Beginner Gardening: Blue Jacaranda tree in zone 7b, 1 by rizzir

rizzir wrote:
I am in 7b. I have a blue jacaranda that I started from seed last summer outdoors, then overwintered on the dining room table and set out in the ground in late April. It went from 1 foot tall to at least 8 feet tall by late September - just 5 months! The trunk is perfectly straight and unbranched, and is only brown for about the first 1 foot. It's still so tender I'm certain I could debark it with a fingernail. I have very obviously planted it too close to my porch, and I can now see what a mess it would make in my gutters if it achieved even 15 feet. So, it is going to have to move. Fortunately it is in very rich, composted soil that is easy to dig. While it is in what I believe to be a microclimate area of my yard, for the first time ever we had negative degree nights last year that beat even my mums back to their deepest roots (but somehow the avocados managed to spout AGAIN from their stumps - I would never have guessed they were such tenacious things!) Anyway, given that it was never "warm" here this summer by our "blast furnace" standards for July and August and we finally had "summer" by about September, I suspect it's going to be a really cold one again this winter. It's only the first week of October and we put the heat on last night - it dipped into the high 30s. I am determined to baby this tree to enough maturity that it can survive "average" Tennessee winters in my yard as I have a "blue garden" and if it flowered, it would be the crowning jewel. I have decided that I must hope it will survive being abruptly uprooted, stuck in a very large pot and overwintered in my living room this year. Then back outside into a permanent location for next summer. My tentative plan for next winter: clip the foliage, wrap the whole thing in leaf-stuffed frost cover with heavy mulch on the roots and wrap this with Christmas lights to be used on extremely cold nights (fire hazard?) Any other tips (or corrections!) for overwintering it outdoors would be greatly appreciated.