Best to grow them in containers that can be moved to winter protection. These suffer foliar damage even in zone 7 winters and I doubt will even prove to be root hardy for you in zone 5. As they are evergreen, somewhere that provides mild enough temps (freezing or slightly above - avoid too much warmth) and sufficient light is ideal. Insufficient light, even in winter, will create a leggy habit and poor color.

As to the maples, deciduous plants tend to have a much greater range of hardiness than do broadleaved evergreens. And I'd bet those zone 3 Japanese maples are in containers as well :-)

The Japanese red Maples are not grown in pots, they are in the ground and these people up north go through alot to get these trees through the winter including building mini green houses around them or literally boxing them up in cardboard and filling it with leaves! These people are inspiring and I read it all on this site so do a search under maples in zone 2 and read for your self...it just might make you want to try and grow somehting out of your zone too!

Here is what I am thinking...I live on the boarder between zone 5 and zone 6. I usually only get plants that are hardy to zone 5 but these viburnum are going to be a challange. So what I am going to do is this. Over winter these shrubs in an unheated basement with lights. On nice days (over 32 degrees) I will bring them out for fresh air and sunshine and plant them in the spring on a hillside. I will ammend the soil and monitor their water. Basicaly give them the perfect environment in which to grow. I will also root several cuttings from them to have in case my experiment fails so I will still have this plant to grow in containers. Then in the winter I will place bales of pine straw around them (I will use the straw as mulch in the spring). Then on the milder days that is all that I will do. On the days that the tempertaure drops below freezing I will place an old window across the top of the straw bales to allow the light in but keep the cold out, create a sort of cold frame. We will monitor the temperature inside when the glass is on to make sure that it doesn't get to hot inside, perhaps keep one side of the glass lifted slightly to allow exces heat to escape. There really is only about a month at the most of really cold weather and that is usually in spurts of a week here and a week there. Otherwise it isn't that bad where we live (back in the woods). I know that this sounds like alot but these stay relatively small so I think that it is possible and besides what else do we have to do in the winter except wait for spring?

Thanks for your input and I will let everyone know how successful (or unsuccessful I am in the spring of 2008!)

Vicki