I just found a resource produced by the California Energy Commission that "lists the climate zones associated with several thousand California cities."
-Fleemo (Zone 9, no, make that 12, no...)
You are to believe your plants (or look at what your neighbors are growing or what the local nursery sells). California has so many micro climates that there is no fast safe rule. If you are by the ocean your temperatures are going to vary far less than if you are inland. If you are going up into the mountains you have to consider latitude, what side of the hill you're on, wind patterns and all kinds of things. Are you in a protected valley or a valley where the cold settles is yet another varient in that area.... My Mother moved from San Bernardino which as a 9 zone rating and where we had a thriving bougainvilla to Escondido with zone 11 where for the life of her she could not get a bougainvilla to survive (but all of her hawaiian type plants do).
If it were me I would assume a zone 11 and try plants with that zone range that are not expensive and then move in the appropriate direction of zone from how the plants do.
DKat
BTW, the zone 9 chart was re-evaluated this year and its changed again. I don't think it has been released yet. (like the flood plain re-eval we are supposed to get this year due to Tropical Storm Allison 2 years ago)
Somewheres north of the tropic of cancer.
Fleemo wrote:
Do you mean the Sunset Western Garden Book? If so, they use their own proprietary zone system with 24 zones. The site in your url appears to use it's own proprietary zone system as well. In fact, it doesn't look like a "zone" map as much as it looks like a district map with no duplicate numbers (except for 14 and 15 being split in two each).
Most of the time when people talk about zones without prefacing it with a proprietary name they're referring to USDA zones. That system uses nine zones numbered 2-10 Check your USDA zone here:
climate zones which, like Sunset's zones, are based on "temperature, weather and other factors", but have no numerical coorelation to Sunset's zones. Used primarily to predict and track electrical power consumption for specific geographical areas. -Olin
You make a good point in that if a zone is referred to, the zone type should be specified. The USDA Cold Hardiness zones are used to indicate plant sensitivity to cold temperatures. The AHS Heat-Zones indicate sensitivity to heat. The Sunset zones are true climatic zones and include other relevant factors such as humidity, pH, temperature, exposure, wind, elevation, coastal influences, etc. The Monrovia Nursery has a brief comparison of the USDA, AHS, and Sunset zones with links to the zone maps at
The zone references are usually to the USDA zones. West of the continental divide, the Sunset zones seem to be more useful.
Olin
Official Site for all of the US:
Thanks for the info. It's a 5.7 MB File. Took just over 18 minutes to download (48 KB/sec Modem).
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