When you get around to spending your hard earned cash, it make sense to look at a plant hardiness map and see where you're located. If you've in Zone 3 and buy a tropical Zone 8 plant, it's a sure bet it won't be alive in your garden next year.

The USDA keep adjusting the zones and you'll see different maps depending upon when they were created. The map put out by the USDA in 1990 creates zones into "a" and "b" categories.

Here's the link to the current plant hardiness zones CLICK HERE

The unoffical 2003 new map does away with those and creates four new zones for a total of fifteen

One trick I've figured out is to plant "marginally hardy" plants close to the house and foundation. The basement heat seems to protect some plants from dying off.

Here's a website which explains the changes.
http://ahs.org/publications/usda_hardiness_zone_map.htm

Here's a link to the new map:
http://www.ahs.org/pdfs/USDA_Map_3.03.pdf

Pay attention now, when you're shopping, and it will save you lots of time and money later on.

I'm happy because my area has been upgraded from zone 6a to Zone 7. Global warming does have it's benefits.