I notice there is a lot of commonality in many separate boards here where people are attempting to push plants beyond their zone. A lot of the same techniques and discussion take place unrelated to the plant itself. There also seem to be a lot of people lately into growing borderline tropical plants in non-tropical areas, palms, bananas, cannas, tropical bamboos, lemons, avocados etc etc. Would a dedicated Zone bender's forum be a good idea to concentrate this info on one place?
I've been pushing mine and my plants limits for decades. For me it's not new, only the format in which it's delivered. A lot of what you've mentioned seems to be picked up on the ~ Outdoor Tropicals (Palms and Cycads etc) forum. Cheers, LPN.
And *many* other forums besides. I know it's not a new idea but there seems to be a *lot* of interest in it lately.
I agree whole heartedly. Many visitors to my garden are wanting something beyond the routine offerings at the nurseries. That trend has been increasing and shows no sign of slowing. Cheers, LPN.
I'm 50/50 on this idea. As LPN points out, the majority of these discussions take place in Outdoor Tropicals. Then again, there have been questions in the Arbutus forum about trying to grow an Arbutus in PEI. Any other opinions besides JCardina's and LPN's?
To me, "zone bending" does not mean only trying to grow tropical plants in a colder or wetter climate, it could be quite the reverse as well. There are already a lot of sites dedicated to zone bending for specific plants so in the end it's no big deal anyone who can use a search engine can find them readily and some of those sites are run by members here so I'm not sure how unbiased the responses can be to your question. :) I don't see it as a conflict with those specific plant enthusiast sites at all, just a good place for more general information exchange on techniques for zone bending, not necessarily plant specific. Perhaps zone bending can be expanded to encompass recreating different climate conditions?
