Dante, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Dante, 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 Dante 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 Dante — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dante — the short answer
Dante, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 7a is Dante's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dante's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dante
Each reading below is measured for Dante itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDante runs about 211 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
MeasuredDante sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Dante is in
Dante sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dante's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Russell County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Dante
Every plant below cleared Dante's own zone 7a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dante?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Dante
Spotted lanternfly documented 28 miles from Dante, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dante
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dante. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TEDS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SEAM COAL LTD D-3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CSX - Seaboard System RR Dante MaintenanceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DANTE MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Econo ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Fred Arrington TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HONEY CAMP COAL TRUCK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- LAMBERT FORK NO 2 MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- River Front Truck ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Midway GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Austin ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- WOLFES GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dante'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 Dante.
Total Sites
119
within ~10 miles of Dante
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dante
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dante
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dante, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dante — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (93 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Dante
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 Dante average
Your land is one point inside Dante
Everything above resolves to Dante as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Dante Average
Dante Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Dante
- ●One soil character for all of Dante
- ●Frost dates read at Dante's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dante's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dante
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dante, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dante averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dante — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dante average
How we know this about Dante
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 Dante’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 Dante
When does frost risk typically end in Dante?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dante typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Dante?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dante typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dante?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dante sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 19, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dante?
The federal record around Dante shows 119 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (93), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dante?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dante's scale — its 7a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dante'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 Dante’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dante's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,506 acres it covers and 119 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dante's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dante's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 2 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 119 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dante, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dante's boundary and the 4,506 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dante sits in the Central Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Dantelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dante's 4,506 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Russell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Russell County
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Russell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dante's 4,506 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dante you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,506 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Dante-wide figureread your own land →
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