NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — You now have a few more options at your local garden center.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released an updated Plant Hardiness Zone Map. It shows that most of Middle Tennessee is now in zone "7b" instead of "7a." That means more perennial plants are surviving our winter.
Nearly half of the United States is in a different zone after the maps changed for the first time in a decade.
The Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners, growers and Nashville landscaping company Gardens of Babylon can determine which perennial plants are most likely to thrive.
"People have always planted things that are marginal to our zones like loropetalums and camellias — with the risk that if we have a really cold winter they probably won't make it," said Neil Anderson, general manager at Gardens of Babylon. "[With] the changes, there's a much better chance that those marginal things, or those things that are on the cusp of hardiness, will survive the winter here."
Hardiness zones are based on the lowest average minimum temperature. Because of climate change, Middle Tennessee's average winter and nighttime temperatures are going up. But while the hardiness zone in Nashville may now be different, people who've transplanted from warmer areas probably shouldn't expect to plant the same things here.
"People coming from warmer climates like Southern California are often surprised they can't plant their citrus in the ground, and they can't plant all palm trees in the ground," Anderson said.
According to Anderson, you should give plants on the cusp of a zone a little extra TLC.
"Proceed with a little bit of caution and [I] recommend that they plant in fairly protected areas in areas of your landscape that are going to stay naturally warmer," he said.
Something else that factors into a plant's hardiness: how long it's had to secure its roots into the ground.
