We had a very cold, open winter a few years back that took out 3 of the 6 miscanthus cultivars in my yard. Giganteum was one of the survivors along with Rotsilber and Blutenwunder. Gigantuem blooms very late in the season so you cannot always count it blooming well.

As in a cold winter, how cold did you guys get? I think I'm gonna try the giganteus and blutenwunder. I can bet good snow cover will go a really long way!

I think we got night or two of somewhere in the -20+- range, but it was the duration of below normal temperatures with little snow cover. Frost depths were very deep.

The year previous (the infamous Polar Vortex) was actually colder, but we had deep snow cover starting in November and all the Miscanthus survived that year despite similarly deep frost depths.

Have misc giganteus growing up here though cut to few inches of ground ìn late October to mid November and mulch for winter. Used to throw peat moss or soil over it. Now just mound leaves over it and then before winter place bags full of leaves or wood chips on top (leaving in bag). When snows mound over top as well. Giganteus doesn't bloom for me, however gets up to 7 or 8 feet in wet summers.

Sounds good. I planted 3 this summer. They have hit about 6ft after being 2ft when I planted them a month and a half ago. They get loads of snow where they are because I shovel all of the snow off my deck on that spot. I'm thinking that should be pretty good for them.