frost-tender

frost-tender (comparative more frost-tender, superlative most frost-tender)

1. (horticulture) Of plants: unable to tolerate frost, and liable to die if exposed to it.

   I found out to my cost that the tree fern I brought back from New Zealand was frost-tender, and it didn't survive the winter.

• frost tender

• “frost-tender”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.