Hollins, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Hollins, 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 Hollins 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 Hollins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hollins — the short answer
Hollins, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Hollins's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hollins's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hollins
Each reading below is measured for Hollins itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHollins runs about 237 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
MeasuredHollins 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 Hollins is in
Hollins sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hollins's own centroid rather than borrowed from Roanoke County.
What Grows in Hollins
Every plant below cleared Hollins's own zone 7b and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hollins?
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 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Hollins
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Hollins, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hollins
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hollins. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KROGER #209-029Brownfields · 850 ft
- Circle K #2723718Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TEXACO STATION LOC #231290315Brownfields · 1100 ft
- VALLEY CLEANERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Plantation MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WILSON PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Sunnybrook Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- DIXIE FARM EQUIPMENT COMPANY, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SHEETZ #850Brownfields · 1600 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #6292Brownfields · 1600 ft
- VALLEY MOTORSPORT, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FIRST TEAM NISSANBrownfields · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hollins'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 Hollins.
Total Sites
1,509
within ~10 miles of Hollins
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hollins
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hollins
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 Hollins
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 Hollins average
Your land is one point inside Hollins
Everything above resolves to Hollins as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Hollins Average
Hollins Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hollins
- ●One soil character for all of Hollins
- ●Frost dates read at Hollins's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hollins's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hollins
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hollins, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hollins averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hollins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hollins average
How we know this about Hollins
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 Hollins’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 Hollins
When does frost risk typically end in Hollins?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hollins 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 Hollins?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hollins typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hollins?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hollins sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 31, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hollins?
The federal record around Hollins is a meaningful one — 1,509 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (912), 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 Hollins?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hollins's scale — its 7b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hollins'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 Hollins’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hollins's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,507 acres it covers and 1,509 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hollins's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hollins's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 14 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,509 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hollins, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hollins's boundary and the 5,507 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hollins's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hollinslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hollins's 5,507 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Roanoke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Roanoke 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 Roanoke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hollins's 5,507 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hollins you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,507 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 Hollins-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Growing region
Nearby growing guides