Thanks for posting the link Sunnyside.
I'm in zone sixB by the new map. I'm not sure whether I was in 6A or B by the old one.
I think this winter would be a zone 8A so far. I could get used to that. lol
Even with average temperatures going up from global warming, it wouldn't surprise me to have a night that drops down to minus 20, maybe not this winter but someday we might. Our weather is just so erratic.

Thanks for the map. I never can remember if I'm 6A or 6B either. I was glad to see the rain. This strange weather was making me worry about another dry year this coming season. I don't know if it is the nice warm breaks we have been having regularly or the terrible gardening year last year that has dampened by winter restlessness. Usually I have something under a light bulb by now, but I don't have the urge this year so far. The walnut log thing kept me interested for a while. They haven't been here all week but came today. I have been using my little chain saw every day one gas tank's worth and then I quit because I'm not Glenda (I'm lazy). Between other jobs he is going to work on my ditch so I have been getting little trees and branches out of the way. He is going to cut some of my little trees too big for the brush hog, but really I could do that if I wasn't lazy.

We have been mostly zone 6a-b here in our little corner of SW Missouri, but our zone is now 7a according to the map. Not that I am going to trust it, with the weather we have the past few years, one winter (last) could be zone 5 and the next zone 8 like this one. I'm still planting for zone 6b, no matter what the USDA says.

At least, the zone is more in line with what Home Depot sells in their garden center. They have us grouped in the same region as Dallas (or they did). I still don't think lorapetalum is hardy here, or any of those other zone 7b-8 8a shrubs they keep trying to sell us!

Sandy

Lowes does the same. I am the nutty lady who warns people looking at azaleas that some of the ones they carry are not hardy.

7a -- I'll take it. Maybe I will trust the "hardy" label on some of my potted gardenias now. I'm envisioning a lovely gardenia hedge someday. We shall see.

I need a load of topsoil to make some things happen this summer. Think I'll call Neosho Tree Service. Has anyone used them for soil? I have an offer to share a load of mushroom compost. Does this have to sit for awhile to discharge salt content, as I have heard?

If it really is getting warmer, this makes a lot of difficult plants possible. Never have gotten used to cannas and dahlias left in the ground overwinter here when we were 6b. Guess this old puppy is going to have to change growing strategies a lot and save herself some work!
Mulches are probably going to continue to be very useful to keep soil moisture in -- this year I'm going to try using pine mulch in my perinneal beds. Is pine better than cyprus?
Sunny

Sunny I think our winters are warmer, but last Feb. was the coldest I have experienced in a while. This winter is warm so far but this weird weather makes me expect more weird weather - I don't know what to expect next. Neosho tree service orders soil from someone over by Monarch Springs around East Newton somewhere. I think they get that guy to deliver it and they smooth it out. He has a bucket truck for tree removal, a big chipper to put the limbs in, a tractor with a bucket to smooth out and dig my ditch, several chain saws and a stump grinder. I know they have fire wood customers also.

I buy mushroom compost at Joplin Garden and Lawn on Main Street by the caboose. When they have a new load it is stinky but it calms down after a while. I like it stinky and steamy. I think if you get it directly from Miami, OK it would be nice and stinky. I want the rain to wash that good stuff out on my soil so I don't mind when it is "fresh". When I checked last it was $30 for a big scoop there. If I had a bid pickup I would get it directly from the mushroom farm. I know they grow mushrooms in it that people eat but I am not comfortable with smelly stuff near radishes or potatoes, lettuce etc until it leaches out a bit. I have planted tomatoes in it because they don't touch it directly. I am often overly cautious though.

Maybe we are too hasty in this climate change bit. There are new factors to put into the equation for climatic zone ,in my humble opinion. Let us take one factor....trees. I am only sixty years old and I remember more big old trees in my childhood than now.Now we had been burning wood to heat our homes in the past....but there were fewer people on this planet.The demand for lumber ,as in Amazon rain forest , is higher. I am not going to depress everybody with gloom in my first posting,but if you ask me....plant more trees....and just wait and see..Sorry for the rhyme.It was by accident.

Robin here... Hi everyone! I was so discouraged last year I thought maybe I'd give up gardening. The weather was so screwy! I finally got the itch and started some stuff under lights and planted some peas in the garden. I made more work for myself by just walking away last August leaving all the weeds and trash for me to do now. I knew I was back on track when I started lurking to hear what all of you have been up to. :-)

I'm going to stick with the idea we're zone 6. I try to find zone 5 stuff to be safe. So many of the zone 7 plants from Lowes and HD I've put in over the years have passed on due to an exceptional freeze. It's heartbreaking to have a beloved shrub die after a few years. Is this what the retailers want? A new conspiracy theory :-D.... USDA in cahoots with plant growers!

It is easy to forget that we can't just suddenly grow things we couldn't before they changed the zone map. What we have is an AVERAGE of the last ten years since they last adjusted the map, and we can still get those deep freezes on occasion. Just because we are zone 7a doesn't mean that all zone 7a plants will never be winter killed here anymore. We can try them, and if they survive most winters, well good, and if we like them, we can replace them knowing that we may lose them someday. We have had freezes here that have damaged or even killed lots of zone 5 and 6 plants (mimosas, weeping willows, Japanese maples for example) but it isn't a rule that is going to happen every year.

I intend to try zone 7 plants as I have for years, and well, I win some, I lose some!

Even Florida has an occasional killing freeze, and they are what, zone 10?

Sandy

I'm in Little Rock right smack dab in the center of Arkansas. For the past 10 years, I've been saying that I'm really in zone 8 and the new map confirms that. 30 years ago, cammelias, gardenias, and wax leaf privet were questionably hardy here. The last 'pipe bursting' winter was about 1985. Now, these plants are common and seldom injured during winter. You folks further north of me can site your higher-zone plants in areas where the fierce northwest winds won't burn them so bad. Also, remember that ice damage is a problem with broadleaf evergreens. Those large leaves become an ice-magnet and weigh the plant down or cause it to break.
As to Home Depot and such, their plant buyers are regional. They buy and stock the same plants in Dallas as in Ashville. Rhododendrons don't really have a chance in our summers. And oleander is questionably hardy in our winters. Of course, most of the people working there don't have a clue. So, it's good to read up before impulse buying at the big box stores.