dormancy

I know this is basic, but I have looked for an hour on the net and in books and cannot find an adequate answer. The question is, do all plants have a dormancy period? I mean, up here in Minnesota all things green go brown and trees lose all their leaves. Do the deciduous trees in the south USA ever lose leaves? Do your "perennials" quit growing or producing flowers? Do you even have to use terminology such as perennial or annual, i.e., do things like petunias just keep growing all year? Do your rose bushes produce all year? I really am embarrassed to ask this, but I really cannot answer it.. Thank you much.
Brainerd

Most plants slow down in the winter, but not all totally go dormant. There are plants that bloom in the winter, but they're generally things that wouldn't be hardy in a colder zone like yours, other things for the most part bloom during the same time of year as they would for you, except since spring comes earlier and winter comes later, they'll sometimes start blooming earlier or continue blooming a little longer.

Deciduous trees are deciduous trees, so no matter where they are, they'll lose their leaves. Maple trees in warm climates still drop their leaves just like maple trees in cold climates, only difference is sometimes we don't get as nice fall color as people in colder climates. However, we have a lot of trees that don't lose their leaves in the winter, but those trees would never survive in MN, so we do have a lot more greenery over the winter.

For annuals and perennials...we have those too. Some plants are annuals pretty much wherever you are, they have evolved to grow, bloom, set seed, and die in one year, doesn't matter what the climate is. Everything else is a perennial, but some perennials are only hardy in warm zones (these are often called tender perennials), so in a cold place like MN they'll behave like an annual since the winter will kill them. But they're really a perennial that's just not hardy in your zone.

Thanks ecrane3. That helps. It is strange that up here, even in my basic high schoold biology, we learned that there were two types of trees, deciduous and coniferous. All trees other than conifers lose their leaves up here, so according to your response these are by definiton deciduous, But if your trees out there like the California sycamore or the non native eucalyptus keep their leaves all year, how are they classified there? They are not conifers but they also do not lose their leaves. The leaves, do they recycle, is there shedding that occurs for new growth to happen? I know this must sound stupid, but I really am at a loss here. Thanks again for your response.
brainerd

The types of trees aren't deciduous and coniferous, they're broadleaf and coniferous (but if you went to school in a cold climate, all the broadleaf trees are deciduous, so I could see how the confusion set in!). Most broadleaf evergreen trees will shed some leaves from time to time, they just don't lose them all at once in the winter like the deciduous ones.

And it's oversimpifying a bit to say that everything's either evergreen or it's deciduous, there are some things that are semi-deciduous. They will keep their leaves in the warmest zones, but in an intermediate zone (or a bad winter in a warm zone) they may lose all/most of their leaves in the winter. Or some things very briefly lose their leaves towards the end of winter, but then grow them right back again very quickly.

Thanks ecrane3. To even muddy it more, conifers are called softwood up here and deciduous are called hardwood, even though some of the softest wood here is deciduous. Also anything "evergreen" is a conifer, but yet the coniferous larch (tamarack) lose their needles. So I think what you just said is that what you call broadleaf could technically be "evegreen"? That just does not compute in this frozen Minnesota brain, but I think i am beginning to understand. I understand that if I was a tree in California I would want to grow and be happy all year, here in the tundra we just hideout for 6 months waiting for something better to come what may. Appreciate the info.
brainerd

Broadleaf and evergreen have nothing to do with each other--there are broadleaf evergreens and broadleaf deciduous trees. Broadleaf just means that they have "regular" leaves vs the needle-like leaves that conifers have.

That's very interesting. In South Carolina a broadleaf is a broadleaf, a leaf is a leaf and a needle is a needle. I had not realized that different parts of the country used different terms.

It can be very confusing. Believe me, I've learned the hard way. LOL You have to be very specific with descriptions or you can get lost quite quickly. But the learning is the fun part!