Hope you find this interesting!
This is a giant bird of paradise about to bloom - where? in a sunny garden in Essex, England UK (I think zone 9b ). I purchased two plants as reasonably mature specimens to experiment with in my garden back in Feb just before the worst of our cold weather set in. With the aid of a couple of custom sewn double walled giant (that's 8-foot long!) fleece jackets they took the cold and frosts of our winter - down to about -2deg to -3deg C with minor leaft damage - of course the plants were kept bone dry during this period.
They were repotted into a mix of well rotten manuare and a loam based compost a few weeks back and have been in full sun (where we get it!) over the last couple of months - we're in a mini heat wave at present with temperatures up to 32Deg C last weekend.
I don't know if this is the only specimen in an amateur garden, but I must admit I'm quite thrilled
