When purchasing plants for your garden you have probably noticed a little thing called plant hardiness zones or climate zones printed on the tag. This is a quick and handy way to know if the plant you are considering will  survive winter in your area.

Plant hardiness zone maps are easy to read. They are always in colour so all you have to do is find your location on the map, check the colour and then read the legend to see what zone you are in.

The rule of thumb is that you can plant anything in your zone and below. Anything over your zone will likely not survive the winter season. There are some exceptions of course, like the Dahlia; with this plant you simply dig up the rhizomes and store them indoors over winter, then re-plant in the spring.

For easy reference I’ve included the plant hardiness zone maps for Canada, the USA, the UK & Australia (These are the places where most of our blog visitors hail from) as well as a very basic world wide map.

CANADA

Canada Map from: Government of Canada

USA (including a less detailed zone map of Canada)

USA Map from: canyonsleepers.blogspot.com

UK

UK Map from: wellsphere.com

AUSTRALIA

Australia Map from: http://forums.permaculture.org.au

World Map

World Map from: http://rmaldonado10.wikis.birmingham.k12.mi.us/Maps