Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rehoboth Beach, 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 Rehoboth Beach 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 Rehoboth Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rehoboth Beach — the short answer
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 752 acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 752 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 Rehoboth Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rehoboth Beach's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rehoboth Beach
Each reading below is measured for Rehoboth Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRehoboth Beach 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
MeasuredRehoboth Beach 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 Rehoboth Beach is in
Rehoboth Beach sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rehoboth Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sussex County.
What Grows in Rehoboth Beach
Every plant below cleared Rehoboth Beach'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 Rehoboth Beach?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Rehoboth Beach
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Rehoboth Beach, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rehoboth Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rehoboth Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hackney Barney Farms IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Bell Atlantic IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- City of Rehoboth City HallUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Oj31-01Nitrate · 1000 ft
- Oi35-02Nitrate · 1100 ft
- Oi35-01Nitrate · 1100 ft
- Wilgus Rehoboth IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Highs Dairy Store Rehoboth BeachUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Morrie PershingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Phillips PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WAWA FOOD MARKET #849Brownfields · 2200 ft
- Oi25-18Nitrate · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rehoboth Beach'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 Rehoboth Beach.
Total Sites
564
within ~10 miles of Rehoboth Beach
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rehoboth Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rehoboth Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rehoboth Beach, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rehoboth Beach — Nitrate (362 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 Rehoboth Beach
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 Rehoboth Beach average
Your land is one point inside Rehoboth Beach
Everything above resolves to Rehoboth Beach as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 752 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 city 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 Rehoboth Beach Average
Rehoboth Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Rehoboth Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Rehoboth Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Rehoboth Beach's scale: Mar 11 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rehoboth Beach's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rehoboth Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rehoboth Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rehoboth Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rehoboth Beach average
How we know this about Rehoboth Beach
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Rehoboth Beach’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Rehoboth Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Rehoboth Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rehoboth Beach 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 Rehoboth Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rehoboth Beach 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 Rehoboth Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rehoboth Beach 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 Rehoboth Beach?
The federal record around Rehoboth Beach is a meaningful one — 564 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (362), 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 Rehoboth Beach?
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 Rehoboth Beach's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rehoboth Beach'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 Rehoboth Beach’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rehoboth Beach's own scale — its own ~265-day season between 28°F freezes, the 752 acres it covers and 564 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rehoboth Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rehoboth Beach's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Dec 1 and the ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 564 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rehoboth Beach, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rehoboth Beach's boundary and the 752 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 Rehoboth Beach's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Rehoboth Beachlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rehoboth Beach's 752 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 Rehoboth Beach's 752 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rehoboth Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 752 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 Rehoboth Beach-wide figureread your own land →