Climate Zones.
J.E. Shields (Fri, 28 Oct 2005 06:52:26 PDT)

John Bryan, Jaime, Roger, Lee, et al.,

To answer John's original question directly, yes, I believe that the USDA
cold zones are useful and should be retained.

What to add to them is the problem. The American Hort. Society heat zones
would be a good start. Then add in maps of annual rainfall.

That is a start. Nothing will make decisions about growing 100% foolproof
for novice gardeners, and nothing will keep old hands from experimenting.

Besides nighttime minimum temperatures for the AHS heat zones, one needs to
add local effects for urban islands of heat. I live 25 miles from the
center of a medium-large sized urban agglomeration. We are routinely 2 to
5 degrees F cooler than in the city, summer and winter.

But you should hurry John, because it looks like the climate is changing
and the existing tables will become obsolete in a few more years. Spring
is coming a week to 10 days earlier now than it did 25 years ago.

Jim Shields
in central Indiana
USDA cold zone 5
AHS heat zone 6
40 inches of precipitation per year

At 09:49 AM 10/28/2005 +0200, you wrote:

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Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA