05
Hardiness
When deciding on your dwarf fruit tree you should find a number on the description tag that comes with it. This is the hardiness zone number that is given to a plant to show to what extent the plant can withstand the cold.This number is an indicator of how cold an area will be during a winter spell. This is a major determining factor in whether a plant species can be grown and cultivated outdoors at a particular location. Think about it for a minute....you decide that you want to plant your tree in the ground and not in a container and then you realise that your tree isn't as hardy as you thought. What are you going to do, dig it up and bring it inside for the winter and plant it back in spring?
Much better if you do a bit of research into your chosen fruit tree and get one that will grow in the right situation and conditions that will bring about the optimum growth and fruit production. Probably the easiest way to find out would be to look on the internet (and sites like this one!!), but what if want to order your tree online? The next best thing to do will be to go to your local garden centre and look at the tags on their fruit trees and make a note of the hardiness zone.
There are maps that show the hardiness areas of the world and they tend to be divided up into respective countries or continents.
The USA has 10 such zones numbered from 1 to 10. Zone 1 is to the far north and zone 10 in the south. Here are all the major zones....