Do the newly designated zone microclimates have you feeling extra hardy this year? Are you feeling brazen enough to try out a pink weeping cherry tree or 'Graham Thomas' shrub rose like the one at right?

The new USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map that came out earlier this year included a few Zone 5 microclimates in seven ZIP codes in Minneapolis, Richfield and Bloomington. You can check here to see if you're in one: www.startribune.com/newsgraphics/138347954.html (it can take a few moments for the map to appear).

But it certainly begs the question: How is weather supposed to know your ZIP code? I realize they had to draw the lines somewhere, but obviously my neighbor's weather isn't that much different from my own. I'm so close to one of the microclimates I could throw a dirt clod at it, if it wasn't antisocial behavior and a waste of soil. But while two houses down is in a mini Zone 5, I'm still officially stuck in Zone 4.

It's not as if the new maps really changed the weather and what you can grow. I've long suspected our little urban heat bubble of a back yard was nearly Zone 5, and every once in a while I've tried out some Zone 5 plants. I'm not sure I've had any better or worse success rate with those than zone hardy plants, since there are so many variables that contribute to a plant's survival. A Zone 5 rose made it through a few winters, only to succumb to some sort of pest I couldn't best.

And I still love finding a new-to-me plant that claims it's hardy to Zone 3; nothing like a little insurance between me and not getting around to careful winter mulching.

What out-of-zone plants have you tried, and how did they work out for you? Are you in one of the newly described microclimates, and if so, will you be venturing into any Zone 5 exotics? I've got my eye on a pretty pink 'Toyo-Nishiki' flowering quince.

DML - David Austin Roses, Star Tribune

Photo credit: David Austin Roses