Wilmington, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Wilmington, 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 Wilmington 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 Wilmington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wilmington — the short answer
Wilmington, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 280 days between hard freezes, across 33K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- New Hanover County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- New Hanover County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~280
- New Hanover County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 33K 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 New Hanover County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Wilmington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilmington's 280-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wilmington
Each reading below is measured for Wilmington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWilmington runs about 280 days between hard freezes (read from New Hanover County, the closest normal to Wilmington) — 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
MeasuredWilmington sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Wilmington is in
Wilmington sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wilmington's own centroid rather than borrowed from New Hanover County.
What Grows in Wilmington
Every plant below cleared Wilmington's own zone 8b and its 280-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wilmington?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — 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 Wilmington
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Wilmington, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wilmington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wilmington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NCDSCA DC650003 COASTAL DRY CLNRS & COINBrownfields · 400 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #3816Brownfields · 450 ft
- MRS. J. B. WATSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- GAS CENTER INC 1Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WALGREENS #6951Brownfields · 800 ft
- CAROLINA TRANSMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- TENNECO OIL 197-31Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NCDSCA DC650014( WILLIAMS CLEANERS )Brownfields · 1100 ft
- WILLIAMS FABRICARE INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1100 ft
- WILLIAMS FABRICARE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FOUNTAIN TIRE SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CAPE FEAR MOTOR SALES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilmington'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 Wilmington.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wilmington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wilmington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilmington, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 21 sites within ~10 miles of Wilmington. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Wilmington
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 Wilmington average
Your land is one point inside Wilmington
Everything above resolves to Wilmington as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 33K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from New Hanover County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Wilmington Average
Wilmington Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Wilmington
- ●One soil character for all of Wilmington
- ●Frost dates read at Wilmington's scale: Feb 28 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilmington's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wilmington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilmington, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilmington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilmington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilmington average
How we know this about Wilmington
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 New Hanover 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 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 Wilmington
When does frost risk typically end in Wilmington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilmington typically lands around Feb 28, 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 Mar 21.
When is the first frost in Wilmington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wilmington typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 280 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wilmington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilmington sees about 280 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 21, about 245 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilmington?
The federal record around Wilmington runs heavier than most — 1,042 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (532), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 I protect my plants from frost in Wilmington?
From about Nov 5 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 Dec 5 (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 Dec 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wilmington's scale — its 8b band and its 280-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilmington'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 Wilmington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wilmington's own scale — the 32,874 acres it covers and 1,042 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilmington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,042 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wilmington, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wilmington's boundary and the 32,874 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~280-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wilmington's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wilmingtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Wilmington has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom New Hanover County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wilmington's 32,874 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom New Hanover County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom New Hanover 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 New Hanover County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wilmington's 32,874 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wilmington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 32,874 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Wilmington-wide figureread your own land →