Jim, I live in Minnesota with long cold winters.
Two years ago, I grew /Hesperaloe/. When I removed the plants at the end of the season, I forgot one. Last winter was a snowy one and in spring, there it was alive and happy. We've got even better snow cover this year. --Henry Fieldseth Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, zone 4 Jim Hatchett wrote” Yes these zone are confusing to me as well.” I know nothing about the climate of Idaho , but I’m guessing that it’s drier than Maryland in the winter (or under snow). Many plants which are adapted to very cold but dry winters are, in terms of zone hardiness, much less hardy here in the east. As an example, Hesperaloë parviflora is marginally hardy here in zone 7, but properly sited it does very well. Many of the Agave are rated for much colder zones than our zone 7, but they are dubious garden plants here for the most part. And yet, every once and a while someone has a spectacular success with one. It was a real eye-opener to see the hardiness ratings for agaves in the wonderful High Country Gardens catalog, and I trust their ratings for their climate. But those of us in the east have to take these with a grain of salt (and find suitable microclimates if we want to give those plants a try). Jim McKenney ____________________________________________________________________________________ TV dinner still cooling? Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ Alpine-l mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/alpine-l
