'Life is filled with trade-offs. My dedication to roses is not lessened if I select more carefully, or even reduce the numbers in my garden.' Of course not! Moving from a sunny allotment to a shady poplar plantation is surely nothing to do with climate but everything to do with location and geographical conditions and like it or not, I will be bidding adieu to nearly ALL my roses apart from the best (in my opinion) which, fortuitously happen to be my treasured wildlings. And even then, roses such as moyesii are just not going to manage, even around the edges. But hey, I am a gardener and the world is full of fabulous plants: even in a poplar wood there are campions, umbellifers, flag iris, bluebells, wild arums, water mints, agrimony, willowherb..........and I have not even lifted a hand. Just wait till the seed orders are sent in........and a bit of chainsawing and judicious felling. Ingrid, the climate changes are neither here nor there - what is mostly apparent is your changing attitudes to plants and their place in the world - this is, I think, a sign of increasing knowledge and experience and (should) happen to us all ....as long as we remain open to learning new things, staying curious and directed and mostly, situating ourselves somewhere in the middle of our little worlds and not perched at the top of the life tree in all-knowing judgmental superiority.

Hey Granite, Happy Birthday "To You" on Friday Sept. 30th!!! I just looked at your pictures again. Brought back allot of memories for me with a shopping center going in behind the rear of my previous house in PA. One of my "many"..... big concerns was the view I would see. You are good to go at.......... "Ground Level"........ with a privacy fence, (ground level....while you are out working in the yard). The windows in your house, visualize your view when inside looking out. The height of whatever you plant should be a consideration when it comes to the views from inside of the house. I always think "Resale Value". I understand your plight. Everything you knew.........has just changed in the name of progress! Depending on your area and the zoning laws...(purchase their book of rules ....for a $$........fee). You may be able to request extra buffer zone coverage from the developer. Don't stand back quietly. No one can read your mind! They ,(The Powers That Be) expect everyone to accept their decisions. Be an ever present "friendly" reminder to the local government that your quality of life has been severely altered. I have many stories about the development that went in behind my house..... "Do Not Roll Over"... speak up, loud, factually, (use their own rules) and often....carry before and after pictures in the car. Speak to a lawyer, if you feel that you have been cheated from the "Conditions of Law" (that the local government wrote in regards to this particular development). I still have the blueprints to the shopping center ...that the local government had to provide to me ....at my request. Remember the squeaky wheel gets the grease! It worked for me!!!........Keep us posted........Dianne

Hi chitown033, It's hard to find stations with datasets. O'Hare looked close to the lake so I thought it's climate would be influenced more into moderation than further inland station with datasets. Still even if Chicago has quite a heat island I bet it did not count for much back in those terrible winters of 1977 to 1989. Here in OKC the downtown heat island did not count for much in that winter of 1983 and I'm in the sunbelt. I hope we never see weather like that decade of the 1980's ever again. You can stay zone 6, I can be more zone 7b-ish and Dallas can keep their zone 8b-ish winters. Hi spockvr6, I agree don't worry about zone nonsense too much. There are so many variables from the plants to the climate it's hard to make a system of hardiness prediction that covers all the earth with the same rules. I guess plant it and see what happen is the only system that counts for solid facts. That is within reason of what would be sane to try. Hi Steve, All that Home Depot unhardy stock is cool to dream about and even I sometimes start to go delusional thinking I'll buy a butia or date palm to try. When I pull money out of my billfold to pay for junk my head clears and I place the plant back where I found it. Going down to Houston it's hard to keep control of my buying. Man there is nothing better looking than a nice container butia but I must only look and not buy. Cheap trachys are even harder to turn down but I always remember all 20 or so I have killed over the years. The one palm I would buy on a Houston trip is Sabal palmetto but you don't find them anymore. Mexicana is all that's stocked now and Mexicana is the sorriest Sabal for hardiness I have ever tried. Hi Don, I would not bother with trachys unless you willing to wrap the trunk with a plumbers heat tape and fiberglass. Trachys are indeed hardy but not for long durations in the single digits. They are great wrapped and grow like craze even in cool summers with cool soil. You have the hot sunmmer air temps but your deep soil might be cool most of the summer. Trachys like that and thrive. It's just a matter of getting the trunk overwintered and that's easy with a 32* plumbers heat tape and open face fiberglass. Needle Palm in a microclimate is indeed the best bet for a unprotected longterm in ground palm. They really are below zero hardy because I have seen it in person back in the terrible 1980's. Go with Needle and perhaps try a inland ecotype of Sabal minor. The Sabal need's deep soil heat or it will not grow so plan to plant within 1 foot of a hot south wall. When planting close to a wall consider that Sabals are a directional grower in that underground trunk. The trunk growth will always be in a direction away from where the first seedling roots happen. Dig down in your container and find the sharp point where the plants seedling trunk had started and place it toward the wall. It's hard to explain without a pic. I'll try to find a pic of a Sabal minor root/trunk system and draw what to do in planting close to a wall. For the tropical look yuccas are great and some large tree size species might survive even a bad winter in your area. Don't forget bananas are great for giving a tropical look and can easily be overwintered in a garage. Being a nasty day here in OKC with winter weather I could not work so I took some pictures for the board. Most of my plants look trashy after the early December frigid spell. I have found bitter cold in early December will damage marginal plants much worse than the same weather in late January. Two nights of lower single digits so early damaged most all the Sabal minor 'Louisiana'. Regular Sabal minor of all ecotypes were undamaged. Sabal 'Birmingham' were undamaged. Sabal uresana which has been a real surprise in cold hardiness was undamaged. Sabal palmetto varies with some being much hardier than others. Serenoa really got slammed with only a few live leaves left. Here are some pictures of crappy looking zone 7 palms. I have around 200 crappy palms so this is far from the whole collection. If you would like to see a short video showing my row of varoius Sabal species please click the link below. Row Of Sabals Video Click Here

Wow, don, I started mine the same weekend and mine aren't anywhere as big as yours though if those are 2" pots not 4" (I don't think I've seen 2" rounds, that's the same size as cells?) maybe not too far behind. Some of mine were really slow to germinate, I had some have 1st pair (or 2) of true leaves while others just starting to shed the seed coats. Only 67*F in my house though and I took them off heat when 1st ones in 6-pack started to emerge. Just potted up most to separate, still in 6-packs but 1 per cell now, have to find more or move to 4" pots (I guess I have some 3" or so tiny square pots) but need to put up more shelves and lights too, getting crowded with tomatoes I just started separating yesterday (seeded 2 weeks after peppers). I do have a dozen 6-packs filled with lettuce, spinach, kale I could wash out and use but I haven't been able to get those transplanted - expecting more rain tomorrow and snow/sleet tomorrow night, Tues - Thurs nights lows are supposed to be below freezing so won't get them out until weekend, they spent last few nights in garage, last night was 1st outside but lows were in the 50's so that wasn't hardening them off any. And I want to plant peas and potatoes but don't know how wet/cold the soil is going to be after tomorrow so have to wait for those too. Pity it's a holiday weekend so I can't spend all my time planting.