Fool4flowers, I'm growing 8 different species/varieties of bananas -- most of which are not hardy and have to be dug and brought into the garage. Only the basjoos (and hopefully the lasiocarpas) are hardy here. I have three separate clumps of basjoos around the yard. Non-hardies are Siam Ruby, Dwarf Cavendish, Red Abbysinian, Rojo (Sumatrana), Brazilian Tall, and Veinte Cohol. We've been watering the grass a lot. I really am not anxious to see the water bill. Should come in the mail soon.

This thread has to be some sort of serendipity. Yesterday I went down to our local nursery, Yard by Yard Lawn and Garden, where I happened to spy a Bottlebrush buried deep among other plants. As these are native to my home and shouldn't even really grow in this area, I waded through spiky holly leaves to have a closer look, pulled it out of the row, saw it was an amazing well-established plant that would survive the winter here. However, there was no price, so I went to find someone. I came across this large middle-aged woman who said their pricing machine was broken, but she followed me to the plant and gave me a price. I thanked her and went to collect the other plants I had seen - and when I got back, the bottlebrush was gone. I asked her what had happened to it and she said a woman had come in and gotten it. This was laughable, as I had only been gone a few minutes and there were just two other customers on the property, and I said as much. She then said a woman had come in the day before, but she had forgotten to put it aside, and that she owned Yard by Yard Lawn and Garden, and made pots for people. Hello! She was going to pot up a tree????! She didn't even know what it was. If she didn't want to sell the plant, all she needed to do was say she had made a mistake. This happened in front of her Mexican labourer, who was laughing his head off. Then, to top it all, the owner of Yard by Yard Lawn and Garden asks if she can get me another one of those plants! The nerve. I've spent today telling everyone who has the patience to listen about my experience at Yard by Yard Lawn and Garden (and this now includes you, and thank you for letting me rant). Meanwhile, I'm betting the bottlebrush is repotted into a much larger pot and selling at double or triple the price at Yard by Yard Lawn and Garden.

Same post as in another thread.... I have severe Zone-Denial-Disorder and also am quite stubborn and hard headed enough to try do things like growing agapanthus or other SA bulbs in tropics (miami, fla 10B) despite what many experts say. It is generally agreeed that agapanthus can be grown from zones 7 - 10 but that doesn't mean you can just stick them in the ground and have success. I really find the smaller plants do best. Mine are grown from seed and kept in very large plastic pots on northern side of house...that way I can move them into decorative pots on sides of front porch when they are in bloom then put them back where they want to be! They get several hours of light both in morning and afternoon - shaded in mid day. You can duplicate under a small tree, I guess. I water them only once/day, every morning around 5:00 am, they have an inch of pearock at bottom of pot and a 50/50 mix of potting soil sand and I don't fertilize until after they finish blooming. And yes, they are just now getting ready to bloom again - just starting to show the tips... hopefully will take a pic to post for everyone to see next week. Wish I had as much success with clivia! lol!

There a number of cold hardy strains of Agapanthus available - the Headbourne Hybrids have been around for years and are listed to zone 6. Also a variety called 'Cold Hardy White', offered through High Country Gardens. And Xera Plants (located in Oregon) grows a variety of agapanthus they list to 0F. They are wholesale only but sell to a several Seattle area nurseries. 'Peter Pan' and 'White Profusion' are relatively common and are tough little dwarf plants that perform reliably in the PNW. I have a container planting of 'White Profusion' that I've grown for years and virtually ignore - it disappears totally over winter and then blooms like a maniac for several weeks in midsummer. Container growing may be a good option. IME, these appreciate being root bound, the soil heats up decently in summer to produce reliable blooming and you can move them easily into winter shelter if necessary. One of the primary advantages of growing them in this manner is the ability to control drainage. I think most are lost over winter in our climate by overly wet, cold soils. Avoid the species africanus - these are the most common evergreen forms seen inSoCal and tend to be the least hardy for northern gardeners. Most of the more hardy forms will be some type of hybrids or selections of campanulatus and are all totally herbaceous.