I have no personal knowledge about palms of any kind living where I do but according to my own garden experience, hardy perennials, shrubs & trees are happier & healthier once set in the ground than they are in containers. Top growth is for show; root growth is for sustaining the plant.

Neither your palm nor my shrubs & perennials can be happy if their roots are not. Chances are the roots inside the container couldn't grow downward and started growing horizontally round and round inside the pot.

Your winter in Z8a is a lot less severe than winter where I am which gives your palm a couple of extra months to settle in before it has to face dormancy.

Thanks! Yes, I do believe it is much happier in the ground with room for the roots to grow properly. I hadn't thought about it having a little bit of extra time to settle before winter. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Great info at the link below. One of the best when it comes to cycads.

Carol in Jacksonville

Here is a link that might be useful: The Cycad Jungle

Sago palms are a very tough plant, we had a very very cold winter this year for the south. Many sago leaves turned brown. Cut them down to the trunk and they usually pop back with a whole set of new leaves.

This year, I had a 16F cold winter with another 19F snap late in March. My in ground Sago did just fine. I cut back ALL the leaves this spring and I was rewarded with a flush of 32 leaves. It is getting to be a good sized plant. The other one who is smaller has a 15 leaf flush with this treatment. I think it is smaller than your plant. Other small ones died. They were unprotected. They might just be slow in coming back.. Their leaves had gone all "calico" from the cold. So I cut them all off.

This baby has lived through cold fronts of 12F several years back when it was much smaller.

I do usually throw a warm cloth and leaves over the growth point to be on the safe side and I don't cut the leaves until they turn splotchy in the spring.I covered them with a blanket but it is too D@MN large and the horizontal configuration has the blanket always blowing off when the Blue northers hit. I am thinking about cutting them ALL the fronds off before the cold from hits and using them for insulation before the cold hits. God knows covering them with a blanket will be easier if one has just a stub. Also the old leaves are sucking energy that can go to the new young scarless leaves. Funny how they don't show the cold damage immediately. One thinks that you escaped the fire but then they turn on you. Maybe I will start collecting thatch for a chicken house or something silly.