Orange, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Orange, 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 Orange 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 Orange — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Orange — the short answer
Orange, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Orange's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orange's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orange
Each reading below is measured for Orange itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOrange runs about 229 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
MeasuredOrange 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 Orange is in
Orange sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Orange's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Orange County is mostly Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Orange
Every plant below cleared Orange's own zone 7b and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Orange?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Orange
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Orange, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Orange
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orange. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HENRY'S SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 300 ft
- Quarles ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- DUDLEYS CLEANERSBrownfields · 600 ft
- BELL ATLANTICUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- GIPSON USED FURNITUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- COASTAL MART INC #883Brownfields · 750 ft
- REYNOLDS PONTIAC / CADILLACBrownfields · 800 ft
- Sunoco 0831 0468 02Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- TOWN OF ORANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MERCHANTS GROCERY COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- W.C. MELSON; INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SIDEWALKUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orange'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 Orange.
Total Sites
166
within ~10 miles of Orange
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orange
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orange
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orange, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Orange — Underground Storage Tanks (119 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Orange
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 Orange average
Your land is one point inside Orange
Everything above resolves to Orange as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Orange Average
Orange Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Orange
- ●One soil character for all of Orange
- ●Frost dates read at Orange's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orange's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orange
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orange, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orange averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orange — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orange average
How we know this about Orange
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 Orange’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 Orange
When does frost risk typically end in Orange?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orange typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Orange?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orange typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Orange?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orange sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 28, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orange?
The federal record around Orange shows 166 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (119), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Orange?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Orange's scale — its 7b band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orange'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 Orange’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Orange's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,151 acres it covers and 166 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orange's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Orange's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 11 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 166 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orange, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orange's boundary and the 2,151 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Orange sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Orangelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Orange's 2,151 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange 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 Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Orange's 2,151 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orange you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,151 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Orange-wide figureread your own land →