Do Plant Hardiness Zones Matter?

In the past, you would consult a plant hardiness zone map if you wanted to know whether a fruit tree or any other plant could survive in your climate.  But our climate is quickly changing. Are plant hardiness zone maps still helpful?

In this episode, we chat about plant hardiness zones with two research scientists from the Canadian Forest Service. They are Dan McKenney, PhD and John Pedlar. You can learn more about their work and download plant hardiness maps here.

To watch a video excerpt of this podcast visit:
https://youtu.be/IqLozgJAE5M

Listeners who emailed during the live show were entered into this month's contest. The prize was a copy of the Arbor Day Foundations's new book Now is the Time For Trees: Make an Impact by Planting the Word's Most Valuable Resource (affiliate link) valued at $19.95 USD.

You can find more information about plant hardiness zones below:

Canadian Plant Hardiness Zone Maps and More:
planthardiness.gc.ca

Change and Evolution in the Plant Hardiness Zones of Canada:
https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/64/4/341/247944

The generation of USDA-equivalent extreme minimum temperature models and a comparison with Canada’s plant hardiness zones:

https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.4141/P05-070

Beyond Traditional Hardiness Zones: Using Climate Envelopes to Map Plant Range Limits:

https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/57/11/929/234249