Bill,

I moved from Zone 4 near Eau Claire to Zone 3, near Winter. Most of the plants I had in Zone 4 work fine here. I lost some rock garden plants, but I have peonies, irises, phlox (garden and 2 kinds of creeping), clematis, coreopsis, lilies, daylilies, cone flowers, black-eyed susans, lupines, hostas, bleeding heart, astilbe, goatsbeard, sedums, masterwort, cimicifuga, kirengoshoma, ligularia, salvia, dianthus,heliopsis, daisies, and probably some more I'm not thinking of right now. I even have a hellebore that has survived 4 years-- it is not supposed to be hardy here. I moved a lot of wildflowers from the woods to my terraces-trillium, bloodroot, hepatica, jack-in-the-pulpit, merrybells,ferns,dutchman's britches, spring beauty, wood anemone. I also plant a lot of spring bulbs --species tulips, scilla, daffodils,snowdrops. The main difference I found is not a hardiness problem, but deer and rabbits. After a lot of trial and error we found that deer fence works pretty well if you apply it often. Good luck.

I do not think there is an 'official' zone 3 plants list. There is no testing for hardiness of perennial garden plants in zone 3. Therefore, no one seems to know what is actually hardy in Zone 3.....except the zone 3 gardeners which grow the plants!

The zone ratings in catalogs vary widely and often seem to depend on what zone the nursery is located. For example, even Jung's list Phlox panniculata as hardy to zone 4. Erodiums, Epimediums, Calamagrostis, Euphorbia grifithii, etc are usually given zone 5 ratings, yet many of these are perfectly hardy here. In my gardens E.giffithii (zone 5 rated) not only proved to be hardy, but downright invasive! Had to shovel prune a plant that supposedly would not grow here! LOL.

A good place to start identifying perennials that are zone 3 hardy, would be to look at the online catalog at Winter's Greenhouse and the plant list at Rice Creek Gardens. With very few exceptions, perennials (including those listed as zone 4) listed on these two sites are hardy in zone 3. Both of these sites do a much better job of rating plants for hardiness.

www.wintergreenhouse.com
www.ricecreekgardens.com

Upnortdareh.... gotta love your GW name!
Jan

I live a few milesfrom the Winter Greenhouse and have bought many of my plants there, even before w moved up here. What you will find is that they list the Hardiness Zones the way most books do, but they (and I) will tell you that we grow plants here in Zone 3 that are often listed as hardy to Zone 4. The same is true of Rice Creek Gardens in Lugerville, near Phillips, which I just visited yesterday. As I suggested earlier, the best way to find out is to try raising the plants you love. Most will be hardy here in Zone 3. A few may die, but then you will know.

Virginia

Thanks for the Info ------Upnortdareh

An even better idea....why not develop a plant list of all hardy plants you all currently grow 'upnortder'. Something tells me it woud be quite a list and an excellent reference!

Dave
Franklin....in a 'wussy' zone 5

Ya hey--- dats what I be looking for ----Upnortdareh

Question?

Is this list for flowers?

Or is it to include Vegetables?

With the specific varieties included?

Big Dummy

Perennials--------------Upnortdareh

Hi upnort,
I have found that a lot of plants will survive up north that I never thought would. I have come to the conclusion that it is all about drainage and snow cover rather than just the lowest temp a plant can take. When we lived in SW WI which was also a z4 and we lived in a coolie which made it even colder, I ruled out a lot of plants as being not hardy. Our soil there was heavy clay and here in the north woods we have sandy loam (in some places, gravel pit in others). I was supprised to find that many of the plants that I thought were not hardy do just fine here with out better snow cover and drainage. My mom lives in z3 (by Antigo near the lake once hey). We have exchanged many plant over the years and I have noticed one very strange thing. Her plants, even though they come from the same stock are usually quite a bit shorter than mine. Strange. Could this be the same concept as the alpine plants getting smaller and smaller as the elevation increases? Here's another tip look at the northern gardening, far north and Minnesota forums. They have all been around longer than our WI forum and surely there will be some discussions there that will give you more ideas. I have a database that will tell all of the plants that I grow here in z4. It's not up to date right now, but after the hard frost once I have the garden all tucked in for the winter I'll get that updated and would be happy to send you a copy if you can read excel.
Catrina