Thanks for all your interesting replies, I do live in a very cold area, I am quite high up so night temperatures drop rapidly on clear nights the coldest this winter was -21c. It is the species grandiflora I have, it is still very small so I can easly move it and I will try it against the house wall, I assume it will not be grow very large in this climate. Do they have deep tap roots or are they surface rooted? I had one in my garden when I lived in East Sussex, so when I moved to mid-Wales, I thought I would like one again, this was before I realised how cold is was here! Are there any very hardy cultivars that would grow freestanding to below -20c? or is there no point is trying to grow this plant here.