Flora, 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.
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 Flora, 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 Flora 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 Flora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Flora — the short answer
Flora, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- 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 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Flora's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Flora's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Flora
Each reading below is measured for Flora itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFlora runs about 219 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
MeasuredFlora 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 Flora is in
Flora sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Flora's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Flora
Every plant below cleared Flora's own zone 6b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Flora?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Flora
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Flora. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JENNMAR CORPORATION OF ILLINOISBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Economart #26Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Stanford PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Flora Community Unit Sd #35Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Casey's General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- HELLA ELECTRONICS CORPBrownfields · 2500 ft
- HELLA ELECTRONICS CORPToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- Hockman LewisUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- East End MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- City of FloraUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- RWCI EQUIPMENT SALESBrownfields · 2600 ft
- CARGILL INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Flora'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 Flora.
Total Sites
105
within ~10 miles of Flora
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Flora
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Flora
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Flora, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Flora — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Flora
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 Flora average
Your land is one point inside Flora
Everything above resolves to Flora as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Flora Average
Flora Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Flora
- ●One soil character for all of Flora
- ●Frost dates read at Flora's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Flora's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Flora
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Flora, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Flora averages can't show:
We read public map data around Flora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Flora average
How we know this about Flora
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 Flora’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 Flora
When does frost risk typically end in Flora?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Flora 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 Flora?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Flora typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Flora?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Flora sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 20, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Flora?
The federal record around Flora shows 105 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Flora?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Flora's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Flora'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 Flora’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Flora's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,002 acres it covers and 105 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Flora's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Flora's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 3 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Flora, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Flora's boundary and the 3,002 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Flora'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 Flora's 3,002 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Flora's 3,002 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Flora you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,002 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Flora-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisFlora sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides