Gardening is regional and local. I was reminded of this on my trip a couple of weeks ago. I flew into Dallas and could see the spring trees flowering as we came in to land (that was all that I saw of Texas, but it was a lovely sight!)
When I flew into Oklahoma, nothing was flowering–not even the spring bulbs. You wouldn’t think a distance of a couple hundred miles would be so dramatic, but there it was.
And of course here in the frozen north, even now, all I have are the earliest of the spring bulbs–not even daffodils or tulips (although I have seen some very sorry looking tulips that folks have purchased somewhere and then put out in planters. We can still have snow yet–if tulips aren’t up in your yards, why might you think they’re okay in planters? I mean, I know we’re starved for color, but….)
The amazing thing is that out in California, they are pulling out their cool season annuals and planting warm season ones. A recent post by a great blogger a follow talked about this and it nearly blew my socks off. You can read that post here.
No matter what Tony is posting about, it’s always interesting.
I’m just looking forward to the time–say 6-8 weeks from now–when I can plant my own annuals!
Gardendaze 
What an amusing observation. What I noticed about Oklahoma and Northern Texas is how little the scenery changed over such a large area. Although I do not doubt that there are certain minimal regional differences, there are still fewer climate zones in the relatively huge area that we drove through than there are in just a few miles here. I am writing this from a rain forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains, just a few miles from the chaparral climate of the Santa Clara Valley, and just a few miles from the coastal Pajaro and Salinas Valleys. There are more climate zones just in the San Francisco Bay Area than there are in most states, and more than many states combined. That is why the entertainment industry was based out of Niles and then Hollywood. There is just so much different scenery available within such a minimal area.
This is probably true in the heat of summer of course, but at our “fringe” seasons the differences the difference were absolutely remarkable!
There are those who would say that all of New England looks like a verdant deciduous woodland. And yet, if you drive just 20 miles north of where I live, you start to see more white birch–and they become more and more pronounced (natively occurring) the further north you go. And that’s just the first example that comes to mind.
So while it may be true that there may not be as many dramatic differences year round as in California, think about the vast land mass of California. The San Francisco Bay area is larger than the entire states of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, for example. So we’re not talking apples to oranges here.
Karla