Question
I planted 5 Foxtails about 2 years ago and haven't had any problems until the past month (April 2010).  I'm not sure I have any now, to be certain, but with our unseasonably cold weather this season (new lows; longer winter), many palms in the central, western gulf coast of Florida went brown.  None of my 5 did.  However, over the past 3 weeks, 2 of them have combined to lose a total of 3 new fronds that have snapped off at the trunk/base.  I was not aware of when exactly the first two happened, but they were on the least-attractive (healthy?) of the five (that is, the fronds are not dark green or as full).  Today we had gusty winds and the most attractive of the 5 lost its newest frond and with it about a 5-ft. spike.  It gets very windy here in the Summer months and so far nothing like this has happened, so I'm wondering if it's a result of weakened new growth breaking under heavy winds or worse, meaning some sort of disease.  Perhaps it's just a normal occurence even, since I've only had them 2 years I suppose I'm not sure if this sort of breakage is out of the ordinary or not.  

Thanks,
DS

Answer
This winter severely stressed many of the palms, and some are making it (albeit slowly..) and some are not; the collapsed fronds on your palms is a sign of cold stress, because the petiole was weakened (stem holding the frond to the trunk..) it broke, but if the frond is still connected, although broken, it is still functioning and contributing to the health and recuperation of the palm, so don't snip it off. The problem that many people are not seeing though, is that even if these stressed palms survive, they will be entering next winter in a weaker state then they were last fall and I fear the worse for them. Keep your palms properly irrigated and give it two ensuing (a week apart) applications of a Copper fungicide, to deter any fungal problems, that would further weaken them.