Well it had to happen – a real winter finally hit the south and my almost zone 7b turned coat on me and let me know otherwise.
The problems with knowing that something is too tender for your area, is that when you see it marketed or sold in a local nursery, you give it the benefit of the doubt. You have a string of mild winters and you become convinced that this tender thing can indeed survive in your cool 7b. The we get a run of 4 days in the teens overnight.One night would be possible but 4 no way. Technically zone 7b should go down to single digits but everyone forgets that and even zone 8a should be able to do low teens, but the plants know otherwise. My tender hardy banana is looking distinctly dead from cold. Inside the circles of stem there were little ice crystals.
I was truly in denial of the zoneand probably paid for it. The good news will be that if they survive – hey they can be called ‘hardy’.