We are banana belt....hahaha.....not quite! We did get down to around 28 degrees and we had a lot of hard frost this Winter. I had put the Pineapple Sage up next to the house on the East side where it might be warmer.....guess so, out of the horrific winds anyway. My neighbor several houses away has 3 BIG wooden planters in front of her place, maybe 3' tall and 3-4' square that she has big Pineapple Sages in, surrounded with other stuff....and I see that her Pineapples had / have been cut back, but she may do that routinely. I have things that not only were not affected by the frost, but just really did thrive through Winter with more rain than they ever got in their lives down in Fallbrook.
I picked up a Tiger Eye abutilon last fall, lucky to find one at Fred Meyers...big combo store with a small nursery.....and was fooled since my 95 year old friend, Marge, in Brookings has one about 7' tall by her front door. Brookings is more banana than we are and it's in a very protected spot....so I didn't give much thought to my small one in its one gallon pot and it's been sitting by the Pineapple Sage and it looks quite dead and I couldn't figure out what it was, then saw a pic of the abutilon and it reminded me that I have one and that's it, looking pretty dead....yes, they're tender...sigh...however, there's some green to a couple of the stems / branches so I'm in hopes that it may revive. I had read that they will root in water, so stuck several cuttings in a glass...one is left...and it's bizarre, it has not rooted, but stayed living in that glass of water for some months now...so i will stick it in some soil, see if it will still live and root.
I have several rooted pieces of akebia on their way to me....yes, I've been warned by Zu, so will treat it accordingly...you know we never can be convinced when it's something we want. I've also been digging / potting nassella tenuissima seedlings...LOL...LOTS of them, but I do want them and will use them and when no longer need more, will just weed them along with regular weeds...
