Hello, Does the celebrity apply to your patients or to yourself? I have grown Musa Basjoo for several years in Toronto, and as in Buffalo it gets plenty cold. Be prepared to wrap heavily and then wrap some more, but really what does 20 min. once a year matter....Robb

hey, thanks. i think toronto is right across the border or in that general area correct? i dont really mind if it dies all the way to the ground, i just wanna make sure the roots survive to send up shoots in the spring, so i guess just mulch heavely?

Zone 6 Stamford CT have been growing them here for years.. i used to wrap them to save the trunks but now i just wait for the first hard freeze, them cut them to about 2' and cover with burlap and put a plastic trash bag over that then lots of leaves ,, they do just fine ,, they are about 15' already this summer

alrighty, so put a plastic cover over them to prevent to much moisture and causing rot i guess?

Sorry to hear you moved to Bufflehole. I spent 7 much too long years there in grad school. Ironically, when I left, my first job was in Maryland. Not much of interest grows up there. I had a dwarf Orinoco outdoors during the summer and overwintered. It didn't grow much, due to lack of heat or sunlight. I'm sure you've heard the joke, "Bufflehole has 4 seasons: fall, winter, spring, and the 4th of July."

Musa basjoos are not always completely hardy. I didn't protect with mulch at all in zone 6/7 and lost 3/3 during a cold winter in Maryland. A cold winter in Maryland is like a balmy winter for Western New York. If you don't mulch very heavily (a foot or so), they probably won't make it.

I can't tell you whether Musa basjoo will live there but as a Buffalo native I have to put up some defense for the area! I don't know much about the city itself (I grew up in one of the suburbs to the south) but when I go back to visit my parents every summer I'm struck by how easy-going and friendly people are, how little traffic is on the roads, how pleasant the climate is (of course look where I'm coming from) and how underdeveloped and beautiful the area is. Of course I don't miss the winters! (Okay, sometimes I do!)

The Buffalo area climate (especially the areas around the lake) is surprisingly mild as Lake Erie provides a moderating influence. Sure the winters are long and get lots of snow (again thanks to the lake), but they don't get nearly as cold as other parts of NYS (after Buffalo I lived in Ithaca for several years, and BOY did it get cold there). The lake also acts as a gigantic air conditioner in summer. When I was growing up there, I remember summer temperatures rarely going above 90, and winter temperatures rarely going below the upper teens. When I go back in the summers, my family starts complaining about the heat when it's in the 80's!

All in all, it's a very good gardening climate. I wish I could grow fuchsias the way my sister can...

Johnnie,

The Southtowns are noticeably friendlier than the immediate Bufflehole area. They wouldn't compare to Southern hospitality, but I lived in Buffalo, Amherst, and Grand Island when I was there, so I didn't run across civilized folks often. I also wasn't accustomed to the bureaucracy, and militant left wing nature of the society there either. Outsiders rarely had many local friends. I had a large very group of friends, but they were nearly all from other continents or parts of the US.

I also think you must be forgetting what the winters are really like. Check out www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=082527&refer=
This data is also warmer than other data I've seen for the area, so it must be from a heat island in the city. I remember two week periods where the weather never got above 15 degrees at all.

Also, the DC area that you reside in now used to be much much more civilized 20 years ago. When the locals got pushed out by people from other regions, the manners went to hell. Where I partially grew up was less than an hour west of DC in Virginia. It had a friendly, mildly Southern flavor over 20 years ago. Now, try to find a true local in the area at all. In Herndon now, you can barely find a decent English speaker. The massive influx of people with no connection to the area in a relatively short time is doing the same thing to Loudon and Prince William Counties now.

I do not discriminate against all Buffalonians. I did marry one and am still good friends with two ex-New Yorkers. I personally had a thoroughly awful experience, that was shared by nearly every other exiled non-New Yorker I knew there.

Have a good day

bas joo is Ct yesterday ,, they are over 15'

{{gwi:1302955}}

hey jonnie,
i miss the hot humid summers =( ive only been here since july and i think i said, hmm its kinds hot today once. where in md its like, good lord its HOT! haha. im keepin my basjoo in the house this winter, as i know theres no chance of gettin it throught the winter planted this late.
michaelzz, whats ur climate like? can u give me some general care instructions? while im here in this "city" i intend on making some gardening impact, the people here seem content on growing the same things and not wanting much of anything else.

celebrity,

We've hardly had a summer at all in Baltimore this year. It's been abnormally cool. So you didn't miss a thing!

I think the main issue with overwintering M. basjoo in the Buffalo area will be dampness plus cold, rather than extreme temperature or snow cover (the latter should actually be helpful).
I'd just make sure that plants are well mulched and then covered to say relatively dry through the winter.