Do you push the zone?

I've lost too much money, wasted too much effort and time on plants not known to be hardy here to bother with it anymore. Now I try to only do plants even one zone hardier than us if possible.

This message was edited Tuesday, Mar 4th 4:16 AM

I try everything I can. When my hardy banana musa basjoo didn't pull through last year, it only made me want to try other things that shouldn't grow in NH either. I don't get too attached to plants outside. An empty hole only means more annuals!

I'm just starting out in gardening so I am being conservative about what I plant.

My garden site has a sheltered area in which there is, essentiallly, no wind. My thinking is that, with proper soil conditioning and mulch, this area could support some slightly more tender perennials. As I gain more experience I might give it a try.

Adam.

This message was edited Sunday, Mar 2nd 11:20 PM

It is intriguing, how, with the vast variety of plant material perfectly hardy for one's zone, the borderline hardy plants seem more attractive. I love my Camellia, and Crape Myrtles, and telling people who admire them in bloom, well, they don't really grow here, but...

I do push the zone, and sometimes not by design. Cannas, callas, gingers, left undug in fall surprise me with encore performances the next spring.

I keep vowing no more tropicals, but the house is full of Brugmansias and Elephant Ears... So in addition to pushing the zone, there are those tender ones which help swell their ranks...

John

For health reasons I have to pace myself when I'm gardening, so I try to make sure what i plant is for my zone area. But, sometimes I like to try soething out of the ordnary!

I always push my zone!!! If it can't stay outside, then bring it in, why should I miss out on those beauties because of hardiness issue!! NOT ME, gotta try it!!!

Tropical Plants aren't quite my cup of tea,so I cant say I push the zone too-too much, but I always have a good assortment of stuff thats a Zone or two off. And have been pretty lucky so far. So much depends on the sight, and the sort of winter we get-no two winters are alike here (In succesion,any ways).

I try things which would normally be considered tender here, and just leave them out over the Winter, and strangely enough, most of them come back up.

I bought a nice "Alata" passion vine in the Autumn of 2001, covered it in the Winter, and last summer I got 6 leaves.... this year I covered it again and it looks like he has given up the ghost.

Other stuff like Begonias, I've left out just to see how much cold they could take, and last year they were better than ever strangely enough, after being under solid ice at -6 - -12°C for over 6 weeks.

I'll probably give up now on the passion vines since they don't seem to like me very much, which is a shame cos they are really lovely plants.


Wintermoor

Iguess I should qualify my statement that I don't do plants outside my zone rating. I do a good number of canna every year as well as Peruvian Daffodils and Tuberoses. However the later 2 are nearly always in pots and the canna were last year. I will dig those and bring them in the house. I've also decided the only way I can have hybrid tea roses here is to keep them in pots which I can shelter in the cold months. So I only have one of those.

I live in the Alps and often try to grow things that don't like the height or the winter. Some things work and some things don't. I grow mostly vegetables, fruit and flowers and have learnt that certain things survive and other things don't! My oleander grows in a pot and goes on to an unheated landing in winter and is now 16 years old; my dittany likes it in the covered part of the balcony and is totally unaffected by the minus temperatures there (it should be!).Only certain varieties of pea can cope with the early summer heat we get here so I concentrate on those. Chillies love it here and don't seem to mind early summer cold spells but if we have a bad summer (like last year) I have to finish ripening them indoors. It's always surprising what will grow outside its zone and what won't.

I think it's fun experimenting!

If I like a plant, I get it, and worry about the zone later. I can always bring it inside in the winter!!(Though quickly running out of room!!)

I live in Billings, Montana in a more sheltered microclimate. Being zone 4, I would not have much if I stuck to this. So far, I have great success with zone 5 plantings. No, it's not as much as you higher zoners, but for me, it offers me much more diversity.

I live in zone 6, but have a couple of great microclimates that are more like zone 8. I also do bizarre things like planting my tomatoes outside in mid-March ;D Once I found my microclimates, I have really taken advantage of them, without losing plants!

I push my Zone to the limit!I put a six foot fence around the yard to keep winter winds down,(and critters out)If you look at a zone map there is a small area in the NE corner of Ks.that says 6, must be where I am.
Adam I can't wait to see you when you get a year under your belt!You'll be pushing it.

Since I am completely 'zoned, I don't ask my plants to follow. About half of them are nomadic - spending summers outdoors and winters inside.

Metropolitan Tokyo is becoming a "Heat Island", which means, if done right, I can keep semitropical outside year 'round with the minimum of Jan./Feb. protection, yet lilies and others that need those -0 C. temps will still blossom.

Now if only I had more than three square feet of garden..... :-(

I've created some microclimates in my tiny little yard, so I do push the zones quite a bit. All it really takes is falling in love with a photo of a really gorgeous plant and having some nurseyman tell me, "You can't grow that here. . . " before I'm off and running. This year, it is a Sargent's weeping hemlock (I'm zone 7b), which will be a little tricky because of our summer humidity.

