Changed USDA zone map
enlarge this imageThe USDA's weather service released a revised hardiness zone map, and it's caused quite a stir. Will it matter that your neighborhood is now regarded as zone 6, when you learned it as zone 5? Probably not. (More, in discussion on the Forum.) It will affect publications, however. Pay attention as you use catalogs and books. Check which zone map the author used, then select plants from that publication for the zone it assigns to your area.
Zoning out about warming up?
About the new USDA zone maps, and what difference it might make
if our garden's zone rating changes: Let's talk about that
at the Forum, okay?
Here's the new map where you can download a copy or zoom
in on your zip code.. Here's an explanation of the recent changes,
Above: It doesn't matter what book you use or what zone
number is assigned to an area. The plants will do as they see fit.
So in a mild winter daffodils had not only broken ground on January
27 in zone 6 (at the Indianapolis Museum of Art) but were blooming.
Rarely do daffodil flowers combine with witchhazel in that
zone!
If normal winter cold moves in, these daffs will probably
lose flowers, flower stems and leaves to a freeze. That won't kill
the bulb, however!