Serena, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Serena, 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 Serena 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 Serena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Serena — the short answer
Serena, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 157 acres of town.
- 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
- Town area
- 157 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 Serena's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Serena's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Serena
Each reading below is measured for Serena itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSerena 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
MeasuredSerena 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 Serena is in
Serena sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Serena's own centroid rather than borrowed from LaSalle County.
What Grows in Serena
Every plant below cleared Serena'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 Serena?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 Serena
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Serena. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Serena SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- COMMUNITY UNIT SCH DIST 2Brownfields · 300 ft
- Serena FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- BLACK LAB CORP LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- Sheridan Correctional CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- IDOC SHERIDAN CORRECTIONAL CENTERBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- Norway Store & Coffee Bar, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Ness Bros GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Sheridan Plant #5Underground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Western Sand & Gravel CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Stans RentalUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Sheridan AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Serena'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 Serena.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Serena
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Serena
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Serena
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Serena
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 Serena average
Your land is one point inside Serena
Everything above resolves to Serena as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 157 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 Serena Average
Serena Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Serena
- ●One soil character for all of Serena
- ●Frost dates read at Serena's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Serena's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Serena
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Serena, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Serena averages can't show:
We read public map data around Serena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Serena average
How we know this about Serena
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 Serena’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 Serena
When does frost risk typically end in Serena?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Serena 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 Serena?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Serena 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 Serena?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Serena 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 Serena?
The federal record around Serena is a meaningful one — 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), 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 Serena?
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 Serena's scale — its 5b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Serena'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 Serena’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Serena's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 157 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Serena's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Serena's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 30 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Serena, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Serena's boundary and the 157 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 Serena'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 Serena's 157 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom LaSalle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom LaSalle 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 LaSalle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Serena's 157 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Serena you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 157 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 Serena-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisSerena sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides