My Unprotected Fatsia Japconia

I bought my Fatsia in September 2015 while on a trip in Newport Beach, CA. Usually when you're growing marginally hardy plants it's better to find a cold growing that has a history of acclimating their plants to cold. But although Fatsias are common plants in the US, I've never seen one for sale in my area.

So I took a risk buying it and I am glad I did! I planted it very late in the year (another thing not to do when you're trying to grow a borderline hardy plant, you want to plant it early in the season) so I gave it protection it's first year. But this winter it got absolutely nothing at all. And it did great! It was a mild winter (even my Soft Caress Mahonia's survived without protection and they are a zone 8 plant), but I still think its survival is impressive.

It's already grown a lot of fresh leaves. That's the nice thing about Fatsias, although they are evergreen and shade tolerant, they are not slow growing and will outgrow winter damage quickly.