Kunzea spp. - cold tolerance

[AaronS]

I thought I could add some useful info on K. ambigua. I dug one up at my parents house and bought it home. Mum and dads is in western sydney and gets relatively decent frosts. Out here though (near Orange on the NSW Central Tablelands) we get regular frosts throughout late autumn, winter and spring with temps below -5 a couple of times a year. The Kunzea was looking great and settling in well after digging it out but died during winter. My theory is that ambigua just cant tolerate the cold we experience in these regions. Have resorted to K. parviflora that grows locally, albeit on hilltops that experience fewer frosts than the valleys. Would be interested if anyone else has experience with ambigua or parviflora and frosts.

Interestingly, parviflora seems to fall over (snow during winter?) and layer itself so most of the older plants up there have long skinny stems.

I dug this one up recently, growing at around 1100 m ASL. The exposed part of the stem is about 40cm high/long. Have nothing planned for it yet really, just want it to survive.

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