Both your present and former residences are warmer than Chicago. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Judy Glattstein" <jglatt@hughes.net> To: <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 10:17 PM Subject: [pbs] Bananas in New jersey / I Don't Trust Zone Maps > Adam Fikso wrote: "Judging from the USDA zone map, you seem to be Zone > 6b." > > I don't believe the USDA zone maps. They rely on winter low temperature > and disregard everything else, even duration of cold. By their > estimation, a location that dips down to 25 degrees Fahrenheit and stays > below freezing for a week or longer is in the same zone as a place that > reaches that low temperature but rises above freezing in the daytime. > What nonsense. > > Going back better than a decade - my garden in Wilton, Connecticut had > that gardener's holy grail of high organic soil, moist but well drained. > I grew Amaryllis belladona outdoors, year round, (under roof overhang, I > admit) and it flowered reliably. Cyclamen coum reseeded prolifically. > > My New Jersey garden is south of that, but it has a clay-based soil and > is on the shady side of the street. There are plants that don't like it > here, that would have thrived in Connecticut. > > Would that Sunset magazine would develop their incredible zone system > for the American West to cover country-wide. (I did once write and ask > if they'd consider publishing Sunrise, the magazine of Eastern living. > Never got an answer.) > > Judy in New Jersey where the ferocious winds have been howling all day, > shaking the trees and littering the place with downed branches > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/