Question
QUESTION: I live in Rotonda West and my Christmas Palms and other Palms especially my Bird of Paradise  were hit pretty hard by the cold weather - I read that you should not prune the brown leaves - let Mother Nature take care of them - but should I give them any kind of fertilizer - if so what kind?  Thanks

ANSWER: Hi Janice, Adonidia (Christmas Palm), is very cold sensitive and any brown/damaged fronds will indeed be shed by the Palm when the time is right, so don't cut them off, (other Palms, like Queens, need to be manually pruned...) ; Keep them irrigated, and set up a date within the next week or so to spread some fertilizer around the base. Use a well balanced "Palm Fertilizer" and spread it evenly from about 6 inches from the trunk out to the drip line around the palm in a circular motion at a rate of about a pound per inch of trunk diameter. Hopefully your Christmas Palms will make it, but keep tugging gently on the center spear, if it pulls out then that is the end , but if it holds firm, then it should be ok. Nick

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you, I see a lot of my neighbors have cut their Adonidia back to just letting the center spear remain - After your advise I will let the brown ones alone - but what about the Bird of Paradise?  Should I treat them like a Queen Palm and manually prune the brown ones?  Thanks Again

Answer
Yes! by all means, they respond very well to pruning, so don't be shy about it, take off the brown/dead growth and any other that may be out of conformity, the only thing is,  and this more for aesthetics, is make sure you cut the petiole right up against the main trunk, don't just remove partial stems and leaves, take the whole thing, even if it lead directly to the surface, you can't hurt a Bird unless you cut into its underground Rhizome. Nick