Cold Hardiness Zones in South Carolina

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. The U S D A cold hardiness map now comes in an interactive form – you have to prove you aren’t robot to use it, but it’s easy after that hurdle. Search U S D A interactive map then start clicking on your area of interest to make it larger. Almost the entirety of South Carolina is zone 8 (subdivided into a and b, b is warmer) with small outlier pockets of 7 and 9. Contrast that with some western states. Idaho with mountains, valleys, prairies and such runs the gamut from zones 3 to 7. Even in South Carolina, you may have pockets of variation in your landscape – a brick wall that reflects heat, an area bordering water that has cooling winds, and of course different soil types – all those things enter into the mini-environment a plant will experience.