Fan palms come from warmer regions. In order for you to get through the winter well with us, you need some support.
Fan palms create a South Seas feeling in the house and garden. When you see them, you automatically long for sun, sand and sea. To keep it that way, you have to overwinter the fan palm properly, which again is not rocket science. After all, the plant can be planted in the garden (information on this here) and survives quite mild winters unscathed. You still have to pay attention to a few things so that you can enjoy new growth in the spring.Winter fan palm indoors
If you keep your fan palm indoors or only put it on the balcony or terrace during the warm months, there is not much to worry about during the winter.
How to do it right:
It is enough if you bring the fan palm indoors in autumn and place it in a bright location. It is only important that you start caring for the fan palm before the resting phase. This means that you carefully remove broken, dead and dried leaves and check whether you need to repot the fan palm.
During the winter months you have to keep in mind that the palm tree needs less water. But be careful: the soil must not dry out completely. Therefore, always check whether the soil below the top layer still contains moisture.
Winter fan palm outdoors
First of all:
You can plant the fan palm in the garden or keep it outside in a bucket. However, this year-round location is only suitable for regions in which the winters are quite mild and the night-time temperatures never or only rarely fall below minus 8 degrees Celsius. If you live in clear winter regions and you know that the chances of freezing nights and days are high, you should plant the palm tree so that you can bring it indoors during the winter.
When overwintering, the protection of the plant always comes first. The young fan palms or palm trees in particular that you have only recently planted outdoors have not yet been able to develop their roots in such a way that they penetrate into the deep regions of the earth.Such fan palms will die off in winter unless given additional shelter. The same applies to potted plants. The soil freezes completely in the bucket and offers the palm no protection.
How to do it right:
Styrofoam protects the fan palm from cold temperatures. If the plant is in a bucket, it is advisable to place the bucket on several styrofoam plates. It is even better to build an underframe out of wooden planks and styrofoam so that the distance to the ground is as large as possible. You can also work with insulating foil around the bucket.
Protect the trunk of the fan palm with mulch if possible. Since the fan palm needs less light in winter, you should also protect it from the cold with a plant bag. The sack must be airy so that no moisture forms inside on warmer days. So now carefully tie a rope around the trunk to hold the palm fronds upright. Make sure that the palm fronds are pulled upwards - similar to what you know from wrapped Christmas trees. Now put the protective bag over the trunk, don't break off the palm fronds.
Our tip for overwintering the fan palm:
Despite the winter hardiness of fan palms, we recommend that you prefer to put the trees indoors during the winter months. Only old, well-mature and large fan palms are really hardy, as they already have sufficiently widespread roots.