Planting the right plant in the right season

It's been cold and wet the last week. Roof leaks have shown up where there have never been leaks before. This is no doubt a good time to plant pansies, agapanthus, and tulips. Check it out on the Demesne Planting Calendar. But are those plants hardy enough to thrive in our fair city?

In a previous post, The Sunset New Western Garden Book was described as a must read. The bulk of the book is an encyclopedia of plants and each entry mentions in which climate zones the plant does best. Escondido is both a Climate Zone 20 and 21 depending on where you are. A very good site to help you select a tree for our climate zone is Cal Poly SLO's Urban Forest Ecosystems Institute's Selectree.

The USDA categorizes "hardiness zones" according to the mean of the lowest temperature recorded each winter. We are a USDA hardiness zone 9. This is for areas which get no colder that 20 degrees fahrenheit. A great site to help you select a plant for our hardiness zone is NC State University Urban Horticulture Department's Plant Fact Sheets.