climate change and gardening

As someone interested in gardening (and climate change), I found a recent article in The New York Times really interesting. It talks about how certain plants that could previously be grown only in certain regions can now be grown in more (or fewer) regions due to changes in the climates of those areas. For instance, Tara Dillard, a landscape designer and garden writer, says that while people used to be able to grow rhododendrons in her hometown, Atlanta, they couldn't be grown there anymore: "We have heated out of the rhododendron zone," she said. The graph above, from the article, shows how the warm climate zones have spread across the southern part of the U.S., and how the dark blue areas (the coldest parts) have all but disappeared.