Zone 7 Planting Guide

Hardiness Zone 7 covers an enormous amount of territory across the United States. With Delaware as its northern border and northern Georgia as its southern border, it extends westward through southern Oklahoma, southern New Mexico, southern Utah to the eastern edge of California. On the West Coast it, travels up through the mountains of central Oregon and Washington into Alaska’s Inland Passage. On the East Coast, Zone 7 stretches from New Jersey, out to the tip of Long Island and on to Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

Zone 7’s winter climate tends to be unpredictable. It can include frosty days of ice and snow, as well as periods when the temperatures hover in the 50s or even 60s.

Do not plant bulbs until daytime temperatures are consistently in the 40s. This means you may have to postpone planting your bulbs until December. When it comes to planting bulbs in Zone 7, let yourself be guided by the climate rather than by the calendar.

Begin preparing vegetable seedlings indoors in January for eventual transplanting in your garden. If you do not have a hothouse, keep the seedlings in a warm, sunny corner of your home. Start broccoli, cabbage and onion seedlings by February 1, pepper seedlings by March 1, eggplant and tomato seedlings by April 1. In late May or early June, once the soil temperature is consistently at 65 degrees, transplant the seedlings to your vegetable garden.

Zone 7 is suitable for virtually all types of flowering perennials and annuals. As with vegetables, wait until the soil registers 65 degrees before planting. Among popular flowers that will flourish in Zone 7 are asters, begonia, mums, day lilies, sunflowers and black-eyed susans. Roses also do well in Zone 7, especially Belinda's Dream, Carefree Beauty, Ducher Duchesse de Brabant and Georgetown Tea, among others.