Challenge Your Zone
Originally published in February 2022. Re-published Feb 2025.
The first thing I did when we bought that the farm was to pull out a zone map. To be honest I’m still not completely sure If I’m a Zone 5 or a 4. Rather than worry about it too much I continue to plant what I love.
The alternative is to confine yourself to what everyone else in your area is planting. To be honest, I’ve seen enough hydrangeas, hostas and apple trees to last a lifetime, so I push the zone boundaries.
In perennial speak a zone offers guidelines as to what flowers will live or die, In your area, In an ‘average’ winter, IF you leave it to its own devices planted in the ground. IT DOES NOT MEAN, you can’t grow that particular plant. You can grow a palm tree in Ontario if you really want to.
Planting outside of your zone isn’t really a complicated wall to break down.
First of all - you may have to accept that the plant won’t re-emerge next spring. What the growers refer to as ‘treat as an annual’. I grew up on the seasonal trifecta of petunia’s, geraniums and impatiens. My mom was one of the dedicated May 24 crowd that loaded up on annuals for a bright garden display year after year. She was more than happy to reset the clock each year, with a bounty of annual pots cheering up her balcony up to the wise old age of 92.
So just because a plant could potentially grow each year, if you lived in a BC microclimate, does not mean you can’t plant it in your cold zone. Enjoy its glory for a few months then bid it farewell. Verbena Bonariensis is a perfect example. It is hardy in zones 8-11 but I plant it each year because it grows quickly - and it’s gorgeous.
Next - and also somewhat obvious, don’t leave them outside. We bought a chicken tractor from a couple in 2020. The wife toured me around her garden with pride. They were about 45 minutes north of us so I was quite intrigued by the number of tropical plants. She told me that’s simply what she loved so that’s what she planted. She then demonstrated how her husband had cleverly dug her holes throughout the gardens to place her pots. They were covered in mulch and I was none the wiser until she revealed the magic. She brought them in to a temperature controlled room in the winter - some of those plants were over 10 years old.
As perennials tend to do they will grow bigger each year. Just pot them up or divide them and carry on. Plant pot technology - particularly fabric bags, mean that you can easily transport not only flowers, but citrus trees and tender fruit trees to protect them from an incompatible outside zone (maybe even palm trees).
Finally, protect them. You can amp yourself up the zone ladder with some plastic cover and ground stakes. Without investing in a greenhouse or poly tunnel you can simply buy a roll of poly for $30 from Amazon and create your own micro-climate. Mother Nature doesn’t care what it looks like and frankly neither do I. I’m happy to sit by the log fire in the winter and re-emerge like a butterfly in the spring to uncover my precious plants.
To be fair, I will only know in spring of this year whether I pushed the zone boundaries too far with some of my choices - but I’m OK with that. If I love the plant enough I will adjust using one of the above strategies. What I will never say is “I wish I could grow that here…”.
Plant what you love.
