Plants That Live in Cold Climates

The temperature during a winter in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zone 2 sometimes dips to minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Under such conditions, planting a landscaping species with no cold tolerance is a waste of your time, since it has no chance to survive from season to season. Even in a warmer zone, zone 3, 40F below is a possibility. Select only the shrubs, perennials and trees with the ability to stand up to such frigid scenarios for landscaping within these cold climates.

Song Sparrow is a cold hardy daylily cultivar, growing to 30 inches and producing 5-inch wide, brown flowers. This cultivar's flowers remain open for just one day, but the perennial is an option for cold climates. Sherwood Purple works as ground cover or in cold climate rock gardens, growing to just 6 inches and blooming during April and May. Other perennials able to endure a cruel winter include the glossy-leaved aster and prairie blue-eyed grass. Damp soil in shady areas is ideal for the woodland white violet; this wildflower colonizes small areas if left undisturbed.

Red cedar, Colorado spruce, Norway spruce and American arborvitae are needled evergreens that come in tree or shrub form for cold climates. While red cedar grows to 65 feet as a tree, according to the Missouri Botanical Garden, cultivars such as Grey Owl are just 36 inches tall. Kellerman's Blue Cameo is a small Norway spruce shrub form used for foundation plantings or in rock gardens in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 2 and 3. The American arborvitae comes in enough different sized cultivars that the landscaper can choose one appropriate for such varied jobs as a foundation plant or a windbreak. Mugo, red and dwarf mountain pine are pine trees able to tolerate cold climates.

Dark purple twigs that show up well against a winter background give the tatarian dogwood cultivar Kesselringii extra appeal. Suitable for cold climates, this deciduous shrub species grows rapidly and it flowers during the late spring. White flowers and reddish-purple foliage, as well as purple-black berries, highlight the purple-leaf sand cherry. This hybrid shrub is more than appropriate for entrance ways and shrub borders. Other deciduous shrubs for a cold region include arrowwood viburnum and false spirea.

Ginnala is an Amur maple subspecies with aromatic spring flowers and red fall foliage. Another form, Flame, displays brilliant red foliage, with sunny sites bringing out the best in this tree. Another tree with the hardiness to withstand cold is the European larch. It has needled foliage, but it is deciduous, dropping its needles after they change to bright yellow before winter. The European larch grows to 100 feet, so only use it in an appropriately large landscape. Trees including eastern cottonwood, aspen, Manchurian cherry and hackberry abide the cold as well.