Celina, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Celina, 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 Celina 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 Celina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Celina — the short answer
Celina, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 6a is Celina's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Celina's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Celina
Each reading below is measured for Celina itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCelina runs about 212 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
MeasuredCelina sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Celina is in
Celina sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Celina's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mercer County.
What Grows in Celina
Every plant below cleared Celina's own zone 6a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Celina?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Celina
Survey cells within 31 miles of Celina checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 49 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Celina
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Celina. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THIEMAN TAILGATESBrownfields · 950 ft
- CELINA CITY SCHOOLSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- COMMON COINUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- DOCKSIDERS MINI MART (MARATHON)Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CLARK STORE NO 1625Brownfields · 2400 ft
- UNITED #6326Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #2281Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- CROWN EQUIPMENT CORPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CROWN EQUIPMENT CORPToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- EASTOWN PARTY MART (SHELL)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- QUALITEC METAL FINISHERS INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- RINGLE PLATING CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Celina'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 Celina.
Total Sites
204
within ~10 miles of Celina
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Celina
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Celina
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Celina, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Celina — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (15 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Celina
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 Celina average
Your land is one point inside Celina
Everything above resolves to Celina as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Celina Average
Celina Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Celina
- ●One soil character for all of Celina
- ●Frost dates read at Celina's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Celina's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Celina
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Celina, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Celina averages can't show:
We read public map data around Celina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Celina average
How we know this about Celina
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 Celina’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 Celina
When does frost risk typically end in Celina?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Celina typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Celina?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Celina typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Celina?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Celina sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 23, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Celina?
The federal record around Celina is a meaningful one — 204 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (91), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Celina?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Celina's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Celina'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 Celina’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Celina's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,218 acres it covers and 204 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Celina's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Celina's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 6 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 204 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Celina, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Celina's boundary and the 3,218 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Celina's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Celina checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Celina's 3,218 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mercer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mercer County
- The growing challenges every Ohio grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Ohio
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Mercer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Celina's 3,218 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Celina you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,218 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Celina-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioCelina sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.