Zone 8 Plants: Best Plants to Grow in Hardiness Zone 8

A hardiness zone is a geographic area with consistent climate conditions that allow specific plants to grow and thrive. The U.S. Department of Agriculture maintains the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which allows gardeners and farmers to determine which plants are likely to flourish throughout specific regions of the United States.

The USDA map divides the country into 13 growing zones. Each USDA zone represents a 10-degree range of temperatures based on the zone's average annual minimum winter temperature.

USDA Hardiness Zone 8 is a warm zone with a long growing season, comprising hot summers and mild winters with the coldest annual temperatures between ten and twenty degrees Fahrenheit. In North America, Zone 8 is one of the warmest zones, containing much of the southern quarter of the United States, including much of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Arizona, California, and coastal Oregon and Washington. Small patches of Zone 8 climate also occur in Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Hawaii.

Zone 8 contains two subsets: Zone 8a (with the lowest average temperatures between 10 and 15 degrees Fahrenheit) and Zone 8b (with minimum temperatures between 15 and 20 degrees Fahrenheit).

If you’re looking to incorporate plants into your landscaping or garden that will thrive in Zone 8, here are some popular options:

• Herbs: Zone 8 is a healthy climate for several warm-loving herbs, including lavender, Mexican oregano, rosemary, and sage.
• Flowers: Many of the flowering plants that thrive in the low temperatures of Zone 8 can add color to your landscaping and attract pollinators like bees and hummingbirds. Year-round evergreen flowering plants in Zone 8 include abelia, evergreen daylilies, lantana, Mexican petunia, oleander, and phlox, and deciduous options such as asters and warm-loving peonies. Flowering plants with perennial varieties in Zone 8 include dahlias, deciduous daylilies, canna lilies, hardy geraniums, hibiscus, salvia, and yarrow (achillea millefolium). Zone 8 flowering plants that aren’t quite as heat-tolerant and grow best in partial or full shade include bleeding hearts (dicentra), coneflowers (echinacea), hydrangeas, and certain heat- and drought-tolerant cultivars of lilacs.
• Fruits: Zone 8 can support many fruits in the garden, especially blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, grapes, and watermelon. Due to the milder cold temperatures, Zone 8’s climate zone can also support many different types of fruit trees, including apples, apricots, bananas, cherries, citrus (like clementine tangerines, grapefruit, lemons, and kumquats), figs, pears, peaches, and plums.
• Ground cover: Ground covers that do well in Zone 8 climates include ajuga, creeping juniper, English ivy, and heat-tolerant hostas.
• Succulents: Zone 8 is a popular zone for many succulents, like agave, aloe, and sedum.
• Trees: Many trees thrive in the warm growing conditions of Zone 8, including American persimmon, crape myrtle, cypress, dogwood, fig, juniper, oak, queen palm, green ash, and southern magnolia.
• Vegetables: With long, warm summers and mild winters, Zone 8 is a great climate for vegetable gardens, allowing gardeners to plant early in the season or start their crops indoors before the last frost date for an even longer growing season. Early spring and early summer veggies include beans, beets, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, corn, cucumber, kale, lettuce, okra, onions, peas, spinach, squash, and tomatoes. Gardeners can plant many cool-season vegetables again in early fall and grow them through the mild winters (often with mulch to insulate them), including arugula, broccoli, beets, celery, collard greens, fava beans, peas, and radishes.

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