My climate, my choice

The amplerain two weeks ago was enough to green up the buffalo grass and provide some much needed relief to theperennials here in Kansas. It also brought some relief to area gardeners, not from the sweltering heat, which continues to stress my garden and its gardener daily, but it did provide a respite from daily watering chores. This was enough to entice Professor Roush to order some rose bands for fall planting. I like to plant own-root roses, even youngbands, in the fall in Kansasas the cooler weather and higher rainfall gives them a better start next year before the heat hits.

I had a great afternoon in the air-conditioned indoors, choosing rose varieties online and planningthe layout of a new bed. Imagine my surprise, however,two days after placing an online order withRose Paradise (notits real name),when I received a return email thanking me for my order and informingme that it would be held until next springbecauseRose Paradisehad ceased shipping to my area for thefall. When I contacted the nursery directly, they explained that it was getting too cold to ship to my area and the roses wouldnt have time to become established before winter.

I suppose it is a positivedevelopment that mail-order nurseries have fully taken notice of the USDA Hardiness Zones and are trying to keep horticultural idiots from planting palm trees in USDAZone 2 in September, but it is past time for these nurseries to also begin taking note of theAHS Heat-Zone map. On it, one would find that my portion of Kansas is currently listed as AHS Zone 7, meaning that it has 61-90 days annually where the temperature is above 86F. And the currentAHS ZoneMap was based on data from 1974 through 1995 and has not been updated. Giventhe changes ofthe 2012 revision of the USDA zones, Im probably now inAHS Zone 8 or 9, with somewhere (Im guessing) around 120-150 annualdays of>86Fhighs.Believe me, please, when I tell you that Ive got plenty of time left before Christmas to get new roses established.

Recently, at Walmart, I tried to purchase a fan and had a store employee tell me (on a 102F day) that they were no longer selling fans becauseit was getting too cold. Igave the customer service representative atRose Paradise the same response Igavethat misguidedWalmart employeeI pointed out that (after a moment of silenceduring whichI labored mightily to calm myself) it was still plenty warm here and would likelyremain so for some time.Fortunately, in terms of my future purchases from it, the Rose Paradise employee cheerfully informed me that they would be glad to go ahead and ship my order; however, the roses would not carry their normal guarantee.Jumping ahead to the end of this story, in my gardenon this daythere are9 new roses trying to survive the predicted 99F high.

My point here is a plea to all mail-order nurseries to give consumers the benefit of the doubt, as long as wedont giggle fiendishly or otherwise exhibit latent plant-icidal tendencies,and let us decide when we want plants delivered. It would also be nice if the AHS would update their Heat Zone map, and if all nurseries would take a closer look at it, but that is probably too much to expect.Gardeners know our climates best and, in fact, I have similar issues trying to get nurseries to send meplants in the spring before myclimate gets too hot for planting. I dontneed any extensiveguarantee becauseas long asI receive the plant in good condition, Imnever going to claima deathwas the nurserys faultthree months later after Ive forgotten to waterthe little seeding. I know full well who deserves the blame for dead plantsin my garden.

Via: My climate, my choice