Hot Springs, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Hot Springs, 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 Hot Springs 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 Hot Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hot Springs — the short answer
Hot Springs, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Hot Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hot Springs's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hot Springs
Each reading below is measured for Hot Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHot Springs runs about 195 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
MeasuredHot Springs 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 Hot Springs is in
Hot Springs sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hot Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bath County.
What Grows in Hot Springs
Every plant below cleared Hot Springs's own zone 7a and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hot Springs?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Hot Springs
Spotted lanternfly documented 25 miles from Hot Springs, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hot Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hot Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE HOMESTEADUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BATH COMMUNITY HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- STALEYS RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- REUTERS BREWERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WOODYS NAPA AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Falls Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- McAllisters General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HOT SPRINGS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ASHWOOD SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- USDA-FS-GWNF-WSRD-LEMON HOLLOW WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FAST BREAK FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BATH CNTY HHW COLLECTIONBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hot Springs'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 Hot Springs.
Total Sites
52
within ~10 miles of Hot Springs
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hot Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hot Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hot Springs, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 47 sites within ~10 miles of Hot Springs. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hot Springs
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 Hot Springs average
Your land is one point inside Hot Springs
Everything above resolves to Hot Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Hot Springs Average
Hot Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Hot Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Hot Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Hot Springs's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hot Springs's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hot Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hot Springs, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hot Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hot Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hot Springs average
How we know this about Hot Springs
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 Hot Springs’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 Hot Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Hot Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hot Springs typically lands around Apr 14, 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 May 5.
When is the first frost in Hot Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hot Springs typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hot Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hot Springs sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 12, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hot Springs?
The federal record around Hot Springs shows 52 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (47), 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 Hot Springs?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hot Springs's scale — its 7a band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hot Springs'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 Hot Springs’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hot Springs's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,567 acres it covers and 52 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hot Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hot Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 26 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 52 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hot Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hot Springs's boundary and the 3,567 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hot Springs's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hot Springslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hot Springs's 3,567 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bath County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bath 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 Bath County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hot Springs's 3,567 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hot Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,567 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 Hot Springs-wide figureread your own land →
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