25
votes
Gardeners observations are confirmed as US Department of Agriculture updates plant hardiness zone map
Link information
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- Title
- 'It feels like I'm not crazy.' Gardeners aren't surprised as USDA updates key map
- Authors
- Julia Simon
- Published
- Nov 17 2023
- Word count
- 654 words
Canadian here. FYI, our hardiness zone numbers are slightly different from the US numbers, but I've noticed the same thing. A few perennials that should be considered tender in my area have been surviving the past few winters when they used to die (oregano in a raised-bed planter, as an example); this is even with a morning this past winter which dropped to -36 degC. The truly frigid days simply aren't prolonged enough to make a difference. As convenient as warmer winters are, it scares me a little.
If anyone was a little annoyed that NPR didn't show the previous map for comparison, or do a nifty slide-over view, here's the 2012 US Hardiness Zone map following the same shading style. (Edit: If anyone was simply as oblivious as me to the toggle on the NPR article... :)
Other maps (including the earlier 1990 version) are here.
Maybe it only shows on desktop but the NPR article has a button above the map to toggle between the 2012 and 2023 versions.
It shows on my mobile (firefox on android) but I can see it being missable because it does blend into the background a bit.
Ahhh, I'm on desktop. I was just totally oblivious to those buttons :) Thanks for pointing that out!