We rate every variety by the coldest night it has actually come through, at our two Montana sites in Missoula and Florence or with trusted growers farther north, not by a catalog average. A bare zone number means the whole zone, colder half included. A b, like 4b, means the warmer half only.

Sweet cherries open up in zone 4: Lapins, Gold, Black Gold, White Gold and Rainier. So do Contender peach, Siberian C peach, Bartlett pear and Italian plum. In the warmer half (4b, -25°F to -20°F) you can add Blushingstar, Risingstar and Glohaven peaches and Hardired nectarine.

In zone 4 the bigger risk is often a late spring frost, not the winter low. Late bloomers like Zard apricot and Gold sweet cherry help you dodge it, and our pollination maps show which varieties bloom together so your trees still get pollenized.

Other zones: Zone 3 · Zone 5. Find your zone with our cold hardiness calculator.