Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mary Ann Morris on September 14, 2009 at 12:01pm

Dear Jill, I have cardinal flower (red, blue and magenta varieites) and do nothing special. The red has reseeded itself (which is fine wiht me) without any help for special covering in the winter. Not sure what 'green and gold' is. I live in zone 4b, rochester minnesota

Permalink Reply by Jill Moritz on September 14, 2009 at 5:53pm

Thanks, Mary Ann. This is very encouraging. I didn't realize that cardinal flower came in colors other than red.
I'm attaching a picture of green and gold (chrysogonum virginianum). It's a very pretty low growing, spreading plant with lovely foliage and beautiful yellow flowers. It likes shade to part shade.

Attachments:

• chrysogonumVirginianum.jpg, 45 KB

Permalink Reply by Tracey Bennett on September 15, 2009 at 7:27am

Hi Jill
I also have some zone 5 plants and was wondering the same thing, my husband and I disagree as to whether we're a zone 4 or 5 ,I live in north central Massachusetts. I think we're going to mulch them heavily and wait and see.

Permalink Reply by Jill Moritz on September 15, 2009 at 7:53am

Hi Tracey,
I think there are some pockets of zone 5 around here as well. This zone business is not as cut and dried as I had thought. We moved here two years ago from southwestern NM, so getting used to this climate has been a real challenge.
We live in northwestern PA. Our town (Bradford) is always the cold spot in the state and last winter we got down to -22 one night. My newly planted azaleas really suffered, but have since come back very well and are looking beautiful. I think this winter I'll wrap them in burlap to help them start the spring in good shape.


Tracey Bennett said:

Hi Jill
I also have some zone 5 plants and was wondering the same thing, my husband and I disagree as to whether we're a zone 4 or 5 ,I live in north central Massachusetts. I think we're going to mulch them heavily and wait and see.

Permalink Reply by Deanna Collins z4/MT on September 16, 2009 at 8:07am

We live in Billings, MT, which is considered zone 4, but we have gotten down to -30 and lower the past two winters that we have lived here. We do not do anything special and we have had the pansys reseed, the columbine reseeds and the snapdragons have reseeded. Of course all the bulbs do well. This is our first winter with the trumpet vine and assume it will be okay too. Haven't gotten anything that might be considered zone 5 yet, but have seen several plants that we would love to have!!!

Permalink Reply by Jill Moritz on September 16, 2009 at 8:51am

Hi Deanna,
We lived in Helena for many years before we ended up out here, so it's nice to hear from another Montana gardener! We used to get down to -35 or worse just about every year that we lived there. But then, I think Helena was zone 4, leaning towards zone 3. I suppose it depended upon the degree of shelter and protection that a garden had. I think Billings is a little bit milder. We miss Montana - such a beautiful place!


Deanna Collins z4/MT said:

We live in Billings, MT, which is considered zone 4, but we have gotten down to -30 and lower the past two winters that we have lived here. We do not do anything special and we have had the pansys reseed, the columbine reseeds and the snapdragons have reseeded. Of course all the bulbs do well. This is our first winter with the trumpet vine and assume it will be okay too. Haven't gotten anything that might be considered zone 5 yet, but have seen several plants that we would love to have!!!