Cool Weather Gardening
After long, cold winters most of us are jumping at the bit to get out into the garden. To add some early color to your gardens, try the annuals below. These annuals will tolerate cool temperatures and mild frosts. Pansies are the most cold tolerant of all annuals. They will tolerate temperatures a few degrees below freezing. All other cold tolerant annuals will tolerate light frosts but not freezing weather. Many of these annuals also perform the best when the weather is cool and don’t survive when temps warm up. Examples of these include pansies, lobelia, and calendula. So enjoy these annuals in early spring and replace them with warm weather annuals in the summer.
You can also add early color to your deck, patio, or porch by planting the annuals below in containers. If temperatures fall below freezing simply pull the containers into the garage or house for the night and set them back outside during the day. Linder’s offers several varieties including pansies and violas that are pre-potted in bowls that will add some spring color to your deck, patio, or front steps.
Cold Tolerant Annuals
- Alyssum
- Calendula
- Dianthus
- Diascia
- Dusty Miller
- Flowering Cabbage and Kale
- Lobelia
- Mums
- Nemesia
- Pansy
- Petunia
- Snapdragons
- Statice
- Stock
- Viola
Cold Tolerant Vegetables
- Broccoli
- Brussels Sprouts
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Collard
- Kohlrabi
- Lettuce
- Onion
- Spinach