Rocky Mountain Gardening: What grows that "shouldn't", 1 by ineedacupoftea

ineedacupoftea wrote:
Your acer really is impressive. You can focus more time on it, I guess, as you grow just one or two true zone-pushers.

"Hardy" is a relative term entirely. (Usually ought to have the prefix "winter-hardy." There are so many plant that are not "summer hardy" here!) A plant is hardy in a given place if it can overwinter there at all, by my definintion. That means that a z5 plant cane become a zone z7 plant if it is unhealthy. And likewize, as zone 8 plant could be a z6 plant if it is particularly healthy. Just look at the Bananas in St. Louis, Mo (zone 5a-5b).