RE: aroid hardiness

From: Tony Avent tony at plantdel.com> on 2002.03.12 at 15:17:44(8281) MBurdack: You are correct that plants from warmer areas will never achieve their full "potential" in colder zones. We are only interested to know if they will survive and look acceptable in the garden. Many plants such as Musella lasiocarpa and Musa basjoo are both from Asian high elevations climates, but perform beautifully in our warmer climates. Conversely, many of our bananas will actually fruit, but they are killed to the ground each winter. While this may not constitute thriving to a Floridian, this is perfectly acceptable here. What has proved interesting is that many plants that are hardy here that have not proven so in north to central Florida. In our climate, a fall cooling period causes many plants to go into a dormant state that is usually not the case in more southerly climates. Once plants enter this induced dormant state, they are able to withstand much colder winter temperatures. Regarding thriving, we have a Blechnum fern that we collected in Mexico several years ago. While it returns very late every year, it never gets very large or vigorous and just limps along. Despite the fact that it is growing in zone 7, I consider this a zone 8 plant. For us, a plant that simply limps along is not adapatable to that growing zone. Other plants such as Philodendron selloum from zone 9-10 in northeastern Argentina have performed wonderfully here for 15+ years, despite our long cold winters. Our gardening philosophy allows us to start with an open mind "We consider all plants hardy until we have killed them ourselves...at least three times". Our collection efforts on this recent trip were focused in a narrow elevation zone where plants still recieved good summer heat, but also cold winter temperatures. Obviously, plants below and above these elevations would stand less of a chance of adapting to our climate. The hardiness map as you correctly point out is only a guide, as nothing in nature can be pigeon-holed so precisely. Many of us wish that more time and data had been used to create the USDA hardiness map. Perhaps this will happen one day. Tony Avent +More Plant Delights Nursery @ Juniper Level Botanic Garden 9241 Sauls Road Raleigh, NC 27603 USA Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F USDA Hardiness Zone 7b email tony@plantdelights.com website http://www.plantdel.com phone 919 772-4794 fax 919 772-4752 "I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least three times" - Avent

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