It's also incredibly useful to give some idea of location. I think this is most important for the warmer zones.

For example Miami, San Francisco and Phoenix (parts) are zone 10. Miami is nearly tropical, warm and humid. Phoenix is extremely hot and dry. San Francisco is cool and foggy. A completely different set of plants thrive in all three places. Just giving the USDA zone doesn't help much when it comes to zones 9-10.

The other reason is that postage costs go up much faster for more distant destinations.

so true....
and like me in WV... just a few minutes drive in our mountains and you're 5 in one area, but 6 in another.
Our winters are extremely snowy with sopping wet springs

Chris

This is where the Sunset Climate Zones come in handy!

A plant's performance is governed by the total climate: length of growing season, timing and amount of rainfall, winter lows, summer highs, wind, and humidity.

Sunset's climate zone maps take all these factors into account, unlike the familiar hardiness zone maps devised by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which divides most of North America into zones based strictly on winter lows.

I'm right on the border of zone 31 and zone 33, leaning more towards zone 31.

Here is a link that might be useful: What's your climate zone?

The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map breaks Florida into eight zones whereas the Sunset system divides it into only three. I prefer the USDA zone map.

Here is a link that might be useful: USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

To update your profile to include your zone:

1) Scroll down to the very bottom, left corner of this page and click on Member Pages.
2) Click on Edit Your Membership Details.
3) Under Garden Zone, enter your zone, city and state.
4) Scroll to bottom and click Save Your Member Profile.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Edit Your Membership Details

This post was edited by love_the_yard on Tue, Sep 24, 13 at 17:52