Southern Gardeners ~ gardening locally, sharing globally

It’s imperative that you know your specific gardening zone so that you’ll know what plants work well where you live. The Hardiness Zones are based on the average minimum temperatures for each zone. Many factors, such as sun, wind, snow cover or rainfall in your mini climate can also affect the minimum temperatures in your area as presented by this map.

Once you have determined the zone you live in you can use the chart to determine which varieties are best for your garden. Keep in mind that the lower number indicates the most northerly area where plants will survive the winter, and the higher number is the most southerly area where they will perform consistently. For instance, if the description gives a range of zones 4-7, it means that the plant will perform well and winter over in zones 4,5,6, and 7.

Sometimes you will see that a plant is hardy from “zones 3-8.” What this is telling you is that experience has shown that the plant does not do well in zones with temperatures higher than those that are normal in zone 8. This is based on experience - it doesn’t take long to discover that a plant native to colder areas of the north is consistently going crisp when it spends its summers in the south. It is not based on meteorological data.

Source: dutchbulbs.com

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