My main flowerbed has many large clumps of Rudbeckia fulgida 'Goldstrum' (or maybe it's R. hirta, whatever the common wildflower is) and they put on quite a show. My only complaint is that they tend to rest in between flushes of blooms - so there are long periods where I don't have any color. And the pattern of when they bloom or not bloom is totally up to the weather and is different every year. Mixed in with them is every color of Garden Phlox available and they bloom up til the first hard frost in my yard (which is usually November). I also have Obediant plant. In my bed it isn't much of a thug. I planted it last so it isn't winning the turf war with the phlox or black eyed susans. The bed endures long periods of dryness and only gets 4 hours of stong light in the late afternoon so that may be why it just sorta limps along and pops up here and there between all the tall bloomers. I grow a lot of Goldenrods and especially like 'Fireworks' which tends to bloom around mid September. Stokesias do well for me as long as they are out in front of everything else. They tend to bloom now and then rest and rebloom in Sept or Oct. I really like using baby palms (Sabal minor) as foliage accents mixed in with all the bloomers. Once they get tall they tend to dominate everything - but with my lack of strong sunlight that takes forever. You don't really see the 'fan' shape of the leaves just long pokey spikes sticking up and through the clouds of blooms. I know, most folks would want the palms front and center but I like them this way. I have two perennial mums and I don't know either of their names. One is a pale apricot, sorta wild flower looking and very stunning with the right shades of yellow or oranges around it. The other is like stubby white daisies and it blooms way late in the year - like after first frost and on til Christmas if the weather stays mild in the daytime.

Hi Island Breeze: That was a good analysis of zones. I personally belive MI to be generally 5b - 6b depending on location. I was probably quoting someone from MI if I ever said it was a zone 7 by the lakeshore. Clearly, outside of a rare microclimate MI is 6. Any part of MI that anyone said was a zone 7 along the lake, would be a low 7 at best and still require extra palm protection for a zone 6 for the rare nights that make record cold dips. Last year New York City had a low of 6* and that made that winter a 7b. However, our cold is prolonged compared to a more naturally southern 7b that breaks the cold snap must faster. Below normal temp winter outbrakes differ per location: southern outbrakes have "cold snaps 3 days or less " and us northerners have "cold spells-5, 10 even 15 days or more". Therefore zone 7b isn't 100% the same. Usually we are a 7, but have had many winters where I saw we were a 8 and one exception when we were 6b. Our northern winds are palm killers, so if we can just protect palms from wind and moisture freezing in the bud we can do well. Hope that clarified my viewpoint.

I have gardenia 'Frostproof' that was planted in 2008 and moved in 2011. It has never been protected. Last summer it produced about a dozen fragrant blooms, and so far it looks OK this year. I have several Gelsemium spemperivrens 'Margarita' and the oldest is about 8 years old. It's really nice in that it's one of the very few evergreen flowering vines for zone 6. Masses of yellow trumpet flowers in spring. I also have a winter jasmine, J. nudiflorum, which is definitely hardy in zone 6. The stems are evergreen, and blooms often appear during any brief warm spells from as early as December all through winter and a final big flush of blooms around April. During the summer and fall it leafs out with tiny green leaves. When they fall, they just sort of disappear so not messy, and as I said the stems are green all year. I also have a J. officinale, which has proven hardy for at least 10 years, but seldom blooms. It survives, but doesn't really thrive. Maybe in a very protected spot it would do better.

Actually, Gelsemium sempervirens Margarita should be hardy for you - there's a Rhode Island gardener (6b) who has posted photos of its winter blooms on the New England forum. It has survived in my garden for 4 years, but has not done well; while Margarita is hardier than most Gelsemium sempervirens, my zone 5a is too cold for it to be happy. I may try it in a pot so I can give it some winter shelter. I found that Lonicera sempervirens 'Major Wheeler' retained some of its leaves for me last winter which was an unusually warm one for central NH, though usually it drops them all in late fall/early winter. Mine still has flowers on it now, though we have been having hard freezes for 5-6 weeks, so it might well bloom in winter for you. Mine blooms from some time in June until late fall with the most blooms in early summer, but it continues to push flowers on new growth. I don't know if all Lonicera sempervirens do this, but Major Wheeler is a very long bloomer. I'd start working on removing the ivy if possible.