Orange, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Orange, 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 Orange 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 Orange — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Orange — the short answer
Orange, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- 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 6a is Orange's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orange's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orange
Each reading below is measured for Orange itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOrange runs about 210 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
MeasuredOrange 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 Orange is in
Orange sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Orange's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cuyahoga County.
What Grows in Orange
Every plant below cleared Orange's own zone 6a and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Orange?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Orange
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Orange, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Orange
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orange. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEST MAIN STREET MERCURYSuperfund · 0.5 mi
- ORANGE VILLAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- AMERICAN TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BEECH BROOKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WARRENSVILLE FIRE STATION 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SWEDISH SOLUTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- FORMER WALLY'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ORANGE SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BP OIL CO. #028003Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ORANGE SHELLBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- BJ'S WHOLESALE CLUB #122Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- FAA IC8 RCLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orange'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 Orange.
Total Sites
2,648
within ~10 miles of Orange
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
41 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orange
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orange
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orange, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Orange — Toxics Release Inventory (298 sites) and Superfund (41 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Orange
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 Orange average
Your land is one point inside Orange
Everything above resolves to Orange 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 Orange Average
Orange Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Orange
- ●One soil character for all of Orange
- ●Frost dates read at Orange's scale: Apr 14 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orange's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orange
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orange, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orange averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orange — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orange average
How we know this about Orange
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 Orange’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 Orange
When does frost risk typically end in Orange?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orange typically lands around Apr 14, 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 May 5.
When is the first frost in Orange?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orange typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Orange?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orange sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 27, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orange?
The federal record around Orange is a meaningful one — 2,648 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,313), the nearest Superfund 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 Orange?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Orange's scale — its 6a band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orange'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 Orange’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Orange's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,438 acres it covers and 2,648 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orange's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Orange's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Nov 10 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,648 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orange, the closest Superfund record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orange's boundary and the 2,438 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Orange's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Orangelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Orange's 2,438 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cuyahoga County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cuyahoga 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 Cuyahoga County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Orange's 2,438 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orange you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,438 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 Orange-wide figureread your own land →