Breese, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Breese, 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 Breese 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 Breese — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Breese — the short answer
Breese, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 6b is Breese's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Breese's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Breese
Each reading below is measured for Breese itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBreese runs about 225 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBreese sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Breese is in
Breese sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Breese's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clinton County.
What Grows in Breese
Every plant below cleared Breese's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Breese?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Breese
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Breese. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Foppe, Inc. dba Foppe ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- AMOCO, FOPPEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Agri Pride Fs IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Arrow Group IndustriesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Poettker Const CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Caseys General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STOREBrownfields · 1900 ft
- RUPPELS AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1900 ft
- MARBLE SYSTEMS INCToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- Joseph Becker IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- St Rose TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Marty's Stop N ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Breese'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 Breese.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Breese
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Breese
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Breese, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Breese. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Breese
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 Breese average
Your land is one point inside Breese
Everything above resolves to Breese as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Breese Average
Breese Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Breese
- ●One soil character for all of Breese
- ●Frost dates read at Breese's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Breese's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Breese
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Breese, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Breese averages can't show:
We read public map data around Breese — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Breese average
How we know this about Breese
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 Breese’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 Breese
When does frost risk typically end in Breese?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Breese typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Breese?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Breese typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Breese?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Breese sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 23, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Breese?
The federal record around Breese is a meaningful one — 174 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (102), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Breese?
From about Oct 7 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 Nov 6 (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 Nov 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Breese's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Breese'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 Breese’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Breese's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,710 acres it covers and 174 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Breese's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Breese's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 6 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 174 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Breese, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Breese's boundary and the 1,710 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Breese's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Breese's 1,710 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clinton County
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Clinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Breese's 1,710 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Breese you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,710 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Breese-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisBreese sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides