Good old tried and true matured perennials should be fine; nevertheless, the root size is a big factor of the survival on any hardy plant. A newly young plant without any snow/mulch protection in its first year, may suffer.

This is why I mulch any newly perennial and border line hardy perennials in the fall ;)

Sharon

I'm not sure where you're situated, but a lack of any lasting snow cover is pretty much the norm in Calgary, judging from the 10 years that I've been gardening here. I'm growing a very wide range of perennial species and testing more each year, and despite that I don't protect anything (we only use a thin permanent bark mulch for moisture retention and aesthetics), I lose very few plants...amazingly few plants, I'd say. (We're out towards the edge of the city - to the northwest, not the "subtropical" southeast! - in what remains, despite the neighborhood being 30 years old - an open, sparsely-treed, windswept area.)
Culture and conditions are important in some cases, but I think one of the main reasons for this is (as I've said countless times on here, LOL!) that zone ratings are often rough, untested guesses or assumptions when it comes to the lower end of the zone range...one of the primary assumptions being that nothing much grows north of zone 4! (I've always thought that's why they gave us the apple crate full of straggly petunias and cosmos as our GardenWeb picture, LOL! Even Minnesota gets what looks like a lush Redoute-style painting - sheesh, it ain't fair!)
Needless to say, herbaceous perennials (i.e. ones that die to the ground) have an advantage in these conditions over woody plants.
I'd also say that the bizarre Calgary climate confers some advantage too (i.e. generally milder) - I'm a little surprised that the powers that be keep reconfirming it as zone 3. I think it's a significant step, with respect to plant survival, to go from "Calgary zone 3" to zone 2.

So, what "zone 4 and up" plants are you trying?

Okay with the chance at sounding geekish.....:O I think it has more to do with the freeze thaw cycle than the lack of snow. If there has been sufficient moisture, more of the plants will survive.....it has more to do with when the freezing takes place the cells in the plants expand and contract and well...pop. If they pop....then the plant won't survive.

Thats the short version. ;-) hee hee
Sierra

Not only did they give us straggly petunias and cosmos, but the box is canted - that REALLY bothers me! LOL

It looks like the background was really badly removed and cropped crooked because there was something ugly at the bottom! Aaagh!

Sometimes I am in awe that anything grows in Calgary - your weather is just so unstable. It may be cold but at least in Winnipeg a plant knows what season it is!

Wow, maybe more things have a chance then I first thought! We are in Edmonton in the West End area. Definately a general lack of moisture in this area but I've done some hand watering on some perennials, so fingers crossed here.

I've got a belamcanda chinensis, apparently "rated" Zone 5, and some Digitalis, Chives, Delphinium "Pacific Giants", Shepherd's Scabiosa all "rated" Zone 4 and all just put in last spring. Shasta Daisies "Alaska" were also "rated" Zone 4 but they've been growing for 2-3 years now!

I've also got some Heuchera sanguinea, Hollyhocks that were Winter Sown last year so this makes it there second winter?

Gosh that sounds pretty conservative for most of those... especially delphiniums and chives. I have NEVER heard of anyone losing those in a zone 2 winter! Hollyhocks are pretty tough too... I have not purposely grown one in 6 years at my house, but one or two show up every year from the previous owners' plantings. And this is without the chance to self-seed... biennial my butt. Hollyhocks grow BIG roots!

I think you will be seeing your flowery friends again. At least most of them.

Northspruce is right...the plants you listed should all be shoo-ins, with the possible exception of Belamcanda chinensis - the only one of your plants that I would consider at all "experimental". (However, I've wintered this one successfully, as have many other people around here, and I believe, on this forum.)
So, as I'd guessed, it's mainly a case of pessimistic zone ratings!
By the way, we also lived and gardened in Edmonton for 4 years...with the exception of generally better snow cover, I didn't really find significant differences from here.

Phew! I'm really glad to hear this. Most springs I am amazed how plants can come back after a harsh winter! Can you tell I'm still pretty new around here? LOL

I am reading the Winter Buletin from the Landscape Plant Development center. It has an article written by Dr. Harold Pellet, well known down in these parts in his field. While most of the information presented is not knew to me, there is an interesting tidbit that is quite apropos here: while acclimation to cold temperature might be better, deeper and earlier with northern sources of plant materials, deaclimation is generally quicker. This means they generally break dormancy faster, and winter thaws could be more detrimental. Not exactly what we want to hear, especially in fickle weather areas. But it is something to think about. Unfortunately, he did not expound on subject. Hopefully, I'll run in to him next month and ask him about it.

Rick

If Dr. Pellet is interested in studying winter thaws, I couldn't think of a better place to do it than in Calgary, LOL! Chinook conditions can cause a temperature change from -20 C to +20 C in 24 hours...and this has happened. Pretty amazing! Large temperature differences combined with generally poor snow cover would mean that the shallow ground layer is subject to many freezes and thaws throughout any average winter...

I haven't read Dr. Pellet's work, but just from the summarizing statement above (which I realize is a generalization of a very complex subject), it would seem that one should conclude therefore that not much should survive here...but, well, that doesn't really seem to be the case...

I guess a somewhat similar climate (though generally milder)would occur in the US along the Rockies front - e.g. Denver. I haven't heard of any particular inability to winter plants there...more the opposite, really, with many interesting introductions coming from that area.

So, I don't really know what to make of these findings...I sort of wonder if plants have some resources to draw on for hardiness that are perhaps even more difficult to quantify? Or am I way off base, LOL??

The subject really intrigues me also. The general statement I gave is all that was said in that article. Since it was written for the general membership with plant education from none to Doctorate, I suspect he purposely left the statement hang, thereby escaping a long and involved explanation.

But the statement does support in a round-about way, another curious finding about seed dormancy and stratification: that it is not unusual to discover that seed from northerly ranges of a species may actually require less cold stratification than seed from southerly ranges.

This is because the chemical processes that occur during stratification take place above freezing, 35-41F(1.7-5C)or somewhere near there. While a more southerly plant form may experience these temps frequently and for longer periods throughout the winter, more northerly plants may be exposed to these temps only before their deep freeze and after. Therefore, the former strain would need to stay dormant through a longer period of meaningful stratification than the latter.

Perhaps the same reasoning is valid with adult materials.

Rick