Hendersonville, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hendersonville, 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 Hendersonville 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 Hendersonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hendersonville — the short answer
Hendersonville, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- 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 7b is Hendersonville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hendersonville's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hendersonville
Each reading below is measured for Hendersonville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHendersonville runs about 224 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
MeasuredHendersonville sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Hendersonville is in
Hendersonville sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hendersonville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Henderson County.
What Grows in Hendersonville
Every plant below cleared Hendersonville's own zone 7b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hendersonville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Hendersonville
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Hendersonville, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hendersonville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hendersonville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J.H. REABEN OIL & SUPPLY CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- BRUMMETT & WADDELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- HENDERSON OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- WESTERN CAROLINA COMM. ACTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SCOTTS MINIT MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- HENDERSONVILLE CITY OPERATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- M&M FREEZER LOCKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- J.B. LEVINGOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NCDSCA DC450004( SUPERIOR CLEANERS & LAUNDRY )Brownfields · 1300 ft
- J & H ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ANCHOR SUPPLY INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KING HARDWARE CO INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hendersonville'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 Hendersonville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hendersonville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hendersonville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hendersonville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hendersonville — Toxics Release Inventory (33 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Hendersonville
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 Hendersonville average
Your land is one point inside Hendersonville
Everything above resolves to Hendersonville 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 Hendersonville Average
Hendersonville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hendersonville
- ●One soil character for all of Hendersonville
- ●Frost dates read at Hendersonville's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hendersonville's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hendersonville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hendersonville, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hendersonville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hendersonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hendersonville average
How we know this about Hendersonville
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 Hendersonville’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 Hendersonville
When does frost risk typically end in Hendersonville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hendersonville typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Hendersonville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hendersonville typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hendersonville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hendersonville sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 25, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hendersonville?
The federal record around Hendersonville is a meaningful one — 426 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (276), 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 Hendersonville?
From about Oct 9 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 Nov 8 (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 Nov 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hendersonville's scale — its 7b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hendersonville'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 Hendersonville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hendersonville's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,050 acres it covers and 426 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hendersonville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hendersonville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 8 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 426 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hendersonville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hendersonville's boundary and the 5,050 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hendersonville's own centroid, the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hendersonvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hendersonville's 5,050 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henderson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henderson County
- The growing challenges every North Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Henderson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hendersonville's 5,050 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hendersonville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,050 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 Hendersonville-wide figureread your own land →