Don't confuse heat zone with hardiness zone :-) Two completely distinct measurements - one measures winter cold, the other summer heat. USDA zone 8 is perfectly acceptable to grow this shrub. The AHS heat zone 6 also means it can withstand some extended heat: 45-60 days per year that exceed 86F.

FIRST EDITIONS is a registered trademark Bailey nursery uses. Here they are showing 4 kinds of shrubby potentilla with it attached. With not all being double (nevermind the link naming, it leads to a page showing and describing potentillas only): Product Index - Bailey Portal (baileynurseries.com)

Garden Gal thank you! I am confusing the two types of zones. As said, potentilla shrubs do great in my garden so this was very confusing for me. Embothrium that link was helpful. I do believe the shrubs that have caught my eye are Marmalade as the flowers are a strong yellow with a hint of orange. Tag on the pots says Lemon Meringue but clearly they aren't that one. I am still wondering if the double flowered potentilla shrubs flower as prolifically as the single ones. Anyone have ideas on that?

Garden Gal 48, I rechecked the potentilla tag and it clearly says USDA Hardiness Zone 2 - 6. Shrub is Potentilla fruticosa. So what are your thoughts regarding this? I have bought the double flowered potentilla anyway and planted them. They look great. But I don't understand why the zoning stops at 6? As stated, I am in zone 8, and have no trouble growing shrubby potentilla. In fact, the university just up from me has these plants as part of their entrance garden design. They are featured with lights to highlight them at night, and everything.

This is the variety I purchased. Double flowered yellow with a hint of orange. Thanks for any input. For that matter, I just checked the pink potentilla shrub purchased at another nursery, variety Bella Bellissima, and it's tag says "zone 2 - 6" as well. That last without specifying if they are referring to heat zone or hardiness zone, except it is followed by "Cold hardy to -46 C / -50 F" so the inference would be hardiness zone.

If you are concerned buy one and see how it does over one summer., though since other Potentillas do fine for you I would not worry if it were my garden. Or use GG48 ’s comment about heat zone; do you exceed 60 days with temperatures over 86 degrees? if so it may not be a good choice.

Be aware that double flowers often are of less value to critters and pollinators if that is of concern to you.

Thanks, Garden Gal 48. I did more research and found one site that stated the hardiness zone and the heat zone for potentilla fructiosa. That site said 2 - 7 for hardiness, and 1 - 7 for heat zone. Then I looked to try and find what heat zone Vancouver Island was in, but there doesn't seem to be a map for that. So I went with Seattle as the closest place in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle has a heat zone rating of 2! So even if Nanaimo has hotter summers than Seattle, and we might, we aren't likely to be more than zone 3 heat wise. I agree with you the plant tags are very misleading. I wish they wouldn't state something like hardiness zone at 2 - 6, when plants can handle upper range of the hardiness category. They state the same for weigela shrubs zones

2 - 6. Weigela shrubs also do great in my yard.