Re: Sunset Zones
- To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu, c*@best.com
- Subject: Re: Sunset Zones
- From: C* N*
- Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 12:54:17 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 11:30:35 -0700
From: John Dreher <dreher@seti.org>
Tim, How does this zone sound:
"Zone 17:
Zone 17 is San Francisco. I know I tend to think of England as colder than
it is but I really can't imagine any part of it being as warm as SF in the
winter.
The Sunset zones were developed many years ago by Sunset Magazine
<http://www.sunset.com/> (no zone info on the site; or none I can find) in
conjunction with the University of Calif. I doubt they are copyrighted,
though the descriptions in the Sunset Garden Books may be.
A couple of years ago, Sunset expanded its original 24 zones to cover the
entire US. They had to add a bunch of zones to do this properly, though
some of the existing zones matched. I think there are 40 now.
The zones were based on the existing climates; they were not intended to be
general. So if they don't really fit foreign soils, this should not be a
surprise. Keep in mind that the descriptions don't fit all the land within
the intended zones either. The information is an average of the area
covered. This is way better than any other zone system because it takes
into account many many climate factors, and because the areas covered
aren't that big, but you still won't get a 100% match. Plus there are
pockets of other zones too small to be shown on their small maps in the
book.
Anyone in a Medit climate will be better served by using one of the
original 24 zones and not the other US zones. Otherwise they don't account
for the dry summers (or more dry, in some cases). This is the factor that
makes the West, in the sense of the Western Garden Book and the magazine's
focus.
I forget exactly where Tim lives but...how about Zone 5? This is the
coastal zone one north from 17. It covers the coast just north of the
Calif/Oregon border all the way to Seattle (just south of Canada).
Commonly grown plants include rhododendrom, astilbes, dogwoods, ferns, vine
maples, etc.
A note in the text says "The climate in Zone 5 is much like that of
southern England, and the gardens here have benefited from England's long
and successful search for more varied garden plants."
Minimum temps over 20 years range from 28F to 1F, the lower temps
indicating the occasional big freeze. They caution that these lowest temps
should not be taken as the hardiness limits as even native plants suffer in
those freezes.
Cyndi
_______________________________________________________________________________
Oakland, California Zone 9 USDA; Zone 16 Sunset Western Garden Guide
Chemically sensitive/disabled - Organic Gardening only by choice and neccessity
_______________________________________________________________________________
"There's nothing wrong with me. Maybe there's Cyndi Norman
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