How To Know Your Climate Zone

Distantly, is my advice – not very originally; just about every experienced gardener, professional and otherwise, is of the same opinion. Knowing doesn’t hurt, but it doesn’t help much either, as I have just been reminded.

Twenty years ago, when falling in love with Bill meant moving 400 miles Southwest from my beloved Midcoast Maine to the then-unknown Hudson Valley, I had a standard grumble: “ Didn’t even get a climate zone out of it.”

They’re both 5b or maybe 6, depending on how you look at the up to date zone map, but here are the garden plants that were blooming in New York when I left for Maine on April 30th. :

Also,  hellebores

Hyacinths

Narcissi

Tulips

Forsythia

Muscarii

Euphorbia

Forget-me-nots

Creeping phlox

Fragrant viburnums

Bleeding hearts

Spiraea

Apple

Plum

Fritillaria imperialis (barely)

And here’s what was blooming in Maine when I arrived:

Zilch.

Well not quite.

In addition to the hyacinths we have

Narcissi

Tulips

Forsythia

Muscarii

and Euphorbia

I’m not saying zones are completely useless, just that each number covers a hell of a lot of territory and a hell of a lot of climate. New York is warmer and warmer longer, at both ends of the season, even though the first fall frost usually hits there first.

Oh, and just in case you don’t know them up close, here are those bluebells again. Terrific plant, easier from seed than any other way and be warned it’s even more ephemeral than bleeding hearts.