The Tampa Freezes of 2000/2001 were not as bad as many inland locations such as Orlando and Lakeland, but was still quite bad enough to jeopardize the survival of many of the palms in this garden.  The profile of the freezes encountered are as follows:

December  30, 2000  - an advective (windy) freeze. Slight 1 to 2 NW mph winds off the Gulf of Mexico held temperatures up around 38 F until about 1 AM.  At 1:30 AM the winds changed directions to the north and increased to 15 mph . The northerly direction kept the wind from passing over the warm Gulf of Mexico so the temperatures plunged rapidly to 31 F by 2 AM. Temperatures bottomed out at 27.5 by 4 AM and gradually rose back up to 29 degrees by 5 AM and stayed there until 9 AM. During this time sprinklers used as freeze protection were turned on when the temperatures hit the freezing mark at 32 degrees and made lots of ice on all the grass, trees and palms,  most ice sickles covered palm leaves at least 3 inches thick. Sprinklers remained on until 11:30 AM to melt and remove all the ice from the plants. Ice damage to palms can occur if you turn off irrigation before all the ice is melted.

December 31, 2000 - a heavy frost freeze with no wind.  Temperatures reached 32 degrees at 11:30 PM although frost started forming at 10 PM.  Temperatures dropped slowly reaching 30 F at 4 AM at which time sprinklers were turned on again. The reason we waited so much longer this time was because of the nightmare of ice we had the preceding morning, we did not want to repeat this episode again so it was felt better to take a little bit of freeze damage then to risk an ice storm again.  By 9 AM temperatures were above freezing, and there was in fact little or no ice to melt.  Ice does not form as easily in these mild freezes as long as there is no wind.

January 3, 2000 - The next freeze occurred a few days later, almost the same profile as the December 31, 2000 freeze except frost formation was heavier.  Sprinklers this night, mostly to defeat frost formation were turned on a 3 AM and off at 8 AM.

The forth  freeze was very mild with frost, this time minimum temperature for the night was 32.5 F which was reached about  5:30 AM. Frost formation was not as bad and sprinklers were turned on a 6 AM to melt the frost and turned off at 7 AM when it was apparent temperatures were rising to 35 degrees and the threat was over.  Ironically,  none of the palms or plants showed freeze damage or stress until this 4th event. By this time, the palms had been saved but weakened by persistent wetness in cold conditions and were at an increased vulnerability to cold and this mild event is where I feel most of the damage had been done.

The first photo above shows an Australian tree fern and a 3 set of Christmas palms. The tree fern was left completely exposed to frost and wind, past freezes of the 1980's proved these ferns are completely hardy to Tampa's worst winters, although current foliage of the fern has been destroyed and browned by repeat frosts.  The second photo shows the Christmas palm still has mostly green leaves and undamaged crown shafts however spotting of the leaves is quite severe. This palm was covered in a heavy king sized comforter with a large open lid box inserted over the blanket to seal air flow with the outside.  Inside the box/blanket combination 200 set Christmas lights were placed between the 3 crown shafts as a heat source. In addition on all 4 freezes periodically the air in the covering was heated with a portable 1500 watt hair dryer at 2 hour intervals. Confidence is high that the palm was completely protected from freezing temperatures and the spotting is primarily caused from the overall lingering cool/cold exposure.   The 3rd photo is a bottle palm which was protected similarly to the Christmas palm except minus the heating sources.  The 4th photo is a spindle palm which was protected only by a box a washing machine came in overturned over the palm. The bent spear is where the box pressed down on the palm which is trying to become too tall for box covering. Both the bottle palm and spindle palm suffer from failure of the protection to keep 100% of the December 30 windy freeze winds from penetrating their protections. At 3 AM the wind blew off the blanket from the bottle palm which was quickly replaced and covered environment reheated with the portable hair dryer, the spindle palm's box covering had blown off the palm at the same time and similar repositioning of the cover was done.  Both palms continue to have strong green areas on their leaves, but also every leaf has freeze burn marks at the tips and margins.  For the most part all these palms have less freeze damage then last year's freeze.  Last year I didn't use any box/blanket protection because it was felt that freeze was not significant enough to cause damage.

