Hendersonville, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hendersonville, 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 Hendersonville 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 Hendersonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hendersonville — the short answer
Hendersonville, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 20K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 20K 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 7b is Hendersonville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hendersonville's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hendersonville
Each reading below is measured for Hendersonville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHendersonville runs about 234 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
MeasuredHendersonville sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Hendersonville is in
Hendersonville sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hendersonville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sumner County.
What Grows in Hendersonville
Every plant below cleared Hendersonville's own zone 7b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hendersonville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Hendersonville
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Hendersonville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hendersonville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hendersonville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NATIONAL TIRE & BATTERY #8824Brownfields · 1200 ft
- ALADDIN TEMP-RITEToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- General Electric CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- RALPH'S CLEANERSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- K-mart #7132Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- KROGER #619-26Brownfields · 1300 ft
- Kroger Fuel Center No. U-619Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- H&L METALSToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- 7207 Twice DailyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SIGNATURE CLEANERSBrownfields · 2200 ft
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKETS #119Brownfields · 2300 ft
- Kroger Store 519Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hendersonville'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 Hendersonville.
Total Sites
609
within ~10 miles of Hendersonville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hendersonville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hendersonville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hendersonville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 416 sites within ~10 miles of Hendersonville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hendersonville
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 Hendersonville average
Your land is one point inside Hendersonville
Everything above resolves to Hendersonville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 20K 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 Hendersonville Average
Hendersonville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hendersonville
- ●One soil character for all of Hendersonville
- ●Frost dates read at Hendersonville's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hendersonville's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hendersonville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hendersonville, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hendersonville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hendersonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hendersonville average
How we know this about Hendersonville
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 Hendersonville’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 Hendersonville
When does frost risk typically end in Hendersonville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hendersonville typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Hendersonville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hendersonville typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hendersonville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hendersonville sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 28, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hendersonville?
The federal record around Hendersonville is a meaningful one — 609 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (416), 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 Hendersonville?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hendersonville's scale — its 7b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hendersonville'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 Hendersonville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hendersonville's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 20,276 acres it covers and 609 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hendersonville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hendersonville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 11 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 609 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hendersonville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hendersonville's boundary and the 20,276 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hendersonville's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hendersonvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hendersonville's 20,276 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sumner County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sumner County
- The growing challenges every Tennessee grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Tennessee
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Sumner County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hendersonville's 20,276 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hendersonville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 20,276 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 Hendersonville-wide figureread your own land →
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