Very daring selection, remind me where you are, David?

northeastern corner of Maryland

I might want to broach the idea of cuttings, if you would be receptive (later in season when the new growth is about 1/2 mature, May or early June)?

Gardenias. **Jealous.**

Some significant wet-snow/ice branch damage on some pines & southern magnolia & alittle damage on green-giant arborvitaes. And last few yrs don't get any above-ground survival on crape-myrtles and butterfly bushes.

Apart from an anisodontea and pelargonium sidoides, winter casualties have been minimal (compared to the horror show of last summer). Most amusingly, a (forgotten) cymbidium, after 3 years of cossetting and no blooms under glass, have clearly loved the day/night outdoor temperature diffs because 3 enormous flower spikes appeared and are just starting to bloom. I am having fantasies of a permanent begonia (Rex Cultorum) display...

Was doing some unrelated research at the website of the great oracle of PNW arboriculture, ALJ, and saw a report of a "regular Toona" dying to the ground in a colder Seattle winter. Which was by no means as cold as the last around here. https://www.arthurleej.com/tose2.html

So maybe this species is just temperamentally hardy. It squashes a pet theory I'd been nursing, that maybe the reason 'Flamingo' was tender was that it was an F1 or F2 progeny of Toona sinensis AND Toona australis! It originated in SE AU, and that is, not surprisingly, where I first saw many of them and was captivated by them.

Beng are you trying the various USNA 'improved' Crapes, bred for hardiness? I noticed that up in Lancaster Co, where recent winters have dipped below 0F, some crapes died to the ground and some didn't.

There are some other deaths to report for posterity that I forgot; a couple of them I have forgotten again and will have to spot in the garden LOL. One of them is Kniphofia bruceae, the other monster in the genus besides Kniphofia multiflora. Alas, it is probably not even as hardy as that one. If I keep a plant it will have to be potted. Oh wait, just thought of another one too. A Callicarpa pilosissima hybrid from Woodlanders - which admittedly they were not saying was any hardier than 8a. It bloomed late and the flowers seemed slow to develop into fruits - an issue that plagues the much hardier Callicarpa kwangtungensis here as well. Only seems to fruit well in years that are consistently hot, sunny but rainy right through autumn. Last year's humdrum overcast did not suit it, the immature fruits just paused for months, without coloring or enlarging! So the even more tropical hybrid probably would not have worked as an ornamental here. Foliage was kind of interesting looking but nothing too exciting.

Camp, years ago I got pelargonium sidoides to survive single digits F, but it was an anomalously bone dry, sunny winter, as it would experience in its native Drakensberg. Have tried again a couple times but given up. In my current garden, have gotten Pelargonium luridum and P. tranvaleense to survive milder winters too, you might try those as well. I suspect P. luridum is the hardiest but, alas, coming from the highest elevations, our nights were too warm for it and it would not get proper vernalization by the time it was ready to bloom. Same as happens with the hardy Dieramas. The 'polar vortex' winter finally killed it off...probably more due to the wetness than the cold. (2 ft. of wet snow 'lying on ground' for weeks!)

Speaking of other SA plants, will be trying some Celtis africana in my garden in a year or two, the seedlings are very slow growing but I see that as a good sign. Might die back in colder winters but will at least be a tree from sub-Saharan Africa that can be grown here in US zn 7! Arborvillage listed it in their last catalog.

I grew Pelargonium sidoides in my old garden. In fact I wrote a blurb on it re: "zone pushing" for Fine Gardening. But that was at least a decade or more in the past and I doubt it or the other two zone pushing plants I discussed have survived as the new owners are not gardeners in even the most basic sense of the word!

The only winter casualty in my current garden is a coprosma in a container (so doubly pushing the hardiness envelope!!) and it is only partially damaged - one side dead, the other soldiering along :-) Haven't gotten around to repotting and pruning yet and not sure I will......may just replace with something else.

David, crapes are Natchez (white) and Catawba (lavender). Natchez does slightly better than the catawbas. I think the old standard crapes where I grew up (same climate/winter temps) did better than these! Same w/butterfly bushes -- old standards do better surviving the cold.

David my Toona Flamingo tree here is more of a shrub, but it keeps coming back, although too early to tell yet this year. Currently it’s snowing so I may lose some things yet with the swings in temps.

Snowing? Today, 4/27?? Jeesh! Snow in late April is almost beyond my comprehension :- ) You have my sympathies.

Nicholsworth my yard is less shady . They die to the ground every year. So jealous you have hosta up and growing!!

Disappointed that my Arnold Promise flower buds never opened, same as the polar vortex years - only a few flowers below the snow line survived. Lowest temp this winter was around -15F or -16F on Feb 1.

Also see some dieback on a Parrotia subaequalis seedling planted late last spring.

