Plant zones - Swedish zones & USDA zones in Sweden and the rest of the World

Since our page with the same information has received quite a few views, we are now making a blog post out of this which can be easily found under the blog Cultivation & Care.

The Swedish zone classification 

According to the Swedish standard, there are 8 different growing zones in Sweden: zone 1 is the warmest with a gradual transition to the coldest zone 8. 

To see the full version of the Swedish zone map, created and maintained by the Swedish Garden Association, see the link below to their digital zone map:

The Swedish Garden Association's digital zone map

USDA zones for Sweden

The more international zone classification that you often see is based on the "USDA Hardiness Zone Map". According to this system, Sweden covers USDA zones 2a to 8b. Here the lower numbers - in contrast to the Swedish system - are the coldest. 2a is thus the coldest while 8b marks the warmest regions. 

If you try to translate the different systems to each other, you can think that our Swedish zone 1 represents USDA zone 8-7, from there you gradually go down the USDA zones while going up in the numbers of the Swedish zones to find the respective counterpart. However, the different systems do not measure & classify their zones in the same way, so a completely accurate translation is not possible. It is better to check the location in question on a USDA zone map instead. See link below:

Sweden Plant Hardiness Zone Map

USDA zones for all of Europe 

To our knowledge, there is no live map showing USDA zones for Europe. But there are some static maps - the maps below are the clearest we think. The data underlying the maps may not be from the most recent year, but it gives a good overview of the situation. 

USDA zones for the whole world

There is also no worldwide live map for USDA zones. But, if you want to get an overview of how the growing zones look around the world measured by USDA's method, you can take a look at the image below.

As with the European map, this map is also not based on the very latest data, but it provides an overview.