Regional Flower Gardening in America

or How to only put flowers in your garden that will come back next year

There are a lot of wonderful Web sites catering to flower gardening in specific areas (Zones). Makes sense to plant what's appropriate to your locale, don't you think? So what's a Zone? The United States Department of Agriculture has mapped out the continental U.S., Canada, and Alaska into bands of temperature. Plants are sold as being hardy to a particular Zone. If you're patient enough to wait for the graphic to download, here's a nice map of the USDA Zones: www.ambrosegardens.com/zonemap/zonemap.cfml

It is really frustrating to look through perennial catalogs; at least it was in my experience! I'd see a gorgeous picture of just the color I was looking for, read all the way through the description of this beautiful plant, and then, on the last line, there'd be the deal killer: a Zone requirement much warmer then where I lived. Phooey!! So I started hunting out Zone specific gardening sites. There are more now then there were a few years ago, but they are still difficult to find. So I thought I'd slowly get around to putting up such a list. Here are some from my bookmarks. I'll add to it as time permits, and feel free to drop me a line and tell me of any that you know of.

Zone 3 to 4
Ambrose Gardens (www.ambrosegardens.com) is a beautiful site with ever-changing specials and a truly powerful database full of plants for Zones 3 & 4. I was working for the designers of this site, Internet Broadcasting Corp., when this site was being created, so of course I'm rather partial to it. If you've ever shopped via catalog for lilies, you'll recognize the name of a premier Asiatic lily grower, Borbeleta Gardens. Borbeleta never had a color catalog, but they are a primary supplier to Ambrose, so if you want to see their lilies, now you can!

Home & Garden Conference - Talk about gardening in Minnesota, including Zone 4 garden tips. (www.freenet.msp.mn.us/conf/home_and_garden/)

Northern Gardening is the personal site of a Minnesota Master Gardener. (www.oocities.org/RainForest/1329/)

Zone 5
Colorado Springs is an USDA 5a, 5b zone. In certain microclimates it can push into zone 6. Most of the plants that are at the Xeriscape Demonstration Garden are for zone 5. This information on gardening in a semiarid climate is, quite logically, made available by Colorado Springs Utilities, which has an interest in using water wisely.

Zone 7?
Boston Gardens is very focused, though full of lots of articles. However, I have to guess that it is in Zone 7, because they don't list a zone.

Zone 9 - 10 - 11
Garden Florida is a site for people who love plants. Its focus is on tropical and subtropical plants that do well in South Florida landscapes. Of course many of these plants thrive as summer annuals in other parts of the country.

Zone 23 to 24
Digital Gardener's Southern California flower planting schedule: www.digitalseed.com/gardener/schedule/flowers.html

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After a while you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul,
And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning and company doesn't mean security,
And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't promises,
And you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and your eyes open - with the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child,
And you learn to build your roads on today, because tomorrow's ground is too unstable for plans, and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
After a while, you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much, so you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure... that you really are strong... and you really do have worth.
-- "Comes The Dream"