Regional guide · hardiness Zone 8

Two very different zone 8s: the mild Pacific Northwest and the hot South.

Zone 8 covers the Pacific coast from Vancouver and Nanaimo through Seattle and Portland, and the Deep South and Southern Plains from Atlanta and the Carolinas to Dallas and Memphis. Both share light winters, but the Northwest has cool, dry summers and wet winters while the South has long, hot, humid summers — so what thrives differs a great deal.

Winter low

−12 to −7°C

10 to 20°F

Frost-free days

210–260

Typical frost window

Roughly late March to mid-November (later spring, longer fall on the coast).

Regions in Zone 8

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Gardening in Zone 8

In the Northwest: superb cool-season and berry gardening, winter vegetables outdoors, and tomatoes that need a warm wall. In the South: a hot summer garden bracketed by two cool-season gardens, with winter greens grown outdoors and heat stopping lettuce and peas by May.

Vegetables that thrive

  • Year-round kale, chard, leeks and brassicas (Northwest)
  • Winter greens, collards, carrots and onions outdoors (South)
  • Tomatoes, peppers and eggplant (heat lovers thrive in the South; choose early types in the Northwest)
  • Okra, sweet potatoes, southern peas and melons (South)
  • Peas, fava beans and overwintered garlic
  • Artichokes as perennials
  • Potatoes and salad greens spring and fall
  • Cucumbers and summer squash in succession

Fruit

  • Blueberries, raspberries and blackberries (Northwest standouts)
  • Figs, persimmons and pomegranates
  • Peaches and plums (South); apples, pears and Asian pears (Northwest)
  • Table and wine grapes; muscadines (South)
  • Citrus in protected sites (satsuma, kumquat in the South)
  • Kiwi and hardy kiwi
  • Loquat (South)
  • Strawberries as perennials

Reliable perennials & shrubs

  • Camellia, rhododendron and azalea
  • Rosemary, lavender and bay as shrubs
  • Crape myrtle and gardenia (South)
  • Hardy fuchsia and hebe (Northwest)
  • Palms (windmill palm; sabal in the South)
  • Hydrangea macrophylla (blooms reliably)

Zone tips

  • Northwest: plant tomatoes in late May against a south wall; grow winter vegetables sown in July–August.
  • South: plant tomatoes mid-March and again in late July; grow lettuce and peas in fall and winter, not summer.
  • Garlic in October–November; harvest in June.
  • Watch chill hours when choosing fruit trees — southern varieties need fewer, coastal varieties more.

Fishing in Zone 8

Pacific salmon, steelhead and sea-run cutthroat in the Northwest rivers, plus halibut, lingcod and rockfish in the salt; in the South, largemouth bass, crappie and catfish in the reservoirs, redfish and speckled trout on the coasts, and year-round open-water fishing almost everywhere.

Signature species

  • Chinook, coho and pink salmon; steelhead (Northwest)
  • Sea-run cutthroat, rainbow trout and kokanee
  • Halibut, lingcod and rockfish (BC and Washington coast)
  • Largemouth bass (Southern reservoirs)
  • Crappie, bream and catfish
  • Striped and hybrid striped bass
  • Redfish, speckled trout and flounder (Southern coasts)
  • White bass and sand bass runs (Texas)

Seasons, limits and licences vary by province and state; every local guide links to the right regulator.

Foraging in Zone 8

The Northwest is arguably the best mushroom foraging on the continent — chanterelles, king boletes and matsutake in fall, morels in spring — with salmonberries, huckleberries and seaweed on the coast. The South offers pecans, muscadines, persimmons, chanterelles and a mild winter for greens.

What to look for

  • Pacific golden chanterelles, king boletes, matsutake, hedgehogs (Northwest fall)
  • Morels, especially after fires (Northwest spring)
  • Salmonberries, thimbleberries, huckleberries and salal
  • Nettles, miner's lettuce and fiddleheads
  • Seaweeds and shellfish (check closures and licences)
  • Pecans, black walnuts and hickories (South)
  • Muscadines, persimmons and mayhaws (South)
  • Chanterelles in summer oak-pine woods (South)

Never eat anything you cannot identify with certainty. Confirm with a regional field guide or local expert.

The Zone 8 year

  1. January–February

    Winter greens harvest; prune; plant bare-root fruit; steelhead season (Northwest); crappie begin staging (South).

  2. March–April

    Peas, potatoes, brassicas out; tomatoes out in the South; spring chinook; morels.

  3. May–June

    Tomatoes out in the Northwest; berry season; bass on beds in the South; garlic harvest.

  4. July–August

    Northwest summer harvest and sowing of winter vegetables; Southern heat — second plantings, nightfishing for catfish and bass.

  5. September–October

    Fall salmon runs and the chanterelle flush (Northwest); Southern fall garden and pecans; redfish runs.

  6. November–December

    First frost mid-November; king boletes and hedgehogs; overwintering vegetables; winter steelhead.

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