I bet you could grow alsorts of cool desert plants in Ok. First thing I would try is some Faxon yuccas. 😀

Aaron,
you're right--and MUCH easier than growing palms here!
I don't want to hijack Paul's great thread, so I'll do a Yucca thread of my own this winter. --Erik

great update Paul. Agaves can take cold but don't tolerate winter moisture at all........I'm in the tropics compared to you and I've had no success with Agave unless protected against moisture.

Too bad about Y. thompsoniana and Y. rostrata. Those are cool plants. I know I'm on the northern edge of growing them but they do fine here with limited protection and we are wet. We get 4" of precipitation (10cm) every month of the year. Our winters are wet. My water table is 5 feet below grade right now. I can see standing water in my sump pump pit.

I wonder how the Y. filamentosa x rostratas would fair in your super cold?? Somehow I'll have to get an offshoot to you so you can experiment with it.

Here's one form of Y. filamentosa x rostrata with a normal filamentosa/flaccida leaf throw in there for color/size comparison. Cool Yucca.
<img src= >

Yucca brevifolia is cool too. I'm glad to see them doing OK there in the deep freeze. I've heard of other reports of them surviving some super cold too.

What's going to be your 'new' tests this winter?

Tim MA z6