The "trials of winter" (no pun intended)

We all know winter is hard on plants. Even those of us who have relatively mild winters. I am really, really feeling sympathetic for all those folks in the areas where its frozen solid and the power is out. I've never really had to go through that, so I really don't know what its like, but I am certain its pure hell.

But these are a different sort of trials. Plant trials. Every winter I conduct regular plant trials to see if I can find out if some plants I have that are supposed to be too tropical for my climate will actually survive here planted outside the confines of either a container that has to be hauled in and out or inside the greenhouse.

The first one has been a success for 2 years. Tricolor stromanthe. This was "the" hot plant around here 2 years ago. It hit the box stores and everyone fell in love with it. I put one in my greenhouse and it overgrew the space really fast. Then a friend gave me 5 that she had no use for. I decided to trial them out. I was told that there was "no way, ABSOLUTELY NO WAY" that they would survive here by the lady who works at the County Extension Office. In fact, she even published that opinion in the local paper in a column she writes.

But I took the 5 unwanted plants my friend gave me and planted them in several different locations in my yard. Some are in protected places, some not at all.

The concensus is, IT MAKES IT HERE. This plant has frozen to the ground 2 winters in a row and come back. It's about the diameter of a big round platter. I have 2 others up by the house that are much larger, because its warmer and they never die completely back.

This is another trial plant--Tacca integrifolia, white bat plant. I planted three of these out, and one of the black variety. As you can see, this one has minimal damage, and is even blooming, while the bananas around it have crispy leaves! This plant has so far this winter seen at least 7 nights between 28-32F. I have not protected it in any manner. No cover. No nothing. The REAL test will be if we get a hard freeze between 22-27. I will cover one with agricultural grade frost cloth for that and leave one uncovered and see what happens.

What have YOU trialed and had success (or abysmal failure?) with?

another very interesting thread from gothqueen and one that i will be watching closely. since moving from the keys, i have seen a lot of plants up here that i had grown down there and left behind, thinking they would never make it. now i'm really kicking myself because i passed up an enormous white bat at lowes a couple of weeks ago because i was convinced it would die here. dang.....

what zone are you, goth? maybe because you are closer to the coast than i am would make a difference? and another question- is that a Pseuderanthemum behind the bat? if so, another i left behind........i'm in umatilla, btw.

I'm trying bwilliams's mulch/compost cover here in DC. I have a few bananas and a few colocasia to see if they survive in the ground in Zone 7 that way. I think they will.

I am barely zone 9A. I say 9A because the 'newest' zone map puts me there. but, we do still have the occasional zone 8B lows. Those are 2 white bats, planted together. They were offsets from my giant stand of greenhouse white bats that I divided off.

Bananas and colocasias aren;t any problem here. The banana leaves fry but the trunks never die, so when it gets warm they leaf right back out like nothing ever happened. Colocasias just go dormant and pop right back out too, usually not 100% from cold or even frost but from a combination of little rain in winter and colder temps. Colocasias that I grow actually 'in water' sometimes never go down in winter here

I've got a brugmansia outside in a pot in an unprotected area. It is too big to move. With the freak incident of SNOW we had 2 weeks ago I thought surely it was a goner. But even though it lost all its leaves and all but 2 buds, the 2 remaining buds have continued to grow and develop and are now wide open and gorgeous! I guess because it doesn't stay cold very long here the plants may get some damage but aren't constantly stressed. It's 80 degrees today!! Tomorrow it will be 40 again. CRAZY. Oh yes I am on the southeast side of Houston in the Clear Lake/League City area which is zone 9a.

9a is said to have avg. lows of 20-25 and I have NEVER seen them that low here. I think the lowest I've seen was 28, and that doesn't happen very often. Mostly when a cold front comes through it gets down in the 30's overnight (mostly upper, occasionally lower).

How they define average temp is a little different than you're thinking...the way they define the zones is by looking at the absolute lowest temperature that occurs every year (even if you only see those temps once), and then they average the lowest temperature from each year over a period of many years. So you definitely wouldn't expect to see temps in the 20-25 range on a regular basis, it would most likely only happen occasionally and since in recent years many people's winters have been milder it's not surprising that you haven't seen temps get quite that low.

I saw the USDA map has not been updated since 1990. I think its time to re-do it!!

I have a needle palm, r. hystrix, that has survived here with only leaves raked around it, and a musa basjoo in a microclimate that positively thrives (12' last summer). :)

-Joe