I thought I would give an update on how they are doing as I was able to check on them today. This is not what I had hoped for or expected. Both of them froze almost to the ground, to about 2 or 3 inches from a height of 6 feet. One appears to have a good growing tip from what I could tell but I won't know for sure until I can tear the whole thing down late March.
This might be due to the very narrow pseudostems they have, and I was concerned about that going into this. But I have had basjoos with the exact same sized pseudostems survive. The difference with the Mekong's is they are not in a protected microclimate like my basjoos are.
Both the basjoos and Mekongs are covered the same way, straw bales, burlap/fleece and plasstic. Some heavy covering.
My basjoos have bounced back in similar situations so I'm not ruling them out, but what really bothers me about this is we have had an extremely
mild winter. And when I say mild it boarders on warm. The coldest low we have had here is -1F, but Jan was about 6 degrees above average temperature the whole month (about 14th warmest ever) and Dec was equally balmy here. If there was ever a winter for them to fly through, it was this one. So I am disappointed. I won't give up though and will see if the pseudostems still have live, and if any new one pop up in the grass! I may also try some in a better microclimate this year.
Eric