A dozen or more years ago we planted a Japanese maple in our backyard.  We knew it wasn't hardy to our environmental weather-zone.  So it was planted very close to the house in a sheltered place where we felt it would have a chance to survive our harsh winter weather conditions.  At first we used to cover it every winter with a white blanket meant for that purpose.  We no longer do.

There was some die-back, some of it serious.  Eventually the tree put out an entirely new trunk, and it is that main trunk that now survives, not the original.  And since then the tree has managed to thrive.  It is slow-growing, small in stature as all such hybrid Japanese maples are, and we cannot truly appreciate it because of where it is located, half-hidden by an octagonal garden shed, close beside it.

And then, a nearby nursery attached to a big-box store advertised Japanese maples hardened to our zone, on sale for a fraction of the price they usually command.  We thought we were through with planting large perennials, but it's an exercise the avid gardener never stops at; the garden demonstrates that one can always shoe-horn something else desirable into it.

And so it was with this lovely little Japanese maple.  A place was found for it in our backyard, where it will be visible as it continues to grow, and never will it be under-appreciated.