You're spot on Steve. The Fargesias do well here but they're really best on the coast. I'm on the coast and we get about 112 days of fog a year, the fog persists till late morning and rolls in again in the evening. We get just over 53" of rain a year rather evenly distributed by the month (at least on paper). Summers are cool. Temps here: summer starts in late June and we might see 31c in a warm summer but about 22/23c is average, 32 is rare; summer nights are generally below 15-17c. This past summer was unusually warm and humid (east coasters might laugh) but we only got to 29c (84F!) once. Springs are especially cool, rhodos can flower for weeks on end. We have real winters from mid December well into mid to late March with a storm of some sort every 5 days. If the ground freezes it can take weeks to thaw given our low Spring temps. Wind is a real problem. The Zone is 6 where I am but as cold a zone 6 as is possible; the southern tip of NS is 6b, 7a and
7b with even cooler summers and foggier by a long shot. Soil is poor, rocky and mineral.
All in all colder in winter than high mountainous China, the native haunts of many Fargesia species, but otherwise I'd guess quite similar. The Fargesias are also slow as molasses in pots here too, we have to be very careful with them - under-potting and keeping the mix light to avoid root rot.
Here the Phyllos are a challenge as they want heat and rich soil.....no July tomatoes here.
