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Q: I’m new to Nanaimo and need info on the climate zone as well as the shrubs, flowers, vegetables, etc. that will do well in this area. Also, can you plant any of above at this time of year? —Caroline
Nanaimo falls into the zone 6 category of gardening—allowing you to grow a great variety of plants. Many parts of zone 6 have a range of temperatures that will allow both cold-weather and warm-weather plants to flourish.
A lot of cold-loving plants will not oversummer in warmer zones, while heat-loving plants, such as common boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) and Japanese apricot (Prunus mume), will not overwinter in colder zones. In zone 6, both groups can grow happily in the same garden!
For vegetables, I recommend you send for a very helpful (and free) resource, full of seed-planting advice for your climate: The West Coast Seeds Gardening Guide, available on request from the website. Veseys also has a number of excellent catalogues with zones indicated for flowers, vegetables and other plants. You’ll find these very helpful!
Here is a list of zone 6 shrubs and flowers that can be grown in your area.
Abbotswood Cinquefoil Althaea, Rose-of-Sharon Anthony Waterer Spirea Bridal Wreath Spirea Burkwood Vuburnum Crimson Pygmy Barberry Dwarf Burning Bush Dwarf Pink Almond Elaeagnus Forsythia French Lilac Froebel Spirea Garden Hydrangea Glossy Abelia Golden Barberry Golden Vicary Privet Goldfinger Cinquefoil Goldflame Spirea Improved Double File Viburnum Japanese Pieris Japanese Snowball Viburnum Jungle Flame Ixora Little Princess Spirea Miss Kim Lilac Mock Orange (Philadelphus x virginalis) Northern Bayberry Old-Fashioned Lilac Pink Flowering Dogwood President Grevy Lilac Purpleleaf Plum Quince Rainbow Leucothoe Red Japanese Barberry Redbud Redtwig Dogwood Rock Cotoneaster Rose Glow Barberry Saucer Magnolia Slender Deutzia Spreading Cotoneaster Vanhoutte Spirea Virginia Sweetspire Weigela White Flowering Dogwood Winterberry
Allegheny Foamflower Alpine Strawberry Astilbe Baby’s Breath Balloon Flower Barrenwort Beard Tongue Beebalm Bergenia Black-Eyed Susan (Goldsturm) Blanket Flower Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) Butterfly Bush Candytuft Cardinal Flower Carpathian Bellflower Cheddar Pinks Cinquefoil Clara Curtis Clematis Clustered Bellflower Columbine Common Bugleweed Common Peony Common Yarrow Cora Bells Creeping Baby’s Breath Creeping Lilyturf Crocosmia Cushion Aster Daylily Double Peony False Dragonhead False Forget Me Not False Sunflower Foamy Bells Foxglove (Excelsior Hybrids) Foxtail Lily Garden Lilies Garden Phlox German Iris German Statice Hen & Chicks Himalayan Fleeceflower Hollyhock Horsetail Rush Hosta Jacob’s Ladder Japanese Iris Japanese Pachysandra Japanese Peony Lamb’s Ear Lanceleaf Coreopsis Larkspur Lavender Lenten Rose Lily of the Valley Lungwort Lupine (Russell Hybrids) Maiden Pinks Meadow Phlox Moss or Creeping Phlox Myrtle New England Aster Oriental Lilies Oriental Poppy Ozark Sundrops Painted Daisy Peachleaf Bellflower Perennial Salvia Pickerel weed Pincushion Flower Purple Coneflower (Bright Star) Red Hot Poker (Early Hybrids) Resurrection Lily Rose Mallow Rosemary Russian Sage Shasta Daisy Siberian Iris Silver Mound Speedwell Spiderwort Spike Gayfeather Spotted Nettle Stokes Aster Stonecrop Strawberry Foxglove Sweet Autumn Clematis Sweet William Sweet Woodruff Thread-Leaf Coreopsis Tiger Lily Tree Peony Trumpet Lilies Two Row Stonecrop Variegated Solomon’s Seal Water Iris Woodland Phlox Wormwood Yellow Loosestrife Yunnan Meadow Rue
