On Tue, 25 Feb 2003 18:46:43 +0000, Kay Easton
wrote:

...[do] US gardeners find the
system a good indicator of whether a particular plant will survive?

Well this born-and-brought-up-in-the-US Canadian gardener finds
the zone indications very helpful. One can't take them as gospel,
of course! But if something is zone 7 or colder, it's pretty sure
to do okay in my garden, barring moisture-induced rot or some
other idiosyncracy. Zone 8 is a bit of a gamble -- some Z8 plants
are fine in my heavyish wet loam, others detest conditions. And
Z9 or warmer is almost always a waste of time, though a few do
"not badly".

And, yes, I ignore my own rants on the subject and use the zone
ratings for plants other than woody ones. Do as I say, not as I
do -- or vice versa, depending on taste.

Bear in mind that conditions here in the PacNW somewhat resemble
those in Britain, though we have much drier, sunnier summers,
with correspondingly wetter winters.

But zones aren't everything. I've found by sad experience that
herbaceous material from Japan performs very poorly for me. It
often rots away during the winter. The same material performs
very well in the eastern US, a zone or two colder than we are
here, but with drier winters and hotter, more humid summers.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada