Nancy I just realized you are in NY. Since semps are alpine plants, and you are in growing zone 5 they really should do very well for you outdoors year round. : )
One of our favorite nurseries is located in Eastern US, in W VA (I know it's not NY), but they have awesome plants and have much colder growing conditions than I have. Many of the members of my Cubit live in areas that are still deep under winter snow. One is in Canada. Snow is a great winter protections for semps.
