Hey...thanks for the heads up. I was not aware of it and being that I'm right on the VA coast and think I'm 7b but could never tell since I'm in a little tiny transitional spot on that darn tiny map (LOL), then I may have changed. Am trying to find a map that I can zoom in on with my tablet but not yet, so can't tell. However, when I googled it, did find various links to other maps that you CAN zoom in on, however it's quite blurry. But also links to specific states, sometimes via a local paper, such as NJ, WS, oh....and now I just found VA. I goggled the subject but added "for VA". I'm still 7b but that's still very important info !!!

I think it includes the UHI (urban heat island) effect, buyt I don't buy anything zone 7 for Akron, or, anywhere in Ohio. In fact it seems any reference to zone 7 has disappeared when I look at Akron on that map. When I zoom in on zip 44308 (downtown) it also says "days over 86F" as "rare" which I don't buy. I guess it depends on your definition of rare, but since 86 is only 4 degrees over the average high of 82, it's hardly 'rare'. Just looking at Akron-Canton airport (more exurban than the city, but the closest data) the last 10 years winter minimums were: 2002: 6F 2003: -8F 2004: -4F 2005: -4F 2006: 3F 2007: -6F 2008: 0F 2009: -14F 2010: 2F 2011: -2F That averages out to -2.7F, so that's a mild zone 6 for sure, but the fact that it dipped to -14 in 2010, and, a few times in the 90s even colder, I'd hesitate to plant anything less hardy than a zone 6, or it won't last a decade most likely.

Moles are not generally herbivores. They eat insects and insect larva (grubs), beetles, and earthworms. They burrow deep down in the ground, make their nest there, but come up close to the surface to forage for bugs and worms, esp. after a rain shower, as the insects and worms will be on the move at that time and the soil is softer. Moles can damage plants and grass by all those maizes of tunneling, but they are not the ones eating your roses or veggies. Gopher, rats, mice, voles, rabbits and rats have large front teeth, made for gnawing and chewing plants and seeds and nuts. They love tender sweet roots of young seedlings (and the tops too). Roses are of the same family as apples and strawberries and these they find very yummy. My rabbit loves me to give him fresh snippets of the tender tips of rose bushes. He loves them. Rabbits will eat your blueberries to the ground. I lost all my blueberry bushes to cottontails. (Bad Peter, Bad Benjamin!) They will also chew on young trees. Now if I ever get blueberries again, I will enclose them with cages until they grow to some size. Below, I have added a link to a website all about Moles and Shrews, including a number of ghastly traps and methods used to attempt the get rid of them. ----------------------------------------------- Planting daffodils around your tulips is not just for aesthetic purposes. Tulips are edible, even for humans, but Daffodils are poisonous. Dutch bulb growers learned that by planting Daffodils in with their Tulips or rows of Daffies flanking them, helped deter rodents and other animals. I planted 2 Peruvian Daffodils (Spider Lilies) a few days ago. I planted them by my day lilies to ward off rodents. Thought the frilly creamy white spidery flowers would look terrific next to the colorful day lilies. Nothing on the package indicated that it was 'tender'. I looked them up on the Internet last night, and turns out they are VERY tender. Although we may think of Peru as mostly a cold mountainous region, this daffodil comes from the tropical forests in the hot, moist valleys far below. Well, Bugger me! I gotta go dig 'em up now, and sink them in pots out in the greenhouse before they freeze their little round bottoms off! ~SweetAnnie4u Here is a link that might be useful: Moles & Shrews

The simplistic explanation is called climate adaptation (among other labels) - the seeds Mother Nature planted had time to adapt to their environment and maybe 1 in 100 adapted and survived to germinate and of those maybe 1 in 50 live a normal life. The seeds we plant have had no such adaptation time and we plant far less seeds and expect near 100% germination of healthy long=lived plants. And we often get it simply because we waited when Mom didn't. Mother nature is really a lousy mother when it comes to taking care of her kids. She's the "Good Luck, Kid. You're on your own." kind of mother. But that really is overly -simplistic and much of the confusion results from mis-interpretation or mis-applicationof guidelines. For example: guidelines are written in broad generalities in the hopes of applying to most situations and to provide the best odds for success. So "Plants started too early outside will end up less vigorous than plants started when warmer." is referring to seeds direct seeded outdoors when warmer, not to transplants - seeds and transplants are two very different things - and is very true simply because the seedling once germinated under ideal conditions will be less stressed, less damaged, more healthy than the seed that germinates under less than ideal conditions. Plus the folks that write these guidelines know that we always want to rush the spring planting season - to our own detriment - so they say anything they can to try to slow us down. It seldom works. ;-) Dave