Emory, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Emory, 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 Emory 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 Emory — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Emory — the short answer
Emory, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 3K 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)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Emory's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Emory's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Emory
Each reading below is measured for Emory itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEmory runs about 203 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
MeasuredEmory 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 Emory is in
Emory sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Emory's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Emory
Every plant below cleared Emory's own zone 7a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Emory?
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 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 Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Emory
Spotted lanternfly documented 21 miles from Emory, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Emory
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Emory. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BALLAD HEALTH EMORY & HENRY CLINICBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Emory and Henry CollegeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- EMORY & HENRY COLLEGEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PATRICK HENRY HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- VIRGINIA TECH SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA ARECBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- WASHINGTON COUNTY SERVICE AUTHORITYPFAS · 1.3 mi
- MARKS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- EXIT 12 BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- GENERAL ENGINEERING PLANT 2Brownfields · 2.1 mi
- GLADE SPRING SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- ETNG - GLADE SPRINGBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- H.B. MAIDEN & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Emory'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 Emory.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Emory
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Emory
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Emory, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Emory — Underground Storage Tanks (181 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (17 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Emory
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 Emory average
Your land is one point inside Emory
Everything above resolves to Emory as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Emory Average
Emory Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Emory
- ●One soil character for all of Emory
- ●Frost dates read at Emory's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Emory's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Emory
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Emory, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Emory averages can't show:
We read public map data around Emory — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Emory average
How we know this about Emory
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 Emory’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 Emory
When does frost risk typically end in Emory?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Emory 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 Emory?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Emory 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 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Emory?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Emory sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 11, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Emory?
The federal record around Emory is a meaningful one — 273 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (181), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Emory?
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 Emory's scale — its 7a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Emory'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 Emory’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Emory's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,620 acres it covers and 273 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Emory's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Emory's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 25 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 273 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Emory, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Emory's boundary and the 2,620 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Emory's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Emorylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Emory's 2,620 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Emory's 2,620 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Emory you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,620 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Emory-wide figureread your own land →
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