Fredericksburg, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fredericksburg, 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 Fredericksburg 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 Fredericksburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fredericksburg — the short answer
Fredericksburg, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Fredericksburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fredericksburg's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fredericksburg
Each reading below is measured for Fredericksburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFredericksburg runs about 227 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
MeasuredFredericksburg 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 Fredericksburg is in
Fredericksburg sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fredericksburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fredericksburg city.
What Grows in Fredericksburg
Every plant below cleared Fredericksburg's own zone 7b and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fredericksburg?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Fredericksburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Fredericksburg, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fredericksburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fredericksburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNIVERSAL FOREST PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 50 ft
- CHESAPEAKE WOOD TREATING COToxics Release Inventory · 50 ft
- AMOCO OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #10454Brownfields · 1300 ft
- FREEMAN ASSOCIATES, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- VIRGINIA SEMICONDUCTOR INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- FORMER AT&T FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MERCHANTS TIRE & AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- REED EQUIPMENT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- STAFFORD DODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 7-ElevenUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PENN-MAR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fredericksburg'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 Fredericksburg.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fredericksburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fredericksburg
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Fredericksburg
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 Fredericksburg average
Your land is one point inside Fredericksburg
Everything above resolves to Fredericksburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Fredericksburg Average
Fredericksburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Fredericksburg
- ●One soil character for all of Fredericksburg
- ●Frost dates read at Fredericksburg's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fredericksburg's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fredericksburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fredericksburg, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fredericksburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fredericksburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fredericksburg average
How we know this about Fredericksburg
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 Fredericksburg’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 Fredericksburg
When does frost risk typically end in Fredericksburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fredericksburg typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Fredericksburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fredericksburg typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fredericksburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fredericksburg sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 25, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fredericksburg?
The federal record around Fredericksburg is a meaningful one — 793 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (476), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Fredericksburg?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fredericksburg's scale — its 7b band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fredericksburg'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 Fredericksburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fredericksburg's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,688 acres it covers and 793 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fredericksburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fredericksburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 8 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 793 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fredericksburg, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fredericksburg's boundary and the 6,688 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fredericksburg's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fredericksburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fredericksburg's 6,688 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fredericksburg County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fredericksburg 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 Fredericksburg County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fredericksburg's 6,688 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fredericksburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,688 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Fredericksburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaFredericksburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides