Lilly, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lilly, 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 Lilly 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 Lilly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lilly — the short answer
Lilly, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 324 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 324 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 Lilly's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lilly's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lilly
Each reading below is measured for Lilly itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLilly runs about 182 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLilly 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 Lilly is in
Lilly sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lilly's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cambria County.
What Grows in Lilly
Every plant below cleared Lilly's own zone 6a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lilly?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Lilly
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Lilly, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lilly
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lilly. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KENNETH LEAHEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 25 ft
- WILLIAM LEAHEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- HELPING HAND RESCUE MISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- LILLY BULK PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CHUCKS AUTO REPAIRSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- TEXAS EASTERN TRANS LP/LILLY STABrownfields · 1.7 mi
- LILLY COMPRESSOR STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- JUSTIN ROBERTS CRESSON MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- LUNDBERG BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- MILLERS SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- PENNWAY RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- CA 465Nitrate · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lilly'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 Lilly.
Total Sites
305
within ~10 miles of Lilly
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lilly
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lilly
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lilly, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Lilly. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Lilly
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 Lilly average
Your land is one point inside Lilly
Everything above resolves to Lilly as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 324 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 Lilly Average
Lilly Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lilly
- ●One soil character for all of Lilly
- ●Frost dates read at Lilly's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lilly's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lilly
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lilly, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lilly averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lilly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lilly average
How we know this about Lilly
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 Lilly’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 Lilly
When does frost risk typically end in Lilly?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lilly typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Lilly?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lilly typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lilly?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lilly sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 10, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lilly?
The federal record around Lilly is a meaningful one — 305 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (171), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lilly?
From about Sep 24 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 Oct 24 (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 Oct 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lilly's scale — its 6a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lilly'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 Lilly’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lilly's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 324 acres it covers and 305 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lilly's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lilly's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 24 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 305 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lilly, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lilly's boundary and the 324 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lilly's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lillylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lilly's 324 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cambria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cambria County
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Cambria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lilly's 324 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lilly you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 324 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Lilly-wide figureread your own land →