Chances are, if you haveanyexperience with plantinganything, you’ve heard of planting zones.
In the South, heat is as much a limiting factor as cold.
Fortunately, sizzling Southern temperatures rarely last long.
Plants that need cool nights and long periods of winter chill do well here.
Cold winters bring constraints, however.
Crepe myrtle, camellias, and figs may not be cold-hardy in all areas.
The last frost occurs anywhere from mid-April to the first 10 days of May.
MIDDLE SOUTH (MS):This region forms a transition zone between warm-weather and cool-weather growing zones.
Here you often encounter plants from the Northeast, the Midwest, and the Northwest growing along-side Southern natives.
Summers are hot and, in most places, humid.
The last spring frost generally occurs in the last week of March through the first week of April.
LOWER SOUTH (LS):Spring comes early to the Lower South.
Daffodils and winter daphne open their buds in February.
Though summer droughts are common, torrential downpours more than make up the difference.
Snow is rare, but ice storms are not.
The last frost generally occurs in the last two weeks of March.
Their close proximity ensures that winters are mild and brief but summers are long and humid.
The last spring frost usually comes in the last three weeks in February.
Spring commences in January, when the Japanese magnolias and common camellias bloom.
TROPICAL SOUTH (TS):Truly its own gardening world, the Tropical South rarely feels frost.
All sorts of lush, exotic plants with strikingly colorful blooms and foliage flourish.
This region can seem like a paradise.
But the lack of winter chill comes at a price.
Azaleas, forsythia, hosta, hydrangea, and many other temperate plants fail here.
But you could change or fix all those things; you could’t change the weather!
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.Climatological records for Miami, FL.
