......with a difference!! Maybe y'all know about this, but I sure didn't so I wanted to bring it to your attention, just in case. This is a hardiness zone map that is searchable via one's zip code! I never knew such a thing existed! http://garden.org/nga/zipzone/index.php
One factor they did not take into consideration when they drew that zip code map is city temperatures versus rural temperatures. When I started gardening I found my area in 7b, which is the zone that zip code map comes up with and I might still according to some temperature figures, but since I have the 'heat island' created by the vehicles, concrete and buildings of downtown Dallas to my south, that heat flows with the south wind up, like a backwards flowing river to contend with, it raises me up to zone 8a or 8b. That 'heat island' not only applies for summer but winter as well since our wind changes direction so frequently even during the winter, we do not have a consistently cold winter. I had wondered why plants zoned for 7b were not surviving in my garden like that 1990 map said they should then the 2012 map was developed and moved me to zone 8a. I now buy plants zoned to at least zone 9 and they grow fine here.
I knew there were zones but I wasn't sure what I was. By way of this map I'm an 8a or 8b but going to buy for zone 9 (to be sure)
