• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Home Garden Companion

Home Garden Companion

Ilona's Garden Journal

  • Plant Library On The Journal
    • All Season Garden Color
    • Sitemap
  • Garden chores
    • Essential Garden Tools For Beginners
    • Garden Tips and Advice
  • Ilona’s Garden Home
    • Old House Blog
    • Garden Librarian
  • Ilona’s Garden Flavor Shop
  • Privacy Policy

The Cold Zone

04.02.07 | Ilona Erwin | No Comments

Now this is more like it…now it is winter in Ohio, albeit a little off schedule. I thought I would take the opportunity to mention a few things about planting zones, amid the news this year that the zones will supposedly change. One of the more helpful articles on this is from Farm and Garden – quoted a bit first, below.

My own experience is that while we may play around and stretch the boundaries a bit in our garden planting, the fact remains that if you live in a cold climate, especially, you will get one of those really cold winter snaps every few years or so. If you have planted something that isn’t hardy in your area ( as categorized by the zone maps) you will probably lose it to the extreme cold of that year. This is especially true of some trees like the ornamental cherries and your rose bushes. One particularly cold year I lost all my roses, not a few plants. From that time forward I planted only the hardiest, except in very sheltered areas of my garden ( right next to the leeward side of the house). That year I also lost my Chinese Chestnut trees. The zone maps warn you of this sort of risk. Of course you don’t have to heed it….

The zone maps tell you more about plants than they do about your expected weather- as the Farm and Garden article points out. It is really an issue quite apart from global warming, though that is the way the political hotspot reports like to warm things up. Regardless of what you think on the issues, the plants will only take so much cold when they are considered hardy to a specific zone. And that is the information you want.

There are many other factors that affect cold hardiness, too. Some things are hardy if they don’t have wet feet, or if they are properly mulched, etc. So the combined knowledge in a plant profile – where it was native, the zone it grows in, the moisture needs, etc… these will all factor in. And a strong healthy plant weathers through a challenging season better than a stressed plant.

Things like this were in my head while I have wondered about how my garden will take the broken dormancy of January and the arctic cold ( that is what the weatherman calls it) of this February. We have little to no snow cover. I am bracing for the worst, but then my garden is under reconstruction anyway, and I have no idea what has survived the neglect of the past several years. I do know that some of my trees are in dire need of pruning. I looked out at the weeping crab, Jade, and it had water sprouts galore! How did those get there? Probably overlooked since I have a Hansa rose shrub underneath…. but the winter has exposed the needed grubbing out that must come as soon as the weather breaks.

So when do we need to use zones? If you farm in warmer climates you need to know how much cold a plant must have. …If you’re growing perennials in a cold climate you need to know what zone those plants are hardy in, and in which zone you’re located. …The USDA zone map doesn’t guarantee a definite average minimum temperature. Microclimates are small areas inside a zone that are a little warmer or cooler than the surrounding area.~Farm and Garden

the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been working on updating its climate map for nearly four years, but hasn’t produced a finished product. –Carpetbagger Report

“the U.S. Department of Agriculture is now in the process of redrawing the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, a tool used by gardeners to determine what trees, flowers and food crops will survive in what zone. The map, first created in 1960 by Henry T. Skinner (then director of the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington) codes the country into 11 regions, determined by the duration of cold weather and lowest winter temperatures in each zone.

The map has been adjusted twice before: once in 1965, to add temperature data that had been missing from the original; and again in 1990, to include climate information for Canada and Mexico and to reflect what the USDA Web site officially describes as “changes in the weather.”

The USDA’s most recent plans for revision were initially undertaken by the American Horticultural Society with a grant from the USDA. The AHS published its findings in its own in-house magazine, The American Gardener, in 2003. Across much of the country, it showed climate zones bleeding to the north–reflecting a general warming trend and a changing habitat for plants.

The USDA, however, called the map inadequate and insisted that the AHS withdraw it.” –Columbia News Service

=====
Unrelated, I saw the most beautiful full moon yesterday. It was orangey yellow and then turned a soft gold as it rose. In my Winter page I have lists of the names for the winter moons. In days past when the lunar months ruled man’s recognition of passing time they were given descriptive names. February Moons include Big Winter Moon, Horning Moon, Hunger Moon, Ice Moon, Red Cleansing Moon, Storm Moon, Sun Moon, Quickening Moon, Wild Moon, Chaste Moon, Dark Red Calves, and Trapper’s Moon. Ice Moon is the Celtic appellation and I think that is the one that best fits our season this year- I was looking at the “Ice Moon”. Once high in the sky it was the appropriately cool white and gleaming orb that lights the winter’s sky with a burnished silver glow.
====

And on the note of moons… this year we will get to have a blue moon- so if you ever promised yourself something or hoped for something in a blue moon- this is your time:)
“Although the full moon occurring Thursday, May 31, 2007, will look like an ordinary full moon, it will actually be a bit extraordinary—a blue moon.
What is a Blue Moon?

There are in fact two definitions for a blue moon. According to the more recent definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. For a blue moon to occur, the first of the full moons must appear at or near the beginning of the month so that the second will fall within the same month (the average span between two moons is 29.5 days). May 2007 will have two full moons: the first on May 2, the second on May 31—that second full moon is called the blue moon. “Blue Moons“

Share this:

  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

← Previous Post
I was going to garden…
Next Post →
Cold Climate Reading

About Ilona Erwin

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

DISCLOSURE: I may be an affiliate for products that I recommend. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. Thank you, in advance for your support! Privacy Policy

Primary Sidebar

Oh, hi there!

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

Newest Postings Here

  • Hawaiian Flower Arrangements
  • HELLLOOOO, From The Other Side
  • February Gardening, Last of Winter in the Flower Garden
  • Compilation of Past Mini-Posts of 2003
  • Wayback in Ilona Garden Time

Visit for a Spell

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Mission

Finding your way home via the garden path

Books, Tools, Tips

Read reviews from the GardenLibarian

Portrait of a Gardener

gardener musings
Musings

What’s Wrong With Today’s Gardening?

Modern gardening
What Is Wrong?

Garden Journal

fine garden journal
Journal, Planner and Log Book
buy quality plants

You might also like

seeds

National Seed Swap Day in January

Garden advice

What Makes a Low Maintenance Garden?

Create A Child’s Garden, Grow Love For Nature

Growing Indoor Flowers In December

I Found Out About “She Sheds” And Coincidentally, About Friends

Newest Postings Here

  • Hawaiian Flower Arrangements
  • HELLLOOOO, From The Other Side
  • February Gardening, Last of Winter in the Flower Garden
  • Compilation of Past Mini-Posts of 2003
  • Wayback in Ilona Garden Time

Books, Tools, Tips

Read reviews from the GardenLibarian

Standouts

10 Useful Gardening Tips For Spring

Do You Grow Herbs? 10 Reasons To Love Them

10 Cool Season Annual Flowers To Plant

Standouts

August Gardening: Ten Suggestions

What are your ten top choices for perennial plantings?

ilonagarden

With village lights With village lights
Christmas decor #christmasspirit🎄 Christmas decor #christmasspirit🎄
Instagram post 17935013548845771 Instagram post 17935013548845771
Instagram post 17981374354427684 Instagram post 17981374354427684
Instagram post 17865517706595888 Instagram post 17865517706595888
Gift of flowers by my bedside Gift of flowers by my bedside
#mockorange #juneflowers #ohio #mockorange #juneflowers #ohio
Instagram post 18224713828022497 Instagram post 18224713828022497
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Join Me

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2023 · Your Site Name

Hazel Theme by Code + Coconut