I agree wholeheartedly.

Good idea, Gill. Added Canada to mine.

Rick

When I tried to change mine it wouldn't do it for some reason, mine is either 8a/b UK

Oh, I didn't know about this at all. Added :)

A-ha Cheers Rick, tried changing wrong bit lol

It is interesting to see the zones of our members from the UK. Living in zone 8a or 8b in the US means you have a pretty fab climate for growing. I didn't expect that for my friends that are climatically challenged, I would have expected a lower zone. Hopefully that makes sense?

Tracy

I understand fully. Still yet, even though I'm in 9b, I'd prefer 11!!

Hi Tracy, guess in order to get overall consistency in our zones we would need to all use the same mapping system. I can't recall which site I personally used but will do some googling later today and see what transpires. Is there one attached to GWeb itself?....I'm still not used to referring to it as Houzz, doubt I ever will be either, lol! Can't find one anywhere, I'm sure on the old (better in some aspects?) system there was a one click type of zone finder??

Gill from the fog bound UK

Tracy, the temperature scale of hardiness zones is the average annual minimum temperature. This information isn't very helpful when growing heat-loving adeniums. Denmark has a temperate coastal climate, characterised by mild winters and short cool summers. Zone 8a, that is. But Denmark is definitely not suitable for growing adeniums. ;-)

The USDA hardiness zone map is based on average brrr, right? There is also a heat zone map, where most of the equatorial tropics is zone 11 to 12 based on average argh.

So poor Gill may not be getting the brr but then there is precipitation and cloud cover to worry about probably because of the island's location in the ocean.

I want to be in heat zone 11. USDA zone 11 will not cut it for me. And I want to be in gritty mix, in a tall narrow pot out in direct sun lol

Pagan

Ok, so zone 8a or 8b in the UK isn't comparable with those zones in the US.

The point is that the scale doesn't say anything about temperature highs or average summer temperatures, which makes the scale pretty useless when growing adeniums. What we need is infomation about average temperatures in the growing season (or year round). You know, you can easily grow adeniums even if you have 4-6 months of winter with snow and blizzards but hot summers. ;-)

But it is useful, yo. If someone asks a question here the first thing I look at is their USDA hardiness zone so I can tell if they get freezing weather and deduce the shifting conditions throughout the seasons. It minimizes the "if-then" statements I have to type.

If that is not indicated, I have to confess I usually get too lazy to engage in the "what zone are you in" back and forth. Fortunately, there are infinitely nicer and more patient folks here who step up.

When we get to the nitty and gritty though, I learned that Atlantic Zone 7 is worlds apart from Pacific Zone 7. That be funky.

Pagan

.....and there was me thinking this would be simple to do!! Is there a definitive answer out there I wonder?

Gill UK

This has all become quite conveluded, since the original question at the beginning "Post Heading".

Many people when making posts and starting threads. Ask a question, hoping for some sort of assistance. There is no Zone or idea given as to what type of climate they are being grown in.

Listing a zone next to their user name usually helps with this. Whether the Zone is spot on or out by a numerical degree, is not a problem. It is quite apparent when someone lists Zone 5 or Zone 10, then it at least gives the responding party somewhere to start.

All the facts may be important, but there are many printed documents all having different information.

I do not believe that this is the direction in which the question asked, was intended to go.

Rick

Pagan, the hardiness zone scale just confuses people in this global adenium forum. It does not make much sense using the scale for comparison across longitudes. For instance, a hardiness zone of 8a/b in the UK or Denmark is not suitable for growing adeniums outdoors (not even in the summer), but you could probably achieve an acceptable growth in zone 7a/b in the US (New Your City?), even though the winters are often freezing cold.

Ok I thought I share more. So looks like by usda I am 9b I said 9a. I forgot I had this book but it talks about my climate in much detail with another zone number ( micro climates I am guessing )

Sorry I cut off zone 18

USDA hardiness zones don't really say much other than what the lowest average temperature is, in any given area. Not only are they limited in value, but they are often wrong. For instance, I live on an island. To simplify the situation we always experience, land heats faster than water which results in an onshore airflow. That is a southern breeze, naturally. Also, we're so close to the Gulf warm waters that our temperature CAN'T diverge too far from the water temperature. Houston is 45 miles away, and is sometimes 12-15F cooler in the winter, and the same, but on the warm side in summer.

There is no official USDA zone chart for anywhere outside the US. The best we have are several good attempts.

Even though it is flawed, I for one like having some basis to understand others problems. I also believe country/state should be included as I have done. That way, even with the flaws with zones, everyone can look at a zone chart and see that I actually live in a small section of South Texas. 9b in Texas is fairly small, and mostly coastal.

That totally knocked me over, Jed lol I mean, there are islands in Texas? Of course there could be islands in Texas, it has a coastline!

But that's exactly what I meant in my previous post--ballparking for people with questions that are climate-dependent. Error corrections can come later, down to the details of microclimates, if necessary--wind tunnels and false valleys in dense urban centers or even the difference between the height of your house and the yard below. And my favorite WTH that I noticed this summer---the average temperature on my light-colored deck is, on average, 3 degrees (always celsius) warmer than the ground level about 4 meters below (both in full sun). That difference is life or death for certain species of succulents and their tender cultivars.

Pagan