A sad palm

last year we bought a palm that was supposed to be fully hardy. When we moved the lemon indoors for the winter, the palm took the "sheltered" place next to the house. It can be a little windy there, but it is a relatively warm west wall... Temps were not often down to -14c, but next to the house, about 2-3c warmer.

The Palm is growing nicely this year, but there is a little die-back on the tips of the old leaves.

Did we do something wrong? Do we just trim off the brown bits? Is there anything we can do to prevent it happening again next winter, short of wrapping it in fleece?

 

Here are a couple of photos...


A bit of a close-up...

 

Hi Sian, from what ive seen peeps wrap a fleece round them for the winter, but -11/12 might be a little too cold for a palm ,

Anyhow no expert here but i had two Canary Island date palm in the ground in a open area never fleeced them and they ended up looking like that i binned one and put the other in a sheltered position its only just started to look ok again after two years,

Theirs a few members with palms they will be able to advice you better.

 

I think, ironically, the problem is aggravated by being in too small a pot.
I would repot....using john innes (did you use mpc Sian?)......
No, I would not cut off those brown tips. With vigorous new growth the older brown tips will not be so obvious.
Wouldnt fleece either...I would keep it as dry as possible over winter.
These and other palms grow everywhere down here....ok, milder but they cope with salt laden winds and storms

 

At first I thought it was Chamaerops, but a second look, I'm thinking young Trachycarpus.
Am I right in thinking no spines on leaf stalks?

The trouble with a lot of palms is that they are grown in warmer climes, for faster growth, then moved North for sale.
When bought they need to acclimatise, which can take a couple of winters, if we get a bad year then first year damage is very likely.

It would be much better planted in the garden, rather than potted, palms grow roots like there is no tomorrow. And very quickly exhaust a pot.
Trachys are the hardiest palm you are likely to come across, but even a small one I had in a pot, grown from seed 5 yrs ago, has lost its growing point this winter.

It looks fine and will grow out of it I'm sure, just as long as that new growth doesn't pull out of the centre.

As to wrapping, never done that myself, it shouldn't be necessary.

 

This also might help Sian.
Winter protection - MyPalmShop

 

That's very helpful - thank you!

It was sold in Aldi, and the instructions said that no protection was necessary. But knowing how "sales patter" can be wrong, we moved it next to the house to give it protection. If it helps, that is violas around the bottom, rather than pansies, and it's sitting on a septic tank cover.

Yes, guilty as charged, we used MPC to pot it up, rather than John Innes, so it could be starved and frozen?! We will not trim the "dead" bits off. When I cut one tip, it didn't feel dead under the secateurs, which is why I held back on the tidy-up, and asked for advice. I will also see if I can track down John Innes in Belgium. Really don't want to have to drive a sack back with me!!

 

Our Chusan palms were protected from the cold with heavy fleece wrapped around the twin trunks. One of them in the ground still got fried by the prolonged freezing winds despite surviving unscathed back in 2010 when it went to -20c. The leaves are brown. Another good size one in an exposed pot got fried and is dead.

So i would move it next time and place it in a sheltered spot by the house. My other palms on the other side of the house were sheltered from the easterly winds and are unscathed with no protecting from fleece.

I guess its the same with bamboos.

 

Well, that's exactly what we did, @WeeTam....I think next winter we will put it further up the side of the house, where it's even more sheltered....