Even here in zone 8, I took some chances on different plants, too. For example, I read that amaryllis can be planted with even as much as half of the bulb above ground. That works fine in warm weather, but because I leave my bulbs in-ground all year, I found that planting them up to their necks helps them survive a cold snowy or icy weather, when it does sometimes happen. Another case would be that while many vinca do die back with the frost, there seem to be some plants that at least retain leaves and greenery, and grow back in the following spring. As a result, I tend to remove some plants in the following spring, not during the bleak winter months. Doing this, I have found that dianthus and snapdragons, sometimes vinca, can survive through the winters here. And most of the bulb plants can stay outside, too, such as gladiolus, amaryllis, dahlias, etc, including being in pots.

Kathy, Oh my, you are a brave woman! Please let me know how you did. I didn't have much 'junk' (aka treasures), but did bring everything in. We get such swings in temperatures here and I fear things might not look the same come the spring. Just last week we went from +11C down to -22C in 12 hours, and then back up to +3C the next day. That would amount to going from 50F to -5F for the first temperature swing! I do have some mosaic pieces which have held up for a couple of years. At this point I don't dare touch them for fear they will crumble into the smallest of pieces. :) Love the look of the totem!

You are right, it is an awfully tight spot. I am not sure why it was planted there except maybe they thought it would be "bushy" on top and stay bushy under the roof edge. It is not my favorite location. I do not know how long it has been there but I know it has been at least 5 years since I moved in and it was there then. The roots of the shrubbery in general are just knots so i doubt it would transplant well if I was able to "cut" it out of that location. That green tie is a rubbery plastic tie that keeps the top heavy shrub from almost laying down on top of the hollies below.

Fabulous! It sounds like the decomposition/microbial activity in your dump pile kept the temp high enough to stay unfrozen, even if it was covered with ice on top. That, coupled with excellent drainage, is usually enough of a microclimate for the roots of many tropical plants to survive. Putting a big pile of leaves over a plant that is not supposed to be hardy is one of the easiest "zone cheats."