Gardening Zones

Knowing your gardening zones for hardiness and heat can help you decide which plants to choose. Your geographical location will affect how successful your flowers or plants will grow in your gardening areas.

The GQnE garden is located in Hardiness zone 5. Thus, for orchids to be successfully planted outside here in the garden and expected to thrive would be an impossibility.

You'll want to refer to the USDA Hardiness Zone Map to determine your hardiness zone and know how cold your area may become. If you live in a warmer climate, you may also want to use the AHS Plant Heat Zone Map to see how hot your area can get.

Most plant descriptions will list the hardiness zone range, typically two numbers: "Hardiness zone 3-8" or "Hardy in: Zones 4-7" When you see four numbers as in 3-8, 8-1 you will be seeing both the hardiness zone (the first set of numbers) and the heat zone (the second set of numbers).

To help you locate plants that will grow well in your geographical area, some of the on-line catalogs have Plant Finders. You simply plug in your growing zone, pick some other options that you may like to include and the website will provide you with plenty of flowers and plants to choose from to plant in your garden.

Here are a couple of sites to check out that have Plant Finders:

Breck's Nurseries and Dutch Gardens

Sun Exposure | Soil Types | Available Water

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