I lost my angel red last winter in Northern VA but my russian made it. I filled a basket with leaves and covered it before the first hard freeze. I recommend mounding around the plant with mulch and using a 4 mm garbage bag, cut a hole in the bottom to slip it over the plant; fill the bag with dried leaves or straw; tie the top of the bag; and mound compost arount the bottom of the bag. To keep the bag anchored for the wind, pound a 3 foot stake into the ground and tie the bag to it.

How long did you keep that on? I heard bad things about doing that - in particular that you start getting roots growing out along the above-ground part of the plant. I've considered maybe hay bails or bagged leaves, but not right against the plants. Mulching deeply is definitely something worth doing. I guess next May or June we'll be talking again about what worked or didn't!

What type of poms are you growing? Might make a difference whether you even need to protect it or not.

Russian 'Salavatski' is pretty hardy. 'Wonderful' not so much.

Hi, I am expecting my Parfianka to arrive in a few days and I was planning to grow it in a big pot (15+ gallons). I understand last Winter was exceptionally hard for plants but if anyone can share their experience on growing pomegranates during normal Winters here in Virginia, I would appreciate it very much. I am in northern Virginia in zone 6b. Should I consider planting it in a raised bed close to house on southern side or will it do better in a pot which I can bring inside during Winter? Thanks.

I was at the National Arboretum a few weeks back and noticed 2 poms in the herb area. One was a Parfianka that had a tag that said 2013, which either means it was inside last winter (but outside this winter), it was outside last winter and survived (pretty amazing) or possibly it was a mislabeled variety that wasn't actually Parfianka - which as we all know can happen.

Here is a photo. As you can see, at least on Dec. 28 when I was there, there is no protection. But it is near a brick wall that might retain a little heat and I think it may have been on the south side of the wall.

I definitely look forward to seeing if it leafs out this spring. I have a have a Parfianka in my crawl space in a one gallon pot I was planning on putting into a 15 gallon container to grow out so I could put in the garage each winter. But if this one is in the ground and surviving, maybe there's hope for this variety around here. I also have a Salavatski and a Kazake that will go in the ground and are reputed to be very hardy.

They also had a larger Nikitsky Rannyi labeled as 2011. I can't remember where the Parfianka came from but the Nikitsky was from One Green World.

Sorry for the sideways photo, but Gardenweb likes to do that with pictures from smartphones.

My russian pom is still small so I only covered it with a large pot and mulched it well. I will leave the pot on it until spring. However, for my figs I used the garbage bag method and will leave it on unti spring also. No harm has resulted for the figs.

Hi all,

How did your poms fair during the last winter? Which varieties survived for you?

I'm not holding out much hope for my pomegranates. I tried providing some protection, since only 2 to 3 ft. tall, with plastic garbage bags and bagged leaves not right up around the plants. Though all the other fruit trees and plants are at least budding out, I have seen nothing from the poms yet. I'm wondering whether I would have been better off just leaving them unprotected. I'm in central VA, Fredericksburg.

drmbear, what varieties are you growing? I have some in pots that I protected in an unheated cold space and they are well budded, but who knows how they'll do when i put them in the ground this year.

Wonder of wonder, I just noticed yesterday that my Parfianka is budding out nicely, all the way to the tips of the branches, so I am a little more hopeful of the other that is a little larger than this one. I'm watching it. Whether my protection strategies were useful at all, I am uncertain, but it is alive and seems to be in good shape. We have some very cold nights for the next week, so maybe nothing will happen with the other yet, but I'll let you know if something changes.