Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
emerogork2

What is a "Half-Hardy" perennial?

emerogork
9 years ago

I see this in web sites for plants and/or seeds and wonder how they relate to my zone.

Comments (32)

  • lazy_gardens
    9 years ago

    Something that dies during half the winters in your zone?

    Look for something that's hardy to one zone colder than yours.

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Confusing term, used with several meaning.

    Would probably be better to restrict it's use to annuals (i.e. those grown in greenhouses, etc., and bedded out in spring/summer).

    Can take it, re perennials, as those that survive a light frost in cold climates, that survive in protected microclimates in cold temperature, that have to be brought in in winter in cold climates, etc..

  • Edie
    9 years ago

    I ignore terms like that and look for the zone the plant is rated for. If there's no number given, I assume it will be an annual if left outdoors over winter. Zone 5 doesn't allow for "half" anything. Plants are hardy or not, and alive in spring or not.

  • peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
    9 years ago

    Basically they are plants that will not survive frost. Tender perennial is another term used. For us they would be sold as bedding plants. The ones commonly listed as half-hardy are Impatiens, Fuchsia, Pelargonium, Heliatrope....etc.

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    9 years ago

    I think that half hardy perennials are perennials that need to be generously mulched or protected in another manner in order to live through a winter. Brugmansia, Giant Mexican Turkscap, mexican salvias,gingers, and many tropicals are half hardy here in Z8 and come back up from the roots when mulched. Some stalks are wrapped , i.e. banana, dioons, palms.. Some just need a rag thrown on their meristem growth point.

    The list is dependent on where you live.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    I consider woody perennial plants that die down completely to the roots as half hardy while those that stay evergreen or will sprout from stems above ground to be hardy. Then there is a third group, the tender perennials that I wouldn't expect to survive winter at all.

    The herbaceous perennials die down to the ground but the hardy ones usually have green at the base often starting in fall and it stays green all winter while the half hardy take some time to wake up and come around in late spring or early summer or sometimes not at all along with the tender perennials that should be treated as annuals or wintered indoors.

  • NHBabs z4b-5a NH
    9 years ago

    In zone 5, it's used the way Peren.all defined it. They are perennial plants, but can't be left outside in our zone, though many of them would be fine further south, with how far south/warm depending on the particular plant. Some of them can survive light frost but not the long cold winters we have.

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    9 years ago

    Interesting how perceptions change with the Zone. What survives changes very quickly in our area between Dallas and the coast. getting quite subtropical on the barrier islands. There are types of agaves, aloes and caesalpinias that I can not grow here , that 30 miles away do just fine. There are large changes between 8a and 8b and even larger changes as we head into 9a and 9b. Things change quickly and the details are worth investigating and many people are always pushing the envelope and/or living in denial. I think once you get into the area where the ground does not freeze in the short frost, what is cut and dry and an immovable fact of winter in the far north becomes something that one can play around here with environment modulation outdoors. Terms take on a different coloration.

    Plant swaps in SAn Antonio that I go to are very interesting with people coming up from the valley, Corpus Cristi, West Texas, colder hill Country. I have to be very selective with my selections, even of natives. A hardy perennial in San An might be a half hardy one here that needs coddling and it is hard to wrap a 20' cereus cactus for the rare cold front. People do all the time. Caesalpinia mexicana for one. Necklace pod of another.

    This post was edited by wantonamara on Sun, Dec 7, 14 at 19:40

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Wantonamara, interesting comments/description of rapid hardiness zone changes around your location.

    For Northerners, like me, a typically abrupt change we sometimes experience is flying from southern Ontario to central Florida in winter.

    That really emphasizes how relative so much of it is.

    Christmas: bedded poinsettias!

    Lantana: (often not the Florida native species or maybe a hybrid of it) acting as a perennial; in fact, as is typically the case, the lantana really is a perennials that behaves as an annual up North.

    Another issue here is when perennials themselves travel, resulting from the fact that it's cheaper to raise perennials in the Carolinas and then ship them up for northern sale when time comes.

    In this case, the growing perennials are never given a chance to get acclimatized to our growing conditions, which then contributes to plant mortality.

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    9 years ago

    SunnyB, When I plant salvias, I always take cuttings and grow them because the plant (especially californian sages grown on the coast) will die but their babies grown from cuttings are much hardier and more flexible to changes in the environment. I try to stay away from plants grown in coastal west coast. Beautiful SISSIES! But their dismembered babies are another thing. I am a slut for Annie's Annuals plants, but I have struggled with their plants. Agaves take more than a couple of years to reach their mature hardiness levels. Nothing is cut and dried about hardiness around here. Character of soil wetness will kill a cold hardy succulent rated for Colorado. Lantana is considered an naturalized invasive by some. I find it growing wild in the hills. The purple and the white, not L horrid.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    There are also certain plants that have naturally adapted to colder regions over time. A good example is Live Oak. The tree has gradually moved further north into Oklahoma as a native tree. If you live in zone 6 or 7 its advisable to get acorns from an Oklahoma native tree as opposed to acorns from a native tree growing in Austin or Houston if you want it to survive winters.

