Throughout this post, we will explore the concept of plant hardiness and its corresponding hardiness zones—a vital variable in the realm of cultivation
Plant hardiness and hardiness zones
A plant must be able to survive the lowest temperature during winter in the place that they are growing in order to survive for the next growing season, and every plant has a threshold temperature below which they will die. The ability of a plant to survive extreme cold temperature is referred to as its hardiness. A very hardy plant is able to tolerate extreme lows while a non hardy plant cannot tolerate cold temperature at all.
Temperature is well recorded across the world and hardiness zone maps have been created that show what areas experience what temperature ranges. There are a number of different hardiness systems available, but the one I refer to in this book, and the one most commonly referred to, is the USDA Plant Hardiness Scale. The hardiness scale ranges from 1a to 13b, 1 being arctic …