{"id":7152,"date":"2014-12-21T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T17:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=7152"},"modified":"2014-12-18T16:30:55","modified_gmt":"2014-12-18T21:30:55","slug":"determining-a-plants-cold-hardiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2014\/12\/21\/determining-a-plants-cold-hardiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Determining A Plant’s Cold Hardiness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"USDA<\/a>

U.S. Hardiness Zone Map<\/p><\/div>\n

On-line nursery catalogs and plant labels\u00a0at garden centers list the hardiness\u00a0of the trees, shrubs, vines, and perennials that they sell. Many years ago the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed the hardiness rating scale based on geographic location from northern Canada to southern Mexico. Most U.S. gardeners live within Zones 3 to 11. Don\u2019t know the hardiness zone where you live and garden? This\u00a0information is easily found on-line by simply entering your zip code.<\/p>\n

If a plant originates from another country, for example China, the USDA has estimated its hardiness in North America. For example, hardiness zone 6\u00a0records an average\u00a0low winter temperature between 0\u00ba F \u2013 10\u00ba F; colder zone 5 falls between -10\u00ba F to -20\u00ba F.<\/p>\n

Minimum temperature ranges of a particular hardiness zone are just\u00a0averages. In some years temps may turn out to be colder; some \u201chardy\u201d plants may not survive if winter is unusually cold. Sometimes a\u00a0label\u00a0designates only one zone, such as Zone 4. That represents solely the cold hardiness\u00a0of the species; the plant is\u00a0also be winter hardy in\u00a0zones 5, 6, and 7. But it may be heat tolerant in the south.\u00a0It will not survive in zone 3 winters.<\/p>\n

There are many factors that affect a plant’s ability to survive cold temperatures. Environmental factors such as soil type, sun and wind exposure, slope, proximity to buildings, and snow cover create microclimates that could\u00a0influence the over-winter survival of plants. Hardiness zone ratings are guidelines; cold temperatures, microclimates and other factors can\u00a0influence plant survival\u00a0following an abnormally cold winter.<\/p>\n

When ordering plants on-line, utilize hardiness zone information\u00a0to determine\u00a0the\u00a0proper shipping date in your area. For example, a Minnesota gardener may want to delay receiving plants to mid-spring when the cold weather is subsiding; a Tennessee gardener may want delivery 2 – 3 weeks earlier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On-line nursery catalogs and plant labels\u00a0at garden centers list the hardiness\u00a0of the trees, shrubs, vines, and perennials that they sell. Many years ago the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed the hardiness rating scale based on geographic location from northern Canada to southern Mexico. Most U.S. gardeners live within Zones 3 to 11. Don\u2019t know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1115,853,625,729,630,7,756,455,162,642],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7152"}],"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=7152"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7155,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7152\/revisions\/7155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}