    I read that lantanas have 3 different species used in hybrids and that the native Texas lantana (horrida) is more cold hardy. The ones that over winter here have L. horrida in their lineage as opposed to the South American species L. camara and L. montevidensis. I find this odd because the wild version of L. camara is very hardy here so it must be the L. montevidensis that makes most of the hybrids not hardy in our zone. There are some hybrids hardy to zone 7 or even 6 on the market now.

    I'm waiting to see if the Salvia regla plants I grew from seeds sent to me from Texas last fall are half hardy here. The Mt. Emory strain of S. regla is supposed to be the more cold hardy S. regla but again, its a matter of the same plant naturally adapting to colder climates and that it makes a difference where the seed is collected.

    The agaves that come from higher altitudes are usually the cold hardy types as opposed to those growing in lower desert areas. Same goes for cactus. There are many very cold hardy species.

    I run into this phenomena every now and then with native plants.

  • davidrt28 (zone 7)
    9 years ago

    It's a term you can only define with respect to a given locale. Brugmansias could be considered shrubs or even trees in the zn 10b or 10a parts of California...they could be considered half-hardy or hardy perennials in a place like Austin, TX where they will die back to some degree, some winters, and tender perennials in places like Washington DC where they will almost certainly have to be taken in most winters. (but can occasionally survive a mild winter, as has happened to me a couple times) The distinction between tender perennials and half hardy is less clear but has been made by some sources. Tender means must be taken in, half-hardy meaning it will survive some winters.
    Saying "perennial" in this sense doesn't exclude growing them as annuals; but it does mean that in their native habitat they are plants that are long lasting. IIRC there are some true annuals native even to the tropics, that complete a lifecycle, seed, and die in a year, but they are rather rare and most plants we call annuals are actually tropical or subtropical perennials. Even rice, which is normally grown as an annual, is capable of growing as a perennial for many years. But in the gardening vernacular, few people who say they are going out to buy "tender perennials" when they are buying begonias, they say they are buying annuals.

    This post was edited by davidrt28 on Sun, Dec 7, 14 at 18:13

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Re your salvia planting, Wantonamara, "dismembered babies" aside, admirably meticulous!

    I don't like to think about "beautiful sissies" meeting "tough love gardening". It reminds me of "Nature red in tooth and claw".

    Interesting info, TR and davidrt28.

    This post was edited by SunnyBorders on Sun, Dec 7, 14 at 18:38

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    9 years ago

    SunnyB, The nature on my land is "red in tooth and claw" and that is not figuratively. I saw another mountain Lion track and a small hoofed track right between the paw prints. It did not look good for one of them. I saw an area that this animal spends time lying down in surveying. I hope this means less of a deer problem next year.

    I buy tough plants but sometimes I find them propagated in pleasant cool areas on the coast of California. I need to remind them of their inner toughness.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    No matter what you call it when it comes to calling a plant hardy, half or tender, summer temperatures are the bigger test here. I have tried several plants that turned out to be not heat hardy or even half-heat hardy unless you don't mind looking at obvious suffering every day. Humidity is another factor along with annual inches of rain. Quite a surprising number of zone 8 plants have done well here. Its when a plant is listed at good down to zones 2, 3 or 4 that I doubt its ability to make it.

  • floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
    9 years ago

    'The list is dependent on where you live'. - Absolutely right. It is a gardening term which has no botanical meaning at all.

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    I'm sure floral_uk's right.

    Perhaps it's being used for marketing purposes or by garden journalists who don't garden.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    Even if it has no botanical meaning, its a way to realistically communicate where to plant and/or how to prepare for winter based on how hardy a plant is and what to expect. Maybe we should speak in terms of cold tolerance as being high, medium, low or none at all. I don't get bogged down in terms, I just want to know how a plant will do here and 'half hardy' would tell me something.

  • floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
    9 years ago

    I didn't mean to imply the term had no use at all - only that it has no meaning in botany. It is very useful to know if a plant is likely to survive in your area. It is far more complicated in the US with its many different climate types than it is here so maybe giving a temperature is more helpful.

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    I'd say the term is ambiguous and misleading as applied in gardening, especially for a forum which is not restricted to gardeners of one particular plant hardiness zone/subzone.

    Consequently it's a great term to use if you want to confuse people.

    By the way, this is North America.
    Some of us are Canadians (Eh?).

