Hardiness zones and human adaptation - not a climate change thread

[ciudad_del_norte]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

thanks, I wasn't sure how all that worked. I am surprised there aren't more crab apples planted in northern climates, I grew up in NE BC and our backyard neighbours had a crab apple tree so we got the benefit of the flowers in spring etc and the people kitty corner across the street had one, but maybe only a few in town were planted. I have seen a couple in peace river area but you don't see them in parks at all, all privately planted.

There are quite a few of them in Edmonton, especially in older parks. They work as a pretty hardy ornamental. They still plant them, although generally only the ones with really really small (like blueberry sized) fruit. One of the varieties that used to popular (Dolgo) is around a lot in the central part of the city, but I think they avoid planting it these because the apples are large enough to make a mess in the fall. Works well for me - I raided a bunch of parks and street trees in the fall for cider

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

My Grandpa's family was Italian, so they all grew fig trees (in North Van). Since then, my dad took a clipping and transplanted it at our house in Maple Ridge around 30 years ago (there it grew wonderfully and we had delicious figs every August and September). Since then my sister has taken another clipping and transplanted it at their place. My aunt, uncles, and cousins have done similar transplants with it. So it is now literally our family tree. And we never gave them any special care in the winter.

That's a pretty cool family tradition!

I don't even really love figs that much but the trees are beautiful and my girlfriend loves em so that's good enough for me!

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

That's a pretty cool family tradition!

I don't even really love figs that much but the trees are beautiful and my girlfriend loves em so that's good enough for me!

I am going to be sure to continue the tradition when I return to BC (especially if I live on the coast, though I do think they can survive well in the mildest locations of the southern interior, guessing some winter protection may be needed there during the coldest snaps)

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Acajack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPTv5Hc04oo

Shit, I am turning into MolsonExport!

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

thanks, I wasn't sure how all that worked. I am surprised there aren't more crab apples planted in northern climates, I grew up in NE BC and our backyard neighbours had a crab apple tree so we got the benefit of the flowers in spring etc and the people kitty corner across the street had one, but maybe only a few in town were planted. I have seen a couple in peace river area but you don't see them in parks at all, all privately planted.

Crabapple trees grow quite well in Timmins which has a short growing season. We used to have a couple in our yard but cut them down. Others around town are doing the same thing. The reason: bears!

[Loco101]

Could somebody please post the link to the website that gives the growing zone by postal code? Timmins has a very short growing season and I want to see if it differs much within the region.

I know garden stores used to say we are in Zone 2 but lately I've been hearing Zone 3 likely due to warmer temperatures?!?

[TownGuy]

This thread got me thinking of the drastic changes we go through being a 4 season locale and it really is quite astonishing to see the difference a few months can make.

I put these together, they're essentially from the exact same spot, goes from looking like the north pole to looking like a tropical paradise.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

That's a pretty cool family tradition!

I don't even really love figs that much but the trees are beautiful and my girlfriend loves em so that's good enough for me!

I think I've heard of people growing fig trees in Toronto, but it seems to me that they have to bury the tree each year to make sure it survives the winter.

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by Loco101

Could somebody please post the link to the website that gives the growing zone by postal code? Timmins has a very short growing season and I want to see if it differs much within the region.

I know garden stores used to say we are in Zone 2 but lately I've been hearing Zone 3 likely due to warmer temperatures?!?

Plant maps.com has a zip code search but I haven't found a postal code one yet. And their figures are from 1990 so we may be an 8a by now afterall.
What is another source of hardiness figures?

[north 42]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

I think I've heard of people growing fig trees in Toronto, but it seems to me that they have to bury the tree each year to make sure it survives the winter.

A lot of people grow figs here too, some protect them with burlap, or bury them, but some also just leave them unprotected. Sometimes they survive for many years without any protection and get pretty big, but then they are killed to the ground on very cold winters like the polar vortex episodes we had a few years ago, but they just sprout from the ground again the next spring, and can grow for years until they eventually get hit again.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Denscity

Plant maps.com has a zip code search but I haven't found a postal code one yet. And their figures are from 1990 so we may be an 8a by now afterall.
What is another source of hardiness figures?

That seems like kind of a stretch, at least based on Castlegar airport (West Kootenay Regional Airport) from 1981-2010. It hit -20 about 0.5 days a year, which is milder than most places in Canada, but way below the -12 cutoff of zone 8a. I would guess that most zone 8a plants there would do okay during an unusually warm winter and then die during an average or cold winter.

The Castlegar statistics are pretty interesting. In December the average temperature range (0 to -4) is actually smaller than Vancouver. But Castlegar gets even less sun (33 hours!) and 16.6 precipitation days including 14.5 snow days. These would partially account for the milder temperatures. If it were sunny there all the time in winter it would get hotter during the day and colder at night.

