The USDA planting zones are put out by the department of Agriculture and can  be found in map form by googling USDA Zones or looking in a general garden book. You are in a zone 5 which means you can grow a wide variety of plant material including spring flowing bulbs like daffodils and tulips due to your cold winters and summer flowering annuals like petunias and geraniums due to your warm summers. Have fun trying lots of new plants. Keep growing, Marianne Binetti