Ivanhoe, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ivanhoe, 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 Ivanhoe 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 Ivanhoe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ivanhoe — the short answer
Ivanhoe, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- Sampson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Sampson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- Sampson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Sampson County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Ivanhoe's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ivanhoe's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ivanhoe
Each reading below is measured for Ivanhoe itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsIvanhoe runs about 260 days between hard freezes (read from Sampson County, the closest normal to Ivanhoe) — 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
MeasuredIvanhoe 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 Ivanhoe is in
Ivanhoe sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ivanhoe's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Sampson County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ivanhoe
Every plant below cleared Ivanhoe's own zone 8a and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ivanhoe?
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 Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Ivanhoe
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ivanhoe checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 32 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ivanhoe
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ivanhoe. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SA-087Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- YAMACRAW RADIO RELAY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- APPLEWHITE'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SA-088Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- SA-129 GW NITRATE SITE 25Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- SA-130 HARTMAN SEPTIC IVANHOE, NCNitrate · 2.1 mi
- PE-026Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- DEE'S COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- JEFF ANDERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- MOORE'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- YARBOROUGH'S PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- SCOTCHMAN 16Underground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ivanhoe'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 Ivanhoe.
Total Sites
38
within ~10 miles of Ivanhoe
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
18 nitrate monitoring sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ivanhoe
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ivanhoe
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ivanhoe, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Ivanhoe. 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 Ivanhoe
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 Ivanhoe average
Your land is one point inside Ivanhoe
Everything above resolves to Ivanhoe as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sampson County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Ivanhoe Average
Ivanhoe Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ivanhoe
- ●One soil character for all of Ivanhoe
- ●Frost dates read at Ivanhoe's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ivanhoe's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ivanhoe
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ivanhoe, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ivanhoe averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ivanhoe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ivanhoe average
How we know this about Ivanhoe
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 Sampson County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Ivanhoe
When does frost risk typically end in Ivanhoe?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ivanhoe typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Ivanhoe?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ivanhoe typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ivanhoe?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ivanhoe sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 12, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ivanhoe?
The federal record around Ivanhoe shows 38 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ivanhoe?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ivanhoe's scale — its 8a band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ivanhoe'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 Ivanhoe’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ivanhoe's own scale — the 3,215 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ivanhoe's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ivanhoe, the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ivanhoe's boundary and the 3,215 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ivanhoe sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ivanhoe checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ivanhoe has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sampson County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ivanhoe's 3,215 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sampson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sampson 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 Sampson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ivanhoe's 3,215 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ivanhoe you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,215 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Ivanhoe-wide figureread your own land →