Growing Herbs in North Bay (Zone 3)
Answered by: Richters Staff
Question from: Betty Timpano
Posted: Before April 1998

We can not find any zones for these herbs. We live in zone 3 of North Bay Ontario and we are worried about the hardiness of some of your herbs. We would like to know if we can grow these different herbs: Jean Davis lavender, garden statice, watercress, Lemon Carpet(TM) thyme, lemon verbena, acroclinium, and citronella grass in zone 3.

The everlastings garden statice and acroclinium are annuals for which the hardiness zones do not apply. Garden statice should do well enough, but we do not have information on how well acroclinium will do in your relatively short summer.

None of the others are likely to be winter hardy in your zone but that does not mean you cannot grow them outside. Watercress (zones 6-9), Lemon Carpet(TM) thyme (estimated to be zones 5-9), lemon verbena (zones 9+), and citronella (probably zones 10+) all can be grown successfully as annuals. It is a good idea to be ready to protect plants with plastic sheeting in case of unseasonal frosts, but otherwise, these herbs can yield harvests in northern zones. Jean Davis lavender (zones 5-8) will not succeed because it will not reach flowering size in the first summer.

Deni Bown’s book "Encyclopedia of Herbs & Their Uses" (available from Richters) is an excellent source of hardiness zone data.

[Lemon Carpet is a trademark of Richters; all rights reserved.]

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