Re: A Pet Peeve and Need Identification Help

**Duane Campbell d*@juno.com**

On Thu, 26 Jun 2003 11:10:48 -0700 John MacGregor 

> >From the 1930s Sunset also published several editions of the Sunset 
> Western
> Garden Book.  With the 1967 edition, it established a series of 
> climatic
> zones for the 11 western continental states which took into 
> consideration
> many  more detailed climatic factors than just the average low 
> temperatures

I am sure that the Sunset zone system is invaluable for a western
gardener, where driving ten miles can put you in dramatically different
growing conditions. And for decades I have used and recommended to
readers here in the Northeast the Sunset Western Garden Book as the best
reference available for houseplants. What California people grow in their
yards we grow as houseplants, and the details in the zone references give
a good idea of the conditions they like.

i also have the Sunset National Garden Book (don't have the update, the
Northeast Garden Book), and again I flack it as the ONE book a gardener
should have, if they are unfortunate enough to have only one garden book.
But now along with that I give a caveat about the g.d. Sunset zone system
as applied here. It drives me nuts.

First, when I look up a plant in that book, I have to go back through the
zone descriptions every time to see if what the plant needs approximates
what I have in my USDA Zone 5/6 back yard.

Second, I think they set up the national zones without taking any great
effort getting it right. According to SNGB, I am in Sunset Zone 42,
northern Pennsylvania, along with Oneonta NY and Altoona PA. I grow many
plants that would never survive an Oneonta winter and people in Altoona
grow things I can only drool over.

For people outside of California, buy the book, learn to live with their
zone system.

By the way, there are several other zone systems. The Arnold Aboratum map
puts me in Zone 4, so I ignore that on principle, but it does serve to
confuse Wyman's Gardening Encyclopedia. Ortho tried to create one based
on real gardeners' experience, but it failed. The best might be
Floradapt, which gives you a map like the USDA, then gives specific
instructions for adjusting it for you particular location. It used to be
called something else, but the name escapes me at the moment.

________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!
_______________________________________________
gardenwriters mailing list
gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/gardenwriters

GWL has searchable archives at:
http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters

Send photos for GWL to gwlphotos@hort.net to be posted
at: http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos

Post gardening questions/threads to
"Organic-Gardening" <organic-gardening@lists.ibiblio.org>

For GWL website and Wiki, go to
http://www.ibiblio.org/gardenwriters