It is mostly too cold for rhododendrons and
fancy flowering trees.

By that I meant native rhododendrons. With reasonable care, hybrid
rhododendrons and flowering crabapples abound. We can grow flowering dogwoods &
redbud, but they are rarely found in the wild.

Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Yogi Berra