Yep!!!

Annette

I always try to get plants that are hardy for my zone, because for me, losing a plant is like like losing a family member. But I will say, that there is one plant that I am extremly proud for having 'pushed the zone' on, my Stachys coccinea 'Hidalgo', or Seven-up plant. It grows in zones 7-9, but I planted it in mostly gravel inbetween my house and my neighbors and it came back great this spring! I love its scent!
CMK

Chris, I too feel like I lost a family member when my questionable zone plants pass. I am in zone 5 but on a mountain so it is probably zone 5b. I have lost plants that are supposed to be hardy to 5 way too many times. Can't remember now how many butterfly bushes and so called hardy roses I have lost. Now if a plant is new to me I make sure it is hardy to zone 4 for a bit of padding.

Not in most cases. I don't like plants dying on me. AT. ALL.

But I love Mexican Bush Sage which is winter tender here. Some years it does not come back. I've learned to accept that I'll be buying a MBS every couple of years. I love it too much to give it up completely.

Here is a link that might be useful: Creative Soul

I push for tender tropicals. Last year my Daturas came back. This year there's not a sign of them, so I'm not having Daturas this year, except for a seed that volunteered in a pot with something else.

What I don't push is for cooler zones, or for plants that grow in cool summers. The zone 8 PNW folk have many plants that I'm envious of but know they will not survive cooking in our summers.
Neither will peonies bloom here even if I emptied the icemaker on them daily.

I chilled tulips for years, with mixed results. Finally I realized there were other plants that would bloom for longer periods of time to good effect and quit knocking myself (and my budget) out.

BTW, Happy, little pieces of Mexican Bush Sage will root and stay happy over the winter in a sunny window. I love it too.
The best chance for return in-ground is a plant that is started early in the spring and has good size on it when cold weather comes.
Nell

Yes!!! I've been getting away with zone 6 plants for the past 5 years. I've been waiting for that luck to run out, but so far we've been fine.

I am so NOT a zone pusher that I actually shunned planting anything that required digging in the fall for winter storage... until this year. This is the first year I've ever planted Glads, Cannas, and a few other tender plants...

I'm zone 5, and I always try to buy plants, or grow plants from seed, that are hardy to zone 4 or 3!

Zone pusher? Nope, not me! I hate losing plants! It's depressing and expensive!

Not at all! I have a hard enough time keeping everything alive that is supposed to like it here, although I do have a strange and powerful urge to grow a banana tree beside my rear deck. So far I've resisted.

Hmmmm, it just occurred to me that having a deck on my house is not really very cottagey and might cause me to lose face in this group. Let's just pretend that I said sun porch, instead of deck, OK?

ThinMan

It's hard to push the zone when you're as cold as we are. I've lost some plants rated zone 3 and 4. If we have a bitterly cold winter (as we did a few years ago) with little snow cover, I lost quite a few plants. I try to actually plant for one zone lower than mine. That way if the winters are harsh those plants should withstand it.

Tracy

You gardeners made me smile as I read this thread. Well now lets see.....come on a walk through the garden center with me. Have a close look now.....how many tags say zone 2 on them? Oh darn, I can't grow anything here. :( I may as well not even bother, after all a plant might die if I try to grown it here. Oh well guess I won't be having a garden, no point right?

Welllllllllll.......Wait a minute. That is not the case at all. Hey ya, I lose a few plants every spring.....so what. Did you know that most of these plants haven't even been tested in zone 2? :O Well......I test them. lol There are very few things that are babied, winter protected or mulched. They go or they don't. You have to try them to find out for yourself. Sometimes plants are lost not because of the zone, but for other reasons, watering, fertilizing, bugs, or even the soil they are planted in.

Tracy, Its not usually the cold that will kill a plant. Its the freeze thaw that will kill the plant. Without snow cover to protect the plant the freeze thaw causes the cells to expand and contract....and this usually makes them burst, killing the plant. This is also a problem in early spring when the snow melts. For example, When I grow foxglove, every spring it comes out from under the snow, nice and green....but then it has no protection and I lose many at this point, they turn black and die. With a little luck, I get a few that stay green and flower for me.

Ah ha, my uhhhhh out of zone plant order just arrived....I guess I will go plant it up. :)

Sierra

Tracy I am with you...Unless a plant has already done well in my garden, I will go zones lower just to have some padding.

msscarlet, Are you suggesting that I look for zone 1 or zone 0 plants? Just curious. How many plants do you think I would find? Or would you not garden at all, without that padding?

Have you visited the Far North Garden Forum on here? Go have a look in their Gallery. Those Gals are all zone pushers......and let me tell you, they all have gorgeous gardens. No zone padding there.

My point here folks is if you don't try you will never know. Zones are just guidelines...not set in stone rules. Have fun, be adventurous, you just never know.

Right now one of the gardens that I work at, is having me remove 3 hardy rose bushes.....to put in gardenias. Yes folks, this is a zone 3 garden. :O

Sierra

I was a zone-pusher in my youth, but no longer. Now, I'm all about frugality in both cost and effort. The last thing I zone-pushed was the Mexican Bush Sage, matter of fact!

I read a blurb recently about a Las Vegas gardener who spreads bags of ice in the drip line of her lilacs to give them the winter chill most need to bloom well. How's that for zone-pushing?!?

I can understand both points of view on this topic, myself as I've said before I'm a zone pusher, I think for me it's the challenge more so than the look what I can grow thing. Some plants I have to winter in the greenhouse, somethings if I can protect them through a couple of winters seem to adapt. Sure I have a lot of failures but it sure is nice while I have them. A lot of plants have come and gone through my hands some make it into the garden some don't, I'm always trying something new, even the unique way it takes to germinate some seeds is fascinating to me. So whether you push zones or not it comes down to what each of us enjoy doing in our gardens.

Annette

Of course! I'm zone 4b so doesn't that really mean zone 5 for sure?

Definitely a zone pusher. Push zone 7 in the garden on occasion - sage, cannas, and glads. Always suprised when the glads overwinter. Had an amaryllis (xmas) overwinter in a very very raised bed.