Laura Sweany, Horticulturist

Always Growing Design

Strategies for plant selection in USDA cold hardy zones 8-10 can be confusing, due to the wide range of summer conditions that are found in this diverse set of regions. Some have short, cool summer conditions – some have long, hot summers – the summer conditions of Seattle’s zone 8 are nothing like the conditions of Long Beach’s zone 8, which are nothing like Atlanta’s zone 8 – or Las Vegas zone 8.

Understanding chill hours, heat units, temperate vs. subtropical cold management strategies and summer/winter extreme weather protection strategies will give you a leg up on designing (and maintaining) foodscapes that delight your customers by offering bountiful harvests.

This presentation will cover lesser-known and front-yard worthy foodscaping plants that tend to thrive warmer climates such as Asian persimmon, Russian pomegranate, kiwi, pineapple guava, muscadine grape, the hardiest citrus, fig, and more