USDA Hardiness Zone Map

USDA Hardiness Zone Map.  Have you seen the new 2012 USDA Hardiness Zone Map?  If not, you may be surprised to see that you may now be living in a zone warmer than you were in 2011.  If this warming trend continues, I may be able to grow tropicals as perennials here in Upstate New York.  How very frightening!  To see the hardiness zone changes, go to http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/.  You can then click on the link for an interactive page where you can enter your zip code for your revised zone – including if you are in the a or b part of that zone. A’s are the colder half of the 10 degree zone range, b’s in the warmer half.  So for instance, I am now listed in Zone 5a (average annual minimum winter temperatures are 15 to 20 degrees below zero) while just 20 miles south of me is Zone 5b (average minimum winter temperatures are 10 to 15 degrees below zero).  I really don’t pay that much attention to a’s or b’s, unless they are on my son’s report card.  I suggest you follow suit.  Life’s too short to get bogged down by the little stuff.