What You Need to Know About Planting Zones for Roses

Knowing the planting zones for roses is your key to rose gardening success.

It’s not that hard to plant roses and nurture them to beautiful bloom success; you just need to be aware of how to use a gardening zone map and a few other tips to grow beautiful roses.

You can click the zone map above to go to the USDA "Plant Hardiness Zone Map", where you can look at your individual state if you're in the US to get more information.

The planting zones for roses map is meant to be used as a general guideline that you’ll need to seriously consider before you begin to do any rose gardening.

However, don’t be confused or fooled; some roses do well in many different kinds of climate. The best knowledge for learning how to locally grow roses in your area is to talk with others in your hometown at your plant and gardening center, gardening club, or florist.

Or, go to your local bookstore or library and get a good book on growing roses. It's sure to have a map of planting zones for roses for your area.

A little history about how maps came into use for roses is necessary to be a fully informed Rosarian!

The first map ever created for information on plantings was the USDA Hardiness Zone Map, and it came from the combined effort of Henry Skinner in the 1800s when he worked with the US National Arboretum, and the American Horticultural Society which produced the valuable map of information on the climates in the US.

It was a generalized map of meteorological information broken into zones of large areas for the US. It was the first time people had some type of guideline to go by for planting and growing, not only decorative plantings, but crop information as well.

This was necessary because many people were on the move throughout the country, and many didn’t know their local areas' growing capabilities.

Later in 1960, the map was revised and was named the Plant Hardiness Zone Map with more detailed information, and included all of North America.

A few reasons for changing the map were that there was more technological ability to map weather trends, as well as data. Also, the weather patterns were changing too. More detailed information, such as the names of plants and their cold climate zones, along with an alphabetized listing of plant names were included.

Here is how the map is broken out into zones for the US.

South West – AZ, CA, NV, UT

South Mid-West – AR, KS, CO, ILL, KS, LA, MS, MO, NM, OK, TX

South East – AL, FL, GA, MA, NC, SC, CO, TN

North West – OR, ID, MT, WA, WY

North Mid-West – IA, MN, NE, ND, SD, WI, WY

North East – CT, DE, IL, IN, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VT, VA, WV

Alaska – Listed separately but in the North Mid-West

Hawaii – Hawaii Is not listed in any category of the US geographic regions

The major areas are further broken out into sub areas of temperatures. Starting with zone 1, which is the coldest area of -50 degrees F and graduating up to 11 which are the warmer areas of the US.

Areas of the regional zone are further broken out into sub zones of temperatures, represented by a combination of numerical and alphabetized designations such as 2a, 2b, and 3a, 3b, and continuing on. Zone 11 is the area where annual local temperature is continually over 40 degrees F.

Like the unfamiliar settlers before, you’ll need to know the map. There are places on the Internet where you can order one and print it out to use as a planting zones for roses guideline for rose gardening, or you can just visit the map site by clicking on the map above. Remember to stay updated on any changes to the map.

With your handy map in hand, go and speak to people in the know about growing roses in your area. The map is helpful, but it’s only a general guideline.

Different things concerning your local climate can affect how roses grow in your garden or around your house. Situations such as how much smog or pollution conditions, soil feasibility, or even any catastrophic conditions such as the eruption of a volcano, or manmade problems of pesticides can affect how or if your roses grow.

Take the time to understand the planting zones for roses map, and use any information you can find in books, or from a gardening or floral provider to ensure your success with rose gardening. Most of all enjoy the adventure; it’s a sweet smelling one.

Me neither! I hail from down under, way down in sunny Australia! If, like me, you live in that part of the world, then you can find out about planting zones for roses by clicking on the following map:

Or, maybe you live in Europe... if so, then visit this site:

Planting Zones for Roses in Europe

And, I'm sorry, if you live somewhere else in the world, then just type something like "gardening zone maps for XX", where "XX" is the name of your country or region, into your favorite search engine. You're sure to find what you need!

There's no excuse for not knowing your local planting zones for roses!

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