Mid-Atlantic is a not-too-precisely-defined region that isn't far north (like New England) or deep south (like the Georgia and Alabama) It is traditionally defined as Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia ... but some folks include Pennsylvania, even New York. With a country as large as the US, regions are how we keep things organized.

Now, can someone define 'Midwest' for me? This one has ME confused.

Connie

Here is a link that might be useful: Mid-Atlantic map on Wikipedia

To me DELAWARE, MARYLAND, and VIRGINIA are the Mid-Atlantic states. New York and Pennsylvania are the "Yankee states", being located too far north. West Virginia doesn't qualify either because it is too far west. To be a Mid-Atlantic state your border must at some point touch the Chesapeake Bay. The climate is temperate. Short but cold winters, glorious springs and autumns, hot-as-hell summers, with year round high humidity due to the Chesapeake Bay influence. Which by-the-way is the perfect conditions for black spot. That is why we often refer to our region as black spot hell. USDA Zones 5b-8a; most live in zones 6-7.

Let me help confuse things: to us in Massachusetts, mid-Atlantic means not only Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, but also New Jersey and much of New York (eastern half, anyway), Pennsylvania (eastern half) and northern North Carolina. You can check the gardening zone chart; but I fear that with global warming, the numbered zones are moving somewhat north.

Carol

Carol, how come you have 2 zones - do you have a gigantic garden?

Connie,
"Midwest" has always cracked me up as well. It pertains to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, and probably a couple of other states I'm forgetting. I always wondered how in the heck we ended up being slapped with "Midwest" when we are nowhere near the middle of the Western section of the country.

Found out that it comes from population distribution, not geographic location. The population center of the US is the Eastern seaboard megalopolis, and we are in the middle of the western edge of the population center of the U.S. That, and everything past the Mississippi is considered "Western" states. Hard for me to imagine Missouri as the wild, wild west...lol.
---Laura

carol6a has nailed the definition of "Mid-Atlantic" as the term is normally used. Rhode Island is usually included.

"Midwest" begins with Ohio and extends through the Central Plains to Kansas and eastern Dakotas.

Campanula, I have 2 gardens. One is urban, in Cambridge (MA), where the commuter trains go by all day strewing their diesel fumes, and I grow only shrubs and 1 rose (Tiffany, put in about 25 years ago); and the other, more important one is in Rhode Island near the sea, where I recently built a fenced (against deer) potager with vegetables and with climbing roses on the 8 ft. posts. As the tiny baby band-size roses grow, the veggies will be mostly phased out to make room for the roses plus a central seating area. Should be in another 3-4 years.

The seaside zone is a little less cold in winter, making it the edge of zone 7, for plant survival purposes. Last spring I visited northern California to see and smell the roses blooming there (I wanted to choose wonderful scents) before I ordered my choices by mail. (Also met some of those wonderful Calif. Gardenweb forum members and rose-lovers on that trip.)

Because I'm at the low-temp edge of zone 7 there, I will be heavily mulching those babies at the end of autumn. And because my far view includes the ever-changing blues of the ocean, I chose rose colors of white, cream, pale yellow and pale apricot. All climbers, all hypothetically good to zone 6b. THAT was a challenge. We'll see how well this works, next June.

Carol

Well hey, Carol, we are on the same page. also got two gardens, one of which has been largely given over to vegetables but is currently being filled with roses (and some fruit, just to remain loosely within the allotment movement). Going for climbers too. No ocean though. Looking forward to hearing about the project (sounds wonderful).

Back in my school days, we were taught that the Middle Atlantic states include New York, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Washington DC is sometimes also included, even though it is not a real state. The six New England states were Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Together the Middle Atlantic states and New England make up the Northeast region of the United States.

Virginia is considered a southern state, possibly for historic reasons. It is south of the Mason Dixon line. It is included in the Southeast census region.

Rosefolly

From the FAQ in the Mid-Atlantic Forum here on Gardenweb:
"The "Middle Atlantic" colonies of the original thirteen were considered to be New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. We also include the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. The "Mid-Atlantic" is the area east of the Appalachian Mountains. The clearest picture of the "Mid Atlantic" can be seen in Rob Proctor's "Naturalizing with Bulbs". Zones in this region range from Zone 4 in northern New York State to Zone 8 south of Norfolk, Virginia. Plant cultivation information from the Mid-Atlantic forum may be applicable to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Missouri. "

For the most part, states that are neither New England nor Southern. As for the Mason-Dixon line ... many people don't realize that a portion of New Jersey is south of that line. Also, and somewhat tangentially, the Appalachian trail runs through the northwest corner of the state.

Obviously, the USA expanded from the eastern seaboard. At one time, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi were known as the Southwest. After settlement occurred farther west, the area was known for a while as the Old Southwest, and finally as just part of the South.

Northwestern University in Chicago was so named in 1851 because it was located in the Northwest Territories, now known as the Midwest because settlement occurred farther west. The PNW was qualified by "Pacific" to distinguish it from the Old Northwest. It is still always called PNW even though most people today have never heard of the Old Northwest.

Apparently it has changed over some decades? Virginia is Mid-Atlantic! That's what I learned in fifth grade. It never had anything to do with Mason-Dixon or history, just some geography source making a decision about it that way a long time ago. Don't ask me why. I know pre-fifth grade I always had thought of Virginia as being some variant of "Southern" when growing up there, and was really surprised to see it listed among the Mid-Atlantic states in the fifth grade geography text. I kept double-checking that listing then, in a geography book from a major publisher who sold the book in more than one state. So all of us of a certain age will remember it that way.

I just double-checked and found a website listing regions and they don't list Virginia as Mid-Atlantic. It's indelibly listed that way in my head, though. And I still would say for sure it's Mid-Atlantic if answering it "correctly" had some importance.

Best wishes,
Mary

I'm a literalist on this issue.

The U.S. Atlantic seaboard extends from the tip of Florida (just south of Miami) northward to South Lubec, Maine. Ergo, dividing the coastline into three almost equal portions gives one

1) the northern Atlantic states (Maine to the southern tip of New Jersey;

2) the mid-Atlantic (Delaware to the southern border of North Carolina); and

3) the southern Atlantic states (South Carolina, Georgia and Florida).

Rhode Island and Virginia are the gray areas in defining "mid-Atlantic." Virginia is culturally southern except for the DC area. Geographically and in climate it is middle-ish.

In terms of the Atlantic Ocean itself, Cape Hatteras in NC would be a logical boundary for the South Atlantic, as there is a break there in current patterns and water temperature.

ho, not much agreement here then! Still, I am woefully ignorant of geography - for a long time, I was under the impression that the Capitol (you know, the white house and all that) was somewhere near Seattle. DC, I assumed, meant district of columbia and since I know that British Columbia is somewhere near (in?) Canada....well, you see the logic. The european press generally makes mock of the American sense of geography, so it is only fair to redress the balance by owning up to ours. I would say most brits could safely place California and NY on a map...possibly Florida too....lots of us would struggle with Chicago while the great unknown centre really only exists as romantic state names. The most contentious boundaries in the UK, between north and south, are purportedly geographical but are really cultural and political ...and therefore infinately elastic.