Red Cross, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Red Cross, 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 Red Cross 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 Red Cross — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Red Cross — the short answer
Red Cross, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Red Cross's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Red Cross's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Red Cross
Each reading below is measured for Red Cross itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRed Cross runs about 248 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
MeasuredRed Cross 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 Red Cross is in
Red Cross sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Red Cross's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stanly County.
What Grows in Red Cross
Every plant below cleared Red Cross's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Red Cross?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Red Cross
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from Red Cross, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Red Cross
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Red Cross. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HELMS AUTO PARTS & GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- WEST STANLY VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AL'S FOOD SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- J W HUNEYCUTT-HUNEYCUTT OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SERVICE DISTRIBUTING CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SHIVDEV CORP DBA OAKBORO EXPRESS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- AUTOTECH BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- OAKBORO RECAPPING CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- ST-253 NR OAKBORO, NC ARGILLITENitrate · 2.8 mi
- LOCUST ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- FLAME REFRACTORIES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- BEST TIRE KARE CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Red Cross'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 Red Cross.
Total Sites
166
within ~10 miles of Red Cross
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Red Cross
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Red Cross
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Red Cross, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Red Cross — Toxics Release Inventory (21 sites) and Mining (18 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Red Cross
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 Red Cross average
Your land is one point inside Red Cross
Everything above resolves to Red Cross as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Red Cross Average
Red Cross Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Red Cross
- ●One soil character for all of Red Cross
- ●Frost dates read at Red Cross's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Red Cross's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Red Cross
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Red Cross, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Red Cross averages can't show:
We read public map data around Red Cross — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Red Cross average
How we know this about Red Cross
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 Red Cross’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 Red Cross
When does frost risk typically end in Red Cross?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Red Cross typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Red Cross?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Red Cross typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Red Cross?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Red Cross sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 4, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Red Cross?
The federal record around Red Cross is a meaningful one — 166 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (95), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Red Cross?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Red Cross's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Red Cross'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 Red Cross’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Red Cross's own scale — its own ~248-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,388 acres it covers and 166 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Red Cross's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Red Cross's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 18 and the ~248-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 166 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Red Cross, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Red Cross's boundary and the 2,388 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Red Cross's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Red Crosslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Red Cross's 2,388 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stanly County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stanly 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 Stanly County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Red Cross's 2,388 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Red Cross you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,388 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Red Cross-wide figureread your own land →
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