I live in zone 6B, in southeastern Ohio. The terrain is hilly, and the soil is clay, but we have a lot of forest. My town is in a river valley, and my house is basically in the wider flood zone, meaning the soil in my yard is clay with a top layer of humus, formed by cycles of silt and decaying plant material. So my zone 6B is accommodating to plants that are rated hardy to zone 7. If you live in a flat, sandy, and windy 6B, you might not have much margin for zone pushing. (Zone pushing is planting a non-hardy variety for your zone and either putting it to the test, to see if it can survive a zone up, or building it a microclimate.) I wanted to try this with a Loropetalum for two reasons. Because the foliage is beautiful, and because deer don’t like them. I chose Purple Pixie Dwarf Weeping Loropetalum because it sits low to the ground—a six foot variety could not be protected from winter wind. I sited my Purple Pixie, as you can see above, on a slight elevation with a log protecting the roots. That gives it both the drainage and moisture it wants. It’s in full sun, and will get winds, blowing mostly from the southwest, but I put three Anna’s Magic Ball arborvitae in front of it. I have them protected under cloches that also should break up the wind, and because they’re slow-growing, they may be able to stay protected for a couple of years, protecting the Loropetalum in the process. I have a Brilliantina Abelia planted behind. To the left is a stand of Achillea. It’s still experimental, and I won’t know until next spring whether my Purple Pixie has survived, but if it can, it’ll be a lovely and deer-resistant shrub along my path.