British Columbia: Are my palm trees dead?

I planted four Windmill Palm tree's (Trachycarpus Fortunei) from Costco last summer & planted in my backyard. They get full sun the majority of the day, and the sloped garden they are in is irrigated. I also fertilized them once last year & this past spring. However, the harsh winter that we got hit with on Vancouver Island took it's toll on most of my new plantings. I am not sure if the palms are slowly dying, or if they are just extremely slow to recover.

I clipped the damaged fronds in the spring, and new ones started to poke up. However, none of the trees are greening up & some of the new fronds poking up were simply pulled out & appear rotted or decayed. The base of them is all soggy & there were even maggots on some. The fronds that are left on are very slowly greening at the base, but there is not much else going on.

Are these tree's done for, or should I wait it out to see what happens?

(The one in the pot was in the front yard, but had to be dug out because of excavation going on)

 

I guess where there is green there is hope, but not looking too good is it

 

I'm curious as to if you threw those out or not. I had three 5-6 year olds that had spear pull like that last winter. I tossed them all, only to find out sometimes palms will recover from crown rot. Next time I will spray a copper fungicide on the top there and give them a chance.

 

Hi Wal,

Mine looked like that a couple years back, had to through them out.

The Fan Palms at Costco Wholesale aren't Windmill Palms (hardy to -20). They die in the winter if planted outside.. Also Costco and other large supermarkets buy in such bulk that they don't even inspect the plant before they give you whilst selling for same price as local nurseries that grow themselves.

Its not just us, heres a quote from Vancouver Sun on their fan palms being misleading (as well as sourse below),

“I once saw a very large $300 fan palm being sold for outdoors. Unfortunately, it was the kind that is not hardy here. Only the windmill palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) is hardy enough to survive outdoors from one year to another."

If you want actual Windmills or other cold-hardy palms you have to get them from growers themselves. I bought one from a good company that greenhouses the windmills then shocks them with the cold for a month in the winter. That makes them grow faster than normal but still be cold-resistant. I've left the link below for any palm enthusiast.

Also baby palms have a good chance of dying in the winter, especially this winter. I would buy and plant in April - August a 4ft tree at least, I bought an 8ft from paradise palms and it's perfectly fine.
If your on a budget you can leave the palm in the pot till it's around 4ft, transfer it into a bigger one and leave it inside next to a window during winters. More info below.

Sources:
www.vancouversun.com/homes/gardening/garden-centres-face-new-challenge-costco-palms-die
WWW.PARADISEPALMS.CA
PNWPEPS

Cheers