The major issues of growing southern seed in northern zones are obvious....the minor issues not so much. When going the other way (northern seed in a southern locale), the issues tend to be minor but can compound into big problems. They include: - earlier break from dormancy (northern season transition tends to be distinct unlike the long cycling springs of the south). Late frosts are obvious but 1-2 weeks of 60+ followed by 0-10 degrees can be just as bad. - insufficient cold degree days to satisfy dormancy requirements - optimized for one flush, determinate, or semi-determinate growth resulting in an overall slower growth rate - less adapted to fungi and mildew (facilitated by higher temperatures, humidity, and soil temperature) I'm sure there are other issues as well. The most pathetic white spruce (Picea glauca) I've ever seen was in Lisbon, Portugal (zone 10a). I've seen better growing at the northern tree line.

I just picked a few Quercus Alba acorns last week. I'm in Pa zone 6. Alexander is right, it's that time. If you can't get them yourself, there are people who I've gotten acorns from on this forum and just payed postage. If you specify I can try to get some of them. I may be able to get Q. Rubra, Q. Alba, and Q. Prinus. The Q. Prinus is a native but aggressively spreading tree, it seeds a TON of seed at an early age. Great for wildlife, though. I may be able to get Q. Imbricaria and also Q. Phellos. Those last 2 are big maybes. One is a very old Shingle oak, it had no acorns but a couple last year. The willow oak is a maybe because it is in a park-like setting ( Mt. Macrina ) and there are tons of squirrels. I used to work at the Nursing home there, and there are tons of oaks there. I never realized all the different types that were there until lately after riding through the roads that go to the different areas there. I need to take some pictures of the trees and post them. Anyway list some oaks you want acorns from AmericanGardner and I'll try to help. My neighbor has a Sugar Maple, if they seed now I can try to collect some from his driveway.

@ostrich do you take it down and cover it for the winter? from what I read, our hard winters kill the buds so we need to take extra care to protect it. Here is what Terry suggested for our harsh climate: "Twros(z 4 Ab. Can.) Hi beal_17 ... the wisteria had gotten very large and stretched out a total of 45 ft in two directions. In the autumn of 2014, after taking the vine down for the winter and applying protection, the darn mice had gotten to it and chewed it up badly and the next spring I needed to cut it back severely. Then, as the summer progressed, I decided that I hadn't liked the way the thing was looking and thought best to cut it right off at the base in hopes it would resprout ... though, it hadn't liked me doing so and the remaining stump had rotted down to the roots. Last summer, I started anew with a large on sale plant from CT. Again, I'll stress that this vine is not hardy for the Canadian prairies, or at least I've never seen photos or heard word of anyone having it eat up and consume the side of their home. This past winter was very mild and I'm sure many vines had wintered very well with no protection whatsoever, though a normal winter will more than likely knock them right back down. What I had learnt was to keep the thing growing as late in the autumn as possible by protecting it from severe frost, planting next to a building is a good idea. When taking it down in preparation of winter, snip off all remaining foliage that has not yet fallen along with green unhardened wood. I've had good success when covering the vine with about 3 or 4 inches of dry peat moss and placing a sheet of plastic upon the area to help keep it dry. Vines are very flexible until reaching a sizable thickness and can be wrapped up around themselves, though do not force them otherwise they might snap ... and be sure the darn mice have been dealt with! :)"

Great thread, I love out-of-zone plantings! Can a windmill palm really be grown in zone 3 or 4, even with generous winter protection? That would be great, but is seems way out of zone here in the Cdn prairies. I checked out the website, and I've seen them growing on the west coast of Canada (pic included below), but that's a very mild climate, like zone 8 or thereabouts. Catalpa seem reasonably hardy for prairie gardeners looking to test the limits. I've got a small one (two feet high and several years old) growing in my increasingly shady back garden here in Edmonton. It's still very small and is sheltered from winter winds by a nearby fence, but it doesn't seem to have suffered much winterkill during the past couple of winters (but they weren't harsh winters). Ginkos are great... I had a small one but it didn't make it past it's first year in Edmonton's suburbs, yet I know of one on the University grounds downtown that has survived at least 10 years. Actually, I haven't seen that tree in about 10 years, so I really need to locate it again and see if it is still doing okay. I used to also watch a ginko growing in Drumheller, Alberta, near the Red Deer River (pic included below) -- last I saw it was small but healthy, but I haven't checked it out for the past decade so I really need to take another look. My sugar maple is about 12 feet high, growing more as a bush than a tree. It is maybe 10-12 years old, and has a fairly thick trunk. It can winterkill quite severely, but has been doing pretty well the past 5 years or more. I have a butternut tree roughly 12-15 feet tall, at least 10 years old, and it has produced nuts for the past several years. My grapes (Valiant) produced heavily this fall, and the wine from them is now bottled. Pears (Ure) are usually ignored when they ripen, but they are tasty and the tree has been growing vigorously for 15 years. Magnolia and Northern lights azalea survived several winters but seemed to get increasingly smaller each year, eventually discarded. Forsythia did great in a mild winter, but crappy otherwise, and were a pain to chop out, including all the sucker-plants. Well, that's all my info on out-of-zone plants. If I can actually grow palms here in zone 3, please let me know! Ginko growing in Drumeller, Alberta - 5 to 6 feet tall, healthy but with some winterkill of top branches Windmill palm growing in a garden on the Sunshine Coast, north of Vancouver, British Columbia.