Pete The Gardener wrote:

On Sat, 22 Feb 2003 12:22:34 GMT, Roger Van Loon
wrote:

Hi Pete,
There must be some misunderstanding here.
Where did you get that info?

The RHS Dictionary.

Strange. I see in the 1992 edition of the RHS Dictionary of Gardening
(ISBN 0-333-47494-5) they give Z8/Z9 for London, certainly not
Z10/Z11.

IMHO, London is Z8/Z9:
http://www2.dicom.se/fuchsias/eurozoner.html

This is probably true for much of London, though where my parents live
I would say 7/8, but I live in South Kensington, in central London,
and the climate is a fair bit different.

I think not even a sheltered garden in the center of London would be
Z11. That zone would mean, essentially: no frost at any moment, the
whole year through.

Most years we get either no frost or, at most, about half a degree of
frost. This year has been an exception, we've had temperatures below
freezing on about 8 or 10 nights, I think the worst was about -4C. We
haven't had it that cold for at least 6/8 years.

Yes, I heard of spots in Central London where you even have large
Phoenix canariensis.

So I'm not at all surprised Z10/Z11 plants are not happy outside,
where you are...

Many Z10/11 plants will take short periods of freezing temps, what
they wont take are long periods of cold, but not freezing, temps with
loads of damp.

Still, then it would be useful to know that a plant is rated Z10/Z11
and not Z7, I think.


--
Pete The Gardener
A room without books is like a body without a soul.

True, but my wife is always complaining that there are way too many
books in all the rooms of our house, no space left :-)

Regards,
Roger.
--


You're welcome to visit my gardening page:
http://users.pandora.be/roger.van.loon/gardenp.htm