It is one of the most beautiful seasons of the year, HELLO, SPRING! I became keenly aware in my early 20s that among the vast species of Perennial Plants that grow in Tennessee, there are a few that are rarely seen in other places.
When my Aunt Charlotte, a gardener in her own right who had a love of perennial bulbs and flowering Perennial shrubs, moved to Margate Florida, that was my first insight to zone specific species of Perennials.
Margate,a quaint little town just outside of Fort Lauderdale, known for its humid and sunny environment, her deep south zone 10b garden hosted brilliant colors of flowering tropicals and thick leafy succulents and cacti, pretty pink hibiscus, and flaming red flowering trumpet vines. She had a screened in cement pond where she kept many of her beloved plants somewhat shaded from the screaming hot southern sun.
One thing she would always ask me to bring when I would visit her at her quaint beachy-vibe cottage, was Tennessee pork cracklins for homemade cornbread, and a few bulbs of the Official State Flower of Tennessee, THE IRIS. She would try and persuade the Iris to grow in a special sectioned-off portion of her garden, with specifically formulated top notch premixed soil to premier the unusual Perennial flower. She said that the Iris, in their beautiful bearded majestic stature, reminded her of her hometown back in Tennessee, back in Nashville where her roots, and mine, run deep.
I brought her a dozen or so bulbs with each visit down south and we would talk of our garden adventures and share stories over cracklin cornbread and a cold glass of buttermilk, while overlooking a veranda of neatly manicured thick sewn St. Augustine grass, and huge white plumes of hydrangea most of them bowing curtsy to the hot afternoon sun, and deeply breathing in the intoxicating fragrance of the beautiful white blooms of the Crown Jewel Gardenia. And she would share with me propagated cuttings from her tropicals for me to try in my own Perennial Garden, each of us failing miserably attempting to grow something outside of the meteorological character where each, to his own beloved climate, flourishes. It was then that I became keenly aware of Zone specific Perennials and why Zone identity matters.
All pictures here have been submitted from the gardens of The Perennial Garden Society members from coast to coast.
In Nashville, my home town where I, and four generations before me have grown and enjoyed the beauty and benefit of growing a Zone 7-7b Perennial Garden. The inhabitants of my Nashville garden, with its hot then cold-wet then dry- mix of climate, have learned to adapt during the dry hot humid summers with sweltering “feels like” temperatures of 100+ degrees Fahrenheit and 99% Humidity, where we overcome such extreme spectrums of weather with perfectly planned in ground and overhead irrigation. We then, as green gives way to hues of orange and red and yellow as the weather begins to turn cooler, we remove all irrigation, or at least “blow out” pipes with compressed air, in the Fall to prevent damages during deep freezes that never truly last for long periods of time. (Peculiar to our area, but a true story all the same, when flurries are predicted in the South-schools close early so that parents can hurriedly buy up every last gallon of milk and loaf of bread in the grocery. Some people say that in Tennessee, the weather here changes as abruptly as a woman changes her mind. Some even say Mother Nature herself resides in the deep valley of the middle Tennessee region where she proudly displays every mood of tropical heat, thunderstorm, tornado, hail, and snow, so that spectators who might want to see her show off in all her fury, can even sometimes witness every mood all in one day. She is such a show off in the hills of Tennessee like very few places on earth. Mother Nature and Father Time bow to no one.)
There is a very large variety of Perennial shrubs, fruit trees, and flowers that are so happy happy happy in Nashville’s zone 7-7b. However, they are miserable anywhere else on the planet, such as the Iris species that VERY BRIEFLY adorned Aunt Charlottes zone 9 Margate Florida garden.
EXPLAINING GROWING ZONES:
Of course, the smaller the zone number such as 1-4, the colder the climate. And the larger numbers 5-7 are more subtropical in nature. And the bad boys of horticulture and agriculture are the hot and tropical zones 8-10, which rarely see frost and long term cold weather below the 30s. Lucky those!
CAN I GROW OUTSIDE MY ZONE?
Is it hopeless to consider growing a Perennial outside of its zone? May it NEVER BE SO! Of course you can grow some Perennials outside of their zones. I remember I had a beloved Dinnerplate DAHLIA ! She was a real beauty but I knew that she would only tolerate Hardiness Zone 8-10 and if I wanted her to return again the next summer I would have to dig her up or treat her as an annual. I religiously dug her from her comfortable bed every fall, painstakingly cutting her back to the ground, digging her up, wait for her to dry thoroughly and store her in darkness, occasionally spritzing her to keep her from drying out too much and then plant her back in her bed again in the fall. Oh my goodness, she was more fussy than my teenage daughter at prom season. Then one year, I was away in the fall of that year and left her in the ground through Winter. I was so sad to know that she would never return in all her show stopping glory. HOWEVER, TO MY SURPRISE -because she was sheltered against the northern exposure placed in a dry corner next to my brick house she surprised me and showed up again the following summer because this microclimate in my landscape allowed for a pseudo zone 8 imitation. I was delighted when I saw her familiar deep green leafy fernlike stems emerging from the earth.
Don’t give in to the Zone (Jail). If you love a Perennial and it’s preferred zone or climate is outside of your own, don’t toss out the attempt to at least grow it as an annual, or possibly create a mini greenhouse effect during the winter months by trimming it to the ground and covering it with an opaque plastic milk jug or glass cloche, allowing heat, light and protection of the sensitive plant. You never know until you try, and you may be delighted to find it survives!
Azalea
HOW DO I FIND MY HARDINESS ZONE?
The US Department of Agriculture sets the zones and in more recent years, the zones have even changed to more similarly match the current climate conditions. The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is a tool used by gardeners and growers to determine which perennial plants are most likely to thrive in a specific location. It is based on the average annual extreme minimum winter temperature, divided into zones and half zones. The map helps gardeners understand the climate of their area and choose appropriate plants that can tolerate the average coldest and hottest temperatures in their area. And just because a plant is rated for your zone doesnt mean it will automatically thrive in your garden. Other factors like sunlight, water, and soil condition play a role also.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON USDA GROWING ZONES IN YOUR AREA, GO TO THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE’S WEBSITE AT:
HTTPS://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov
In closing, I hope that you will not limit yourself to Zone Specific species for your area. And more importantly, it is my hope that you visit other like-minded gardeners, sharing your stories and their experiences, and that you find your happy place in THE PERENNIAL GARDEN.
Do you have a story to share of your Perennial Garden? If we feature your story on the Perennial Garden Society Website, we will send you a free gift. Send your story to MasterGardener@PerennialGardenSociety.org.