The blog
Northern TropiTalks.
Welcome to Northern TropiTalks, where tropical vibes meet northern roots. This isn't a blog about easy plants. It's about what's actually possible in zone 5 and 6 with the right setup, the right species, and a willingness to document what doesn't work as honestly as what does.
From seed
Thirteen Needle Palms From a Hundred Seeds
A pot of needle palm seeds took almost two years to give me much of anything.
November 2, 2026 · 2 min read
Palm world
The Olive Grove Farther North Than My Yard
Forty-five degrees, fifty-three minutes north.
October 30, 2026 · 2 min read
Palm world
Where the Wild Palmettos Stop
Christmas morning, 1989. Southport, North Carolina woke up under more than a foot of snow, and the thermometer read three degrees below zero.
October 25, 2026 · 2 min read
Palm world
Could a Tree Fern Take a Wisconsin Winter?
A tree fern has no business in a Wisconsin yard. I keep thinking about one anyway.
October 13, 2026 · 3 min read
Growing guide
Fall Is for Planting, Just Not Palms
Every October the garden centers hang the same banner. Fall is for planting. For a maple, a lilac, or a row of arborvitae, it's good advice. I'm not here to argue with the maple. I'm here to explain why your palm never got the memo.
October 9, 2026 · 2 min read
From my yard
Sleep, Creep, Leap Never Happened Here
Every gardener has heard it: sleep, creep, leap. Plant something new and expect nothing the first year, a little more the second, and the real show by year three. It's one of those sayings repeated so often nobody questions where it came from. I believed it too, until a sabal palmetto in my own front yard broke the pattern in a single summer.
September 20, 2026 · 2 min read
Palm world
The Tree That Refuses to Sleep
Every winter I make a list of plants that have no business surviving here, and eucalyptus never used to be on it.
September 13, 2026 · 2 min read
Winter protection
One Winter Doesn't Make It Hardy
Every fall somebody in a palm group posts the same triumphant line. It made it through winter, so it's officially hardy in my zone. I want to believe that as much as anyone. I just don't, not anymore.
September 5, 2026 · 2 min read
Winter protection
Why Ice Isn't the Enemy Everyone Thinks It Is
Ask most people how a windmill palm survives a night in the teens and they'll tell you it just toughens up, the way a person gets used to cold weather after a few winters. That's not wrong exactly, but it skips the actual mechanism, and the mechanism is stranger and more interesting than “toughens up.”
September 2, 2026 · 3 min read
Winter protection
Insulation Isn't Protection
Every fall I get some version of the same question. How many layers of frost cloth do I need. How thick should the mulch be. Should I double up the burlap just to be safe. It's the wrong question, and I used to ask it myself before I figured out why it kept failing me.
August 29, 2026 · 2 min read
From my yard
The Bismarck Palm I Still Can't Explain
Some palms tell you why they died. This one didn't.
August 21, 2026 · 3 min read
Growing guide
The Zone Number Isn't the Whole Story
"Zone 5 hardy" gets printed on a lot of plant tags. Not all of them have earned it.
August 14, 2026 · 2 min read
Winter protection
Warm Roots, Not Warm Air
Every fall, growers wrap trunks, mound mulch, and wait. Fewer stop to think about the six inches of dirt actually holding the roots, but that patch of ground underground is often doing more of the suffering than the part everyone can see.
August 4, 2026 · 2 min read
From my yard
The Wall I Didn't Use
I spent a little over two hours on the Palmcast last weekend. The episode goes live this Sunday at noon. If you have ever wanted to hear a Wisconsin guy talk cold-hardy palms with two people who ship them by the thousand, that is where to find me. Search it up on YouTube.
August 1, 2026 · 2 min read
From my yard
The Nap My Palms Never Take
Every gardening book tells you the same thing about a new perennial. Sleep the first year, creep the second, leap the third. Plant it, be patient, and don't expect much until year three.
July 28, 2026 · 2 min read
Winter protection
The Five Things That Actually Decide If a Palm Survives
Everyone treats the low temperature like it's the whole story. It isn't even the main character.
July 21, 2026 · 3 min read
From my yard
The Ladder I Didn't Climb
Winter 2017 nearly had me climbing onto my own roof with a ladder to save a palm tree.
July 18, 2026 · 2 min read
Winter protection
Wrapped Too Tight to Survive
Every November somebody sends me a photo of their windmill palm wrapped up for winter, fronds cinched together, tarp pulled tight, heat lights coiled around the trunk like a strand of tinsel. They're proud of it. And I already have a bad feeling about how March is going to go.
July 16, 2026 · 2 min read
Northern Tropicals
Northern Tropicals in 2030
I have a picture in my head of what 2030 looks like.
July 8, 2026 · 2 min read
Winter protection
Cold Doesn't Kill Most Palms. Thirst Does.
Everyone blames the cold. The windmill made it through January fine, they say, and then February hits and it dies. Must have been the temperature. But in a lot of cases, it wasn't.
July 4, 2026 · 2 min read