For the life of me, I can't find the recent pomegranate hardiness thread but wanted to share my results.

I had tons of dieback on poms and figs this year. The pom that came out the clear the winner in my yard was Lyubimi/Favorite which was about 3.5 feet tall no blossoms yet.

Salavatski was 7 feet tall and has had blossoms for 2 or so seasons. This was the first winter I left it and Lyubimi completely unprotected. Salavatski had done great in prior winter with minimal protection. This winter like everything else in my yard, it died back to ground. Lyubimi had at most 5% dieback and was also completely uncovered. It is now leafed out everywhere looking happy.

All others were much younger (about 1-2.5 foot tall) and it was their first winter outside so they had light to medium protection:

Died back to the ground, but growing out from ground:
Kazake, Suhr anor, Gissorski Rizyovi, Vksuyni, Saveh Paradise Nursery, Parfianka.

These young ones did not seem to make it, at least no signs yet:
Desertnyi, Al-sirin-nor (was sick before winter from transplant shock), and Austin (was sick before winter--I keep replacing it, it keeps doing poorly, it seems very sensitive to rainfall, it sheds its leaves before any others when there's torrential pours--could be the spot it is in but I don't really think so...)

The only small young one that only had 50% die back and did not die all the way to ground was Entekhabi Saveh.

I had been very impressed with Salavatski in the past so I'm not sure. To be precise, my "Salavatski" is Russian from Edible Landscaping, but I bet it is the same.

Some other cool traits about Lyubimi over Salavatski:
classic bright red color rind instead of tan pink,
seems to leaf out earlier (almost 2 weeks?) and get it's season started faster.

I think Lyubimi has more medium sized fruit however, while Salavatski can give large fruit. Otherwise I gather they are similar in terms of being hard seeded and having classic sweet-tart flavor juice, although I've never tasted Lyubimi.

I see promise for Entekhabi Saveh as well, and am rooting for the others to recover well. Not really sure why my Salavatski did not do so well when Lyubimi was able to. Perhaps it was the spot, but if anything Salavatski is closer to a wall.

Thats good news about Lyubimi. Its not on Ashtons cold hardy list so I didn't try it.

My second Kazake is finally leafing out about halfway up. I was about to chop it down at the base so its good I waited.

Scott

BTW-was your Kazake growing back from ground BEFORE it leafed out from halfway point or there was no growth from the ground yet either and it just started leafing out?

Scott