It’s M. stellata. It’s currently only about 2ft tall but is in flower and looks quite striking with a dark hedge behind. (I don’t know whether it’s ideal to be transplanting int when it’s already in flower, but it seems quite happy so far.)
I’ve read that they’re pretty slow-growing, but hopefully in time it will make a decent sized (but not excessively tall) tree outside the kitchen window. Certainly anything that flowers in early spring is very welcome!
I expect some Daffodils flowering before the end of March. I cleaned up and turned over the soil in half my raised beds last week and did some major apple tree pruning. It’s rained a since Sunday and last night it turned to freezing rain and snow. There is currently a inch layer of crusted granular ice on the ground. This does not worry me as it’s March and not May. I dug up one of my purple potatoes in the former potato bed. It was solid and not even beginning to sprout. I’ve never run across mention of storing potatoes in the ground before. I think this year I’ll leave some deep buried ones over winter and see if they are solid for next spring. Now that some of the raised beds are prepped I hope to get a small cold frame up for early lettuce production and some seedlings of hardy plants started. My cold frames are just wire fence arched under plastic, so are easy to put up once I find the plastic again. this is the year I spray as many times as necessary to get rid of the Creeping Charlie. Yes it can be killed if you’re persistent and thorough. I almost had it under control when the flood hit a few years back. It and the Plantain survived where most other stuff died. Now if only the neighbor would cut down all the trees that the flood killed it would be nice.
A couple of my neighbors have that one. It makes a lovely bush and it survives our zone 4 winter. I’m thinking of getting one with yellow flowers called Sun Spire. It is very tall and narrow and would break up the visual flow of my yard (it needs it) but the tree might not do well here. I’ve seen the zone labeled both as a 4 and a 5.
I got my first tomato seed sprout today - about six weeks til it hits the dirt.
Is that zone 4/5 as per this table (i.e., temperatures getting down to -30C)? I had no idea they were that hardy.
The zone system is a bit of a mystery to me, being British: it appears I’m in zone 8 (although as this page points out, winters here are longer, darker and wetter than in other “zone 8” parts of the world, even if they’re not actually colder. It seems quite surprising that I’m in the same zone as southern US states like Texas and Georgia!
Like a friend on a long-ago gardening list used to say, “There’s Zone 8 and then there’s Polarfleece Zone 8”. The Pacific Northwest is Zone 8, also, and that’s a lot closer to Britain’s climate than it is to Georgia’s.
It’s your proximity to the ocean and the Gulf Stream that accounts for your climate - Britain is warmer and milder than most locations at the same latitude.
Ciscoe is the Shiznit!.. just sayin… 
Woooo
I bkeieve the zone system is based primarily upon first and last frost dates, which accounts for the difference in climate between similar zones.
No it’s not.
It’s the lowest temperature each year averaged over a number of years which determines the hardiness zone.
Yes, I’ve been reading up on it and the consensus among UK gardeners seems to be that the US zone system is not really appropriate to describe the British climate - unsurprisingly, really, given that it mostly covers a continental landmass.
We don’t get very harsh frosts (it doesn’t get below about 15F in my area most winters) but on the other hand the winters are long and wet, and we don’t have the insulating snow cover that really cold places tend to get. Also, we get much less intense daylight, thanks to the low sun angle (and cloud!).
Basing it purely on minimum temperatures is, I suppose, useful for identifying plants that can stand the cold, but when it leads to (say) the Pacific coast of Washington and central Texas having the same zone, it’s clear that it’s not much of a guide to climate!
Hardiness zones are about if the cold will kill the plants. No other environmental conditions are covered by it.
HD is correct. The zoning only has to do with the cold temperatures. It doesn’t cover high temperatures, humidity, daylight length or any of that. I pretty much live in the North American version of Siberia which makes gardening quite a challenge. But we do get great maple syrup to sweeten our suffering.
I am currently in Montana until Monday afternoon - it is frigging COLD here! I am comforting myself with photos I took of our front garden before I left.
Tho I’m still feeling the 28 degree weather… [insert freezing smilie]
My flats of seeds I’m starting indoors are sprouting! Radish, chard, lettuce, kale and pea so far…
Then there’s the micro-climates within your own yard - I’m in Zone 3, but I’ll plant Zone 4 plants near the house or in sheltered locations. One of the quirks of Calgary is that cedars are hardy to Zone 1 or 2, but they don’t do well in Calgary because of our desiccating chinooks.
That’s why you experiment! Zones are guidelines, not hard and fast ‘You CANNOT plant this because it’s the wrong zone!’
People are always amazed when I tell them my Grandma grows grapes… in Edmonton. She usually gets a couple ice cream pails full, and uses them in her jellies. Heck, I was surprised when I found out she grew them!
Yup - just don’t pay a lot for experimental plants. 
Peruse Craigslist to see which plants people are dividing and selling or giving away. It’s a great way to find what will grow in your area as well as experiment on the cheap.
I can’t wait to see if my black raspberries (and a couple dozen other new plants) made it through the winter.
Well, got about 2/3 of garden soil turned over/composted/weeded/ready for planting. About 1/3 is planted - got my beets, turnips, spinach, radishes, lettuce, and onions in. The chard will be next, but I have chard in my hydroponic set up so it’s not like I’m deficient in it.
The seeds I started indoors - have about a 75% success rate, which is OK because some of the seeds were three years old and I wasn’t expecting 100% germination in them anyhow. I’ll put them out in the garden this weekend.
Then it’s a matter of whittling away at the rest of the soil that needs attention until it’s time to put in the summer plants. Oh, and weeding and thinning and all that other good stuff, too.
