I am glad you are having a nice April. It is not that way everywhere. They are extending the skiing season in the west because of record late snowfalls. And snow is in the forecast here tomorrow.

I find the zone ratings are already optimistic. I would not be in a hurry to change the maps because of a few mild winters in a few places.

Regards,

Charles

must have stopped at the border.

I know from having posted on this subject before that a lot of people don't believe in Climate Change. Or cite contrary evidence. But the point with CC is not that every area will get warmer but that weather patterns are disrupted. So we find 20's in Northern CA and 80's here in Upstate NY in April. And this morning a return to below freezing this morning.

April is normally much cooler but also generally drizzly or rainy but never 10 days of clear blue with temps in the upper 70's.

Although the past winter and the previous one were milder I wouldn't count on moving the zone just yet as weather has become unpredictable, at least the longer term weather.

I don't know how ANYONE could not see that our weather patterns have been disrupted. I remember worrying about just that several decades ago when I saw how much we are polluting the air. You simply can't dump that much garbage into an ecosystem and not change it in some way. We treat this planet as if when we pollute it completely we can up and move elsewhere. :(

I think that here in CT we are being pushed into zone 7 for the most part and then in the winter we will sometimes get cold snaps and storms that will really drop the temps stressing us and our gardens. I wonder if in a few decades plants will be bred more to withstand extremes and not just be labled for a certain zone.

For certain things are changing and I don't think its for the better.

Yes, I heard that because of the warmth the hardiness is changing.
PS, don't get Jim of NY started on climate change.

Carla

janegael, the zone has nothing to do with how hot the summers are. It's a cold hardiness zone, meaning the lowest temperatures that a zone gets. If you have plants that can't survive that temperature, they will not last the winter. So it's only good for that part of growing.

I was moved from zone 7 to zone 8, but I wouldn't dare growing anything I wanted to keep that can't survive zone 7 winter temps. If I did, I would have lost some stuff this winter.

The summer temps and strength of sunlight also determine what plants will do well in your yard and where to place them. For instance, you can probably grow stuff in full sun that would fry here. So it's more complicated than these cold hardiness zones.

As far as climate change, yes it's been going on for millions of years. And we just had our coldest spring in decades. Go figure.

That has been out for a while. Our area moved from 7b to 8 which is about right. That mean lowest temp between 10 and 15. We actually got to 18 one night last winter and the rest were all at least 5 degreees warmer, usually more.

Everything here is blooming early because of it. I have been getting blooms for over a month now and the spring flush will open any day now.

Gardening books and catalogs use the USDA map. This Arbor Day Foundation map may cause confusion. I've read that a new USDA map is due to come out.

I don't know wether to call it 'global warming'. Well I guess it doesn't get as cold in winter as it used to. Now when it reaches -20 Celcius (-4F) it is a big event here. Summers are still stinking hot.
Climate change is definitley the better term as it has certainly done THAT. And judging from this spring, not necessarily for the better. On the radio yesterday they were saying that the regions's soft fruit crops may be as much as 50% lost. So between that and the Pine Beetle killing off the forests...yeah it's a bit of a pickle here.

If we could change the weather, we could make rain. =)

I'm willing to admit that our pollution is causing the weather patterns to 'change'. I'm willing to shut off my car when I'm waiting at a drive thru restaurant. I'm willing to plant more trees and plants (and roses :) to try and help with the Carbon dioxide... I'm not willing to plant less hardy plants thinking that they will be fine because it hasn't been that cold here in the past 5 years...

my weather peeve is a lack of weather, or elements that promote growth. cold dry cloudy and windy are NOT a plant's favorite conditions and that is where we are currently at. The forest fire fighters are already getting concerned about this year if this dryness persists.

We also shouldn't make the mistake of thinking the weather conditions we grew up with were meant to be permanent. The earth is in constant change and has been forever. There are things like sun spot activity that have a greater effect on our weather than anything we can do. We all see the power of the sun, it rules our seasons and makes our plants grow.

I'm with deco-bug. Before I go out and invest money in zone 8 plants, I'd have to see a few years with no temps below 10 degrees. We had a 5 degree day a few years ago. And as most of you know, it only takes 1 day of that to kill off plants. People down here still talk about 1983 when it got very cold and people lost gardenias that are hardy to zone 7. So beware!

The original article I read that wasn't on the one I posted said that the Arbor Society is pushing to have two numbers on a plant, so that people can know which ones will do well in the heat as well as how much cold they can withstand. This makes a tremendous amount of sense to me and is much more informative than just the one number which may be outdated.

Buford, sure the climate has always changed and if you look at it over time the ecosystem adjusts. The problem is that some plants and animals die out while others get stronger...all of which takes a lot of years. As gardeners we are just worried about keeping a rose alive for maybe 10 or 20 years, a mere drop in the bucket to the grand scheme of climate change. I want all the info I can get and I NEED all the info I can get. LOL

I'm sorry for those who are having a cold spring. It happens and I always feel like I've been cheated.

Well, I'm still zone 5. It was very cold and dry here this winter. My babies basically had no snow cover. Burning bans in our county, and those around us. This is what the river looks like now, never seen it like this before. Yes, those are people standing in the middle, you can walk across it now. Scary.
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This pic shows where the water usually is.
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I think we might be in trouble this summer if this keeps up.

I have a friend thats really into Tropicalesque Gardening like myself. We both live just outside Atlantic City, New Jersey. This year, according to his Thermometer and taking daily readings, Brigantine New Jersey, where he lives, is Zone 8. This is really bizarre. It's usually Zone 7 and only a Stone throw(30 Miles) from Zone 6.

I'm really not surprised at all as this winter was extremely mild. I only saw a 1/2" of Snow ALL Winter. Max. This is VERY unusual even for Coastal South Jersey.

I'm not saying that every winter will be this warm but, it is what it is this year. Strange.

Dan

Since 1988 I've been planting as if I'm in 7A. According to the map I'm 6B. I overwinter my pots in a protected NW corner of the yard against a wall, I plant own-root newcomers to the rose garden in September and I don't winter protect.

Haven't lost a "hearty to Zone 7" rose yet.

My babies just hit dormancy in Feb before they started growing again in March. Winterkill? more like spring kill.. but just about 2 inches worth which I trimmed off.

So, yes, at least for me.........the zones have changed.

Yup, it's like buford said - the zone thing has to do with how cold it gets in the winter. I asked a guy from Cook College, Rutgers School of Agriculture at a garden show what he thought about it. And he asked me to recall the last time I can remember when we had winter temps below 0. And I can hardly remember winter temps in single digits anymore! I'm cautiously optimistic though - planted a crepe myrtle last year and am happy to report, it survived the winter!