Round Robin: The Myth of Hardiness Zones

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Denver, Colorado—My garden is my laboratory. There are certainly days (the bad-hair kind) when I must seem like a mad scientist. The challenge is to make a series of experiments look like a garden. It’s tough when experiments fail, and some of them do.

It’s not because I’m a bad gardener. I’m a good one, but I’m always pushing the limits. I’m in zone denial, refusing to recognize the limitations ­imposed by the almighty USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Certainly, there is value in evaluating plant hardiness by minimum winter temperatures, but there’s much more to it than that. My Denver garden is officially in Zone 5, but so are a lot of other places, such as Chicago. Gardeners there can grow many of the same plants that I do—some better than I do, others not—but there are important differences.

Denver’s dry air and low rainfall make it possible for me to grow many perennials that would ordinarily rot out in Chicago. One such is snow daisy (Tanacetum niveum), a cousin of feverfew with finely cut silver foliage covered by a flurry of small blossoms in June. On the other hand, Chicago’s climate is heavily influenced by its proximity to a great big lake that tends to moderate rapid temperature changes in winter. The tiny little lake in the park across the street from me doesn’t do the same, even though I joke about “the lake effect”. Denver’s winter temperatures swing wildly and rapidly, taxing the constitution of woody plants, especially broad-leaved evergreens. Hollies, yews, and rhododendrons may not be completely impossible to grow here, but I’ve already killed more than my fair share.

My experimenting thus has been largely confined to herbaceous plants, many of which I grow from seed. My favorite source for really weird, unheard-of perennials is the members’ seed exchange of the North American Rock Garden Society (it’s not necessary to have rocks to be a member—for membership information, write to the Executive Secretary, NARGS, PO Box 67, Millwood, NY 10546). Last year, members received a listing of more than 6,000 species, which took me two weeks to go through. I request seeds of odd plants that I’ve been trying to track down as well as any species from favorite genera such as Salvia, Allium, Thalictrum, and Geranium.

Early winter is the ideal time to sow perennial seed. That may sound odd, but it makes sense as seeds from many perennials native to temperate climates germinate best if sown in pots outside. I use quart-sized pots filled with gritty potting mix. I sow the seeds on the surface and then cover them with about a half inch of fine gravel (like that used in aquariums) to keep the seeds from blowing away or getting washed out. I put the pots in a dishpan and add water; the pots soak up moisture from the bottom, and the surface is undisturbed. Then I set the pots in plastic trays with drainage holes and move them outside in the shade of a massive juniper.