Posted on 06/11/2008 5:59:30 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The temperature has risen 1/10th of a degree, Nancy. Get a clue! You're being irresponsible selling perennial plants to people that won't do well in their gardens. It's called "lying" to your customer base.
Grrrrrrr!
(However, Karen Johannsen knows her stuff; these two are arch enemies in the local Gardening World; I'm not well-known enough yet to be in the fight, LOL!)
Articles like this make my job VERY difficult to do!
I didn't realize that the gardening zones were that sensitive. No wonder we need professional landscapers if a temperature change of 1/10th of a degree means you need entirely different plants!
Si senor.
It is like selling fruit trees like apples and other types that require minumim yearly "Chill Hours" to produce fruit down here in Mississippi. It will never produce. But you know what, you can't find a fig tree that will produce and actually thrives here at local or Big Box garden centers!
Oh, Man! Not your “Fig Rant” again, LOL!
I’m excited! I checked my trees this morning and I have PEARS and CHERRIES and PLUMS, after five years of wishing, pruning, spraying and praying. :)
No peaches, though. I didn’t spray them this late winter when they were dormant and all three trees have a bad case of Peach Leaf Curl. :(
Of interest to the gardeners!
The low tonight and tomorrow night is forecast to be 32. Not unheard of here but the already short growing season must be at least two weeks shorter on the spring end of it. If fall frost comes early this year will be a wash. Maybe I’ll plant some glacier lilies.
I wont bother again.
LOL!!!! Don't be silly -- we all love hearing about your success with your figs!!!!
My pear tree is finally taking a one year break from being overloaded with fruit. I've had to brace the limbs the past few years. This 18' tree is about 14 years old, started procucing at age 12 and hasn't taken much of a break.
Last year, I picked over 40 gallons of that tree. This year, I may have between 10 - 15 gallons of pears. They are much more spread out on the limbs.
The local weekend gardening show - The Natural Gardener - said it's time to start planting citrus trees in our area because of gore bull warming. Well, I don't have a warm and fuzzy feeling about having to cover those when the temps hit 32º.
This has been a chilly spring/early summer here in California. We should we well into consistent high 80s, mid 90s, occasionally 100s. It’s mid June and it’s 70s day after day after day. Global warming my keester.
A few years back, early 90’s I think it was, I read an article in some gardening magazine that the Zones that had been listed on the seed packets and in gardening guides were developed in the early 20th century and had not been updated since then. The gardeners in certain zones had reported that the colder zones had moved substantially SOUTHWARD for their areas and that plants that were formally okay to plant at certain dtes were no longer valid. Some seed company (Burpee? I don’t remember) had done a study and found that this was indeed so. The frost lines had moved south over the past few decades and the zones listed were now invalid.
Does anybody remember this article or know where I can find it?.......................
Iceberg lettuce and edelweiss................
I lost my hardy Wisterias, quite a bit of my hardy ivy, 2 hydrangeas, 4 or 5 hosta plantings and about a dozen very hardy sedum plantings this past winter in an area of Wisconsin that is a half zone warmer than Madison. Stuff that I’ve never had trouble with before over numerous winters took a beating this past year. Proof of the coming ice age?
I just looked out the window and I see snow flakes in the air. Not kidding.
Plant Snow Peas..................
I have the perfect solution. I’ll plant frozen vegetables.
Diana, thanks for posting this! Even if there is a microscopic difference in temperature, people should not vary too much out of their traditional zone. We have technically been on the very edge between zones 3 and 4, but generally, zone 3 stuff is safer and hardier. I could even plant some zone 5 stuff (I long for blackberries!), only if I wanted to baby it all the time and cart it indoors in the winter, which is just not practical.
xcamel, this is for your ping list.
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