Steve Michaelson said:

This may seem like a dumb question, but it is obviously quite important in
order to get anything out of a lot of the conversations here. What is the
standard guidlines for zones across the U.S. I have heard my area called
zone 5, and zone 7. I live in Western Washington, around Tacoma.

Is there a website that plots these zones across the U.S? I Just want to
make sure that I am on the same page as everyone else, when asking
questions, and getting info from other posts.

You should be zone 8a (USDA). Local microclimate might vary slightly.

I think the 'zone 5' is from the Sunset gardening zones (which take into account
more than just the winter low temperatures).

USDA Zone map:
http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/hzm-nw1.html

USDA Zone look-up (by zip code):
http://www.arborday.org/trees/whatzone.html

Link to Sunset Climate Zones for Washington (careful, line wrap):
http://www.sunset.com/sunset/web/Spo...1/htmlfiles/zo
ne_map1.html

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)