First picture is a common areca palm. I felt these were so cheap, why protect them. I was more interested in keeping the frost off the grass in this area, the irrigation method here was a smashing success with this typically tender palm. No damage whatsoever is present on it. In addition in this first picture can you tell where the property line (and the reach of the sprinklers) is?  The neighbor's allowed the frost to set on their grass turning it all dead/brown,  in the sprinkled area my grass is nice and green with no freeze damage.   The second picture above is Caryota Maxima Himilayan (formerly known as Urens Himilayan),  the exposed foliage reaching above the sprinkler's reach got some good frost damage but low an behold if a nice new spear isnt opening up - demonstrating this palm does seem to like lingering cold spells. This is the first growth seen in the palm since May when the heat of Florida summers caused its growth to nearly stop.  The 3rd photo is my foxtail photo taken from above while standing on roof of the house. This palm was encased in ice 3 inches deep, yet now over 2 weeks later is looking very nice, healthy and completely free of spots or margin burns. 2 by 4's had to be used to support fronds with the heavy weight of ice. The 4th photo above taken from the roof looking into my 35 ft tall caryota mitis,  this palm was too high to protect, the top most leaves got frost burned but you can see a significant amount of green. Just as this photo was taken I noticed this C.Mitis palm with very desirable attributes to grow extremely tall and tolerate unheard of for mitis temperatures without loosing palm trunks is just now setting its first seed bag ever.  As the palm sets seeds in the coming year, I am sure I will make them available for those who would like a C.mitis palm that can have 10 ft trunks withstand 12 hour 23 degree freezes and resume growth in the following April.

First palm is a teddy bear palm. Although it is rather ragged out looking from heavy ice,  for the most part it is green.  Most of the year this palm had potassium problems with a very yellowy color of green, only as late as October did I finally improve its green appearance with heavy doses of 0-0-50.  The second photo is a baby royal palm, it bears some damage but for most part came thru with flying colors in spite of being so notoriously tender at its age. These 2 palms are located where they are surrounded by 4 sprinklers and afforded the maximum sprinkler protection in the yard.  The 3rd photo shows the foxtail's brilliant crown shaft on the right edge of photo, the base the 35 ft caryota mitis on the left and dinner plate begonias (with 6 baby caryota laosensis's and 6 purple piccabeans in pots), along with the 4 inch deep manure mulching that produces heat and irrigation, all these tender small plants survived beautifully as well. The 4th photo shows a cardboard sago,  although it was treated to the same conditions as shown in the 3rd photo, all of its foliage is destroyed. Although they come back, cardboard sagos obviously are more tender in foliage then begonias are.

The first photo shows a completely unprotected carpentaria under a shade tree. Even as seedlings this species always amazes me in how exceptionally cold tolerant it is. The second photo shows a small majesty palm under the same large oak tree as the carpentaria with no damage, the banana plant behind it shows it did freeze significantly in this area and yet without frost, the majesty palm seems quite tolerant of 28 hours of cumulative below 30 degree temperatures. 3rd photo shows a traveler's palm, always tender freezing even at 31 degrees but always coming back in spring, it looks as bad as the banana plants.  The 4th picture is an unprotected queen sago under cover of a large shade tree. 

This queen sago was caught with no protection in the open sky. Thanks to the nice Tampa Electric Company who felt I didnt need trees hanging over my palms along the front under their powerlines, they came and cut all my front canopy back 15 ft two days before the first freeze. If they left it all alone, this sago would probably be as green as the one in the preceding photo set.  The second photo is a reclinata X dactilifera.  Many times thoroughbred reclinatas are more desirable but since most in Tampa are damaged and turning yellow,  here is a case for having a hybrid reclinata, this one never gets damaged, not even with the notorious 1989 mega freeze. 

Well there you have it, this is a small sampling of  the freeze damage in my yard. All the potted palms are still inside the house,  you have seen everything that got any kind of damage and a few that should have been damaged or killed come thru quite well.  If you dont see it photographed here,  then there is no damage to speak of.  These photos represent approximately 10% of my palms.  Most in the rear yard under shade tree have zero damage.  One of the primary lessons learned in this freeze for me has been the tremendous advantage to growing palms under large shade trees. I may plant many more shade trees in my exposed front yard this year. The tree canopied back yard has completely undamaged coffee trees, Euterpes, oenocarpus that effortlessly survived with no freeze damage,  this is something I desire of my front yard.