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    9 years ago

    The forum is global. I remember people from Crete and australia, switzerland and turkey

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    Here is the definition according to Webster which might help define a term that I have just learned confuses some people. Down here the description seems obvious and makes sense but I have no idea what term works for people in Canada. It just sounds really cold up there and it seems like plants growing outdoors would all have to be very cold hardy so I doubt half hardy plants would have a chance anyway.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    Here is a simpler definition. Its the less cold hardy perennials I run out put a bucket or blanket over if the weatherman forecasts 2 or 3 days straight of exceptionally cold weather, then I uncover them when it warms back up.

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Fair comment, wantonamara,

    However, I'm assuming that the large bulk of contributors to GardenWeb (or at least this forum) are North Americans. Of course, some in Britain contribute and a few other folk, who are presumably bi- or multilingual (e.g Linaria and Wieslaw).

    In the broader sweep of things, there's presumably say little point in distinguishing plant growing conditions in Upstate New York and those in southern Ontario where we live.


    This post was edited by SunnyBorders on Tue, Dec 9, 14 at 8:01

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Conscientious try, TR.

    The problem left, however, is that you need to get everyone else to accept that one definition.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    My definition was a joke SB and no one needs to accept it.

    Merriam Webster is on his own to get everyone to accept his definition.

    This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Tue, Dec 9, 14 at 1:35

  • emerogork
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I oft wonder if there is a word for the study of how people misinterpret electronic text.

    I regret, as well as am rewarded, that I started this thread in the first place. I sometimes more, and sometimes less, understand this now than before.

    (:

  • sunnyborders
    9 years ago

    Didn't mean to give you a hard time, TR.

    Just meant to point out shortcomings with that literary (?) definition.

    For instance, what does "carefully protected mean"? Is carefully protected in one location the same as carefully protected in another? Etc..

  • peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
    9 years ago

    These terms are intended to clarify not confuse. A heads up so to speak that a plant may be iffy depending on zone. If applicable a plant is given a zonal rating plus the added info that it is a tender perennial or half-hardy outside of the zones given.
    It is then up to us to decide if we really want that plant enough to give it the TLC it will require.
    Heat zones are now given, this again is a heads up to folks in warmer zones that a plant cannot take the heat beyond the zone listed.
    There is great variation within zones anywhere in the world. There is variation between one garden and another within a neighborhood depending on soil, drainage, amendments added etc.
    These terms are international.(with some variations on wording in some locales?)
    Isn't that what makes this forum so helpful and interesting to so many, regardless of where we live?

  • emerogork
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    "These terms are intended to clarify not confuse. A heads up so to speak that a plant may be iffy depending on zone."

    I wonder why the terms are not always directly associated with a zone range.

    So what you are saying, I presume, is that a half-hardy plant in zone 3 will probably be hardy in zone 6. Makes sense if the zone is actually indicated.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    There's no reason to regret starting the thread, its kind of interesting to see the responses. If I was using the words 'half hardy' the sentence would most likely include the word 'here'.

    example: Lantana's are only half hardy here in Oklahoma, it helps to mulch. Don't cut the hollow stems back until spring or else water will seep down and cause freeze damage killing the roots.

    Another way to put it would be to say they are only 'root hardy' here but sometimes they don't make it. In conversation I usually use the words 'semi-hardy'. Hopefully that is more literarily acceptable.

    This simply communicates they are able to make it most years with a bit of common sense care but there's always a bad winter looming out there that could do them in, its not a technical type of term. I can't see how that would be difficult to understand anywhere you live.

    After pulling up the Webster definition finally, I am now wondering what 'half-grasses' are. Anyone know?

    I actually jumped into this discussion a bit 'half-assed' since I didn't double check 'half-hardy' until floral wrote it wasn't a botanical term.

    This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Tue, Dec 9, 14 at 13:38

  • peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
    9 years ago

    Emerogork2--("I wonder why the terms are not always directly associated with a zone range.")
    Thankfully most plants are trialed or tested prior to being released to the market, this is how the zones where it will thrive are arrived at.
    Most perennials have a set of clear cut zones assigned to them such as Zone 5 to 9, or Zone 3 to 8, or (unfortunate for us) Zone 8 to 10. They can be very successful within those zones only for any number of reasons.
    Then there will be plants like Begonias.
    Most are sold as bedding plants (these are usually the ones given a half-hardy or tender perennial notation) or house plants BUT there are a few species that can be perennial.
    B. grandis Zone 5 (with protection) or 6 to 10
    B. pedatifida Zones 7 to 10; trial in colder zones.
    The info was written that way since they did not have full info yet OR because some could grow it in Zone 6 and others could not.

Sponsored
Through The Garden, Inc.
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars21 Reviews
#1 Landscape Design Build Firm Serving Virginia/Maryland & DC Area