Henlopen Acres, Delaware, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Henlopen Acres, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Henlopen Acres lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Henlopen Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Henlopen Acres — the short answer
Henlopen Acres, Delaware: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 163 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 163 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Henlopen Acres's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Henlopen Acres's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Henlopen Acres
Each reading below is measured for Henlopen Acres itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHenlopen Acres runs about 265 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHenlopen Acres sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Henlopen Acres is in
Henlopen Acres sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Henlopen Acres's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sussex County.
What Grows in Henlopen Acres
Every plant below cleared Henlopen Acres's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's Delaware profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Henlopen Acres?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Henlopen Acres
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Henlopen Acres, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Henlopen Acres
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Henlopen Acres. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Town of Henlopen Acres MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Oi25-19Nitrate · 650 ft
- WAWA FOOD MARKET #849Brownfields · 1100 ft
- Oi25-18Nitrate · 1100 ft
- Oi35-02Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Oi35-01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- City of Rehoboth City HallUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Hackney Barney Farms IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Wilgus Rehoboth IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Highs Dairy Store Rehoboth BeachUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Morrie PershingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Bell Atlantic IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Henlopen Acres's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Henlopen Acres.
Total Sites
569
within ~10 miles of Henlopen Acres
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Henlopen Acres
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Henlopen Acres
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Henlopen Acres, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Henlopen Acres — Nitrate (364 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Henlopen Acres
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Henlopen Acres average
Your land is one point inside Henlopen Acres
Everything above resolves to Henlopen Acres as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 163 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Henlopen Acres Average
Henlopen Acres Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Henlopen Acres
- ●One soil character for all of Henlopen Acres
- ●Frost dates read at Henlopen Acres's scale: Mar 11 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Henlopen Acres's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Henlopen Acres
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Henlopen Acres, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Henlopen Acres averages can't show:
We read public map data around Henlopen Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Henlopen Acres average
How we know this about Henlopen Acres
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Henlopen Acres’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Henlopen Acres
When does frost risk typically end in Henlopen Acres?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Henlopen Acres typically lands around Mar 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 1.
When is the first frost in Henlopen Acres?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Henlopen Acres typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Henlopen Acres?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Henlopen Acres sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 17, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Henlopen Acres?
The federal record around Henlopen Acres is a meaningful one — 569 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (364), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Henlopen Acres?
From about Nov 1 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Henlopen Acres's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Henlopen Acres's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Henlopen Acres’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Henlopen Acres's own scale — its own ~265-day season between 28°F freezes, the 163 acres it covers and 569 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Henlopen Acres's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Henlopen Acres's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Dec 1 and the ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 569 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Henlopen Acres, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Henlopen Acres's boundary and the 163 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Henlopen Acres's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Henlopen Acreslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Henlopen Acres's 163 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sussex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sussex County
- The growing challenges every Delaware grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Delaware
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Sussex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Henlopen Acres's 163 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Henlopen Acres you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 163 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Henlopen Acres-wide figureread your own land →