I live in Northern California about 30 miles east of San Francisco. Considered zone 9b but barely. 2013 had lows of 23-24F which killed all my young tropicals. Last two winters since then only 28-29F lows. I figured if I could get some tropicals through a mild winter or two they could survive the rare cold spells.
The past 6 months I shipped in some new tropicals. Decided to find the ones native to western Yunnan China or higher elevations. Or just any I've read can tolerate some cold. Here's what I ended up with and their results so far:
Dendrocalamus Parker Giant -
![Image](http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/noscabs/AA29240D-1401-4679-9CFC-44E903473AB0.jpg)
3 gallon plant, in ground. Survived 29F and shipping stress pretty well.
Dendrocalamus validus -
![Image](http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/noscabs/0ED13244-0A18-4E04-9221-C1F0C0D72776.jpg)
3 gallon plant, in ground. Lost all leaves (except 2 still hanging on and green) at 29F, but was in bad shape from the shipping so hard to tell what caused it. The leaves actually fell off so not sure it was even burned.
Dendrocalamus farinosus -
![Image](http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/noscabs/BB9369C6-9358-4BA5-8385-7FDE735AC613.jpg)
3 gallon plant, in ground, lost some leaves through shipping stress, but the remaining few still are light green. The 29F didn't seem to affect it.
Dendrocalamus minor -
![Image](http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/noscabs/FACB5C3E-6AB6-4067-A2B9-2EAA341B926C.jpg)
3 gallon plant, in ground. No leaf burn at 29F.
Dendrocalamus fugongensis -
![Image](http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/noscabs/DD619F79-5540-434F-8D19-A2D32A772526.jpg)
3 gallon pot. Hasn't seen sub 40F yet. Next winter will test it.
Dendrocalamus dianxiensis -
![Image](http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/noscabs/BE2DA946-140E-4C04-A72F-5E07D4FDFD38.jpg)
3 gallon pot. Hasn't seen sub 40F yet. Next winter will test it.
Dendrocalamus giganteus-
![Image](http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/noscabs/29A7BFCF-635A-4DFF-8A9D-8A3E54AAAAEE.jpg)
25 gallon pot. Only survivor from 2013 cold spell. Suffered complete top kill then so I dug it up and potted it. In two years hasn't sent any full culms up, just a few aborted ones. Came through this winter without any leaf burn and looks pretty good! Still only about 3 feet tall.
Thyrsostachys siamensis -
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/BymM9bS.jpg)
Most leaves died during shipping. The few remaining ones eventually died as well but doesn't seem like the 29F killed them, they just slowly shriveled up weeks later.
Bambusa dolichoclada -
![Image](http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/noscabs/7EF77BAF-5652-4AE5-ACBB-F9024790AC84.jpg)
3 gallon plant, in ground. Sent up two shoots late fall about 6 and 8 feet tall, both survived but did experienced some leaf burn at 29F, most leaves survived fine though. Young branches died.
Bambusa emeiensis 'Viridiflavus' -
![Image](http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/noscabs/AC983057-B181-425A-9662-D525CE438A06.jpg)
3 gallon plant, in ground. Sent up two shoots late fall 5 and 7 feet tall, both survived 29F. No leaf burn, even young branches are okay.
Also planning on picking up a Dendrocalamus tibeticus in may. This one looks promising for cold temps and big size. Allegedly good for perhaps 15F and gets 75 feet tall and 7 inches diameter in higher elevations in Tibet.
This winter so far was very mild with a low of 29F and less than 10 days below freezing. Hopefully most of these will spend the summer getting established and ready for next winter. I will not attempt to protect the above ground growth on any of these. Just let fate decide.
I will update the thread periodically with pics of their growing progress.