I have three Pomegranates here. Two of them starting from liners. Frost has never been a problem. In 1990 we had four nights of 12 degrees in December with no damage to the two pomes, then in the ground, one of them Wonderful. Al

RB, I am also in sunset 14 (Sacramento area)and have a very healthy Wonderful Pomegranate in the ground for about 3 yrs now. You have an interesting dilemma because they are completely hardy in zone 14 and like the other posters have mentioned they can take some pretty low temps (temps lower than a typical zone 14 winter). Perhaps, a frost killed the tender young leaf growth on yours, but the actual tree should still be alive. Otherwise, maybe the tree is just in a spot it doesn't like(incorrect sunlight, soil, moisture, etc...) or you're just unlucky with that particular one and need to replace it. Good luck!

Yes, the frost killed the leaves, but the tree is alive. Same thing happened last year. Yes, it's a pomegranate, and the label said "Wonderful". I'm ready to pull the thing out, but a more pomegranate-knowledgeable friend says leave it. It will, she says, mature enough this season to tough it out in forthcoming winters. Hmmmm!!!???
RB

I would keep it if are considering replacing it with a pomegranate. Why lose 3 years? the one you have is probably going to do about as well as any replacement.

You do realize they go dormant in the winter and lose their leaves and are not evergreen? They are grown as a farm crop here in zone 8/9 and do great.

Would it do well in Southern California where the lowest it ever gets is 45f during winter nights

I suppose it has grown quite a lot and has had lots of fruit since 2010 (!) ;)

Pomegranates grow well in Southern California. They do excellent in the Mediterranean climate within 20 miles from the coast, but they can grow inland as well.

Generally most pomegranates start having trouble in anything less than a zone 8 climate, zone 7 can be difficult, and the plant will often die back in the winter and never be able to grow very tall.

There are different varieties of pomegranate, some of them are more cold tolerant. You may want to look into 'Utah Sweet' or the Russian varieties, such as 'Parfianka' or 'Salavatski'.

Ok thank you! And I live 14 miles from the coast

Parker, who told you the whole, 'pomegranates do best 20 miles from the ocean," spiel? I ask because the major commercial growing of pomegranates are in Hanford CA which is nowhere near the ocean and people grow pomegranates successfully in Riverside as well which is nowhere near the ocean. If you want to tell people where the best place to grow pomogranates is in CA, the answer is Hanford.

Pomegranates are grown theoughout the middle east.

They grow really well up here in San Jose, CA. too and our winters are colder than L.A. I always thought that they need high heat to sweeten up well, near the coast they'll grow but may not get as sweet as they would in a hot inland valley.

Here's some good info from U.C.Davis~

http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/rics/fnric2/crops/pomegranate_factsheet.shtml

Ok thanks! I live in Fullerton in northern Orange County to

We've grown them for many years in the Inland Bay Area with bumper crops of sweet fruit every year. They seem to be one of our best preformers and have never shown frost sensitivity. In fact, they're so Hardy that I can't imagine Frost being a culprit and would suggest some other reason for the problems. We don't even get frost damage on our citrus or macadamia trees, and those are much more sensitive than pomegranates.

The problem wasn't that the pom wasn't frost hardy but that the OP didn't realize they were deciduous.

I fear I have lost all my 30 year old Wonderful Pomegranites due to the freak freeze snopocolipse here in Texas this year. Does anyone know if the age was the issue? One was only maybe 7 years old, grew from a seed to an amazing producer. It looks dead as well. We lingered under 10 degrees for days. Heartbreaking.