Washingtonia robusta life history You Tube video

[banton]

Nice one dave!

[ElTel]

great video loved it. whats the song

[derrick]

I passed a nice washy in bournemouth Close to victorian house , big palm up to the roof in height. How old would that be ? i might take a picture sometime. There is a little washy on my road it made it through last winter.I saw another close to town centre all closer to house .Nice movie dave

[mushtaq86]

great video Dave

[Las Palmas Norte]

"Have you lost yours then Barrie, I thought you had reasonable sized one that you boarded up with ply wood in winter. A shame if it's gone as it looked to be at a survivors size."

Sadly, yes Dave. It was housed in a poly shack (no heat). Nice and dry but the cold spell last Dec and a couple of smaller cold events did it in. Even the most optimistic and knowledgeable exotics growers here have all but written these off.

Cheers, Barrie.

[eddie]

Barrie, may I ask what your min temps were?

Vancouver airport recorded -14C on dec 20 2008. Thats cold.

How big was your Washi?

[Las Palmas Norte]

Eddie it was also -14°C overnight on one night. I can't recall off the top of my head the date, perhaps it was the 20th.
That only tells a small part of the whole story. There where many freezes during the 24 day event. So an event of that magnatude was too much for my Washingtonia robusta, standing about chest height. I did have burlap tucked in the crown to help insulate it from the cold but to no avail.
These palms (well established) are likely fine so long as the freeze in ephemeral.

Cheers, Barrie.

[cordyman]

Great video

Impressive how hardy it must now be.

My x2 front garden baby washingtonia robusta's are still holding up well despite all the rain. Its the frost i'm dreading.

[Dave Brown]

As so many have commented on the blizzard, I thought I would give a bit of Weatherstation data. Looking back on that fist week of Feb 2009 it was very unusual as we had cold weather. Not the normal high pressure radiation frost type freeze, but a low pressure, below 1000mb most of the week, dipping to 984mb. Temps ranged from a brief max of 6.6C to long periods below freezing down to -4.2C, this was coupled with high winds from ENE. Max wind speed 42.6mph (68.5kmh) with max gust 47.7mph (76.7kmh) We also had 19mm (0.75in)once melted, of snow. The times on the charts are wrong for the snow as it only registered then it was thawing, not when falling.

Date MaxT MinT Below Freezing Form - To
0102 1.6C -2.8C 01:17 to 04:12 and 15:10 to 23:59
0202 0.6C -1.8C 00:00 to 08:52 and 09:57 to 21:23 and 22:28 to 23:59
0302 2.1C -4.2C 00:00 to 10:24 and 17:56 to 23:59
0402 3.5C -3.8C 00:00 to 10:19 and 17:22 to 22:40
0502 6.6C 0.3C
0602 2.5C 0.0C
0702 3.4C -1.9C 03:18 to 11:13

Weather summary First Week of Feb 2009

Weather chart First Week of Feb 2009

[ElTel]

As so many have commented on the blizzard, I thought I would give a bit of Weatherstation data. Looking back on that fist week of Feb 2009 it was very unusual as we had cold weather. Not the normal high pressure radiation frost type freeze, but a low pressure, below 1000mb most of the week, dipping to 984mb. Temps ranged from a brief max of 6.6C to long periods below freezing down to -4.2C, this was coupled with high winds from ENE. Max wind speed 42.6mph (68.5kmh) with max gust 47.7mph (76.7kmh) We also had 19mm (0.75in)once melted, of snow. The times on the charts are wrong for the snow as it only registered then it was thawing, not when falling.

Date MaxT MinT Below Freezing Form - To
0102 1.6C -2.8C 01:17 to 04:12 and 15:10 to 23:59
0202 0.6C -1.8C 00:00 to 08:52 and 09:57 to 21:23 and 22:28 to 23:59
0302 2.1C -4.2C 00:00 to 10:24 and 17:56 to 23:59
0402 3.5C -3.8C 00:00 to 10:19 and 17:22 to 22:40
0502 6.6C 0.3C
0602 2.5C 0.0C
0702 3.4C -1.9C 03:18 to 11:13

Weather summary First Week of Feb 2009

Weather Week 010209 Blizzard summary.jpg

Weather chart First Week of Feb 2009

Weather Week 010209 Blizzard.jpg

cant beleive the blizzard didnt kill it, well done. did you warm it up or knocl the snow off.

what do the charts mean

[Dave Brown]

[

cant beleive the blizzard didnt kill it, well done. did you warm it up or knocl the snow off.

what do the charts mean

I left the snow where it was as it stops radiation freezes of the leaves.

The charts mean.... It was bloody cold, windy and snowy

[Las Palmas Norte]

-4.2°C for a winter low Dave!!! It's a wonder you're not experimenting with coconut palms. Washingtonia can take that standing on it's head. You need more of a challenge.
We don't stand a chance here ... period.

Cheers, Barrie.

[davidjonesUK]

i like the part with the blizzard in it, its very suprising how these palms can stand our winters, wel maby not this one so far and by the way those 3 days putting ithis video together was worth it WELL DONE!!!