Draper, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Draper, 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 Draper 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 Draper — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Draper — the short answer
Draper, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Draper's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Draper's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Draper
Each reading below is measured for Draper itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDraper runs about 199 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
MeasuredDraper 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 Draper is in
Draper sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Draper's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pulaski County.
What Grows in Draper
Every plant below cleared Draper's own zone 7a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Draper?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Draper
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Draper, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Draper
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Draper. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DRAPER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Conny Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PHILLIPS 66 #26001Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PINE RUN MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HIWASSEE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- LONE CEDAR GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- GEORGE MARSHALL GROCERY & HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- SNOWVILLE VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Express Stop 5Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Clark Ore Bank MineMining · 2.5 mi
- HOOVER COLOR - A DIV OF CATHAY IND (USA) INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.6 mi
- Hoover Color CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Draper'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 Draper.
Total Sites
266
within ~10 miles of Draper
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Draper
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Draper
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Draper, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Draper — Mining (28 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (21 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Draper
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 Draper average
Your land is one point inside Draper
Everything above resolves to Draper as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Draper Average
Draper Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Draper
- ●One soil character for all of Draper
- ●Frost dates read at Draper's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Draper's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Draper
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Draper, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Draper averages can't show:
We read public map data around Draper — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Draper average
How we know this about Draper
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 Draper’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 Draper
When does frost risk typically end in Draper?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Draper typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Draper?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Draper typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Draper?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Draper sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 11, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Draper?
The federal record around Draper runs heavier than most — 266 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (167), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Draper?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Draper's scale — its 7a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Draper'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 Draper’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Draper's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,384 acres it covers and 266 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Draper's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Draper's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 25 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 266 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Draper, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Draper's boundary and the 1,384 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Draper's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Draperlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Draper's 1,384 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pulaski County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pulaski 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 Pulaski County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Draper's 1,384 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Draper you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,384 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Draper-wide figureread your own land →
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