Cisne, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cisne, 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 Cisne 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 Cisne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cisne — the short answer
Cisne, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 403 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 403 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 Cisne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cisne's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cisne
Each reading below is measured for Cisne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCisne runs about 221 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
MeasuredCisne 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 Cisne is in
Cisne sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cisne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wayne County.
What Grows in Cisne
Every plant below cleared Cisne's own zone 6b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cisne?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Cisne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cisne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cisne CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Cisne PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Bedford Twp Fire Prot DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 2 miles NW of CisneNitrate · 1.4 mi
- Herb Bruce TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Cisne OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Cisne Jumpin' Jimmy'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Bus BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MARATHON PIPE LINE LLCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- Enterprise StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Hoskins SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- MILLER EGG FARMCAFO · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cisne'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 Cisne.
Total Sites
66
within ~10 miles of Cisne
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cisne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cisne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cisne, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Cisne. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cisne
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 Cisne average
Your land is one point inside Cisne
Everything above resolves to Cisne as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 403 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 Cisne Average
Cisne Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Cisne
- ●One soil character for all of Cisne
- ●Frost dates read at Cisne's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cisne's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cisne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cisne, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cisne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cisne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cisne average
How we know this about Cisne
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 Cisne’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 Cisne
When does frost risk typically end in Cisne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cisne typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Cisne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cisne typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cisne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cisne sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 22, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cisne?
The federal record around Cisne shows 66 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cisne?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cisne's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cisne'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 Cisne’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cisne's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 403 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cisne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cisne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 5 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cisne, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cisne's boundary and the 403 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cisne'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 Cisne's 403 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wayne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wayne 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 Wayne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cisne's 403 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cisne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 403 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Cisne-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisCisne sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides