Your grapes look amazing! What zone is Peace River at?

2b. That's one 'Valiant' vine; it smothered a 'Beta' last year. There's a lonely 'Frontenac' sprout at the far right, but it looks like its days are numbered as the 'Valiant' eats my house. It's just loaded with blossoms right now.

Do you do anything to prepare some of the borderline zoned plants for the winter?

No, it's strictly 'survival-of-the-fittest' in my yard. The borderline plants (hackberries, not pictured and maple) haven't had any dieback, and the true zone exotics (skipping at least two zones, such as aralia spinosa (zone 5), virgilia (zone 6), and catalpa (zone 4)), just may be hardy individuals. I probably could have kept some others (black locust; mulberry; hardy bamboo) alive with special winter preparations, as all survived at least one winter, but that wouldn't have been in keeping with the spirit of the experiment. I'm really interested in determening hardiness for standard cultivation techniques.

I think I remember reading that Lois Hole considered hackberry hardy to zone 3. I believe the Calgary Zoo has one that's been around for quite a while.

Northern hackberry (c. occidentalis) certainly seems to be hardy to zone 2b. It's taken off like a weed and is likely to do very well in the future, although I put it in a terrible spot.

My Georgia (or dwarf) hackberry is rated as zone 5, but has hung in for four winters. It's a shrimp of a shrub and doesn't get enough sun, but I think that's natural for it. I'm impressed with its tenacity.

davidcalgary29pr, might you update with regard to your Aralia spinosa? Is it doing well? Has it spread? Thanks.

It’s just leafing out now, as you can see. It’s sprouted multiple suckers and grows about 10 cm a year. It hasn’t flowered yet, but I’m hoping for blooms in the next year or two.

It's a slow-growing clumping bush so I don't think that there's much risk of it taking over anything. I understand that it grows as an understory bush in its native habitat (mine is growing underneath and to the side of a Showy Mountain Ash), so you might need to give it some partial shade in the beginning.

All suckering has sprouted from the base of the plant (and not distantly from it).

Thanks for all the information, davidcalgary29pr!

"Devil's walkingstick (aralia spinosa)"

I thought - that's not zone denial - it's growing around my septic tank outflow. Then I look it up and your plant is from the eastern US. Mine is usually called devil's club and thrives in even Zone 1. Different beast.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_club

Devil’s club is a really interesting plant, though! I thought briefly about planting one, but you know, hands. And children. And pets...

The A. Spinosa was a really lucky find for me. I’ve never seen another for sale here, and it’s done really well. I’d like to try Zanthoxylum clava-herculis (Hercules’ Club) to give it some company, but the Zone 2 thingy would probably make that idea a non-starter.

Have you done a 2018 update, David?

I’m trying, but Houzz is eating my new thread! (Frowny face)

Okay...not sure what happened to my threads, so I’ll update here. Above: half a hackberry. Who said this was hardy to 2b??? Note the ‘tender’ apricot next to it, which of course made it through the cold just fine. Sigh..,

hardiness rating: 6(?). Some winterkill in 2b.

hardiness zone:4 but no winterkill in 2b