tomgreen

BananaLee,

I have been growing windmill palms in Zone 7 now for a decade. I run a business here in Reno that sold nothing but Windmill palms called "Reno Palms" The windmill palm can easily be grown in Zone 7. There are mature specimens in Albuquerque, Reno, Boise, Salt Lake City, Washington DC, etc...

We have over a 95% success rate with them by doing the following steps:

1. Apply a copper based fungicide in late fall. And, apply about once a month until spring, and then again after the last frost.

2. Tie the fronds up and cover with the "thermal blanket" from Dewitt company.

3. Place C9 Christmas lights under the cloth. Turn the lights on anytime the temp. drops below 15 degrees F., just to be safe.

4. If the middle spear pulls in spring, apply the fungicide every 14 days, the palm will almost always push another spear out...

Let me know if you have any questions, if you want I can post some pics of my palms for you to see. Reno is a 7a-7b area...I grow mine out north of town which is closer to a 6b-7a and I still have had much success. In fact, it was the coldest year in 19 years here in Reno. It was -6 in town and -12 at my house, and all my windmills survived with the protection stated above...