Welcome to DG arkiedee!Good luck with the Hemlock,I lost 2 trying them here,mine were not the weeping kind,they are my favorite tree. :)

I push as hard as I can. Since I'm on the line of zone 3 and 4 I wouldn't have much plant variety if I didn't try to push the zone a bit.

Yes! I have callas coming up each year in zone 8. Isn't it supposed to be a zone 10 plant? Also, dahlias, abutilon and EE's.

If I have to dig it, I don't need it, as it is getting harder to do that each year.

If I lose something, well, I have lost a lot more to the deer than "zones"!

Well momcat, you talked me into it! From now on if I see a beautiful plant calling my name, I'm gonna take it home even if it isn't for zone 5. I can always bring it inside where it's warm! THANKS!!!

I'm just the opposite. I try to push my zone to the north. There are things I so loved in OH and it's just too hot down here for them but I continue to try. Sometimes I make it, sometimes I don't. The lilac I got at the roundup last year has buds on it. "Miss Kim" is about the only variety that is supposed to grow down here but the one I have is the old fashioned variety that grows up home. Of course we got to zero degrees this winter too so who knows what I lost or gained.

Miggy
don't like tropicals lol just wait tilll you start seeing alll the pics that get posted once it starts to warm up
that is one of my weaknesses this is a list of my latest shoping trip some are packs and some are 100 count and i managed to keep it under $75
citrus mitis
caesalpinia pulcherrima x pink
dizgotheca elegantissima "false aralia"
akebia quinata "chocolate vine"
mussella lasiocarra
schinus terebinthifolius
morinda citrifolia "noni"
ilex verticellata "winterberry'
pimenta dioca "allspice"
murraya paniculata "orange jasmine"
solanum nigrum
luffa cilindrica
santalum album "white sandalwood"
laurus nobilis
acacia melanoxylon "black acacia"

Everyone are pushing zones up here.. ;)

My brother owns a tree farm in Florida and at Christmas while I was visiting him I asked to take a 10" Night Blooming Jasmine home. It survived the trip very well and now I'm trying different proceedures with cuttings to reproduce more the plants.

I know I am in zone 8, but love to try zone 9 and 10 palms and tropicals and try to push it lose some keep some, but its worth it to have that tropical look to me :)

Katrina

I always push the zone as well. I have plants that are rated 2 higher than mine and they keep coming back bigger and better each year. I love starting new plants and a zone # only makes me take care.

yes...I like to try "tropicals" in my garden..earth is warming up and the winters over here got much milder..besides that my garden is laying on a very sheltered spot facing south..I always have sparkles of hope that I can get my babies through our kind of 8A winters. Cold is'nt that much of an issue but the rain sure is.

I think the reason that people like to "push" the "zone limits" is that the plants that are hardy in your zone are very common (planted a lot) and the plants that shouldn't grow in your zone are not common at all. There is something exciting about growing a plant that is uncommon for the area that you live in. (I have had Stewartia pseudocamellia planted in my yard for the last two years. I have my fingers crossed that it will make it through this winter.)

The new USDA zone map is supposed to be released this month, after a couple of delays, and from the way it sounds most people will be a half to full zone warmer than they were before.
Mike

I sure hope you're right Mike - the last time the USDA re-did the zones, this part of the country ended up colder :)

I hope all of us who "push the zone" will record our experiments and experiences in the proper Plants Database entries - what you've tried and succeeded (or failed) in doing will help other gardeners in your zone, who are wondering the same thing...

I'll admit, I'm a sucker for a good looking plant, especially if it smells great. One good point comes when my poor confused lilac blooms twice--(tho not half as well as northern lilacs). Isn't the basis of gardening to live and learn, or trial and error?

Go? Should we record plants that have an unknown name or an uncertain one? Sometimes we really don't know what we're buying, like when Walmart sells their "white azelea", Lord knows what we're getting!

Since my part of Alaska is a zone 3, I can really only push one way... warmer! We grow lots of plants that are listed as zones 4-5, but only the ones that like cool moist conditions. When it comes to zoning, our lack of hot temps in the summer is as big an issue as our cold temps in winter. I grow almost everything from seed, so I'm constantly trying new plants that will make it in our area. Some prove to be hardy perennials, some prove to be pernnials grown as annuals, and some are just plain disappointing.

However, I really don't push the climate because I don't bring plants in and out of the house or greenhouse. I have about a dozen gernamium (pelargonium) in a friends boiler room, and that's about my limit. I prefer to find hardy plants that don't need too much effort over the winter. Of course, that seems to be changing as I get tempted by all these lovely brugs and things!