I always thought it was disappointing how cloudy the BC interior tends to be in the winter. If there were somewhere you could do a weekend trip to from Vancouver that had near-guaranteed sunshine and +5 temperatures in January that would be pretty nice.

[someone123]

Here is an interesting one. People have successfully gotten fruit from the trifoliate orange in Nova Scotia (around the Annapolis Royal area).

Here's a picture of the plant in NS (this is how it looks in winter/early spring before it has leaves):


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...tree-1.3584887

Monkey puzzle in the Public Gardens in Halifax. These are pretty common in coastal BC, and they grow into full-sized trees here. There is one in the Pubnico area of NS that was around 15 feet tall.


Source

One thing I like about these plants is that they look distinctive year-round, even in winter.

[Capsicum]

Apparently, people have successfully tested in the past (in the '60s), that rice (actual rice, the conventional agricultural crop, not the "wild rice", which is actually native to Canada) can feasibly be grown in Southern Ontario. Whether it's worthwhile or efficient is another story.

https://www.topcropmanager.com/other...n-ontario-4315

[north 42]

Originally Posted by someone123

Here is an interesting one. People have successfully gotten fruit from the trifoliate orange in Nova Scotia (around the Annapolis Royal area).

Here's a picture of the plant in NS (this is how it looks in winter/early spring before it has leaves):


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...tree-1.3584887

Monkey puzzle in the Public Gardens in Halifax. These are pretty common in coastal BC, and they grow into full-sized trees here. There is one in the Pubnico area of NS that was around 15 feet tall.


Source

One thing I like about these plants is that they look distinctive year-round, even in winter.

Trifoliate Orange is hardy to zone 6, and also can grow here. It’s a pretty interesting plant, but watch out for those thorns!

There was also a Monkey Puzzle tree that lived for years in Niagara on the Lake, but was killed in one of the polar vortex winters. I haven’t seen a Monkey Puzzle tree down here though, I know they don’t really like hot weather, as they prefer cooler summers.

[TownGuy]

Those are 2 neat looking trees. I'm really drawn to things that have year round interest. Pet-peeve of mine is I don't feel like enough attention gets placed on what looks good in the winter. That said they're both borderline hardy which brings me to another pet-peeve of mine...

People who do have hardy plants that would provide year round interest but they chop them down or cover them up in the winter. I have a neighbour who covers his boxwoods in burlap every winter so what otherwise would look nice is a bunch of stupid looking burlap mounds for months. No need for it. They are hardy in this zone. Then there is grocery store with beautiful ornamental grass that gets chopped down in the fall. Again no need for it. Chop it down in early spring before it starts growing, one of the great things about ornamental grass is its year-round interest, senseless to chop it down when it can continue to add so much to the landscape all winter. Bah!

[Metro-One]

They get really big on the South Coast (obviously no protection needed).



http://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca...e-trees.40634/

This one is apparently in Kitsilano. I really wish they, and other exotics, were planted more often with new major developments. Getting so tired of maple trees...

[someone123]

Rhododendrons and azaleas are nice too. Many have leaves year-round, and they come in different colours. They do really well on both coasts.

This one is somewhere in NS:

Source

The pink blobs in this aerial photo are rhododendrons:

Source

Similar ones growing in the wild in Ireland:

Source

[Capsicum]

A really large rhododendron made Canada famous a while back.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39966325

[north 42]

Lots of evergreen Rhododendrons down in this area, especially in Amherstburg, some well over 8 ft tall. Also a fair of Mountain Laurel and even some evergreen Southern Magnolias.
The heat and dryness of our summers can be a challenge for some Rhodo’s, they like lots of moisture, as can our soils, which are not quite as acidic as they like!
Yucca plants are everywhere around here as well, very subtropical looking, especially some of the trunking ones, one of which can definitely grow here. I saw one in Detroit that was close to 6 ft tall years ago!

[Marty_Mcfly]

I'm bringing this thread back from the dead.

Myself and my girlfriend just bought our very first home in St. John's. Our backyard is insanely large, especially considering we live only a few moments away from downtown. There are already a lot of large, mature trees in the back, but there's still so much space we'd love to plant a few more.

What's currently back there:

5 Norway Maple
2 Common Horse Chestnut
1 Mountain Ash
2 Plum trees

I'd like to get a few more shade trees, and maybe one or two decorative trees to fill out the yard. Preferably something that isn't so common in the city (legitimately, about 75% of the trees in the city are either Sycamore Maple, Norway Maple, or White Birch).

Any suggestions? Anything in your neighbourhoods that you like? St. John's is in the 6A hardiness zone so a lot can grow here, but everything is dwarfed by our poor soil (acidic and well.....rocky).