Rushmere, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Rushmere, 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 Rushmere 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 Rushmere — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rushmere — the short answer
Rushmere, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- 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 8a is Rushmere's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rushmere's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rushmere
Each reading below is measured for Rushmere itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRushmere runs about 269 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRushmere sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Rushmere is in
Rushmere sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rushmere's own centroid rather than borrowed from Isle of Wight County.
What Grows in Rushmere
Every plant below cleared Rushmere's own zone 8a and its 269-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rushmere?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Rushmere
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Rushmere, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rushmere
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rushmere. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rushmere Station Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BARR MARGARET MUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- 57E 3Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 57E 7Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- Bacons Castle MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- 57E 4Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 57E 8Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- HARDY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- C.A. DELK STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- SMITHFIELD, TOWN OFPFAS · 5.0 mi
- JOINT BASE LANGLEY EUSTISBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- JOINT BASE LANGLEY EUSTISToxics Release Inventory · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rushmere'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 Rushmere.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rushmere
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rushmere
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Rushmere
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 Rushmere average
Your land is one point inside Rushmere
Everything above resolves to Rushmere 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 Rushmere Average
Rushmere Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Rushmere
- ●One soil character for all of Rushmere
- ●Frost dates read at Rushmere's scale: Mar 9 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rushmere's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rushmere
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rushmere, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rushmere averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rushmere — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rushmere average
How we know this about Rushmere
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 Rushmere’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 Rushmere
When does frost risk typically end in Rushmere?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rushmere typically lands around Mar 9, 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 Mar 30.
When is the first frost in Rushmere?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rushmere typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 269 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rushmere?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rushmere sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 19, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rushmere?
The federal record around Rushmere is a meaningful one — 403 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (234), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Rushmere?
From about Nov 3 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 Dec 3 (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 Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rushmere's scale — its 8a band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rushmere'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 Rushmere’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rushmere's own scale — its own ~269-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,278 acres it covers and 403 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rushmere's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rushmere's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Dec 3 and the ~269-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 403 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rushmere, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rushmere's boundary and the 6,278 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rushmere's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Rushmerelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rushmere's 6,278 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Isle of Wight County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Isle of Wight 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 Isle of Wight County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rushmere's 6,278 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rushmere you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,278 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Rushmere-wide figureread your own land →