zones?

[Kae Verens]

I keep seeing references to zones.

What are they?

I'm in Ireland, for example, what zone would that correspond to? I never see any mention of this in any books I've bought.

Kae

[Pat Kiewicz]

A method of catagorizing the severity of winter weather, in terms of minimum temperature only.

Zone 8 (with some zone 9 on the coasts).

Zone 8 (15 F) (-9 C) Zone 9 (25 F) (-4 C)

You should be able to grow camellias...

See:

[b&k]

see any mention of this in any books I've bought.

[b&k]

Or try this:

Poor me in Zone 5

see any mention of this in any books I've bought.

[Kae Verens]

as where I am (Monaghan) is definitely warmer than where I used to live (Dublin).

thanks guys

Kae

[Frogleg]

The USDA (US Min of Ag) has developed a map of "plant hardiness" zones based on average minimum temperature range. Sometimes these are also associated with first and last frost dates. It's used as a rough (very) guide to what sort of plants will successfully survive winter temperatures in a given area. There are more detailed maps taking micro-climate conditions into account published by a company that used to specialize in western (US) gardens, but has now ventured into other areas. These are the "Sunset (magazine) zones."

USDA zones run from 1 (-50F) for Fairbanks, Alaska to 11 (greater than

40F) for Honolulu, Hawaii. They hedge their bets a bit with a-b sub-designations. I.e., the SE corner of Virginia is either 7b or 8a (minimums between 5 and 15F.