Monday, January 30, 2012

New zone map unveiled

The USDA has unveiled it's new hardiness zone map, and it's now interactive!  No more staring at a tiny map and guessing, especially when you are near the border between 2 zones.  Enter your zip-code and voila!  You can also zoom in.  Nice and handy.  And based on 30 year data the trend is slightly warmer zones, which I agree with.
Posted by Nick Ternes at 11:46 AM
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5 comments:

  1. LarryJanuary 30, 2012 at 4:28 PM

    Thanks for posting this... all my suspicions have been confirmed and now that I am officially zone 5a, I can start buying and fretting over 6a plants!!
    Larry

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  2. Nick TernesJanuary 30, 2012 at 10:42 PM

    Definitely. I'm sure you can find a 6a microclimate in the yard easily enough. Proper soil prep and winter mulch will go a long way to overwintering plants.

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  3. scottweberpdxJanuary 31, 2012 at 10:38 PM

    I've been looking at that map and wondering what it really means all weekend! Looks like, due to a bit of heat-island effect, I'm actually 9a now...which is so weird! I can't help but feel a little guilt...I'm the only Portlander I know who doesn't even come close to pushing the zonal boundaries (mostly 8b around town). I doubt I have anything planted over zone 7! Is there such a thing as inverse zonal-denial? Either way...I think I have a little Zonal Guilt ;-)

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  4. Nick TernesFebruary 1, 2012 at 12:39 AM

    Scott, you have such a HUGE plant pallet to choose from for Portland that you really don't need to feel guilty about not pushing boundaries. That and I don't think anyone cares, your gardens are beautiful! Although you're now z9a, there are a number of really great plants that won't grow there because the climate is TOO mild. You just don't get warm enough in summer for some of them.

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  5. LarryFebruary 1, 2012 at 3:19 AM

    I'm wondering if this might be the fellow whose list I saw some years ago regarding Magnolia acuminatas...
    http://www.savorwisconsin.com/AllListings/detail.asp?recordid=1031&table=producer

    Larry

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