Lauw de Jager wrote:

Dear Lauw,

I guess I am going to have to be very careful about how I phrase things;
it's a pleasure to think that my posts are being read by people in Europe,
South America, Australia and New Zealand and who knows where else. And I
have to remind myself that the USDA zone 7 indication which I use in my
signature probably means nothing to many readers.

For that matter, the Sunset zones used in the western US in my own country
are incomprehensible to me.

USDA zone 7, as we experience it here, probably does not correspond well to
any European climatic zone. Speaking broadly, it apparently gets hotter in
the summer and colder in the winter than in much or most of western Europe.
And not only does it get hotter and colder, but those conditions apparently
last longer than is usual in much of western Europe.

Ours is definitely not a Mediterranean climate. When I wrote that Gladiolus
tristis was not suitable for the winter garden, I meant that it was not
suitable for the winter garden here in USDA zone 7. I've been pretty
scrupulous about including my zone information in my postings - maybe I
should put it at the front of the posting instead of at the end!

By the way, yesterday I was reading the "Contributors" page of the wiki,
and I enjoyed your entry. I spent some time day-dreaming about what it must
be like to garden in your climate.

Here's a question you can help me with: does the "Olivier" in your
description of your zone [South of France (zone 8 Olivier)] indicate that
you are in the olive growing part of France, or is Olivier the name of the
person who devised the zoning system?

Jim McKenney
jimmckenney@starpower.net
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, not, as far as I know, olive
country, although this household has an unusually high level of consumption
of olive oil.

_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php