Survival of the Sago Palms!

It seems like it took forever but Alesia and I are so pleased that the Sago Palms that decorate our front yard area are back and as beautiful as ever- if not more so considering what happened to them in January.

On January 3, the Charleston area had a very rare heavy snowfall. We had five inches or so at our house.  See my Winter Storm Grayson post here.

While beautiful in many ways, we didn't realize how hard the snow would be on our lovely Sago Palms.

This photo shows the condition of the palms in April: dead looking!

I had read somewhere not to cut them back until new growth started to appear.

But new growth several months after the January snow was not happening.

So in April, I lamented the situation to an editor I know at the Charleston Post and Courier. She forwarded my email to a gardening and landscape expert, from Clemson I believe, whom the paper uses for columns and expertise.

He said I should go ahead and cut back the long brown parts. He said the heavy snowfall had "stunned" the tropical tempered palms. They should be OK, said, so I felt better about that.

Well, I'm happy to report that my Sagos are back!

Starting a few weeks ago, in mid-May, new blooms began to appear.

Once they start to shoot up, they grow quickly too. What a relief!

This plant is hardier than I thought initially.

I have definitely learned new things from this experience.

A key one is that this plant is NOT called Sega Palm, which is what I always thought. No, it's Sago!  I actually also misspelled the Sago part of the name too until I entered the link above.

Jeez, the things I did not know about this plant (and gardening overall, I freely admit!).

So glad you are back among the living!  I will be more patient in the future and be quicker to cut the old, brown leaves next time.