Just from my experience... I had 2 that I planted in spring 2012... both didn't make it through the winter last year. The ones I purchased said they were hardy till zone 6... but I find that hard to believe. It may come down to the micro climate... plus mine was planted in an exposed open location.

But you won't know till you try... what may work in my location may not work in your location and vise versa. Keep them well mulched and hope the there first winter is a mild one =)

Thanks Rick. Thats deflating. I was looking for something unique in a reasonable size, to stand out from the cookie cutter confers I see planted everywhere else. I didn't want to go the mail order route because of their size, especially with the slower growing trees. Keeping my fingers crossed

'Aurea' Himalayan cedar produces a big tree anyway - nothing reasonable about the size at all, unless you live at Downton Abbey. Here in western USDA 8 we have them more than 80' tall. However, smaller named forms with yellow foliage are available.

People - including apparently, plenty in the trade - routinely don't understand the USDA zones and rate plants too hardy. Zone 6 is -10 to 0F and the plant dies at 0 so it's rated Zone 6 - and so on. Nevermind that -10 to 0 is the AVERAGE for zone 6, so if a plant dies at the top of that range it's not going to last in Zone 6. And a plant should be rated hardy to the last zone it doesn't freeze in anyway, not to the first zone where it starts to fail - or fails completely.

The USDA web page on the hardiness zones says to plant stuff rated one zone colder than your zone.

Bboy, to clarify, I meant size at planting. The tree is in the middle of a circular bed with inkberries around it. A mail order specimen would take too long to stand out from the other plantings. At least I didn't have to break the bank and hopefully it makes it.