Virginia City, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Virginia City, 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 Virginia City 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 Virginia City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Virginia City — the short answer
Virginia City, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 120 days between hard freezes, across 608 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~120
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 608 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 5a is Virginia City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Virginia City's 120-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Virginia City
Each reading below is measured for Virginia City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVirginia City runs about 120 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredVirginia City sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Virginia City is in
Virginia City sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Virginia City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Virginia City
Every plant below cleared Virginia City's own zone 5a and its 120-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Virginia City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Virginia City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Virginia City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWN OF VIRGINIA CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- VILLAGE PUMP & INFORMATION CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- COURTHOUSE & THOMPSON HICKMAN LIBRARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- NEVADA CITY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MADISON COUNTY AIRPORT AUTHORITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- AT & T COMMUNICATIONS GLEN RADIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Pioneer MineMining · 0.9 mi
- Cornucopia and Cabin LodeMining · 1.3 mi
- Cabin and Cornucopia LodeMining · 1.3 mi
- Prospect MineMining · 1.4 mi
- Alameda and Bamboo ChiefMining · 1.4 mi
- M & W MILLING & REFINING INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Virginia City'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 Virginia City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Virginia City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Virginia City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Virginia City, Mining runs higher than the national average — 35 sites within ~10 miles of Virginia City. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Virginia City
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 Virginia City average
Your land is one point inside Virginia City
Everything above resolves to Virginia City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 608 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 Virginia City Average
Virginia City Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Virginia City
- ●One soil character for all of Virginia City
- ●Frost dates read at Virginia City's scale: May 26 to Sep 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Virginia City's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Virginia City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Virginia City, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Virginia City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Virginia City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Virginia City average
How we know this about Virginia City
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 Virginia City’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 Virginia City
When does frost risk typically end in Virginia City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Virginia City typically lands around May 26, 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 Jun 16.
When is the first frost in Virginia City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Virginia City typically arrives around Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 9, so the watching starts about Aug 24 — about 120 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Virginia City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Virginia City sees about 120 frost-free days — roughly May 26 through Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 16 to Sep 9, about 85 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Virginia City?
The federal record around Virginia City runs heavier than most — 65 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (35), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Virginia City?
With about 120 frost-free days between hard freezes, Virginia City rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 148 to 176 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 26 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Virginia City's scale — its 5a band and its 120-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Virginia City'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 Virginia City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Virginia City's own scale — its own ~120-day season between 28°F freezes, the 608 acres it covers and 65 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Virginia City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Virginia City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 26 and Sep 23 and the ~120-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 65 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Virginia City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Virginia City's boundary and the 608 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~120-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Virginia City's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Virginia City's 608 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison County
- The growing challenges every Montana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Montana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Virginia City's 608 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Virginia City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 608 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Virginia City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaVirginia City sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides