Has anyone been able to grow lily of the valley in Adelaide?

Hey Dubgrl,





Let me preface this by saying I don%26#039;t live there. However, Lilly of the Valley is my Wife%26#039;s favorite plant. It grows in the US to Zone 8. It likes it colder than that, and mostly shade. Our zone goes down to 20 Degrees F in the winter. The following is extracted from Wikipedia (then I will sumarize what I think):





The Australia Continent, though surrounded by ocean, is drier than Europe or North America. Australia numbers its climate zones differently, but this system can be translated into the North American systems with minimal effort. Plant hardiness refers to survivability of the conditions of a particular location, including heat tolerance, soil moisture, humidity and so on. This map is based only on how well they survive low winter temperatures; a gross oversimplification. For example, are plants affected more by a single extremely low temperature night, or is the number of days of frost (the duration of winter) more important? In fact both are important, but the statistic for the map only relates directly to the former. Moreover, plants will survive in an area for some time, but a rare catastrophic cold snap will kill them. Some risk evaluation - the probability of getting a particularly severe low temperature - often would be more useful rather than just the average conditions.





You are in Australia Zone 4. Because of the warmer seaboard, covers a broad area from coastal Queensland across to Shark Bay and Geraldton in the west, and includes the Mornington Peninsula, areas adjacent to Spencer Gulf and Adelaide, the south western coastal zone, Sydney and the north coast of NSW, along with a number of localities dotted all around the southern coast of the continent.%26quot;





My summary: You are on the outer limit of what Lily of the Valley will live in. You might be able to get it to grow, however you must have shade, the plant will not tolerate the heat in your area very well. Try it! Buy 2 to 4 plants, and try them at the most shady spots in your yard. I just bought 12 LOV from Springhill Nursery in USA for 32.94 (US dollars) including shipping.



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