Thanks, Alison. A two inch bloom is on the cusp of a "miniature". Many miniatures grow a lot larger than the two foot upper range, but might be encouraged to remain smaller because of your climate. You could be looking at landscape or ground cover or miniature, even mini flora types to get the sort of plant you seek. Perhaps the landscape and ground cover classifications would provide potentially healthier, hardier types for your situation. The other classifications have slightly different selection criteria, skewed more toward the flower than care free plant. Those selected for landscape use would tend to have less emphasis placed on the individual flower and more on the more maintenance free plant type. Good luck! Kim

There are a few native outposts of Tsuga canadensis growing in zone 3 Minnesota. I have wondered if their genetics would really be different from the northwestern species front in Wisconsin, and have conclude that the probability is low. This, mainly because the species has only been within reach of Minnesota for only a thousand years or so, hardly long enough for differentiation to occur. Still, a Wisconsin seed source is certainly better than one from Tennessee, Pennsylvania, or even Ontario. It's not only the cold temperature that is in consideration, but also the dry winter winds. I am not sure what Manitoba is like, but Minnesota is quite sunny in winter compared to more easterly states. Northern ones [varieties] tend to break bud early to take greatest advantage of short summers, while more southern ones live in a habitat that has more chaotic spring weather, and so are a bit more cautious. That is exactly right (in general). Kudos to you on your research! Likewise, seed dormancy broken by cold stratification is usually shorter for species native to extreme cold climates where soils freeze deeply. Rick

Just might do that! lol I may later on do more in the way of 'islands' around some of the trees and add something or other under them. Something to think about next winter. I'm leaving the center of the yard open, so when the grand kids come we can throw foot ball etc. As viewed from the deck almost directly SSE. The wife decided we should leave things so we can 'drive through' past the house in to the front yard for furniture/appliance moving etc. Front yard not so big but I had to move the lily station because after we added the bb hoop, we couldn't drive around that side of the house without running them over. You can see in the grass where it used to be. It was so root bound it hardly bloomed anyways. I'm standing in the neighbors driveway to take this pic. My yard ends several feet this side of the green ash in front of me. All this and my deer farming in the countryhas been quite enough for this year. I just finished my third week of full retirement. Well at least I got everything I wanted done for this year. Sometimes our Autumns can be quite wet so not much gets done.

"(driving sedately, getting passed on both sides by locals...)" Yeah it would be interesting to do some kind of scientific survey/testing of this, but the windy mountain roads of northern California must be some of the fastest and presumably most dangerous such roads in the country. In 2016, coming back from Mendocino to the Bay Area, I was going at a good clip on a curvy road...definitely at the speed limit or slightly above...and a DELIVERY VAN was still trying to pass me ON A DOUBLE LINE! Insane! Of course, I pulled over for him as soon as it was possible. It's actually interesting to compare how various parts of the country drive...I noticed this on my trip across the country in 2011. They are slow and sedate in the PNW. There was a lot of traffic in the Bay Area, so it's hard to make a conclusive statement...but they are certainly faster than the PNW. Faster the further away from the central urban areas. Same with SoCal...if there's an opening in the traffic, they move along. The road from LA to Vegas is going pretty fast. The SW has some high speed limits, which is good because there's a lot of ground to cover. I think I-10 in Texas had the highest speed limits on my trip. The southeast is, like the PNW, slow. Remarkably, the great state of Virginia had more speed traps than the ENTIRE rest of the drive from Seattle, combined! Gotta catch them yankees headed north while you can LOL. The NYC metro, NJ & Philly, and coastal New England are fast and aggressive of course. The typical Portland driver must have a nervous breakdown the first time they take the New Jersey turnpike. (a Portandia episode that never was) Interior New England is slower and more laid back. Aussie drivers are generally laid back - how could they be anything else, really - and only go a little over the speed limit. NSW has a reputation for more speed enforcement and I only saw obvious speed traps there. (maybe the ones in Victoria are less obvious) At this point, another divarication on this thread can't matter, right?