If you blow up the map to look at the detailed local areas, it actually looks like Venice is in 10a like here in St. Pete.

They can say whatever they want to, but the freezes the last 3 winters tell me I can't grow some of the stuff I thought I could when I started to garden in Florida! :)
Marcia

Here are the old and new zone maps for Florida.

OLD:

NEW:
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Hardiness zones are a good guideline. If you live in an area for two or three years and you garden a lot, then you probably know what you can grow. Although this winter was really hot here in Orlando, damned global warming, shouldn't someone warn us about this stuff! ;-)

My garden is full of bugs that are usually killed off by the occasional freeze.... this is bad news, if it's like this now just think what july and August are going to be like ! ( we are abt. 10 degrees hotter right now)...... people that deny global warming have their head in the sand....lets just kill off all the polar-bears and be done with it, is their attitude... sally

I don't want to think about summer, it's 10 degrees over here too and I don't want to know what my electric bill is going to be during summer.
Remember in the seventies when people thought we were going to be entering a new ice age soon. Now they say it's getting hotter. Well that is true, it is getteing hotter just as it has been doing for the past ~10,000 years, and once the average reaches about 95, yey another ice age. At least it will be cooler, and if we are not washed away by glacial melt, Florida will be quite the paradise.

We get one decent winter....what happened to the good old days when people were glad we weren't freezing?
We're just having a decent winter here for a change...I haven't been able to grow winter tomatoes for the past 4 years....because it's been too friggin cold.....LOL

The global part of global warming says global temperatures are heading for a record low.......

http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/execute.csh?amsutemps+002

Here is a link that might be useful: http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/execute.csh?amsutemps+002

All I know about global warming is that we're in between ice ages, so we will be getting warmer, then colder, and that al gore tried a little to hard to capitalize on the fear of it.
Try moving to Florida, winter is the only time we have that is decent (in my opinion), and this winter is HOT! Although I am glad that I do have two warm seasons. I am glad that you can get winter tomatoes this year, but I find them to be lacking.
Maybe they were right back in the seventies. The arrogance of men, thinking we can predict something as incredibly complex as climate change.

If you don't like the cold... stay in your bed.
If you don't like the heat... stay in the pool.
If you don't like okra... there's no hope for you.

MOO

...I am glad that you can get winter tomatoes this year, but I find them to be lacking....

Not sure where you live but if your close to St. Pete come by my house and get a few Beefmaster and Sweet Baby Girl tomatoes, I guarantee you won't be disappointed in the taste.

Tom

Ok, in st. Pete I'm sure you do get decent winter toms. Even here in Orlando they're ok, but in zones eight to six, where you can over winter plants with protection, I've always found them to be not as good.

I've already seen some squash bugs around the yard. It seems early for them or else they never went away. Last spring/summer/fall wasn't too bad but the year before we had tons of squash bugs that ruined everything! I hope this doesn't mean that it will be bad again this year!

It is unfortunate that the term "global warming" caught on in the culture.

It is better to call it "climate change" due to the greenhouse effect. That climate change comes from us fouling our atmosphere.

Climate change results in severe weather phenomenon; freezes, drought, sustained heat waves, super outbreaks of tornadoes and so on.

My cousin just wrote that right now the trees in Davenport, Iowa are budding out.

I think the MET just said that anyone that claimed temps were rising in the past 15 years.....was lying.....LOL

Met Office releases new figures which show no warming in 15 years

By David Rose

Last updated at 5:38 AM on 29th January 2012

The supposed "consensus" on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.

Meanwhile, leading climate scientists yesterday told The Mail on Sunday that, after emitting unusually high levels of energy throughout the 20th Century, the sun is now heading towards a grand minimum in its output, threatening cold summers, bitter winters and a shortening of the season available for growing food.

Here is a link that might be useful: East Anglia Climatic Research Unit Press Release