Morris, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Morris, 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 Morris 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 Morris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Morris — the short answer
Morris, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 8K 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 5b is Morris's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morris's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Morris
Each reading below is measured for Morris itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMorris runs about 204 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
MeasuredMorris sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Morris is in
Morris sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Morris's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grundy County.
What Grows in Morris
Every plant below cleared Morris's own zone 5b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Morris?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Morris
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Morris. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOBIL 1 LUBE EXPRESSBrownfields · 850 ft
- Simotes MotorsUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Morris North Minit Mart #645Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Morris Business & Tech CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Grundy County Redi-MixUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- COM ED MORRIS REPORTING CTRBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Duane Olson Ser CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 844Brownfields · 2100 ft
- Morris South Minit Mart #636Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- John WepplerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Circle K #1446Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- JEWEL OSCO 3741Brownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morris'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 Morris.
Total Sites
230
within ~10 miles of Morris
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Morris
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Morris
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morris, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Morris — PFAS (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (21 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Morris
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 Morris average
Your land is one point inside Morris
Everything above resolves to Morris as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Morris Average
Morris Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Morris
- ●One soil character for all of Morris
- ●Frost dates read at Morris's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morris's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Morris
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morris, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morris averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morris average
How we know this about Morris
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 Morris’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 Morris
When does frost risk typically end in Morris?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morris typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Morris?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Morris typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Morris?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morris sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 16, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morris?
The federal record around Morris is a meaningful one — 230 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (111), the nearest Brownfields 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 Morris?
From about Sep 30 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 Oct 30 (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 Oct 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Morris's scale — its 5b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morris'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 Morris’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Morris's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,931 acres it covers and 230 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morris's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morris's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 30 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 230 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Morris, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Morris's boundary and the 7,931 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Morris's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Morris's 7,931 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grundy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grundy 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 Grundy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Morris's 7,931 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Morris you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,931 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Morris-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisMorris sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides