Five Cool-Weather Plants

Siberian Pea Tree

• If the Siberian pea tree (Caragana arborescens) handles a Siberian winter, it will grow in North America's cool U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones. This deciduous shrub grows to 20 feet, featuring compound leaves, yellow flowers and hanging seedpods. Able to grow into USDA zone 2, where winters are traditionally fierce, Siberian pea tree is an option for cool-weather sites as a windbreak, privacy screen or hedge.

Tamarack

• The tamarack tree (Larix laricina) has no tolerance whatsoever for warm climates. It requires a cool place to grow in, with the tree capable of heights of 80 feet. Despite being a conifer and possessing needles, the tamarack is deciduous, with its green foliage changing to yellow shades before dropping away in fall. Tamaracks do best where the soil drains well and has a slightly acidic nature. Landscapers often plant them in groves to take advantage of the color changes come autumn.

Daisy Fleabane

• Daisy fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus) is much like an aster, but this wildflower blooms much earlier than its cousins, flowering in April and continuing into June. The small white flowers emerge on the multiple branches of daisy fleabane, with the perennial plant growing to 30 inches. Cool weather does not deter its growth, since it is a native species into USDA zone 2. Daisy fleabane has many functions in a landscape, including as part of rock gardens, cottage gardens and native plant gardens.

Virginia Creeper

• Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is a vine for cool weather, growing to 50 feet. Virginia creeper possesses palmately compound leaves, with between three and five leaflets comprising each leaf. Solid fall color and bluish berries that attract birds are the selling points of this species. Virginia creeper grows up trellises and walls, or it serves as ground cover.

White Spruce

• Places where summers remain cool are optimum settings for the white spruce (Picea glauca), a needled evergreen tree that grows to 60 feet. Native to much of Canada and many Northern states, white spruce has stiff, green needles and light-brown cones. The bark is brownish-gray on a white spruce. The species has few serious bugs or tree diseases that affect it. Use it as a specimen tree or create windbreaks with it.