This past winter was a cold and snowy one here in northern Utah. With close to a foot of snow on the ground at one time. It dropped to single digits twice at my place, 6f and 9f, but the daytime highs stayed rather low, ok, mighty low for several weeks in December/January.

Bamboo
As expected, the arundinaria gigantea and fargasia rufa did very well - both rock solid here - so did the sasa pygmaea.

Yuccas
The yucca torreyi did splendid, with some protection(burlap around the trunk and a few xmas lights, I may push it a little harder next winter), all the y. brevifolia did great. The y. rostrata did fine, with a teepee built over it to keep it dry - no temperature protection at all. The y. aloifolia did fine against the house, but the one out in the wilderness got pounded. All the others did great in general.

Agave and Cacti
Nearly all the cacti came through with flying colors - 95% success. The agave are much trickier to keep happy during the wet winters here. Most a. utahensis should pull through ok; the a. parryi huachucensis looks to be ok; a. parryi truncata may be a goner(I'll know in a month or so); a. parryi Flagstaff form is 100% fine, as is a. utahensis 'Peach Springs'; a. parryi neomexicana is in tough shape(I've now corrected a serious drainage problem but may have to start over this spring), but it actually appears to be putting some new growth out, cross my fingers.

Palms
I think I've fried a needle palm, a trachycarpus and perhaps one of the sabal minors. The good news is that three trachys are in fine shape and I'm almost fully certain that they'll come out fine. The other needle is looking good, but it did have spear pull(I understand this is common the first several years). I still don't know if any sabal minors will come out good or not - for some reason I have had a tough time getting them established, but they've all been out in the wild and I haven't tried one against the house yet. I'll find out this year with the new McCurtain I have coming.

Melianthus major
I kept one out with a foot of pine mulch over it - I'm determined to make one overwinter as this is by far my favorite tropicalesque foliaged plant, other than palms and yuccas and bananas. I should know in a month or so.

Please let me know how you did as well...
Alan

I'll bet you're biting at the bit to get those palms uncovered! I really thought this winter would never end, here, and I'm sorry to hear you're still there.

Just for kicks a while ago I went on the USU weather station website and pulled temps clear back to '49 at the Pleasant Grove station. It seemed there was a 10-13 year pattern of catastrophically cold and wet winters. The last was '93, the two foot winter. I think '59 was the all time low here in Lindon at -19f. Previously, I assumed we'd consistently gone sub zero here nearly every winter in the past; not so, even in the sixties/seventies we'd have several non sub winters. I do think the bottom temps have gone up, but most likely more effected by heat-island effect than anything. Utah Valley has nearly half a million people now compared to less than 200,000 not that long ago - that's a lot of blacktop and houses to hold the night time temps up.

Best, Alan

I think my border penstemons I brought back in a suitcase from my trip to Portland (and the lovely Joy Creek Gardens) last summer would have pulled through the winter just fine had I not panicked in late December and attempted to take cuttings. Duh on me! I may have to order some again. I'm pretty sure with just minor mulching or protection they'd overwinter just fine (they are zone 7). The 'Port Wine' penstemon was unbelieveably gorgeous. The blooms on these types of penstemon are 2-3 times larger than on regular hardy varieties and border penstemons also prefer more average garden conditions and pampering than natives.

The border penstemons sound very interesting, I'll have to google and check them out.

I just ordered another melianthus to be safe. If the other konks then I'll replace in the front yard, if not, then I'm placing the new one on the south wall - a full zone warmer.

Best, Alan