A pleasantly green mini-carpet that lives for years over here but I don't know about Woodinville, which can be quite cold during sharp winters - temperatures often fall off markedly as you go east, away from the Sound. I think the Garden Valley Nursery that used to be on the left (to the North) as you approached Woodinville on the Monroe freeway used to report episodic readings something like 0 degrees F.

Winter hardiness shouldn't be an issue unless we have extremely cold winter. The lowest temperature I observed in my yard since moving here 8 years ago was 9 degrees. Baccharis magellanica is rated to 0 degrees. What worries me is possibility of a rot in overly wet soil especially in combination with low temperatures. I just got 100lbs of crushed small rocks and will amend the soil with it in hope that it will speed up drainage.

I remember the red barn at the Garden Valley Nursery in the 70s.

Mike

I never had it rot in ordinary soil here, only get overwhelmed by grass. I asked someone who used to work at Molbak's, they thought it was about 0F there a couple times over a period of many years.

9F here near the water would pretty much be a record winter (I've seen it get below that maybe two or three times since 1965 - without using a maximum-minimum thermometer). You have already had that in only 8 years on the site there.

This being a southern hemisphere item I would definitely be more concerned about freezing out where you are than rotting. When you say it is "rated" to 0F, what is that based on? Somebody's idea of what a USDA designation translates into in terms of actual temperature tolerance (such misapprehensions are very common)? Note also that if the plant is expected to freeze out at 0F and you have already had 0F, well...

I based the hardiness on few sources: the actual tag on the plant I got, Monrovia's site, Cistus Nursery and Dave's Garden. I will take my chances as I already purchased them (for half the price, which wasn't very high to begin with). Assuming they are right about mildness of a coming Winter I hope these will nicely root this season and will withstand potential harder freezes in a future.

Yes, you are already committed. Just don't count on the Monrovia or Cistus designations in particular as guarantees you will never see damage, be taken by surprise if they burn or freeze out some day. Probably the thing is hardy to about 10F, got therefore erroneously designated as hardy to USDA 7 by Cistus, Monrovia etc. because 10F is the top of the minimum temperature range associated with that Zone (and you figured it meant the plant was hardy to 0F because that temperature is the bottom of the range given for USDA 7). The thing is, 0F to 10F are the AVERAGE low temperatures for USDA 7 - to last in that zone a plant has to be hardy below that range. Likewise local gardeners in more outlying locations often think they are in USDA 7 because they have sometimes seen it get below 10F where they are.