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Re: [ENABLED] Zoning

On  5 Apr 98  at 0:11, Kay  wrote concerning: Re: ZONING

Kay ... I hope you don't mind my posting this to the list. Seems to me it might
be an interesting thread for all to explore. Certainly, my limited experience
with the topic of zoning has been expanded by your explanation. BUT, it does
add an element of confusion to the more general subject of gardening,
especially when ordering from mail-order catalogues, doesn't it?

*********************************************
> On Sat, 4 Apr 1998, AMARIS wrote:
>
> > On  4 Apr 98  at 12:58, Kay  wrote concerning: Re: [ENABLED]:
> >
> > You identified your location as
> >
> > > just west of Portland, OR; USDA zone 8 (polarfleece)
> >
> > Hi Kay... If you remember my name, I'm in Eugene. The gardening book I have
> > identifies this area as zone 6. It's an older Sunset New Western Garden book.
> > Does that mean that zoning isn't standardized or have the zones changed?

**************************************************************
>
> There are three sets of zone numbers for the US... (aargh!).
> USDA zones are based only on minimum winter temperatures... they were
> designed to show at a glance if a tree (say) was likely to be winter
> hardy in an area.  Since temps in coastal Oregon (including the
> Wilamette Valley) only get down to about 20oF at the worst, we're
> in USDA zone 8.
>
> Sunset Magazine thought that this was an entirely inadequate system,
> and came up with their own zones, based on a combination of summer
> and winter temps, rainfall patterns, etc.  Those are the sunset
> zones, and we're in Sunset 6 (if I remember right).  They used
> to just cover the western US, but last year, they published a book
> extending the sunset zone system to the whole US-- I think there's
> 37? zones now.
>
> (Just as a "fer instance", New Orleans is also in USDA zone 8...
> but they can grow tomatoes and peppers and all those other crops
> that need lots of heat to ripen properly, and our poor 'maters need
> mittens and long johns until July or so.  ;-).  Portland and New
> Orleans are in very different sunset zones.)  No one but sunset
> magazine and their associated publications uses sunset zones, useful
> as they are!
>
> Just last month, the American Horticultural Society published yet
> another map, this one of North America in terms of how hot it gets
> during the summer.  This is the Heat Zone Map, and I've just
> barely had time to glance at the book... but it looks like it may
> be useful.  It does not take into account rainfall patterns.
>
> However, Monrovia Nursery (*big* wholesale operation) and Goldsmith
> Seeds (mostly sold to greenhouses for mass production of plants)
> have both adopted the heat zone designations and are putting them
> on their tags -- so the sunset zones for the rest of the country
> are most likely not going to fly.  At least that's my best guess.
>
> Kay Lancaster  kay@fern.com
> freezing to death in USDA zone 8 Norte...  ;-)
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