Heat-Zone Gardening: How to Choose Plants that Thrive in your Region's Warmest Weather - Winter Books - Review

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 26, 2001 by Lorna Corpus Sullivan

HEAT-ZONE GARDENING: HOW TO CHOOSE PLANTS THAT THRIVE
IN YOUR REGION'S WARMEST WEATHER
By H. Marc Cathey with Linda Bellamy
Time-Life Books, 192 pages, $12.95

Armed with years of experience as a research horticulturalist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and as president emeritus of the American Horticultural Society, author H. Marc Cathey offers American gardeners a new way to ensure that the plants they choose will thrive -- and not merely survive -- in their particular climate. Cathey introduces his American Horticultural Society Plant Heat-Zone Map, which divides the country into 12 color-coded zones based on how many "heat days" (over 86 degrees F) each region receives annually. Readers find their specific heat zone on the society's map, as well as their cold hardiness zone on the long-used USDA Plant Hardiness Map (also pictured).

An impressive list of 500 commonly used annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees follows, each of which has a color photo, growing tips and assigned Amercian Horticultural Society and USDA zones. A caveat: The maps in Cathey's book are too small to decipher with ease. Gardeners with access to the Internet can go to the following Web sites and enter their Zip Codes for their specific heat- and cold-hardiness zones, respectively: www.ahs.org/publications/zipfinder.htm and www.ar borday.org/trees/whatzone.html before using Cathey's plant profiles.