Dear "Kid": I cannot tell where you are in Canada but here (just outside Ottawa) none of the plants you mention needs winter protection. We are Zone 4B or 5a - we just had our first light frost this week. Not a deep frost but enough to finish off the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and zucchinis.

I live on the south shore of Montreal (no frost yet!) part of the st-lawrence river valley! I believe I'm in zone 4.

So, I punched in Russian Sage Cutback, hit "enter" and VOILA!
More than I wanted to know!
So, I filled out the form, hit "enter" again, and here I am.
My main interest is developing and maintaining a home perennial garden in the Fingerlakes/Southern Tier area of New York.
The first thing I need to learn is how to spell perenniel.

gpkid,

I have Philadelphus 'snowbelle': 'she' and 'Miss Kim' bloom well on branches that winter over here in Z4 N. NH.

Your asters should be fine,also.
What I do for some perennials that are Z5...wait until the ground freezes-then place a lot pine boughs on top of the plant to keep the ground frozen.

In late April I take the boughs off.

call me cruel to plants, but I guess you culd call me a minimalist, in that, if I ned to give a plant special care for overwintering, then that plant likely wil not survive and will be replaced by some other plant next year!

Other than periodic amending of the soil, top dressing with compost or some other mulch, and occasional watering of the garden in it's 1styear, I do little maintenance (except weeding, that is) and even as far as weeding gos, I'm going to try soil solarization and see if that helps eliminate some of the weeds in new beds this year. (I plant most of my flower beds in the fall, so solarization during the summer might be a viable option for me...fingers crossed)

Mark-