Cold Hardy Plants

Cold hardiness is where a lot of succulent planting goes wrong in California, because the coast and the interior are not the same climate. Rosamond sits in the high desert and drops below freezing most winters; Visalia gets frost too. Every plant here carries a rated low temperature in degrees Fahrenheit as well as its USDA zone range, so you can match the plant to your own winter rather than to a regional average. If you are not sure which zone you are in, read plants by USDA zone.

Agave, yucca and the tougher aloes make up most of this list. Two things change how a plant handles cold in practice: drainage and exposure. A succulent that survives 15 degrees in dry ground can rot at 25 in wet soil, which is why gravel or decomposed granite around the crown helps as much as the temperature rating does. Overhead cover from a wall or a tree canopy also buys a few degrees on a radiant frost night.