damaging subfreezing temperatures, but also any cold and cutting winds.
Keep an eye on the forecast and bring your plant in well before freezing temperatures set in.
If your plant is small enough to go into your actual home, be sure to provide as much light as possible by placing it near a bright, sunny window.
A couple of leaves may die as the queen palm adjusts to the change, which is totally normal.
Larger specimens can be set in a garage or shed, preferably placed near a window, though this isn’t strictly necessary.
The plant will go dormant during the cold months so you’ll need to allow the growing medium to dry to a depth of about three inches between waterings.
Cover the Trunk and Leaves
If your trees are large and/or growing in-ground, then you can’t bring them inside for a winter vacation. But hey, that’s all right – you can just bring the warmth to them with some heat-conserving coverings!
Using burlap or breathable landscape fabric, wrap the trunk and secure your wrappings with some duct tape.
You can also carefully bunch up and wrap the foliage leaving no part of the plant exposed.
As a rule of thumb, each layer of burlap or garden fabric should provide about 2°F of warmth.
Alternatively may be able to drape smaller trees from above with a heat blanket to capture ambient heat before it rises. Taller trees, however, may not even be wrappable without some help from arborists, or some other handy professionals with a bucket truck.
If you want some all-purpose garden fabric to help with insulation, it’s sold in various dimensions at Gardener’s Supply Company.
Mulch the Roots
Protect the rootzone with a mulch pile that’s two to four inches thick.
Make sure to keep it a couple inches away from the trunk and extend it out as far as the “drip line” of the tree, which is essentially the diameter of the tree’s crown.
Also make sure to select organic sources of mulch such as tree bark, cocoa hulls, pine straw, or wood chips.
Add Heat
You can actually add heat from a surprisingly warm source: outdoor lights! Yes, you read that right.
When holiday string lights are densely wrapped around a tree trunk and draped throughout the crown, they actually generate a bit of heat while simultaneously adding some cheer.
As long as you use the heat-emitting incandescent bulbs, that is. LED lights, while bright, don’t actually provide any significant warmth.
Treating Cold Damage
Sometimes, our winterizing efforts aren’t enough and the tree emerges from a cold snap with some damage.
Leaflets may be discolored or necrotic, especially the older ones. The trunk may be in a process of slow decay, which may or not be made apparent by cracked pseudobark.
In more severe cases, the pseudobark may fall off, the canopy may wilt, and the entire trunk may collapse.
Although you may be anxious to prune away damaged leaves straightaway in spring, you must be patient and wait until the threat of further cold weather has passed.
Prune too soon, and you can make the rest of the leaf more vulnerable to injury.
In addition, nutrient deficiencies may become apparent after a winter with no fertilization, so it’s important to start your feeding routine promptly in spring. Wait until after the final frost date, though.
Long Live the Queen!
By properly caring for your queen palms during cold winters, you’ll ensure their health and vitality for years to come.
Still have questions? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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