"Pushing the Zone" can have alot of meaning in New Mexico. Zones can change by elevation, soil type, annual rainfall (very unpredictable), even which direction the sun is coming from during the different seasons. The state is full of micro-environments. No one believed the eggplant I brought to work was grown locally until I showed them photos of my garden. Technically, I'm in 7a with an average annual rainfall of 9". Rainfall can vary by about 200% from year to year. The soil was originally quite alkaline, with virtually no organic content. This had to be changed. Summertime highs have reached 102 degrees with 10-20% humidity. Evaporation can be a big problem as it causes mineral salts to be drawn to the surface. Successful gardens with non-native species require a good deal of attention. What zone are you in?

I try not to push more than one zone for perennials but I do have 2 tropical Hibiscus which spend the winter in my sun room and I overwinter my geraniums. This year I am going to try a Blue Himalyan Poppy (it too will go into a container).

the plants i love fell in love with dahlia's last year, so i was digging last fall and hopefully they have stored well. i tried agapanthus, and wasn't thrilled with them so some were given away, others stayed in the ground and have nourished the soil. :)
canna's are fun, but definately not zone 5, but i love the big leaves, so i dig and store. now the gladiolus, well i left them in the ground and they came back last year, but it was a warm winter, we'll see what this bitter winter has in store for them this year.
most things that i experiment with i've either gotten from a fellow gardener, or they've been marked down to 25cents a bag, as with the agapanthus. so, i'm not experimenting with a lot of monies.
this year i left some dianthus and a pretty pink verbena, both zone 6, to see how they faired. this winter will certainly tell me if that 1/2 a zone is a lot to me.
i too sit in a little pocket that appears to be zone 6 on maps, but i call myself zone 5. i'm interested in seeing what the new zone maps will say. a winter with negative 10 degrees F, makes you grateful for that snow that is insulating your plants and certainly puts the zone to the test.

Most plants I have inside during wintertime, only sometimes I let some outside. I am watching the german exotic forum...most plants are dead this year. My Musa, Brugmansia,Citrus and Palms are inside and healthy, only some are outside and ........dead

Winter can be heavy in 7b...

Skywarrior your Meconopsis won't do in a pot. It has to be in the ground and in a position that will give it cool roots
They also need dappled shade for best results

I'll try anything. Those dracs weren't supposed to be hardy here and they have been doing great for years. I figure, if I can grow a pineapple in zone 6, I'll push forward and try all sorts of stuff.

I push, and I'll be pushing more each year that I learn how to manage it better. I'm just sorting out our microclimates. We're supposed to be 7b, but, near the top of a mountain (well, what we call a mountain in Alabama), the winds sweeping up from the valley kill plants that do fine down there. My relatives have had Confederate Roses and Caesalpinia pulcherimma growing as high as their houses for years; ours have been dying to the ground annually. This year, I polled them, put tube-foam pipe insulation around their trunks, put a 2.5-foot cage around them and filled it with straw. They kept green leaves sticking out the top into December, and I'm looking forward to the unveiling.

I'm banking on it working! I have started dozens of brugmansias that I've already selected spots for! If it doesn’t work, I’ll just try it again with heat cables in the straw, or maybe just loosely wrap the insulated trunk with the wire that they use to keep water pipes from freezing in the north (that would probably be less expensive than heat cables).

A loquat tree outgrew the greenhouse last year. I tried to give it away here, but, apparently no one else had the room either. So I put it in an unheated coldframe with the taros, some especially big coleuses and cannas. Everything looked great into mid-winter. Then the cold killed the coleuses and nipped the taros and cannas to the ground, but their roots are still fine – even the runners a half-inch under the surface are doing well. The loquat hasn’t even lost a leaf, and its head is pressed against the top. I guess the coldframe will be taller next year. That structure is backed by a rock wall, and I’m thinking of trying a UV light aimed at the wall to absorb and reflect a little heat next winter. I intended to bury the loquat’s pot and put down 2’ of straw. Maybe I’ll manage to get that done for next winter, too.

The tropical vines, I'll tote in and out. I had a Pandora Vine growing up the south side of the house that survived several freezes, but it didn’t survive a lengthy winter storm we had with wind-chills down to –29 (on the mountain). Since then, I’ve read that Pandoras will tolerate temperatures to the low 20s; so I know better how far to push that one ... or, rather, the next one.

I've been told that Thunbergia grandiflora is root-hardy here, but mine didn’t start flowering until early fall. I brought it in and it has bloomed all winter. I’d hate to miss out on that, just to have a green vine all summer. Maybe I’ll start a cutting to try outside.

i was always surprised that the low temperature for zone 5 was -20 to -10. this winter shows that these temperatures can and do happen. we have reached -10 here this winter. most winters we never get that low. i also live right on the edge of zone 6. so i can see were pushing the zone to 6 and maybe even 7, most winters would be possible here. but come that odd frigid winter, it would all be dead.