Mount Morris, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mount 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 Mount 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 Mount Morris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Morris — the short answer
Mount Morris, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 735 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 735 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 6a is Mount Morris's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Morris's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Morris
Each reading below is measured for Mount Morris itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Morris runs about 186 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMount Morris sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Mount Morris is in
Mount Morris sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mount Morris's own centroid rather than borrowed from Genesee County.
What Grows in Mount Morris
Every plant below cleared Mount Morris's own zone 6a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount 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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Mount Morris
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mount Morris checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 40 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mount Morris
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Morris. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPARTAN XRAY INCBrownfields · 850 ft
- Fairhaven Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DMJ CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Michael D YoungUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Mobil 1-Stop Food Store #14Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Mt Morris Speedy Lube IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Mt Morris DpwUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Mt Morris Quick Stop LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- K & L CLEANERSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORESBrownfields · 1900 ft
- MOUNT MORRIS COATINGS INCToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- Jenkins Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount 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 Mount Morris.
Total Sites
1,337
within ~10 miles of Mount Morris
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
25 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Morris
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Morris
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mount Morris, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 25 sites within ~10 miles of Mount Morris. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Mount 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 Mount Morris average
Your land is one point inside Mount Morris
Everything above resolves to Mount Morris as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 735 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 Mount Morris Average
Mount Morris Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mount Morris
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Morris
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Morris's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Morris's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Morris
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Morris, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Morris averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Morris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Morris average
How we know this about Mount 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 Mount 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 Mount Morris
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Morris?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Morris typically lands around Apr 19, 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 May 10.
When is the first frost in Mount Morris?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Morris typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Morris?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Morris sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 8, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Morris?
The federal record around Mount Morris is a meaningful one — 1,337 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (642), 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 Mount Morris?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Morris's scale — its 6a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount 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 Mount Morris’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mount Morris's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 735 acres it covers and 1,337 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Morris's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Morris's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 22 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,337 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Morris, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Morris's boundary and the 735 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Morris's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mount Morris checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mount Morris's 735 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Genesee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Genesee County
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Genesee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Morris's 735 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount 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 735 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 Mount Morris-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganMount Morris sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.