In order to clarify the effects of VRN-1 vernalization genes on cold hardiness of wheat, the freeze injury of 134 wheat cultivars collected from eleven wheat growing provinces was investigated in shijiazhuang region during the period 2009-2010, and the VRN-1 alleles in above cultivars were analyzed using the sequence-specific markers. The results indicated that the cold hardiness of cultivars is closely related to composition of VRN-1 alleles, geographic origin and drought tolerance. As in the same geographical origin, the cold hardiness of cultivars is generally weakened with the enhancement of vernalization effects controlled by VRN-1 alleles. Besides, cold hardiness of cultivars with same VRN-1 alleles are always weakened with the lower the latitude of the geographical origin. These results should be helpful to cold hardiness improvement of wheat cultivars.