Annapolis, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Annapolis, 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 Annapolis 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 Annapolis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Annapolis — the short answer
Annapolis, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 268 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~268
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 8a is Annapolis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Annapolis's 268-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Annapolis
Each reading below is measured for Annapolis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAnnapolis runs about 268 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAnnapolis sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Annapolis is in
Annapolis sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Annapolis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Anne Arundel County.
What Grows in Annapolis
Every plant below cleared Annapolis's own zone 8a and its 268-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Annapolis?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Annapolis
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Annapolis, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Annapolis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Annapolis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BATES, WILEY H. JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 450 ft
- City of Annapolis Public WorksUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Utility ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Texaco StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Park Place DevelopmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ANNAPOLIS NATIONAL CEMETERYBrownfields · 1500 ft
- THE BODY SHOP OF ANNAPOLISBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Menke PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- William PfefferkornUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Annapolis UtilitiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Texaco Station MD-100Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 913 Wet Street Association (Development Site)Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Annapolis'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 Annapolis.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Annapolis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Annapolis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Annapolis, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 276 sites within ~10 miles of Annapolis. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Annapolis
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 Annapolis average
Your land is one point inside Annapolis
Everything above resolves to Annapolis as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Annapolis Average
Annapolis Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Annapolis
- ●One soil character for all of Annapolis
- ●Frost dates read at Annapolis's scale: Mar 10 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Annapolis's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Annapolis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Annapolis, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Annapolis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Annapolis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Annapolis average
How we know this about Annapolis
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 Annapolis’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 Annapolis
When does frost risk typically end in Annapolis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Annapolis typically lands around Mar 10, 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 Mar 31.
When is the first frost in Annapolis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Annapolis typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 268 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Annapolis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Annapolis sees about 268 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 19, about 233 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Annapolis?
The federal record around Annapolis is a meaningful one — 1,066 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (526), the nearest Brownfields 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 Annapolis?
From about Nov 3 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 Dec 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 Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Annapolis's scale — its 8a band and its 268-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Annapolis'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 Annapolis’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Annapolis's own scale — its own ~268-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,612 acres it covers and 1,066 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Annapolis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Annapolis's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Dec 3 and the ~268-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,066 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Annapolis, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Annapolis's boundary and the 4,612 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~268-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Annapolis's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Annapolislydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Annapolis's 4,612 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Anne Arundel County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Anne Arundel County
- The growing challenges every Maryland grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Maryland
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Anne Arundel County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Annapolis's 4,612 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Annapolis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,612 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Annapolis-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maryland
Wider growing context
What grows across MarylandAnnapolis sits outside our named growing regions, so Maryland as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides