Lewes gardener Ana Dittel found herself with a bumper crop of cannas, those brightly colored tropical flowers, one summer a few years back. She had neither the time nor energy to dig them all up. So she saved some for the next season and left the rest in the ground. She never expected them to survive through Delaware's freezing winters. But the following summer -- surprise. The cannas were back, as beautiful and showy as ever.
In Arthur O. Tucker's showcase garden near Dover -- a garden that was once featured in Southern Living -- delphiniums can't make it through August and they haven't since 1985, he said. Delaware summers are just too hot. "Certainly, global warming is happening in my garden," Tucker joked. "I don't know about anywhere else."
Some believe weather trends in parts of the country have changed dramatically, affecting everything from what will grow to the types of insects that prey on plant life. Last month, to reflect weather patterns in the sky that have changed horticulture on the ground, the National Arbor Day Foundation released its new plant hardiness zone map for the nation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is revising its hardiness map as well. For the federal agency, the revision will be the first since 1990, after an earlier attempt in 2003 that was not adopted.
The maps help consumers decide which trees or plants to select for their area according to cold hardiness -- the ability of a shrub, tree or perennial to withstand low temperatures. They are designed to account for cold snaps that can be lethal to some plant species.
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