{"id":14489,"date":"2024-01-07T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-07T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=14489"},"modified":"2024-01-03T12:45:45","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T17:45:45","slug":"new-usda-hardiness-zone-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2024\/01\/07\/new-usda-hardiness-zone-map\/","title":{"rendered":"New USDA Hardiness Zone Map"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The USDA Plant Zone Hardiness Zone Map is an important garden reference to anyone who gardens in the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today released a new version of its Plant Hardiness Zone Map (PHZM), updating this valuable tool for gardeners and researchers for the first time since 2012. USDA\u2019s Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location. The new map\u2014jointly developed by USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Oregon State University’s (OSU) PRISM Climate Group\u2014is more accurate and contains greater detail than prior versions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is available online at https:\/\/planthardiness.ars.usda.gov\/<\/a>. In addition to the map updates, the PHZM website was expanded in 2023 to include a \u201cTips for Growers\u201d section, which provides information about USDA ARS research programs of interest to gardeners and others who grow and breed plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2023 map is based on 30-year averages of the lowest annual winter temperatures at specific locations, is divided into 10 \u00b0F zones and further divided into 5 \u00b0F half-zones. Like the previous map issued in 2023, the new web version offers a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based interactive format and is more user-friendly, including several new, significant features and advances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2023 PHZM is now available as a premier source of information that gardeners, growers and researchers alike can use. A paper version of the 2023 map will not be available for purchase; instead, anyone may download and print copies as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plant hardiness zone designations represent what\u2019s known as the \u201caverage annual extreme minimum temperature\u201d at a given location during the past 30 years. They do not reflect the coldest it has ever been or ever will be at a specific location. It simply records the average lowest winter temperature for the location over a specified time. Low temperature during the winter is a crucial factor in the survival of plants at specific locations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The map has 13 zones across the U.S. and its territories. Each zone is broken into half zones, designated as \u201cA\u201d and \u201cB.\u201d For example, zone 7 is divided into 7a and 7b half zones. Compared to the 2012 map, the 2023 version reveals that about half of the country shifted to the next warmer half zone, and the other half of the country remained in the same half zone.\u00a0That shift to the next warmer half zone means those areas warmed somewhere in the range of 0-5 \u00b0F. Also, some locations experienced warming in the range of 0-5 \u00b0F without moving to another half zone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The USDA Plant Zone Hardiness Zone Map is an important garden reference to anyone who gardens in the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today released a new version of its Plant Hardiness Zone Map (PHZM), updating this valuable tool for gardeners and researchers for the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1439,1438,1384,917,774,853,625,843,729,630,7,756,655,455,642],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14489"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14503,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14489\/revisions\/14503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}