Could plants for Zones 3-8 be planted in Zone 9b?

I see sooo many plants that say Zones 3-8, but I live in Zone 9b. Would it make that much difference if I planted one of these in 9B?

Diana

I'm sure you could plant them, but they would require extra help/protection over winter or summer.

"They" are supposed to be coming out with a summer survival zoning map soon. I thought it would be out by this year. Be on the lookout for it.

Diana, many plants that are marked zone 3-8 are marked that way because they don't like a lot of summer heat. Your version of zone 9 doesn't get a lot of summer heat so they will be just fine. The only ones that you'll have trouble with are things like lilacs and peonies that require some winter chill in order to bloom well, but the majority of plants that are marked only up to zone 8 it's because of the summer heat thing so you can just ignore that.

Many plants require a dormant period which they get during the cold winter months.
I would try them on a plant by plant basis. A blanket answer is not possible to say that any Zone 3-8 plants would do well in 9.
Paul

I think the zones should address the humidity too. It makes a huge difference to the plants to have a humidity of 85% or 30%.

I think I've mentioned this before on one of your other threads, but your best bet is to get a copy of the Sunset Western Garden book, figure out which Sunset zone you're in, and then check the plants that you're interested in there. If the Sunset book says it'll grow in your Sunset zone, then you have nothing to worry about. If you don't want to pay for a copy, many nurseries have them available so you can look things up while you're shopping.

Poodlelady, I, too, struggled with plant hardiness zones and the plants I want to have. But having lived with and loved plants I've lost after far too much work to keep them with me, I finally gave up and paid attention to the zone numbers and only bring home plants with zone numbers closer to my own. I just got tired of losing them. I have a hard enuf time taking care of those which actually belong here.

It's kind of like my having been transplanted as a young adult from near-desert conditions in Fresno, CA, to San Antonio, Texas' summer humidity, I finally figured out. It might be a lovely place, but I sure wasn't well-suited for it. LOL!!

How's that curly little pup?

Linda and The MopTops

edited misspelling-eeeeek!

This message was edited Nov 9, 2008 12:13 AM