Choosing the Right Plants for Your Garden

When choosing plants for your garden, there are a number of important factors to consider, such as light requirements, moisture levels, and soil conditions.

But the key to choosing plants that will thrive in your garden is to determine what hardiness zone you live in.

What are Hardiness Zones?

Hardiness zones—also referred to as planting zones or growing zones—are the colored-coded areas found on the USDA Hardiness Zone Map indicating to gardeners where certain plants will best thrive depending on their environment.

Hardiness zones are broken down into 13 areas, which cover the entire United States, including Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. These zones are broken down by a 10-degree difference in the average minimum temperature. 

Zone 1 is the coldest, with an average minimum winter temperature of -60 to -50 degrees F, while the minimum winter average temperature in Zone 13 is 60 to 70 degrees F.

The majority of the United States is split into Zones 5-9, which encompasses the blue, green, yellow, and orange colors. The colors help gardeners determine what season to grow their crops in, because crops will grow best in different months if a gardener plants them in Michigan, which varies in USDA Hardiness Zones 4-6, versus a gardener who plants those same crops in Florida, which varies in USDA Hardiness Zones 8-10.

Being able to understand a hardiness zone map means you’ll have a starting point for making wise planting decisions. Once you determine your hardiness zone, that shows exactly which plants are best suited to thrive in your given zone.

What is Plant Hardiness?

Plant hardiness is the ability of a plant to survive adverse growing climates such as drought, flooding, heat, and cold.

The science behind plant hardiness can be complicated because each cultivar of a plant may have different hardiness levels based on their adaptations and genetics. Even different parts of a plant may be hardy in different ways. For example, the cold may cause your beloved perennial to die, however, the roots might be hardy enough to bring new growth in the spring.

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Many plants require very specific growing environments to thrive. You can adjust many things, such as soil type, moisture levels, and amount of sunlight in your garden, but the outdoor climate you cannot. This is why choosing plants with hardiness levels appropriate to specific planting zones gives you the best chance of gardening success.

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Consult the Hardiness Gardening Zone Finder to find your planting zone and choose the right plants for your garden this year!

No matter what zone you’re in, Hyper-Grow has the nourishment your garden needs to thrive. We also make custom blends. Check out our products or call us at (269) 646-5461 to discuss your plant supplement needs!