2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

[onestepforward]

http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMweb/default.aspx

Houston's zone has been changed from planting zone 8b to 9a. Has your area changed?

[XemaSab]

1. We went from 8b to 9a too

But I don't believe it for a second.

It gets down to 15 here at least one night out of the year.

[supernova]

2. We're 7b

defined as getting to 5-10 F in winter extremes. That sounds about right. We don't hit that every year, mostly 30s and 20s.

[MuseRider]

3. Went from a 5,

never saw a distinction of a or b, to 6a. I noticed last year that some seed catalogs had us with this change but this is the first that I have seen from the usda.

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. Interesting - has Raleigh as 7B, I've seen other sources putting us at 8.

We've lived here 18 years - big changes - we can now grow rosemary, bay, and oleander in the ground with no winter protection and it comes through fine. That's a big change!

[onestepforward]

6. I've seen changes in Houston too.

I have a lemon tree that's blooming and covered with bees. I saw bats flying around a few nights ago. My trees have only dropped 1/2 their leaves, although this could be from our drought. Lots of insects are flying about including plenty of mosquitoes. It's more like Spring right now. When I've ordered seeds from a catalog in the past, the ones zoned for 9 have worked out better than zone 8.

[Denninmi]

5. I stayed the same, 6a

But I see they have expanded the 6a Zone in SE Michigan quite a bit further out from the core of the Detroit urban heat island from where it was on the previous map. And, there is a bigger swath of 6b along the shores of Lakes St. Clair and Erie.

[beac]

7. I'm still in 6b, but on the cusp of 7a, same as always.

Have never seen it get as low as "0 to-5" (Annual Extreme Minimum Tempurature 1976-2005) while I've been living here. I'm betting 2006-2035's average will be a good bit higher.

[JDPriestly]

8. I'm not sure. My area looks like it is now 9a or 9b.

It was always 8 or 9. But another resource pinpointing my exact address claims that I am in area 10. I think that the 10 is correct. Los Angeles is right on the edge of different areas. We are low. But some areas are almost in the mountains. We have slightly different planting environments.

In spite of the problems with gauging LA, it's a great map.