Back around 1970 I was living in another town about 1 hour south of where I live now in The Villages. I bought 4 palm trees from a plant nursery. The man who sold them to me said they would withstand freezing, down to about 20 degrees. So guess what? That year we had a hard freeze and the temperature went down to about 17. Luckily, they were small and didn't cost a lot of money.
It wasn't too long ago that we had a very hard freeze in The Villages. Was that 2 winters ago? I believe it was. Anyway, it was bad enough to damage several palm trees on my street and a few of them had to be cut down.
When I first moved to The Villages I bought a house with a palm tree in the front yard (my first house in TV). It was very tall which means it was old. Don't forget, trees, like people, have life spans. They don't live forever. So, within a about 2 years I had to cut it down because it was dying a slow death. It cost $400 to have it cut down and hualed off.
I like to see lots of palm trees in my neighborhood. I think they are attractive but I wouldn't want one in my yard. I like trees that are not so expensive to buy and maintain. And I like to be able to maintain them myself. Anything that gets tall is more expensive when you have to hire someone for trimming.
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