I've had new queen palms since 3/07. The guy I bought them from assured me they were cold hardy down to 20 degrees. However, last week he told me that I would need to put Christmas tree lights around them if the temp fell below 35 or 40. Can someone help here...I believe the Queen palms that I have are different than the Queen palms of South Florida.
A Queen is a Queen is a Queen (in most cases - eg; Silver queen). Syagrus romanzoffiana (Queen palm) once acclimated, is hardy to about 27f roughly. Your comment ... "I believe the Queen palms that I have are different than the Queen palms of South Florida." is interesting. Do you have any particular reason why this might be so? Cheers, LPN.
Same plant (clone) has the same hardiness everywhere. "Acclimation" can consist only of maturing growth that season and reaching full level of hardiness. Seed-raised stock may vary between genetic individuals, small (young) individuals may also have higher minimum temperature than those that are older and larger. If it happens pretty much all Queen palms are good down to only 27F then yours will not take worse than that - and if conditions on your site have not allowed them to reach their full level of hardiness they may be damaged or even killed at temperatures above 27F.
They look slightly different. The S. Florida queen looks to me like a solid trunk, whereas my queen has layers...it just appears more evident than the s. fl palms..
Ron B. I bought my palms at about 15 feet tall...roughly 1 foot in diameter. They look very good and have a nice gray trunk.....a few are starting to yellow and i have removed a move leave.....i was told to water more and to apply epsom salt. They are looking much better.