Well, I can tell you that in my barely zone 8 garden I planted zinnias last year in mid August and had blooms before our frost in mid November. In the last two weeks I have planted pole beans and squash that I fully expect to flower and fruit for several weeks before our first frost. All the books say that the sun is in decline and that crops take longer this time of year, but that has not been my personal experience. The days do get shorter, so I cannot offer you any kind of scientifc reason. Just my experience.

thx donna ... so how long do they last.. xmas???? .. all winter????

ken

ken I have never lived in z5,just lucky I guess. One of my customers, a strawberry grower, in a good year is picking and selling strawberries in December. He says he gets $35 a crate for them in Japan. The water temperature of the pacific ocean, has the effect of modulating the air temperature, to a lessor degree the further inland. Al

in MI.. we have the lake effect from the great lakes ... so i understand that ... unfortunately not in my garden ...

so is this just some coastal areas ... ??? ... and can i extend it to those BC gardens .. butchart ... or whatever ... same thing ....

ken

The beans and squash, and other summer type crops will last into mid to late November: our first frost date. Brassicas, pansies, alliums, and other cool weather crops typically live, flower, and fruit through the entire winter. I pull them up in the spring for summer planting. Last winter our coldest temperature was eleven degrees. That was one night and I do not know how many hours that lasted. Lettuce survived too, but was under floating row covers, along with many brassicas and carrots. We had weeks of weather where the night time lows were in the mid to low twenties each night.

Ken - in temperate climates annuals are often sown in the autumn, although in mine they are unlikely to flower before the next year. They form their basal rosettes or whatever and get a head start with a bigger plant the following spring. After all, in nature annuals drop their ripe seed as soon as they have flowered so it seems sensible to sow at that time too. The RHS has just reported on some trials on different timings for annual sowing which you might find interesting. Go to the atricle called 'Hardy annuals'

Here is a link that might be useful: Article on when to sow annuals