By Heidib
Mid Glamorgan,
United Kingdom 
Canary Island date palm - over wrapped?
To try and protect it this year (as I thought it had died last year with the snow and looked wind burnt). I bought a fleece blanket to wrap it up in. My husband tied up the fronds, put the fleece round and put plastic sheeting over it (i asked him not to do the sheeting as I worried about circulation). Now in the strong wind the palm leaves have been pushed over and some fronds have snapped.
I have taken the cover off, and all the leaves look very brown and spotted, some look as though there is mildew on them. It looks worse than it did last winter.
Questions is : can you over wrap a palm? is it likely dead? and if so, what punishment for my husband?
5 Feb, 2011
Answers
I used to place straw in the centre, tie up the fronds then wrap in a breathable medium. The outside leaves always looked brown and deadish, but new shoots always appeared. Sadly I lost mine a couple of summers ago. The wet, windy and cold summer we had finished it off. But I'm a 1000' up and conditions are not brilliant for that sort of plant, but I brought mine with me when I moved. I suggest Worthy's advice of thrashing hubby with the dead fronds is a good idea, but this is one of those delicious moments for pointing out he knows nothing! :-)
6 Feb, 2011
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I think it's probably had it. But, leave it alone, tucked away in a sheltered spot, but outside. Protect it from further frost, and in June/July time it may show new leaves from the middle. I say 'may' because it looks bad. If it does die, then you could thrash him with the withering leaves. Frost free and good air circulation is the ideal, but in his defence, it was a proper winter, and phoenix canariensis isn't suited to the fickle weather that our lovely land experiences. Worthy
6 Feb, 2011