Posted by Patrick B.
on 4/28/2009, 3:25 pm
69.115.78.50
My wife and I purchased from good 'ole Home Depot five of what what we believe are Majesty Palms (ravenea rivularis)
at the end of last summer. Being that we are in New Jersey (plant hardiness index of 6a-6b) the trees came indoors
soon after fall began, in an effort to avoid them being caught in a frost (which outright killed a few Majesties we
had purchased the year before).
As they were around 6-7 ft. each we placed them in various spots around the house, not only to prevent any one room
from looking like a jungle, but to experiment as to where they would do best indoors; there seems to be much
discussion as to the proper way to care for these babies indoors. The results were interesting, but best reserved
for a different forum. Suffice to say they all survived the winter well.
Sometime around early April, when the weather turned noticeably nicer and the threat of frost was minimal, outdoors
they went, onto our deck. While the threat of a frost was minimal, it was not eliminated. The trees went through 4-5
intermittent nights in the next 10 days or so, where the temps were below freezing, somewhere between 32-29F.
Below are pictures of the damage done. The question(s) we would like to pose here is, are the trees dead, or does
the appearance of the green fronds/trunks indicate that indeed the trees live, and if they are alive, what is the
best way to ensure that they recover (proper pruning) from this point? Do we cut ALL the fronds/trunks down (as if
we were pruning the individual fronds of the trees), or leave them up although the leaves are dead?
Your anticipated speedy responses to this are GREATLY appreciated! 
Message Thread:
« Back to thread