Tyne And Wear, United Kingdom

I have just moved to a new house and garden in the north of england and when we moved in, in september 2010, there were two lovely palm trees in the middle of our garden - a focal point (and selling point!!!!). One is single trunked and another (same variety) branched into 3 at about 2 metres height and then each into 2 again. Unfortunately, we had a very harsh winter with sub-zero temperatures and snow which lay for 3-4 weeks on both the ground and these trees. Since then, they have both lost all their leaves and the area where the leaves grew from have become rather soggy. Are they lost forever (they have showed no signs of reviving despite now being at the end of april) or is there anything I can do to revivie them? If the answer is no, which i suspect it is, how deep do the roots go and is it feasable to dig them out by hand to plant something else. One has only a small trunk but the other ones trunk is probably 60cm+ diametre.

• 22 Apr, 2011