I am on a new kick...went through others now looking for seeds or grafts of zone 4 magnolias with out joining a club.. anyone out there...I have a few seeds if you want to check out or I can sase.. Thanks Cheri

I have several Peggy Martins in Zone 5b, central Illinois. They have done well over winter even with temperatures dipping below zero. I don't have to trim much dead wood. I planted the first ones in summer 2019 and in just three years, some have grown to 15 feet covering a massive amount of height and space. I even did cuttings and they sprouted and grew. I ordered more this year and will line all my fence with them. I will post several pictures

Yes, but those Chinese provinces are big, and it also occurs in Quinghai province on the Tibetan plateau...500 or so miles north of the mild zn 9/10 parts of Sichuan, and a world apart in climate. Compare Xining at 7000 ft: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xining to Chengdu at 1600 ft. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengdu then to Kunmimg at 6000 ft.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunming So since it occurs on the "cold" side of those western Chinese mountains, it is very hardy. Update: it's actually very interesting that Wuhan & Chengdu are at the same latitude, Chengdu is at a higher elevation of 1600 ft; but the record low for Chengdu is only 21F, for Wuhan it is -1F. It seems those mountains and plateaus protect the areas immediately to the south of them from the worst of the cold. That's why on the USDA zone map of China there's a big upward blip of zn 9 & 10 in the west, but the bands compress faster there, too, as you go up into the cold Tibetan plateau. Yellow on this map is 7, so since this Spruce is native to the area where Sichuan, Quinghai, and Gansu come together, it is indeed zn 5 there. This post was edited by davidrt28 on Sat, May 3, 14 at 16:29

I have bamboo in my garden in Canada. It was given to me by my neighbour who has grown the same stand of bamboo for 20 years. No care is necessary... no mulching, covering etc. It grows to 12' to 14' each year. Has long green leaves & it turns a pretty beige color in the winter, with feathery seed heads at the top.. doesn't flower till late september. We have minus 35 C winters here & it never bothers this bamboo. I would love to get more but don't know the name...it looks a bit like Pseudosasa Japonica, but I'm not sure