Palm Tree Cold Hardiness Zone Map

This map was created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) who has recently (2012) completed an extensive updating of U.S. Hardiness Zones based upon data from 5,000 National Climatic Data Center cooperative stations across the continental United States.

The USDA Hardiness Zone Map is a map with regions defined by a 10 degree Fahrenheit difference in the average annual minimum temperature. This map divides North America into 11 separate zones. The higher the zone number, the warmer the area.

Information from the zone map helps gardeners to compare their garden climates and determine what plants will grow in their area. Keep in mind, this map only shows average annual minimum temperatures and doesn’t take into consideration important factors like soil types, rainfall, daytime temperatures, day length, wind, humidity and heat.

Those factors are very important and play a key role in healthy palm growth and development. Knowing your hardiness zone is just not enough. A good example would be Portland, OR and Austin, TX. Even though they are both located in the Zone 8, their climates are dramatically different.

Palm Trees by State

Find out what palm trees can grow in your state:

State	Zones	State	Zones
Alabama Palm Trees	7a – 9a	Montana Palm Trees	3a – 6a
Alaska Palm Trees	1a – 8b	Nebraska Palm Trees	4a – 5b
Arizona Palm Trees	4b – 10b	Nevada Palm Trees	4a – 10a
Arkansas Palm Trees	6b – 8a	New Hampshire Palm Trees	3b – 6a
California Palm Trees	5a – 11a	New Jersey Palm Trees	6a – 7b
Colorado Palm Trees	3a – 7a	New Mexico Palm Trees	4b – 9a
Connecticut Palm Trees	5b – 7a	New York Palm Trees	3b – 7b
Delaware Palm Trees	7a – 7b	North Carolina Palm Trees	5b – 8b
Washington DC Palm Trees	5b – 8a	North Dakota Palm Trees	3a – 4b
Florida Palm Trees	8a – 11a	Ohio Palm Trees	5b – 6b
Georgia Palm Trees	6a – 9a	Oklahoma Palm Trees	6a – 8a
Hawaii Palm Trees	9a – 13a	Oregon Palm Trees	4b – 9b
Idaho Palm Trees	3b – 7b	Pennsylvania Palm Trees	5a – 7b
Illinois Palm Trees	5a – 7a	Puerto Rico Palm Trees	11b – 13b
Indiana Palm Trees	5b – 6b	Rhode Island Palm Trees	5b – 7a
Iowa Palm Trees	4b – 6a	South Carolina Palm Trees	7a – 9a
Kansas Palm Trees	5b – 7a	South Dakota Palm Trees	3b – 5b
Kentucky Palm Trees	6a – 7a	Tennessee Palm Trees	5b – 8a
Louisiana Palm Trees	8a – 10a	Texas Palm Trees	6b – 10a
Maine Palm Trees	3b – 6a	Utah Palm Trees	4a – 9a
Maryland Palm Trees	5b – 8a	Vermont Palm Trees	3b – 5b
MA Palm Trees	5a – 7b	Virginia Palm Trees	5a – 8a
Michigan Palm Trees	4a – 6b	Washington Palm Trees	4a – 9a
Minnesota Palm Trees	3a – 5a	West Virginia Palm Trees	5a – 7a
Mississippi Palm Trees	7b – 9a	Wisconsin Palm Trees	3b – 5b
Missouri Palm Trees	5b – 7b	Wyoming Palm Trees	3a – 6a

Applying zone references

In the palm profile you might have seen reference to zone or range of zones. If a palm is hardy to zone 7, that means it can withstand lowest temperatures of that zone. If there is a range of zones like 7-10, that means it can grow only in those zones and will not tolerate colder or warmer temperatures.

Microclimate

If you live in a microclimate, that is an area with slightly different climate from a general climate of a region, then you might be able to grow more/less palms in your garden. Even within a city, a street, or a spot protected by a warm wall in your own garden, there may be microclimates that affect how plants grow.

USDA Zones

Here is a list of zones with avg. annual low temperatures:

• Zone 1: below -50 F (below -46 C)
• Zone 2: -50 to -40 F (-46 to -40 C)
• Zone 3: -40 to -30 F (-40 to -34 C)
• Zone 4: -30 to -20 F (-34 to -29 C)
• Zone 5: -20 to -10 F (-29 to -23 C)
• Zone 6: -10 to 0 F (-23 to -18 C)
• Zone 7: 0 to 10 F (-18 to -12 C)
• Zone 8: 10 to 20 F (-12 to -7 C)
• Zone 9: 20 to 30 F (-7 to -1 C)
• Zone 10: 30 to 40 F (-1 to 4 C)
• Zone 11: above 40 F (above 4 C)

Related articles:

• How to Save Cold Damaged Palm Tree
• Top 10 Cold Hardy Palms
• Importance of Microclimate When Choosing Cold Hardy Palms
• Top 5 Factors Affecting Cold Hardy Palm Tree Growth