Hello all, I thought I'd post a report of how the babies fared this past winter - for those who are also pushing the limits in northern Utah and may be interested.

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