Dingo..I do LOVE that my plants are growing..I have serious shade so it's not surprising that you have less..I guess my hydrangeas just can't grow as fast..

Zone 8a, Olympia, WA

My two 'Crown Jewel' hardy gardenias went practically undamaged. The plants didn't even lose any leaves, and although they turned yellowish, the leaves gradually greened up again as the temperatures later warmed up in late Spring. It was a colder winter than usual too, and the plants got completely buried in snow, which is unusual here.

I planted them in December.

while someone else has bumped this...

A few (mostly unfortunate) updates. The Nerium and Callistemon probably would have survived if they had been better established, but they had been planted the prior spring. Although they appeared alive and had some green leaves and stems, they went into that slow, curious decline of winter damaged plants and were dead by mid-June. I might have been too stingy in watering them. The Phlomis died back in early summer, making me wonder if it will be a 'spring ephemeral' in this climate. Same with the Gardenias OTHER THAN 'Kleim's Hardy', which for me at least, does appear to be the hardiest. (though, again, cannot rule out other factors. It has the most protection from winter sunlight, so maybe that is what is making the difference. Winter morning sun here is deadly to all but the hardiest camellias, for example.)

There were OTOH some 'surprise' survivals, discovered after the thread above. One I can remember is Manettia cordifolia 'John Elsley', which survived its second winter, colder than the last. But getting it to regrow fast enough to have much of an ornamental impact is going to be the catch. It might make more sense to have a big patch of it and think of it more as a clambering ground cover, in this climate. It will bloom Sept-Nov. Interesting that a rosemary was totally undamaged in a winter I have no doubt would have killed an 'Arp' or 'Hill Hardy', which are clearly not the hardiest in an east coast climate. (maybe they are in TX where they were selected) I think the one that did well is 'Blue Spire'. I don't like the taste of rosemary, I just grow them for ornament! They are the quintessential Mediterranean climate shrubs. Oh another one: an Agave lechuguilla was right on the brink, but is growing back vigorously. I really need to start keeping more notes LOL. Too many plants to keep track of!

The Toona has grown back to a monstrous size so it will be interesting to see if it survives on top this winter.

Not winter cold related, but interesting to report that a potted Telopea truncata has survived, in shade, this beastly hot AND HUMID summer. We've had the longest stretches of high dewpoints > 75F I can remember. It's been the most acutely damaging to plants since 2012, probably. I lost a couple desirable rhododendrons that were not fully established. I am likewise struck that both clones of 'extra hardy' Phormium are doing well so far. I think because they are in well drained soilless mixes. In a garden setting in my climate, will need a south slope both for winter warmth and for summer drainage. (they will get summer root rot...I suspect the reason they are not seen along the gulf coast, for example) I will always keep 'backup plants' in my garage in case another winter like 1994 happens...but the green clone has survived near 0F with no special protection.

Up here in the Pacific Northwest, camellia bushes have been in bloom since January, and now they are still in bloom as of March. Pretty far north, but it's a relatively "mild" climate here (zone 8a). I mean, not only do camellias survive outside here, but they are putting out a fair amount of flowers in the middle of winter!

(In all fairness, I'd say the bushes have only had a medium amount of flowers)

I do have special hardy gardenia hybrids that have made it through the winter just fine, kept all their leaves. (47 degrees latitude, in case you are curious. It's amazing what can be grown in climate zone 8, things you people can only dream of on the East Coast )

Well, depends where along the east coast you mean...I've seen huge gardenia bushes in South Carolina and New Orleans. But yeah I know what you mean. 'Kleim's Hardy' has been hardy for me, including the Polar Vortex winters ("only" down to about 1F here, but below zero as close as a couple miles away!) albeit killed to the ground once. The other allegedly hardy ones, less so, but they weren't as established. 'Kleim's Hardy' was one of the first bushes I planted in this garden.

I'm more impressed by the stuff you grow that can't stand heat and humidity. My picture of Embothrium taken in Queenstown, NZ.

While this thread is bump...the mild winter was good for a lot of things. Camellia 'Mieko Tanaka' had started blooming a bit in December, but kept going to produce a fine show that is just finishing up. (it's supposed to be more of a fall/winter bloomer) Watsonia 'Peach Glow' from Brent & Beckys survived, but it remains to be seen if they will have enough strength to flower. Convolvulus cneorum probably won't have been able to establish in a normal-to-colder winter around here, but was perfectly undamaged.

Butterfly bushes were able to keep some green leaves & those are already beginning to grow, but then they're very vulnerable to frost. Lately I've been unable to keep butterfly bushes vigorous (unlike 10 yrs ago) -- they lately almost completely die back & only meekly sprout. Crape myrtles here also die to the ground & then produce spindly ground-sprouts & prb'ly have to remove them.