half-hardy

1 7.9

Plants that can live outdoors but need protection from strong frosts

adjective

: semi-resistente

Many half-hardy annuals should be started indoors before the last frost.

Examples

The half-hardy plants need to be brought inside during winter.
These half-hardy flowers bloom beautifully in spring.
Gardeners often place half-hardy plants in greenhouses during winter.
Petunias are considered half-hardy and can be damaged by late spring frosts.
Plants that are half-hardy, like pansies, require some protection from frost during the winter months.
To ensure your half-hardy flowers thrive, it's important to cover them during cold snaps.
In the garden, many varieties that are half-hardy need extra care to survive the freezing temperatures of early spring.

Synonyms

semihardy

vshalf-hardy

1 7.2

A plant that survives light cold but not hard frost

needs some protection and cannot survive severe frost

Antonyms

hardy

13 3.9

Able to live and grow in cold or bad weather

How Hardy

hardy

13 3.9

half-hardy

1 7.9

tender

Specialized

5 5.5

Surface Forms

half-hardy positive

Morphology

half-hardy = hardy (transparent) = half + hardy

Meaning is directly inferable as 'partly/not completely hardy' (i.e., partly able to withstand cold), following the productive 'half-' combination.

Etymology

Half-hardy combines half ('partly') and hardy ('tough' or 'able to survive cold'), so it means a plant is only partly tough — it can live outdoors but needs some protection from severe frost.