By planting annuals, perennials, grasses, shrubs, and trees in the ground, they must be able to survive the winter in their area. To understand plant strength, double check the plant area information and compare it to your location. For this information, refer to the local plant area map. At Plant Addicts we do our best to list the most accurate data on each plant page.
So be sure to see where a plant can grow before ordering. You can change the patterns a bit by planting in more protected areas or if you live in a microclimate. However, we recommend using plant growing areas as a guide when deciding what to plant outdoors. Typically, a plant tag will have a range of numbers, for example, Zones 6 to 9 instead of a single number.
When choosing plants for a garden or landscape, avoid selecting plants that are only marginally hardy for your region; that's when you'll see winter damage, poor growth, and reduced flowering. Cold season plants will have a very small window in this area, and plants should be heat tolerant. However, some of the changes in zones are the result of new and more sophisticated methods for mapping zones between weather stations. Raised beds and cool frames can help keep the soil warm and can be a good solution for the most sensitive plants in Zone 5.Understanding the USDA planting areas where you live can mean the difference between success and failure in your garden.
Planting zones are most useful for gardeners growing perennials, as perennials are meant to live beyond a single growing season. Now that you have used this page to find your hardiness zone, when you are buying plants, check the plant label and a zone range will almost always appear in the list. To help develop the new map, the USDA and OSU requested that horticulture and climate experts review the areas of their geographical area, and the test versions of the new map were revised based on their expert feedback. That's why there's another map, the American Horticultural Society's heat zone map, which addresses this same problem, namely, plant heat tolerance and rates plants according to their ability to withstand excessive heat.
For example, if you're on the northern boundary of USDA Zone 6, you can probably grow several Zone 5 resistant plants. The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive in a location. Depending on where you live and the contributing factors, you may be working with microclimates around your garden. Zone 6 reaches a perfect medium where it's still cold enough for a lot of cold-weather vegetables, but it's still warm enough for things like melons.
For example, you might enjoy some petunias in your pots this summer, and they grow in zone 10-11, but you're in zone 7a.
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