Is it cold hardy? Online information for the cold climate gardener

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Just like you, Judy, “I like having an idea of whether [a plant] would turn to slime come April before I spend money on it.” I’m always on the lookout for sources of information that keep me from reinventing the wheel. Woody Landscape Plant Cold-Hardiness Ratings, Technical Bulletin #156 from the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station, is one of the first sources of information I found. UMaine maintains the Lyle E. Littlefield Ornamentals Trial Garden in Orono. According to the Introduction, “the site is in USDA hardiness zone 4a having suffered winter temperatures as low as -30 degrees F. three times in the last 6 years.” (This was published in 1994.) The plants are grown without winter protection except for mulch and are rated numerically to indicate their winter survival: 1= no damage whatsoever and 5=died. However, as Reeser C. Manley pointed out to me in an email dated 3/7/2001, “. . . in some cases only one to a few plants were tested. This is fine if they survive, but tells you nothing if they die since winter survival is a function of so many variables, freezing tolerance being only one.” True enough, but it’s a good place to start if you don’t have a clue as to what trees and shrubs will survive in your climate, and the woody plants are the most expensive. Best of all, the booklet is free for the downloading.

About the Author

Kathy Purdy is a colchicum evangelist, converting unsuspecting gardeners into colchicophiles. She gardens in rural upstate NY, which used to be USDA Hardiness Zone 4 but is now Zone 5. Kathy’s been writing since 4th grade, gardening since high school, and blogging since 2002. Find her on Instagram as kopurdy.

In the end, this may be the most important thing about frost: Frost slows us down. In spring, it tempers our eagerness. In fall, it brings closure and rest. In our gotta-go world–where every nanosecond seems to count–slowness can be a great gift. So rather than see Jack Frost as an adversary, you could choose to greet him as a friend.

~Philip Harnden in A Gardener’s Guide to Frost: Outwit the Weather and Extend the Spring and Fall Seasons

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